Phi Brain: Puzzle of God

  
Number of Episodes: 25 + 25 (second season)

What Wikipedia MyAnimeList says: "Kaito Daimon would be a completely average high school student except for one thing: he's a 'demon' at solving puzzles. Kaito is so brilliant, in fact, that when he's asked to take some 'special' tests of his unique ability, he immediately suspects that the test itself is a test. Kaito suddenly finds himself caught up in a lethal Philosopher's Puzzle made by the sinister group POG, a murderous maze of trap upon trap, where failing to solve the secret correctly will result in death! Fortunately, Kaito's skills prove up to the first test, both for himself and his childhood friend Nanoha, who is also caught up in the deadly scheme. But now that he has been designated as a Solver, he is pulled into a new life where he must travel the world with other Solvers, attempting to solve the latest deadly riddles left by POG. There's a new conundrum around every corner and each deception could lead to death, but once a riddle has been posed, you can count on Kaito to unfold, unravel and unlock it!"

tTPO says: Phi Brain was a series that caught us out. It had some initially interesting characters, and the puzzles presented were imaginative (albeit outrageously unrealistic) and always seemed on the verge of going somewhere and then just didn't. By the time we thought it probably wasn't worth following it was too late and then we just watched through to the end to see what happened. And then got disappointed. As somewhat of a joke we then skipped the entre second season and just watched the last episode of the second season, only to find that with the exception of of a couple of new bad characters (who more than resembled the bad characters from the first season) almost nothing else had changed. In 50 episodes the characters in Code Geass changed the world. In 26 episodes the characters in Neon Genesis changed the world.  In 50 episodes of Phi Brain the most that changed was Nonoha's hairstyle. It made me very happy we did not bother with season 2.

How About the Music?: The OP ("Brain Diver" by May'n) is a bit of an rocking ear worm, and having seen the video for this there is little doubt that this song, especially the full version, is better than the show it precedes. The ED ("Hologram" by Natsumi Kiyoura) is also not a dud and a pleasant bit of brassy acoustic pop.

So how does it end? (Spoiler Free): Season 1 ended like there was going to be a season 2. The smaller story was wound up and the big story kept going. Season 2 wound up much the same way. Unsatisfying, and with a near complete hit of the reset button, all ready for seasons 3-569 where nothing else happens either. Am I being unfair? No.

Overall Grade: Phi Brain is not craptacular in a Guilty Crown kind of way, but still manages to kill the viewer in a death of 1000 cuts by taking so long to go not very far. D. Unless you really, really, REALLY like puzzles.