Phi Brain: God's Puzzle (all seasons)
 

Annoucement (last December)

Title:
ファイ・ブレイン 神様のパズル
Phi Brain: Kami(sama) no Puzzle
Phi Brain: God's Puzzle

http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/510...8947ffd49f.jpg

Source

Link
http://www9.nhk.or.jp/anime/phibrain/
http://www.phibrain.net/

There's a trailer up, but still no topic so ... the manga, which I have no idea how it relates to the anime (if there's any connection), is very good but a bit slow and still on case 1 (not even sure if there are more cases even given the title).

I love Kindaichi and Conan of the sorts so I hope this doesn't turn out to be a bust.

Hm, I thought this had a thread. In any case, when I first saw this I thought it was a kid's show, but after reading about the contents of the manga, I'm looking forward to a pretty gritty mystery anime.

Also, I wonder what prompted Sunrise to start making so many anime this year? T&B, Gintama, Sacred Seven, this, and Kyoukai Senjou...I guess with no Gundam or Geass TV anime in the pipeline they decided to put their efforts towards new properties? Although I feel like since it's probably several of their studios producing these anime it has more to do with a management decision than having time on their hands.

Cast has been announced:

Jun Fukuyama as Gammon Sakanoue
Shintaro Asanuma as Kaito Daimon
Akira Ishida as Sōji Jikukawa
Kaori Shimizu as Nonoha Itou
Keiji Fujiwara as Baron Kaidō
Kouki Miyata as Cubic G
Mamoru Miyano as Bishop
Satsuki Yukino as Anna Gram
Takahiro Sakurai as Luke Banjō Crossfield

The potential for some good puzzles/mysteries has me interested but the fact Jun Fukuyama is playing the lead part of the cast is enough for me to definitely give it a try =3

Fukuyama character is the red-haired guy (Gamon) if i'm not mistaken but he also part of the main characters. The lead character (Kaito) is played by Shintaro Asanuma.

Hrm... well it's certainly been a while since I've seen a good puzzle-oriented anime, so this is going to be interesting to check out.

With Jun Fukuyama and Mamoru Miyano in the cast though, how can one not check it out?

Yeah, realised my mistake after watching the PV ^^;

Oh great, another Sunrise anime show. Anyway:-



I need to get my taste on this then after the dissapointing Gundam 00.... Wait, wasn't that guy who brought us Sailor moon Kaleido star (Junichi Sato)?

This has Junichi Sato directing so I wouldn't just lump it as any old Sunrise anime. Although, implying Sunrise making originals is bad.

..."POG", huh?

I'm tempted to make a joke about slammers....

why do i keep misreading the title as "pea brain"? :heh:

The romanized title actually says Phi Brain.

walked in to say ''The series sounds interesting, I'll be sure to give it a look'' saw stuopidget banned/disabled -> shut down

:eyespin:

Read the thread and thought it was interesting.. watched the trailer and.. yeah I probably won't be watching this. I will of course, give it a chance, but seeing as how awful the character designs look like... yeah.

This anime reminds me morning cartoons for children. Well, let's hope that I misjudged this show.

It's probably meant to be for all ages

New PV:

Nice to see Sunrise do something that's not related to Scifi or mech. Though, not saying that T&B is bad.

May'n confirmed singing the OP, so if you don't like puzzles (what's wrong with you), tune in for the song?

This is seriously not getting enough attention. The second PV looks awesome and with Sato Junichi directing I have a lot of confidence that the story will be delivered well.

This isn't the kind of show that gets much attention around these parts, what with apparently being focused on puzzles and such and lacking a girl like Catherine to pull people in. Plus all the people are probably looking towards Horizon and Gundam Age instead. The former seemingly cause it has lots of well-endowed chicks and quirky character design in a sci-fi/fantasy world and the latter cause it's....well....Gundam. I'm sure people over in Japan have taken some notice of Phi Brain though. It really is looking interesting as of the second PV.

Tiger & Bunny started off with very little attention being paid it's way here on AS compared to right now and took a couple months (till about late May) to build a sizeable audience (I'd argue it was the Dragon Kid episode that finally drew a stable audience here :p ) through word of mouth so maybe this show will need to manage the same. That's just kind of what it's like when you try something a little less common in the anime world.

edit: Oh and it's probably the character designs more than anything that are working against the show. I personally have no problem with them, but they are pretty uncommon and different looking and that's probably a turn off for many.

At least this still has SLIGHTLY more attention than Lupin ...

Well, at least it already is 2-cour so I don't have to worry about the story not being told completely and never being picked back up due to lack of popularity.

Agreed, I think that's a great sign for a puzzle/mystery series like this.

ANN posted some additional info on the show. They even translated the trailer.
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/feat...2011/phi-brain

Character Descriptions

I wonder if this mean AGE and Phi Brain will be simulcasted. Well, it isn't a surprise I guess, all Bandai-sponsored Sunrise projects are simulcasted these days.

Video dump:
- the opening is already available (both the song and the animation, though you get to hear May'n introduce the song after the introduction). I like what I'm hearing, as expected of May'n!
- Youtube has really interesting interviews from a NHK show with Fukuyama Jun and Morikawa Toshiyuki (part 1, 2, 3) who have roles in the anime. The videos show some animation not featured in the trailers, but may also be of interest to anyone who's curious about the production aspects of anime and whatnot - you get to see part of the recording process and how the director & sound director may play a part in it.

... and with all of this, I am more intrigued than ever. Even though I've learned not to expect much from NHK shows anymore, this might just turn out to be quite fun?

I'm now definitely gonna watch this, mainly because FukuJun's role is a little different from his usual and yet somehow similar. Gonna be fun to see him pull off his high tension/crazy voices as someone with Gamon's build.

... Oh right, I'm also in it for some potentially nice puzzles. :heh:

I do like puzzle-type anime. Kinda similar concept to stuff like Liar Game and Akagi/Kaiji. As long as the puzzles are complex enough and the competition interesting enough, I'll most likely watch this.

edit: (O.O ) Okay I just watched the trailer. I'll DEF be checking this out =03. The music and animation easily pulled me in. The char art reminds me of Tweety Witches/Mahou Shoujo Arisu.

The vid on dailymotion isn't showing the video content for me, only sound...

Because the animation of the opening theme sounds generic or just the interview ?

I've cut interview and reuploaded OP to the YouTube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0y-o1IXxtCg

I'm surprised that someone else shares my sentiments.
However, the comparison to Kaiji might come as a negative note, since like Kaiji, I'm not that interested with the premise.

Awesome OP and OST

But what is even better - the shonen hero finally obtained a deviсe to use his brain. Been waiting for this for the last 10 years I guess.

Well, first of all,

WHAT THE FUCK DID I JUST WATCH?

With that out of the way,

The first episode didn't impress me at all. I am surprised I am not dropping this right away.

It was interesting enough for me to watch another ep for now. So is that bracelet the phi brain. More interested in knowing more about this contract that even Einstein couldn't complete. It looks like minotaur is the president of the puzzle club. Surprised to see that this was listed as 25 eps on MAL.

To me it feels like indiana jones but in a japanese highschool.

You know... It's times like this that makes me wish that all the harem leads have this device...

Screenshots taken from EP1
 

Do you guys know how to solve these?

Yes!! With my Mary Sue intellect and withholding information from the watcher by flashing it for a split second! :heh:

All and all, I enjoyed the first episode a lot, save for the character designs. I'll probably keep watching for now.

The only thing I have to ask is, who the hell has this sort of time to create all that crap just so it can collapse in a second?