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Forum - View topicREVIEW: Phi-Brain: Puzzle of God Blu-Ray 1
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Gasero
 Posts: 939 Location: USA |
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As a fan of darker seasons of Yugioh, I was hoping Phi-Brain would be the puzzle version of Yugioh: A world where people solve problems with puzzles (instead of card battles like Yugioh).
Unfortunately, I could not stay interested in the first few episodes and gave up. Based on this review it seems I may not enjoy the first 13 episodes as expected. Now that I know the show was given additional seasons, perhaps there may be something in the later episodes of Phi-Brain that is worth watching. |
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RyanSaotome
 Posts: 4210 Location: Towson, Maryland |
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Its best if you go into the show realizing what it is: A kids show made to sell puzzle video games and other puzzle related merchandise. If you're looking for anything deep or with a great story, you should look elsewhere. But if you're fine with kids shows, then this is a good one with some fun puzzle battles and enjoyable characters.
Last edited by RyanSaotome on Mon Apr 01, 2013 8:56 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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TitanXL
 Posts: 4036 |
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Well, it sort of is in the sense they solve puzzles for everything, but it never gets dark or plot-intense like Yu-Gi-Oh! does. Which was also my complaint with Cardfight!! Vanguard and Chihayafuru, but if you go into it not expecting Yu-Gi-Oh level stuff it's fine.
I'd say watch some more after all the main characters and villains are introduced to get a feel of how it goes and their dynamics, but otherwise if you didn't like the first 13 episodes you probably won't like the later seasons since it's more of the same kind of stuff, though a bit more focus on the villains obviously. Girls would probably enjoy it more since there's tons of yaoi-lust between the male characters and I know that's a big draw for them. Basically, Phi-Brain is fun for what it is, but don't expect it to be anything more than what it is at the end of the day. One of my favorite episodes was when the characters are forced to take a vacation and not solve puzzles and they spend the whole time going stir-crazy and trying to make-up and solve puzzles around their hotel/beach for the sake of staying sane because they're so hilariously addicted to puzzle-solving it's like a drug to them. Just treat it as a more light-hearted Yu-Gi-Oh with puzzles. |
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dtm42
Posts: 14084 Location: currently stalking my waifu |
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Ah yes, the show which featured the puzzle club president spending an entire day coming up with a 'unbeatable' Sudoku puzzle that viewers solved in under ten minutes (usually by pausing the screen, tracing the puzzle onto paper and then solving that).
The actual premise is actually not that bad, as far as Anime goes, but the puzzles were insultingly easy. |
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18220 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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Do you happen to know which episode that is? I doubt I'll watch any more of this (unless I get sent another preview copy), but I might specifically check out that episode. |
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TitanXL
Posts: 4036 |
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Episode 10 of Season 2 "Puzzle Time Won't Begin!"
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Utsuro no Hako
Posts: 1035 |
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You remind me of the episode of Farscape where Aeryn watches Sesame Street and complains that the children are mentally deficient. The goal of the writers isn't to present puzzles that are genuinely difficult to solve, but rather puzzles that are challenging enough for ten year olds that they feel smart for solving without being so hard that the kids give up and just watch for the action. |
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Echo_City
Posts: 1236 |
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Anyhow, when a show creates an "impossible" puzzle and the kids solve it effortlessly won't that also lead to them not watching for anything but the action, since the "brain" aspect of it is beneath them? Could that lead to a bunch of kids becoming supercilious because they feel that they're "smarter" than everyone because they're smarter than the geniuses depicted on TV? |
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enurtsol
 Posts: 14784 |
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That sounds about right. 
It's like Win, Lose or Draw with Pictionary.
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Echo_City
Posts: 1236 |
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I'm not very familiar with Win, Lose or Draw. I find that kind of strange as with all the Archer (FX animated series) I watch I feel that I should have heard more about it since the eponymous character of that show is obsessed with Burt Reynolds and many a reference to Reynolds' obscure stuff is made.
As such, I'm not sure if that show is really the same as Phi-Brain in this regard as I don't know if the Pictionary scenarios were supposed to be impossible to guess and the kids at home could solve 'em while the hapless contestants were stumped. I'm also disappointed with Phi-Brain. I'd originally heard that it was "just a kids' show" and shrugged it off but when I heard that Sentai was dubbing it I wondered if there was more to it as I haven't heard of a kids anime without something else (eg:overarching plot, more mature themes) outside of Doraemon doing well outside of Japan (not even with an adult dub lol). So I saw it and now I'm wondering where the plot is. I feel like the shark biting the brown colored river float in those old Hostess commercials: "Hey, where's the [plot]?!" I share the disappointment with the cast that the review does, for the English dub, but not quite for the same reasons. While I think that Shelly Calene-Black is slightly overused & often out of appropriate roles these days I was hoping that her casting as that character would lead to a personality change of that character in the dub, as it did in Orphen (perhaps not quite cause-'n-effect lol), which I would have enjoyed more than the original, I expect. |
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Animegomaniac
Posts: 4093 |
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I first heard about Phi-Brain when cross indexing Junichi Sato's works - needless to say, this show won't be joining his other shows on my shelf. Also, I wasn't surprised when he didn't get a mention in the review though some of it does remind me of Kaleido Star {Dreck, really but looks nice}. I made it through about 7 episodes of the original Japanese before giving up on it which is odd as I've seen several hundred Yugioh episodes. Why?
First, Yugioh had a mythology. It's a bad mythology but all those card games {which you can buy, I know. Trying to accuse Phi-Brain of the same is stretching the concept of "copyright tie-ins"} exist in the show for reasons other than playing children's card games. The puzzles are in Phi-Brain because they're wedged in there, kind of like a square block in a star shaped hole. Why are puzzles important in this show? Because they're solved by people who respect puzzles and made by people who respect those who solve them. But once you solve that puzzle, that's it. They're made to be solved, you can't be shocked when they're solved. Second, I enjoyed Yugioh to see how the card duels were scripted; "The heart of the cards" isn't another word for cheating but rather an extension of narrative coincidence to drawing that one card which would change the flow of fate; When they can sell it, it's impressive. But with Phi-Brain, real puzzles have real solutions and when the audience can not only identity but also solve the puzzle faster than the characters {pause button? Lame}, then the entertainment value, not to mention acceptability of said characters as "puzzle masters, would vary from viewer to viewer. Also, it gets old really fast, for some people, apparently not for the japanese. Must be a cultural thing... Third, the characters. I don't like the Phi-Brain characters. With Yugi, it's easy to see why he'd go with card games but wouldn't most of this cast look better playing some type of sport? Even ping pong, maybe? |
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KENZICHI
 Posts: 1106 |
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Chris Patton's in this!? I'm glad he didn't stop voice acting.. I'm just sad he's in a show like this :/
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Echo_City
Posts: 1236 |
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While the show isn't great, the character that he plays in this is right up his alley, based on his other works. Chris Patton is almost typecast as the aloof, skilled-and-supercilious & somewhat unctuous male character. I say "almost" because, well, ICE lol. Does Phi-Brain have better product tie-in than does Yugioh? Yugioh the card game failed to be logical and was nothing like it was in the show (eg:Time Wizard). It was almost "cool" in the show but it was crap in reality as many of the cards were useless, banned and logic-defying. Almost every card from the show that was "badass" was crap in the game. Each set was loaded up with "dross", cards that were utterly useless. Obvious short-sighted cash grab was obvious. I imagine that it does, but after my experiences with the Yugioh TCG vs the show I wouldn't put it past the Japanese to screw it up. |
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TitanXL
Posts: 4036 |
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Yu-Gi-Oh's the most popular card game in the world, so I think they did alright for themselves with it.
Obviously there's going to be differences given the series came before the card game. The series uses it more like magic rather than an actual game, so if people expect it to act like one they're going to be disappointed; they should treat it more like a shounen powerset like Devil Fruits/Fairy Tail Magic which is how they write it. So the actual card game has to find a way to dumb it down for real-life play, but it seems to appeal to a lot of people regardless of that. |
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Echo_City
Posts: 1236 |
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In the TCG, the signature "awesome creatures" of the main characters in the show become crap and their strategies do not work. It doesn't surprise me that legions of fans keep buying packs even though perhaps only 10 cards from a set are practical. What does surprise me is how many people saw the show, played the card game, and didn't do a double take when they found that Yugi's signature Celtic Guardian was unplayable, a 1400 attacker in a 1800+ attacker's world. Pegasus' Relinquish was gimped compared to the show, Joey's Time Wizard didn't function anywhere close to how it did in the show (it was effing useless and you know it) and Mai's Mirror Wall was rarely used as it was horribly gimped in the TCG for reasons unknown. Those are just examples from way-back-when, saying nothing of the years of "WTF" that have ensued. I understand that the card game was quickly cobbled together, prioritizing speed to cash in on the fame over quality, but that none of the designers ever thought to make the TCG in any way mirror the card interaction of the show has irked me about the game. Getting back to Phi-Brain, just as kids can effortlessly solve the "unsolvable" puzzles of the puzzle "masters" they could horribly beat any of the original televised cast of Yugioh; when Yami summons a Dark Magician and a Celtic Guardian, the crux of his original deck, the 10 year olds at Toys-R-Us are gonna pwn him, to say nothing of how they're going to steamroll Kaiba et al, even with the decks that were en vogue in the yugioh TCG "meta" back then. |
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