Phi Brain Kami no Puzzzle - 07 - Nonoha's Title

Great expressions Gammon and Kaito.

It was a rather pointless episode, I wonder what possessed the producers to give us an episode dedicated to Nonoha when there was nothing to improve upon her character at this point. I have enjoyed the amount of exposure Nonoha and Gammon have had throughout the season thus far, and so I wonder what the point was for this episode since Nonoha has had plenty of screen time already. I hope we get back on track with Rook and Kaito, although I did enjoy the new nemesis Herbert and how he is a bit more evil than the others, I suppose.

There really was no progression in the plot, I mean, the only thing that happened was a new leader of the POG was announced to replace Rook. I was not very happy with the lack of any explanation for the changing of the guard. Rook is clearly the more important character here, so shouldn't he be the leader of the Japan POG in order to reaffirm his higher status among everyone? If Rook becomes a mere pawn amongst the POG, then this clearly puts him on a lower level, showing that defeating him is no big deal, it's like a BOSS character becoming a sub-boss character, you become a mere stepping stone towards the real opponent. I'm sure this temporary change will blow over soon though, Rook makes a pretty good enemy.

We finally get some insight behind the meaning of the puzzles, well at least HIS thoughts.

Since were on the topic of villains and bosses, who came up with the new enemy's name? Herbert Muller, the name should be feared across the POG! Who can take a guy who's name is Herbert seriously, it's like giving a genius the name Ricky Bobby (Talladega Nights movie). Would you still fear Lord Voldemort if his name was Lord George?

I'm thinking the opposite.

Taking a look at Nonoha, there really wasn't much to say, sure the episode was named in regards to her, but we didn't really learn anything new about her character. There were a series of sports events for Nonoha in which she was constantly thinking about the potential "love letter" addressed to Kaito. We have already seen this throughout the show and since there was no confession from Nonoha, the episode remains pointless.

The one good thing about the episode was the danger of the puzzle from Mrs. Madoka. After revealing her reason for presenting the sage puzzle to Kaito, Madoka involves the children before realizing how dangerous Sage Puzzle truly are. Mrs. Madoka's character was initially a mystery, we did not know if she was evil, or just a confused victim herself. It's always nice to have a few mystery characters thrown in for added suspense since we don't know who's side they are on. I think this was the first time I felt despair during the puzzle, there were several moments when the building started falling apart, threatening the lives of the children. I kept thinking to myself, "this can't end well".  The music for the puzzle was excellent, and reassured any despair, suspense, and potential unfortunate endings that could have happened, it was the highlight of the episode. Hopefully next week will be better and gets back on track with the plot, although by the looks of it, it wont.

~Djr7