Anime Reviews: Phi-Brain Puzzle Of God Collection 1

Hello and greetings fellow otaku,

Now as I teased yesterday on Twitter and mentioned for the last month or so I said that I was going to review the anime series Phi-Brain: Puzzle Of God. Well as promised, here is my review of the series absolutely 100% spoiler free.

General Information

The series revolves around the main protagonist Kaito Daimon, a gifted high school student who is a genius when it comes to solving puzzles in which he will implement different strategies to help him solve it such as using student desks from a classroom to visualize the solutions. Because of this he is given the name of “Einstein”. However his close friend from childhood Nonoha Itou, feels that the name given to him sort of sounds like a weirdo even though she is good at other things such as sports along with a photographic memory in which she accompanies Kaito when goes out to solve puzzles in which she is not too good at it. Even her cooking is terrible in which Kaito refers to her “Nonoha Sweets” as “Weapons of Mass Destruction”. Odd relationship, I know but there are others that play an important role in the series itself.

Gammon Sakanoue who is know as “Galileo” who tries to beat Kaito to the punch when there is a puzzle with a prize involved. Cubik Galois AKA: “Edison” a intellectual genius who can invent anything under the sun and far more into mathematics than puzzles. Ana Gram AKA: “Da Vinci” who is actually a boy “Accidentally refereed to as a girl” who is able to hear puzzles talk. and Sojui Jikukawa AKA: “Newton” who later becomes “Minotaur” is head of the puzzle club who enjoys drinking boxed apple juice from a straw.

Then there is Rook Banjo Crossfield who is head of the organization know as the P.O.G. and a close childhood friend of Kaito who is out to test Kaito and push him to his limits.

Episodes

Each of the episodes revolves around Kaito and his companions solving a puzzle provided by the P.O.G. known as the Philosophers Puzzle which has a prize attached. However the puzzles are not as easy as they seem ranging from magic squares, sudoku to cracking codes, each puzzle that is given by a giver (An agent of the P.O.G.) has it own unique set of challenges in which is enough to keep us the viewer entertained and also figure out another way to solve them. Do keep in mind that the first few episodes of the series are a little dry but once you get to episode 9 onward it gets interesting and it will only get better.

Final Verdict

3.5 out of 5

Overall I give Phi-Brain Puzzle Of God Collection one a 3 and a half out of five. I had to dock a few points because of the first few episodes being a little dry but once you get further on into the series, it is really enjoyable. I guess you can call the series Yu-Gi-Oh for adults in which the puzzles are more geared to adults and really gets your brain in gear for the challenges that you experience in this series. Overall it is definitely worth picking up if you like puzzles and want a little more spice in your anime collection.

That’s all for now, we got a lot more coming including more Phi-Brain in the days to come so stay with AFC. So until next time. Remember that there is a ton of great anime and manga out there. All you have to do is find it. Ltrs.

Anime Reviews-R.O.D. Read Or Die (OVA)!!!!

Hello and greetings fellow otaku,

Now I know I haven’t done an anime review in a while, but I think that this is something worth talking about. In this review, we are going to take a look at the OVA that captured the minds, hearts, and books of anime fans and bibliophiles everywhere Read Or Die. Read Or Die is a series that focuses on an alternate world in which the British Empire has become a major superpower. But the main feature of the series is the British Library in which secures the empires future existence.

The main character of the OVA is Yomiko Readman (AKA:Agent Paper or The Paper), an avid bookworm who works for the British Libraries Special Operations Division. At the beginning of the OVA, Yomiko obtains a rare copy of a German book known as “die Unsterbliche Liebe (The Immortal Beloved)” from a local underground bookstore. Later she is attacked by Jean Henri Fabre, a clone of the famous scientist of the same name (Jean Henri Fabre-Wikipedia Article) attempts to steal the book. However he is unsuccessful in his attempt due to Yomiko’s powers as a paper master in which she is able to manipulate paper to help in certain situations.

It is after this we are introduced to Joseph Carpenter (AKA:Joker), the commander of the British Libraries Special Operations Division and Yomiko’s superior.  He meets up with Yomiko outside the bookstore in which he takes her to the British Libraries headquarters to brief her about her next mission involving the U.S. Library of Congress. Once at the library, we are introduced to Drake Anderson, a former American Soldier who now works for the Special Operations Division as a support operative and Nancy Makuhari (AKA:Ms. Deep), an operative who is able to pass thru solid objects by absorbing them through her body.

Now while Read Or Die has some interesting action scenes with the main characters, we also get some funny and interesting scenes as well. Some examples of these scenes include Yomiko shopping to her hearts content at all of Tokyo’s popular used bookstores, Yomiko and Nancy hanging upon the Statue of Liberty in New York or Drake getting upset over a clay pot, there are a ton of great scenes that makes Read Or Die a very interesting OVA to watch.

Overall Thoughts

Overall I enjoyed Read Or Die because this series absolutely captured my interests relating to books and how fantasy and reality are able to co-exist in a fictional world.

Final Verdict

As for my rating, I give Read Or Die (OVA) a 5 out of 5. Read Or Die is a great series for those of you who enjoy suspenseful anime and for those of you who have a strong passion for books. But overall this is a great series that any anime fan should have in there collection.

That’s all for now, and for those of you whether or not I will be doing a review of the TV series? The answer is yes, I will be doing a review of both the TV series and the manga’s in a future post. So stay tuned and until next time, remember that there is a ton of great anime and manga out there. All you have to do is find it. Ltrs.

Afc Coming Attractions-Big Otaku Summer and Why I Haven’t Been Blogging In A While

Hello and greetings fellow otaku,

Now I know what most of you guys are thinking right now, why the heck haven’t I been posting as much as I had been? Well here is a little visual aid to help you answer that question.

Oops, wrong picture!!!!!!!!! Here is what I really mean!!!!!

And as you can tell by this picture, I am completely under allot of stress at the moment with final exams coming up and to be honest I am a bit of a nervous wreck!!!!! However, I just want to take a moment to let you guys know what is going on with Anime Full Circle in the weeks to come.

1) I have a ton of reviewing to do with the series Working!! and I started to work on my first part of my salute to Hayao Miyazaki with Howl’s Moving Castle so expect to see reviews on those in the next few weeks.

2) Now that were only a few weeks away from the official start of summer vacation, I have something special for all of you. Therefore I am happy to announce that in the next few weeks, were going to be doing our first annual Big Otaku Summer!!!!!!! So what is Big Otaku Summer you may ask? Well Big Otaku Summer is going to consist of more of the segments that you come to expect from AFC including reviews, amv’s, commentary and much much more. I also thinking about doing some contests for you guys as well, but we will see how things go. I will have more details on this in the coming weeks so stay tuned for more.

So in closing, I just want to say thank you guys so much for staying with us during this crazy moment in my life. Hopefully when these next two weeks are over, things will go back to normal. I hope!!!!!! So until next time, remember that there is a ton of great anime and manga out there. All you have to do is find it. Ltrs.

P.S. And for those of you who are wondering how we are doing in the Ani-Blog Tourney, well I have to say that unfortunately the Ani-Gamers totally kicked our butts. I will have a consession speech posted tomorrow. So congratulations Ani-Gamers on your victory and good luck in the next round!!!!!!!