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by Bamboo Dong,⏎Phi Brain ⏎ Rating: 4 (out of 5) ⏎ There's an urban legend that says that humans only use 10% of their brain. And while that isn't technically true, people love to think that if you could “unlock” the rest of your brain, you'd be unstoppable. So imagine you're some kind of genius already, and then get the chance to use deep recesses of your brain you didn't even know you had access to. You could be some kind of puzzle master! Every puzzle would bow down before you! And indeed, that's what we hope for the protagonist of Phi Brain, a master puzzler named Daimon Kaito. ⏎ Some people are puzzle hobbyists. This guy is obsessed with them. He takes puzzles about as seriously as most people take their stock portfolios. So imagine his surprise when one day, he receives an invitation from a mysterious entity known as Minotaur, asking him to participate in a puzzle that's never been solved by anyone before. This quest leads him to the ruins next to his school, a complex and deadly labyrinth built by some kind of mad man. Helped by his violent, man-kicking friend Nonaha, he reaches the end and fulfills the “Orpheus Contract,” something that allows him to fully unlock his brain for the purposes of solving some insanely hard puzzles. One gets the feeling that if Kaito were kidnapped by Jigsaw, he'd make it out easily. ⏎ Phi Brain sounds goofy, and it is. Here is a man whose life revolves around solving puzzles. Not only is he insanely good at it, but he lives in some kind of parallel universe where everyone else respects puzzle-solvers as much as he does. In this world, puzzles are serious business. On one hand, this is incredibly hard to watch with a straight face—but at the same time, this is really interesting stuff. It's actually kind of cool that puzzles can be a life or death matter. And just like Kaito, we want to know what's next. What else lies in store for him? Where will his puzzling take him? My only complaint so far is that Kaito's actual thought process behind each puzzle isn't shown. I want to know how exactly he magicked his way out of his last dilemma… but I'm guessing there will be ample opportunities in the series for this. ⏎ It also helps that Phi Brain is really nice to look at. Animated by the folks at Sunrise, this is a damned good-looking series. The puzzles are really complexly drawn, there's tons of stuff to look at, and the characters' movements are filled with momentum. Just watching Kaito and Nonaha run down the hallway is fun, as there's a real sense of speed in the way they're animated. Phi Brain may sound pretty dumb, but it's worth checking out. You might roll your eyes once or twice, but you'll definitely have fun. ⏎ Hunter x Hunter ⏎ Rating: 3 (out of...