---
title: 'The BIZARRE Persona Anime Adaptations'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=nX0DblPwO8U'
video_id: 'nX0DblPwO8U'
date: 2026-06-28
duration_sec: 5692
---

# The BIZARRE Persona Anime Adaptations

> Source: [The BIZARRE Persona Anime Adaptations](https://youtube.com/watch?v=nX0DblPwO8U)

## Summary

This video provides an in-depth review and ranking of all anime adaptations of the Persona video game series, focusing on Persona 3, 4, and 5. The creator analyzes the faithfulness, pacing, character development, and visual quality of each adaptation, highlighting successes and failures. The overall conclusion reflects on the difficulty of translating the lengthy, story-rich Persona games into anime.

### Key Points

- **Creator's love for Persona** [0:14] — The creator states Persona is one of their favorite franchises and they use a lot of Persona music in their videos.
- **Series popularity and adaptations** [0:48] — Persona wasn't hugely popular until Persona 5 in 2017, but most of its adaptations were released prior, which is unusual. The creator notes the series has a long history of adaptations (anime, manga, drama CDs, stage productions).
- **Persona 3 Movie Series Overview** [3:33] — The Persona 3 story is adapted into four movies, which is a challenge given the game's length (70-100 hours). The creator notes the first movie is faithful but has pacing issues, while the second improves significantly in its second half. The third movie is criticized as a 'train wreck' for sacrificing other characters' arcs to focus on the protagonist, Makoto. The fourth movie, 'Winter of Rebirth', is praised as one of the best video game adaptations, brilliantly handling the characters' fear of death.
- **Persona 4 The Animation (P4A) Analysis** [30:11] — P4A is a 26-episode TV series, praised as one of the greatest video game adaptations. It is more comedic and light-hearted than the game, which works surprisingly well. The protagonist, Yu Narukami, is portrayed as a confident troll, which is a major highlight. The English dub is highly recommended. The series handles emotional moments well, particularly the scene with Nanako in the hospital.
- **Persona 4 The Golden Animation (P4GA) Critique** [48:05] — P4GA is an adaptation of the enhanced re-release, Persona 4 Golden. It is criticized as 'extremely not very good' due to poor animation (off-model, janky), an anthology-style structure that doesn't work, and a focus on the unpopular character Marie. It fails to justify its existence compared to the original P4A.
- **Persona 5 The Animation (P5A) Review** [58:41] — P5A is described as a 'god-awful piece of [ __ ]' and a 'textbook example of a garbage video game anime'. It is a rushed, ugly adaptation that tries to faithfully retell a 100-hour game in a single season. The protagonist, Joker, is boring and underdeveloped. The animation is of poor quality with bad CGI. The English dub provides some minor entertainment value. The creator recommends playing the game instead.
- **Persona -trinity soul- Overview** [78:47] — This is an original anime series, not an adaptation. It is a non-canon sequel set 10 years after Persona 3. It is a slow-paced, character-driven series with some interesting concepts but overall is 'forgettable'. The creator notes it is one of A1 Pictures' first projects.
- **Final Rankings and Conclusion** [90:11] — The creator provides a ranking: 1. Persona 3: Winter of Rebirth, 2. Persona 4 The Animation, 3. Persona 3: Midsummer Night's Dream, 4. Persona 3: Spring of Birth, 5. Persona -trinity soul-, 6. Persona 3: Falling Down, 7. Persona 4 The Golden Animation, 8. Persona 5 The Animation. They conclude that the best adaptations are faithful but unique companion pieces that expand on the source material.

### Conclusion

The best Persona anime adaptations are those that understand their limitations and respectfully expand upon the source material with their own ideas, acting as faithful but unique companion pieces to the games, rather than flawed attempts at direct replication.

## Transcript

[Music]
thank you
viewers of my channel over the past year
are functioning eardrums I've probably
noticed that I use a lot of persona
music in my videos and just in case you
haven't connected the dots yet I like
persona
Persona is one of my favorite video game
franchises of all time and while I
haven't played much of the wider
mechaten franchise that spun off off
outside of smt5 although I definitely
will someday my love for these games
cannot be understated I'm not going to
sit here and explain in depth how
incredible these games are because most
of you watching have I ever never heard
of persona or have only played Persona 5
so I'll just go out in a limb and say
please play them through any means
necessary
you as someone who's been especially
bored the past two years because of
um these have been my beloved Comfort
games ever since Persona 4 Golden
gotport to the PC thank God and I'd love
to make a full retrospective on the
franchise someday including the games
that Mandela affected themselves out of
existence please put your games at this
I beg you as with any incredibly popular
video game franchise adaptations of the
story in depth of medium such as TV and
film are expected but what's strange
about Persona specifically is that the
series wasn't really that popular until
Persona 5 exploded over in the West in
2017 and the majority of the adaptations
personas had were released years prior
that's not to say Persona wasn't known
at all it had a decent following from
Persona 3 onwards and especially after
Persona 4 but you'd usually expect these
kinds of adaptations once the series in
question reaches absurd levels of
popularity I mean hell is the Mario Bros
movie at the decency to release after
Super Mario World and then I actually
began taking a look at how many
adaptations Persona has had over the
years and the list is bloody extensive
like we're not just talking anime here
we're talking manga drama CDs and Stage
Productions
[Music]
Persona 1 had a serialized manga in 1996
well you do now how some of these go
past being adaptations end up being
extensions of the series as Canon
exclusive to that specific medium I'd
love to cover all of these someday if I
can even get my hands on some of them
okay that's [ __ ] up getting back on
track and ignoring atlas's questionable
Ventures into making money it just
simply surprised me that they were doing
stuff like this before Persona five heck
before Persona 4 but that's all for
another day we're here today to talk
about the more well-known adaptations of
the franchise so as being the Persona
anime and movies when tackling a series
of games for each installment can take
up to 100 hours to Simply complete
trying to condense a lot of that down
into 24 episodes or simply 6 hours
spanning over four films can be quite a
challenge Persona 3 4 and 5 are
intimidatingly dense games and creative
Liberties need to be taken to ensure
that an anime adaptation can present the
main story in a digestible format paired
out of trying to give the mute
protagonists of each game their own
distinct personalities and you've got
yourself a daunting task ahead of you
some have notable moments of success
some absolutely succeed and some of them
well you know some of them could be
better so with these games having such a
long history of anime adaptations and
with such varying levels of quality I
thought it'd be fun to go over all of
them or at least the ones people
actually know of and doing in depth
review comparing them to the games how
they stand based on their own narrates
and doing a ranking evolving towards the
end a lot of this video will be very
opinionated and biased but I'll try to
keep most of it on level of which most
of you can understand also there will be
massive spoilers for each of the modern
Persona games in this video so if you
haven't played them yet and I suggest
you do so unless you don't care we're
good let's begin the operation
[Music]
I've decided that instead of going in
order of release I'm going to go in
order when the games were made because I
think that'll make the video flow a lot
better so yeah Persona 3 is my favorite
game in the franchise
if I'm using the controllable party mod
on PC but apart from that Persona 3 is a
fantastic game the atmospheres are
luring the characters are mostly
compelling outside of the villains you
little the story is a little slow to
start and the gameplay has its quirks
but you've got yourself a remarkably
solid game with well-executed themes and
moments that emotionally destroy me 70
to 80 hours is the average run time for
this game possibly 100 if the answer
gets you staring down the barrel of your
evoker if you catch my drift that's a
lot of video game so how is it adapted
well uh four movies there's a lot to
cover here the Persona 3 chord Trilogy
was produced by AIC well I lie the first
movie was produced by AIC but the other
free movies were produced by none other
than
A1 pictures but don't worry the majority
of Staff who worked on these movies were
carried over from when it was produced
by AIC which explains why the animation
doesn't give me the urge to stick a lit
firework in my eyes I'm bringing up who
produced these movies so I can gush
about the animation for them because
these are some absolutely gorgeous
looking movies everything from the
lighting the colors the aesthetic the
detail you could not ask for better
looking movies that captured the essence
and atmosphere of Persona 3 with music
by The Man himself Shoji meguro
returning to give his soundtrack from
the original game more cinematic Flair
as well as composing multiple original
absolute bangers I'm gonna go over these
movies as fast as I can but be aware
that there's a lot of content here so
let's start from the beginning
[Music]
as far as adaptations of video games
tend to go spring of birth is probably
as faithful as you can possibly get this
movie adapts roughly the first 15 to 20
hours or so Persona 3's story so from
the beginning to the second full moon
operation and the recruitment of fuka
and it's rather straightforward with
that my main issue with the film is the
incredibly janky pacing that it has
obviously trying to cram 20 hours of
gameplay into an hour and a half is
going to present some issues but if you
chose to adapt an 80-hour game as a film
series then prepare for unforeseen
consequences or get back to the drawing
board you can feel the movie tended to
rush through several scenes that becomes
quite apparent when you realize that in
order to even make Cuts in 20 hours or
something down to 120 for that runtime
work they have to skip over several days
of gameplay to progress the story then
it kind of takes away from the Persona
experience Persona games at least the
modern ones work on a calendar system
where everything you do progresses the
day forward time is fleeting you only
have so much of it so try to make the
most out of the time you have with your
friends while balancing out your school
Life and Adventures through the game's
respective Shadow worlds so seeing these
movies take massive leaps from specific
days on the calendar is understandable
to keep the main story in Focus but It
ultimately takes away from the second
main appeal of the series The Social
Links now I'm not about to say Persona 3
starter Social Links are the best in
this series Kenji can take a hike into
Satan's ass crack and The Gourmet King
can have a coronary heart attack right
in front of me and my response would
still probably be I don't care but
reducing the Social Links to Mere cameos
or showing them in montages to show the
passage of time sort of hurts the appeal
of persona because if you don't at least
dedicate a small bit of time to show
Makoto interacting and helping his
friends of seas and there's no real
reason to put the calendar system in the
movie aside from aesthetic purposes
because we don't feel like the fleeting
of time is remotely important or that
Makoto is spending his time wisely
outside of these montages there's a bit
of a debate as to if Persona can
actually be perfectly adapted from video
game to Anime in theory it should be
easier since RPGs usually have far more
detail than substantive plots than most
video games but factoring in persona's
story length paints a very clear picture
it's a stretch to say that a single
season of a show can cover this much
content is usually enough story and
Slice of Life moments in Persona to feel
like two to three seasons of an anime so
making the percent of free movies well
movies feels like a major handicap and
at least the series feeling like a
glorified highlight reel of events from
the game at times I'd like to remind
everyone the Persona 4's anime came out
before this movie and while it didn't
handle the Social Links in the best way
it at least made an effort to show them
helping of characters outside the main
cast
I have a doubt where I'm just salty
Makoto didn't romance to hero and that
this discontinued this line of thinking
uh rights Makoto you probably heard me
say that well a big hurdle each
adaptation had to overcome was the
character of the protagonist each
protagon each Persona game is in use
with no personality other than the one
you give them for your dialogue choices
so whether or not Joker is a timid nerd
or a massive troll is down to you I knew
you were gonna say that obviously this
wouldn't work for an anime as a protagon
is required to talk so they not only
need a Canon name but a personality to
boots enter Makoto Yuki so your dreams
of naming the MC banging kawakami are
unfortunately over I'm aware that is
called Minato in the manga but I don't
[ __ ] care Persona 3 had a lot of cold
and apathetic dialogue choices that you
could choose with the most common one
being a massive meme well you should so
in Spring of birth Makoto is essentially
the essence of those dialogue choices
he's hilariously called and apathetic
towards anyone and anything and while he
can come off as having the personality
of cardboard in this movie the rest of
the movie's majorly improve him and
towards the end of this movie he does
get some interesting development due to
being emotionally scarred by the death
of his parents 10 years prior Makoto was
emotionally shut himself off from the
world choosing not to get attached to
people out of fear of being hurt when he
loses them you may be hearing Nissan
going but that's chidori's Arc but Imma
let that slide it fits the themes of the
story quite well and it's not a
one-to-one recreation of chidori's Arc
so overall I think they handled Makoto
well also there's one scene at the end
where he rides a motorcycle to his
friend's rescue while mass destruction
plays and I thought it was pretty funny
[Laughter]
or who cares
okay I won't lie that it's actually
pretty cool aside from Makoto I was
surprised to see that jinpay's
characterization is a Monumental step up
from how the game presented him I gave
that Jim pay's entire point in the game
is that he's a selfish twit who
eventually starts taking things more
seriously and I love him but I won't
deny he boarded on being intolerable the
movie still shows Jim Bates kind of an
habitat but shows his struggles earlier
on June pay is a character who joins C
is to play Hero and get some kind of
recognition in his life since he doesn't
care for studying and as a person is
seen as unremarkable which is why he
grows incredibly jealous of Makoto
easily obtaining the spotlight thanks to
him being a better fighter and being
able to wield multiple personas during
the game this jealousy is really drawn
out and he's a total dick to you at
times however in the movie well they
don't completely froze Ark out the
window just having him grow respect from
Makoto as they work together during the
first full moon operation does so much
Justice for him and the toning down of
his more annoying Tendencies helps to
make him a flawed but very likable
character I honestly see it as an
improvement I also appreciate how fuka
was handled establishing her presence
earlier in the story and instead of just
pooping her into the plot later on
Lakota gets to establish a bondling
connection to fuka and fuku's friendship
with natsuki is a lot more believable
especially after makota gives her a
satisfying reality check in fact I
appreciated that they tried to change up
how the second operation played out by
having Makoto guard natsuki at the end
while the others find fuka and tackle
the shadow though it is a little shaky
and I didn't like how much of a [ __ ]
yukari was which is saying something and
ultimately it works in favor of
progressing Makoto's character and
breaking his apathetic shell but it's a
little odd the film aims about a real
sense of closure which wow no way really
but it's still an Abrupt end it's very
much a part one film and overall I found
it enjoyable but only really as a fan of
the video game I wouldn't really
recommend this to someone unfamiliar
with the games I still find that to be
the superior experience but for a video
game adaptation it surprisingly alrights
it's very faithful regardless of its
pacing issues and a good way to set up
the next three movies
[Music]
please
okay so this movie rather ambitiously
takes a fourth of the overall story and
does its best to adapt it but at first I
wasn't really on board not only did the
first half of the film feel like it was
on autopilot but how questionable the
pacing was but it also felt like they
were rushing the new characters into the
plot without any of the grace the game
had I guess was introduced all right I
guess but canvas frantically dropped
into a scene that he wasn't in
previously and Koro how do you rush Koro
he's a dog I won't lie the movie had
some funny moments and for some reason
kashiwaki from Persona 4 is on the beach
during the Babe hunt scene and I know
that this happens in Persona 3 Portable
but why but the film was very clunky for
its first half and I was judging how the
rest would go
that was until my boy Shinji
Shinji just literally barges into a
scene that he was never in during the
game no elaboration and kicks total air
because the movie had been handling his
return to seize a hell of a lot better
by stopping it from being so drawn out
he comes to everyone's Rescue by his own
will after their lives were threatened
by Strega which not only gives my man
some more death but it's also the
Catalyst from the Monumental Improvement
on the game's storied the second half of
this movie is oh yeah I'm going there
throw me into the pits of persona
Twitter I don't care second half of
Midsummer Night's stream is really good
it's not only paced really well but they
take good creative liberties from the
main story instead of Ken figuring out
that Shinji killed his mom in the same
scene where Aki begs him to rejoin C's
in a millionth time we have Ken and
Shinji bonding with each other for a
good chunk of time they both learn to
care for each other Ken treats Shinji
like a parental figure that he's been
missing for so long with Shinji trying
his best to make him happy knowing what
he did to Ken's mom even if it was an
accident it's beautifully tragic and it
not only fixes the biggest complaints
people had about Ken and manages to make
him extremely compelling but to give
Shinji a much larger and more meaningful
presence in the story making October 4th
hits a lot harder and while the movies
just like the game don't handle Striker
that well the claims of hypocrisy they
aim at Seas for enjoying the lives they
lead thanks to the Dark Hour actually
have more of an impact instead of being
some petty insult that gin shoots out
his mouth as in it not only affects
jumping like it did in the game but it
also affects fuka as well as Makoto oh
yeah Makoto really becomes a character
in this film not only says apathy slowly
slipping away as he grows to care for
his friends and for life in general but
he also contemplates ending the Dark
Hour as the Dark Hours the reason he and
his friends came together in the first
place with the Dark Hour gone and
without that common goal what reason
would they have to stay together that's
my coach's dilemma and I think it's done
wonderfully and it helps the idea in the
game of seas being Collies first but
becoming friends over time I think it's
definitely the most emotionally complex
out of the protagonists not to say they
aren't developed either but well mostly
you're definitely not developed but more
new later but Makoto's the most
compelling to me and the ending scene on
October 4th is even or heartbreaking it
was in the game so uh spoilers
thanks to the amazing development given
to Ken and Shinji being in the story for
more than a month shinji's death scene
really hits it not only affects Makoto
and the rest of the cast but it's
impactful in the way that the original
scene wasn't thanks to giving the
characters a little more time to get to
know each other overall while Midsummer
Night's Dream starts out really oddly
once you get to the halfway point it
becomes an entirely different film it
[ __ ] carries how good it is I was not
expecting it to be this good however I
still have a few complaints first off in
percent of three jumping meets Chidori
before the hermit boss on September 5th
and goes back to meet her several times
however in this movie jumpy is present
during the hermit boss and never saw
Chidori on screen aside from one
interaction when at this point in the
game he's supposed to have been
kidnapped by Chidori after growing
attached to her through their previous
conversations not only does leaving this
out screw of jimpi's character Arc and
developments but the way they try to
mend this in the next movie makes my
head start to spin I also didn't really
like how Ken only realized that Shinji
killed his mom after his Persona started
going berserk I guess you can make the
excuses the aggressive and wild nature
of the person owner that triggered his
PTSD and that's fine but it comes off as
a little cheap in execution what I also
don't like is how shinji's Persona goes
berserk in front of everyone leading to
him taking the pills needed to suppress
it in front of akihiko while I like the
scene between them here and it's pretty
heartbreaking I much preferred not
knowing Shinji was dying from taking
those pills until October 4th and for
having the hospital scene where jodori's
Persona starts attacking her until she's
given the Pill by Shinji having Takaya
reveal to Ken and the player that
shinji's destined to dino matter what
Ken does is a much more effective reveal
and having Aki grow suspicious of Shinji
for knowing what the pill does was a
smart way of letting us know that
something's not right with Shinji
instead of just telling us that he's
slowly dying way before Takaya puts a
bullet in his chest other than that
though I'd still recommend the movie to
people who have played the game but I
definitely feel like the second half of
it can be appreciated even by people who
haven't played persona 3. it's less of a
delightful mixed bag with more triumphs
than misses like the first movie was and
more of a slow burn before suddenly
becoming really good kind of film
falling down huh yeah that's one way to
say it all right I'm not gonna sugarcoat
anything here this movie is kind of a
train wreck it's an utter bastardization
of percent of prehistorian every
Department the entire film was dedicated
to developing Makoto and that's it
Makoto exists in a vacuum compared to
everything else which not only takes a
back seat it is actively Drop Kicked
after the realm of importance this
entire film reads like some shady yowie
fan fiction from some lovesick Black
Butler friend who sadly crawled out of
the abortion bin remember ryoji yeah the
human Reincarnation of pharaohs the boy
makota talks to throughout the story you
know how he shows up in November and
fulfills his main purpose in the story
to be the appraiser of death presenting
you and your friends with an ultimatum
that will determine your fate and then
exits at the end of December well he's
here for the entire movie as the
righteous decided to tie ryuji into
makojo's character Arc along with some
implied romantic subtexts apparently I
mean I understand that POV but don't
quote me on that and I mean fine if
focusing on their friendship works from
a coach's character which it honestly
does I can put up with it what I refuse
to tolerate is everything this movie
ruins in order to progress the
development of a single character the
pacing is god-awful the entire film
zooms past crucial plot points and
scenes that are integral to the
narrative and development of these
characters remember the resolution
scenes yeah those scenes are arguably
the most important moments for their
respective characters that have been
built up ever since the characters were
introduced as well as causing their
personas to undergo a second Awakening
yeah those were such important and
character defining moments are the
amalgamation of everything they've been
through throughout the course of the
story being some of the best scenes in
the game what does the movie do with
them Focus touching goodbye to natsuki
allowing her to realize that she must do
everything in her power to protect those
she's connected with and ultimately
becomes a much more outgoing person it's
treated like a complete joke as ryoji
forced Makoto to start helping around
the school to earn some cash and instead
of fuka asking natsuka to come up and
meet her so they could talk ryoji lies
in natsuki so she would come rushing up
to the roof just to have a short crying
session with fouca where neither of them
learn anything mitsuers one to one with
yukari where she reassures herself of
her own reason for living by fulfilling
her father's wish on adding the Dark
Hour oh it happens but it is completely
happy because halfway through the
conversation yukari just suddenly
reveals that she watched the undoctor
tape from her father which is taken and
half from her resolution scene where she
realized that her father tried to end
the Dark Hour instead of assisting in
its creation so instead of getting a
scene to herself we have instead slap
Dash into the middle of another
character's resolution where both
characters come to the same conclusions
as in the original game but the impact
from them both is diminished akihika's
resolution at shinji's funeral arguably
one of the most emotionally charged
scenes in the entire game where Aki
Mourns a lot of his best friend and vows
to face life's hardships head on and
stop running from his past is told
through a 20 second flashback that Aki
repeats the Makoto just wow I can't even
joke about it this is so bad it annoys
me to no end especially Aki's resolution
how can you screw up that badly remember
my comment earlier about how these
movies sometimes feel like highlight
rules of the game's plots Falling Down
is basically just that statement in
feature-link form these movies have some
really good high moments when everything
were works out as seen with the numerous
story improvements in mid-summer but
then there are some parts that are
questionable even for adaptation
standards I can't really say I hate
these movies outside of this one because
they're all really entertaining but they
really demonstrate how difficult
adapting a game like Persona really is
and we aren't even done Jumpy's
character changing and life-changing
relationship with Chidori being the
Catalyst for his Newfound sense of
maturity and value in life allowing to
end the dark hour after she sacrifices
herself to save him from the brink of
death is rushed up the Wazoo because
someone in the writer's room went cuckoo
for Coco Puffs and decided that instead
of following the events of the game and
for an important moment like your Dory
kidnapping gympie in September naturally
showing their relationship grows he
comes to visit her in hospital they
decided she was going to have gympie
already kidnapped at the start of the
film during the hanged man boss fight in
November what and on top of this only
deciding to show the glimpses of their
relationship through flashbacks after
the fact this movie is triggering my
autism
Oh What A pity such a meaningless death
[Music]
meaningless
[Music]
hmm
laughs
what
[Music]
foreign
[Music]
[Music]
on top of this we have akutsuki who has
like five minutes of total screen time
for the previous two films and then it's
revealed that the mustache trolling
villain of a bastardize plot within the
first 20 minutes and since the
characters are so hard to write they
didn't bother giving him more scenes of
him being relevant in the plot that the
game did he shows up for about five
minutes over three movies rocks up to
Tartarus of I guess going La Mao XD
shoots miser's father doesn't elaborate
and dies if that's happened in the game
I would have had a sympathy seizure but
of course forget all that nonsense we
still have the hot spring scene thank
you Atlas
so much I have never had a movie Blue
bull me this hard before after we go
from an arguably great film at least in
its second half to a movie that's just
plain confusion to think about and
there's very few redeeming aspects other
than the obvious wow this looks and
sounds pretty the only thing I can
genuinely praise here when it comes to
the storytelling is that despite the
focus on the coach and ryoji ruining the
film it at least Works their friendship
is admittedly touching see Makoto slowly
climb out with zapathan depression with
ryoji's help is genuinely wholesome even
if it overstate its welcome it works but
if this new addition to the story is
going to ruin all of what there was
before it then keep it away this movie
kind of irritated me as someone who
loves the story and characters of
Persona 3 the Sega completely undermines
just to tell an entirely new story is
frustrating to say the least and apart
from these scenes with ryoji and the
skimming of the plots nothing really
happens here there's no action apart
from the very beginning and the very end
and while I definitely don't need action
for film to be good especially for a
Persona movie when all of the actual
character writing is squandered it turns
the movie into an Archer bore and after
I finish falling down I was prepared for
them next movie to be just as bad or
even worse
but somehow
foreign
[Music]
okay that's it this is witchcraft no
explanation no elaboration witchcraft
you cannot go for making a complete
backup of The Story You're adapting and
then turn around to make one of the best
video game adaptations I have ever seen
yeah I'm going there this is one of the
greatest video game movies I have ever
watched It's Not only a fantastic
adaptation of persona 3's ending it's
also the first one of these movies that
actually feels like a movie instead of a
string of events from the game that are
tied together by the emotions of the
characters this movie is a clear
structure and actual pacing it picks up
where the last movie ended ryoji is
defeated I guess and reveals himself as
the appraiser of death revealing the
fall of humanity is Drawing Near and
that everyone's fate is sealed ryoji
presents season ultimatum kill him and
live in Blissful ignorance unafraid of
death until the day of the inevitable or
spare him in order to face off against
Nix in a battle for everyone's Souls
this is how everything happens in the
game but then something odd happens for
the first hour or so of the movie
everyone has grown scared knowing that
their deaths are drawing near it's a
slow burn but it's so beautifully done
watching as everyone goes through their
lives in December scared of what awaits
them with yukari specifically regressing
so bad to the point where her fear for
death causes their person to go berserk
and start attacking them personas in
Persona 3 are summoned by stifling one's
fear of death and we've already seen
what happens to people who have to force
their personas to come out or have to
take pills in order to keep them under
control we've never seen a previously
stable Persona user like yukari suddenly
be attacked like this and it's not just
yukaris brought to the lowest point
everyone is jumpy has practically lost
the world to live akihiko amitsuru are
lost Ken has shut himself off fuka can
do nothing but tremble and Makoto has
lost any reason to care
I I'm sorry I genuinely need to be shot
the characters are put into these states
in Persona 3 yes but the way these are
translated to the film is strangely more
captivating and the Liberties that have
been taken I mean the impact of shinji's
death is still felt here and instead of
the characters talking to each other
over the course of the month and
affirming their stance on what decision
to make and what they want to live for
they all come to these conclusions on
their own all of the arcs that were
destroyed in the previous film are
suddenly re-established acting like the
bad execution never happened they
remember everything they've been through
they're brought to the lowest point of
existence and are then powerfully
redeveloped while the way the game
handled these moments worked better for
it as a game I believe this was the
single most poignant and non-rushed way
they could have handled the characters
in this movie it's perfectly paced in
somber nothing is undercut and Makoto
look while I'm still salty about him
taking up all the falling down it has
ultimately led to a character who was
now fully realized the scenes of
Elizabeth may have come out of nowhere
but what they did the story cannot be
understated and in the second half of
the film we're not even close to being a
strong songs the first half and suffers
from some slight pacing problems is
still rather enjoyable well I'm
disappointed that the next fight is
essentially a 1v1 between NYX and Makoto
it's still animated well enough and
tense enough to be worth watching and of
course Makoto's sacrifice is still
soul-crushing and the climax of the film
compared to the game is practically
untouched and I'm thankful that it was
left that way however who was the Galaxy
brain that fought swapping the final
boss thing with the burn my dread remix
was a good idea this may be a nitpick
but are you seriously telling me you're
swapping one of the greatest battle
themes in video game history with the
most thematically Sound song Choice from
a coach's sacrifice when they're only
one scene apart like shut up well I
could complain about petty stuff like
Nick's being a CGI it's honestly such a
disservice to the rest of the film's
animation which is absolutely stunning
and while they can complain that they
quite literally zoomed past Strega and
beat them into a relevancy both the
movies and the game handled Striker very
poorly and nothing about them being
created or being acquaintances with
akutsuki is developed enough or
interesting enough to be worth talking
about overall this movie Perfectly ties
together Persona 3's themes and overall
thesis and turns the sinking ship around
to create one of the most emotionally
gratifying and well-made video game
adaptations I've ever seen I get that
it's not a high bar to reach but it
doesn't matter to me I can't believe how
great this movie is it feels like an
instructor like a film that I could
actually show to someone and have them
not be overwhelmed if I just explained
shortly what happened before it I don't
have anything else to really say it's
just a solid film all around I'm tempted
to say it's a bona fide Improvement in
some areas compared to the game but I
think both the movie and the game
handled the same story in completely
different ways and both of them work
while I absolutely love the scene where
everyone rediscovers their will to live
I also appreciate the way the game
handled it it's a great adaptation and a
thankfully satisfying end to a rather
uneven set of movies
this is one of the most bizarrely
inconsistent set of films I've ever
watched the first one is an overall
entertaining mixed bag there's a lot of
things right than it does wrong the
second one is a faster clock for half
its run time before suddenly becoming
absolutely brilliant the third one is a
confusing mess that sacrifices
satisfying story beats for its own ideas
and the fourth one is a bizarrely and
unexpectedly Beautiful film that makes
the entire experience seem almost worth
it this is a series of films that I
definitely enjoyed but they severely
suffer from trying to replicate the
experience of the game too much as well
as not knowing when to rain in when they
go too far of the changes ironically the
only thing really consistent about this
movie is how awful the pacing is until
we get to the last movie which is a lot
more stable when adapting something you
always need to take into account what is
absolutely crucial to the narrative and
what needs to be changed especially when
it's a video game adaptation and what
they show glimpses of getting it right
it takes four movies for them to
absolutely perfect that balance if I was
told to recommend this chord Trilogy to
people I think I'd be stuck because it
all depends on how much more middling
content you're willing to tolerate to
stick with it to the point where it's
mind-blowingly good especially if you
plan on sticking until the end it has
some standout moments that are clear
improvements over the game's story but
then there's a myriad of questionable
writing decisions and Persona 3 the
movie falling down I guess if you're a
fan of Persona 3 then checking these
movies out won't do any harm but if
you've watched through this massive
spoiler Fastener unconvinced by these
movies then well play Persona 3. in fact
overall I'd recommend Persona 3 as the
ideal experience it likes a lot of the
sporadic story enhancements the movies
had but its storytelling is a lot more
consistent for filling and impactful
overall given that none of it is half if
you wanted to get the percent of free
movies and watch them legally then uh
good luck with that bucko they're barely
in stock in the UK despite being rather
affordable even on Blu-ray I shudder to
imagine what it's like in America look
this is probably gonna get me in trouble
but every percent of free movies
available to watch on YouTube for free
because the YouTube copyright system can
suck my left testicle personally I
watched them on 9anime because I wanted
my foots to be in HD but if you can put
up with 720p and these are worth
watching if you don't want to get a
virus the many invisible pop-ups in nine
anime and Sir if you wants to watch
these movies with English voice acting
because the light sync for these movies
is absolutely horrid again they're
available on YouTube completely unedited
and have jumped around regions on
Netflix like a kangaroo Coke fiend also
possible complications with the cast
since fake Magna voices uh June pay and
no one can decide if it's innocent or
not anyways now that we're done with
that
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
Persona 4D animation is as expected an
anime adaptation of the story for the
video game but unlike Persona 3 this
adaptation was no straight out into four
separate films and was instead made as a
26 episode TV series thank God not a
dunk 100 of prequel trilogy too hard but
it was realistically no way they were
ever going to pull off an adaptation of
an 80 hour video game of like four
movies and not expect there to be some
problems when it came to pacing they
could not decide whether to stick to
being a faithful adaptation or to take
massive risks or make small tweaks to
the story and while there are examples
where this works in its favor it ends up
being an incredibly uneven set of films
if you are ever going to attempt to
adapt the storyline of an RPG to a
different medium a TV series will always
be the safer bets as you get a wealth of
time to explore signs of different
characters reliably go through story
arcs about the pacing collapsing in on
itself and you also have the ability to
take creative Liberties without them
sabotaging the entire [ __ ] story what
I'm trying to say is Persona 49
animation is not just a great adaptation
of persona 4. it's also one of the
greatest video game adaptations period
but first let's discuss persona 4.
persona 4 holds a special place in my
heart and none of the other games in the
franchise can touch Persona 3 may be my
favorite and Persona 5 comes close but
Persona 4 was my introduction to this
franchise I picked up the steam Port of
the game in the summer of 2020 and
played it for about two hours and uh
then I stopped obviously for those who
have played the game this was simply due
to how obnoxiously long the game's
opening is so what does a solid job all
it sets up to do it definitely overstays
its welcome compared to Persona 3 and
especially Persona 5 but then I decided
to pick up the game again in November
that same year I'd finally gotten past
the opening three hours and that's when
everything fell into place I had never
played a Persona game before and to say
my knowledge of RPGs was lacking as an
understatement I'm pretty sure I didn't
know what a Xenoblade was until I
remembered chakras and Smash Bros so to
save the Persona 4's gameplay and social
Sim elements caught me off guard with
how good they were is just not selling
it hard enough the game's story had me
emotionally gripped I saw aspects of
myself and many of the the characters
they were forced to confront their true
feelings meanwhile solving a murder case
were trying to balance day-to-day school
life and exploring the TV World which is
when a meticulously designed and
challenging gameplay kept me engaged and
excited it was a game that had a
perfectly balanced and well-written
story constantly for only for a loop and
squeezing me until I ended every tear
out of my iduct it's been said many
times before but Persona 4 makes you
feel like you made real genuine friends
and relationships this game made me cry
like a [ __ ] and it's not even that dark
the game had such a cozy and home-like
atmosphere and it prevented me from
focusing on anything else for the rest
of the month like seriously I kicked the
duchies and limit of an online
photography class I was not screwing
around and the ending of this game is a
single cheesiest sickly sweet cliche
anime ending I've ever seen but holy God
it's perfect and I love it I'm biased
towards this game unlike any other
despite it not even being my favorite in
the series which is why I was super
anxious going into P40 animation P40
animation is just like the Persona 3
movie is being handled by AIC and and
this time A1 pictures the script clean
off of the show but they'll be back
God God they'll be back in fact the
animation is where I want to start now
obviously this isn't a movie series so
the higher quality consistency of P3 the
movie's animation is not here and it's
also worth noting this series was made
before the P3 movies in 2011. I don't
get why you would make a Persona 4
Series first but okay but that's not to
say the show doesn't look halfway decent
because it certainly does as far as
anime goes It's perfectly fine visually
I really like the coloring and shading
and the characters stay mostly on model
I do have a few gripes the start of the
show can feel oppressively gray now
Persona 4 did start out with mostly gray
skies but in the animation the coloring
makes it feel all muggy and like it's
always about to rain and that is the
point considering how much of a role
Weber has in P4 but it wasn't as
distracting compared to the game like I
think the contrast may have just been
like severely lowered because it does
look a lot greater than how it does in
the game it's not a big issue though
although there are also a few instances
of characters going off model but hey
that's nitpicking at this point it's not
like A1 animated this animation aside
one of my biggest scribes of the Persona
3 movies was that they couldn't choose
wherever they were going to be
straightforward adaptations with barely
any changes or be Rife of new decisions
it was a weird tug of war with only
winter rebirth getting it done well
overall by balancing the two near
perfectly so how does persona 4's anime
go about adapting the story well they
got the balance right after all but what
did they change now one thing some of
you are probably aware of is that p4a is
a much more comedic and light-hearted
take on P4 storyline and I mean P4 is
already the happiest and rated game
about serial murder so that on paper
doesn't seem too ideal but by some
absolutely baffling Miracle they make it
work and if I'm being honest the English
dub is the ideal way to watch this
series it absolutely kills of how funny
the dialogue can get not to rank too
hard in the original Japanese voice
acting but I always found that Persona 4
had my least favorite Japanese voice
cast out of all of the games and the
voice acting is very good I am not a
doubly test at all and I would be crazy
to even say that I may be a little
biased because I play all the Persona
games in English but it's not like I
actively hate anything that isn't dubbed
Persona 3's English voice acting is
renowned for being absolutely ferocious
at times despite many standout moments
obviously the cast got better over time
of subsequent spin-off titles but
whoever was in charge of directing the
VA for fuka specifically just did not
give a [ __ ] and she's not even the worst
of it no
wow however Persona 4's original
Japanese foreign
at times when it comes to certain
characters you think Teddy sounds
annoying in the English dub you my
friend have not heard the horrors of
Teddy's Japanese voice acting Teddy can
get high-pitched in English but is
mostly tolerable but this
[Music]
Elle didn't die for this also Raceway
sounds like a four-year-old and it makes
her boss fight 100 times more disturbing
if she sounded any younger I'd assume
anyone who played this game sucked was
put on a watch list again another dub
purist by any means but P forced up
personally just blows the original out
the water and with all of the main cast
returning in the anime I couldn't be
happier to still have functioning ears
the English cast to an absolutely
magnificent job in the material they're
given everyone sounds Pitch Perfect and
all comedic moments are executed
flawlessly the dialogue specifically is
a major highlight usually with anime
comedy You're Expecting like bare bone
slapstick at the best of time since a
lot of Japanese jokes often Get Lost in
Translation now I'm not sure how much
was lost in translation for p4a but the
dialogue can be very witty and simple
back and forth between characters like
yosuke and chia is a joy to watch if we
were standing next to each other talking
it'd be too obvious over dork over has
always got to be the last thing you say
little space between us dork over by far
the most notable and funniest part to
show when it comes to dialogue is the
dialogue that comes from the percent of
four protagonists as previously stated
with Persona 3 the anime adaptations
have to find ways of fleshing out the
mute Pro tags of the video games like in
Makoto's case they're presented as an
apathetic softy who slowed the overcomes
his depression with his friends and
desire for living as his motivation now
P4 is a lot less serious than p3s they
couldn't make the protection brooding
and emotionally distant guy if anything
they did the exact opposite enter you
narakami so your dreams of naming the MC
banging kawakami are unfortunately over
yet again I'm aware that he has a
different name in the manga but he
appears to be the only protagon in the
series that's consistently named and no
one cares about the manga and if you
thought the I don't care memes where it
reaches for Makoto you are gonna despise
the chat memes for narakami narakami is
definitely the most unique at the
Persona Pro attacks the dude is
practically beaming with confidence and
above all else narakami is a troll
nearly every line that comes out of his
mouth especially in the English dub
provided by the legendary Johnny Young
Bosch it's just him taking the absolute
pants you suck mukoto in the first movie
was written by the guy who chose I don't
care for the first half of the game now
rakami was risen by the guy who throws
every hole dialogue option in Persona 4
and it's glorious to watch
oh dude oops wrong guy you see my coach
doesn't care because he's apathetic you
doesn't care because he's just too cool
and he is aware of it and yes the chat
memes definitely originated from the
Kings game scene if there's any scene
from this show that you've saw without
being a Persona fan it's probably this
one you is such a badass that literally
robbed from a coach's Battle Theme just
to unbutton his shirt and aim a precise
Dart throw
[Music]
I've seen some grave robbing in my day
but holy wow at the same time no while
you was easily the funniest part of the
show he's not strictly a gag character
he does have an actual character Arc
he's still a human being with real
emotions p4a attempts into the idea of
you being Reliant and having friends in
his fear of being alone you doesn't have
a character in Persona 4 at the start of
the game we're told that he's
transferring to a school in Ann Arbor
because of his parents changing careers
and was apparently pretty well liked at
his original School due to how many
students voice their disbelief for him
moving in p4a on the other hand is
completely different he moves to another
but he doesn't seem to have this massive
Social Circle or reputation that's
implied in the game he's more alone and
moving over to inappa ends up being more
life-changing as a result finally being
able to make friends and memories that
will last a lifetime another interesting
tidbit is that you as the only main
character in Persona 4 that doesn't have
a shadow in P4 all of the main
characters confront their Shadow cells
which are suppressing at the size of
themselves that they don't want to see
but taken to a massive extreme it's
essentially their emotions going haywire
but still having some truth to them so
no kanji is not gay just because his
shadow has uh vague themes of
homosexuality it's just his emotions
going haywire because of how much he
suppresses the side of himself that
enjoys activities that are traditionally
viewed as feminine everyone has trouble
accepting their Shadow which results in
their boss fights and they learn to
accept that part of himself after the
boss is done manifesting their personas
in the process you however does not have
a shadow in Persona 4. he is seemingly
chosen by izan now made the orchestrator
of the game's events to be capable of
within the power of the Wild Card which
allows him to use multiple personas now
to p4's credit narakami being perfect is
not a story issue since he's just meant
to be you the player but obviously this
can't happen in Persona 4D animation
because he's independent of your control
so while he still receives his Persona
at random by isanami's choice he
eventually confronts his own shadow at
the end of the adaptation a
manifestation of its fear of being alone
in his Reliance on his friends and this
was so damn cool to watch and made him a
lot more fleshed out his backstory and
character Arc may not be as heavy as
Makoto's but it doesn't need to be now
it's not all fun and games foray well it
is a lot lighter in tone and has a lot
more comedy in the game it still deals
with a murder mystery as its main plot
while many moments don't have the same
impact as they do in the game a lot of
them are still very well done and hell
some of the changes work a lot better
God the scene with nanako at the
hospital this was the first time a video
game had maybe audibly SOB no matter how
many times I replay this game nothing
can prepare me for this moment
specifically even when I know that
Nautica comes at the other end
eventually this moment between you and
her as she slowly dies in front of you
is emotionally devastating and I'm
weirdly glad that the anime somehow made
it even more tragic Johnny Young Bosch
is one of my favorite voice actors and
they manages to provide the dialogue
that you never had in the original game
without overdoing it there's clear
desperation in narakami's voices
nanako's life slowly but surely Slips
Away in front of him it's heartbreaking
and you know I didn't mind the original
scene had music playing during it
because the song itself is devastating
in this context but removing all the
sounds aside from the heartbeat monitor
and use voice makes the dread of
nanako's death even more impactful
especially for people who have already
played the game who are used to how the
original scene plays out and holy [ __ ]
the scene where the investigation team
contemplates from namatami into the TV
is fine enough in the game but since
narakami is no longer a Flawless God in
the anime this scene is elevated to a
damn near Masterpiece
what are you doing in narakami's one
moment of weakness he breaks away from
being the calm Wise Guy hero and drags
us screaming narutami over to the TV of
the intent to kill him showing no
emotion in the process he truly believes
that namatami was the one who killed
nanako an acting on pure emotional
instinct to avenge her stopping himself
at the last second to defuse the
situation it's even more terrifying if
he played the game because you know that
namatami is innocent you was mere
moments away from ending an innocent
man's life to Avenger's cousin and the
scene afterwards of him crying in the
snow clinging into yosuke for Comfort
Jesus Christ for such a comedic
adaptation they really know when to pull
out the big guns for the darker moments
of the story and it's brilliant they did
a wonderful job at characterize and
developing narakami and is easily my
favorite Persona protag as a result
unfortunately while there are many
scenes that are made even more impactful
in the anime there are also a few too
many that aren't treated with as much
respect sometimes the comedy can go
overboard and it can turn a scenes such
as I attempting to [ __ ] kill herself
into a more laid-back and lighthearted
scene p4a struggles with tonal
consistency a fair bit and the pacing
will light years ahead of the P3 movies
but then again taking a height across
the freaking Mojave Desert is better
than this it's still rather flawed in a
few areas Persona 4 isn't as long as
Persona 3 usually clocking in around 70
hours but that's still a very long game
and while they definitely made the right
call to translate it to TV they are
always going to have problems with the
story moving a tattoo fast or a dialogue
being a lot more condensed than the
original game's story and that makes
sense of course not everyone has the
patience to listen to adachi ramble like
a psychopath for 15 minutes but without
the dialogue feeling as uh big I guess
compared to the anime it can leave some
scenes feeling a little rushed if you've
already played the game although I can't
see it working for those who are
discovering Persona 4 through the anime
you know what's also rushed Social Links
well technically one of my main issues
with the percent of free movie is that
they basically discarded one of the main
things that made Persona unique and
emotionally engaging outside of its main
story and that's the Social Links Social
Links are admittedly a bit of a game
mechanic first and self-contained story
next their main purpose in Persona 3 4
and 5 is to increase the XP to a person
it will gain when you fuse one of the
corresponding Arcana which can help you
learn very powerful skills can give you
the advantage earlier on and stopping a
lot of unnecessary grinding outside of
your own health and SP increase while at
the same time providing Side Stories for
the characters you start your Social
Links with where you mostly please them
and be friendly with them for the first
half but as the stakes tend to rise they
usually appreciate the more grounded
answers that they need as if Bond
forever grows maxing at level 10 where
you forge an unbreakable friendship with
that person and is also where you can
officially establish an intimate
relationship if you decide to pursue one
with a girl on a related note resay is
overrated now with something like that
they obviously can't include the
gameplay benefits of the links since the
anime is not a video game and when you
take into account the Persona 4 has the
largest amount of Social Links in the
franchise it is 100 impossible for them
to cram all of them into p4a with
adequate depth but Persona is largely
defined by its social Sim aspects and
not including any Social Links at all is
a bit of a letdown in that regard but
thankfully unlike the P3 movies p4a does
actually bother with the social link
somewhere there are a few episodes and
moments that are dedicated to specific
links and to say the paste properly is
up for debates but there's a good loss
of them here and they make the calendar
system from the game actually feel like
it has a purpose in the anime managing
to give you the balance between the
social life and fighting in the TV world
the past of time doesn't feel so
trivialized like it does for p3's
adaptation and I'm glad that they at
least put in the effort to show some of
the links here it's also funded for side
plots showing other mechanics from the
game that also take up time slots in
your day like you going fishing
part-time jobs stuff like that it's
pretty neat now into the actual plot
which remains largely unchanged from the
video game aside from the obvious
dialogue changes in the actual episode
there are a few changes to certain
events though and some are kind of neat
like showing you tsunami first
interacting with adachi but then there's
stuff like giving Yukiko a pet bird just
to make the visual metaphor of her being
a bird trapped in the cage about to
Sutter was the implied pain of being hit
in the face and then there's holy
original stuff like me detective nanako
stuff narakami dressing up in Teddy's
costume looking after kids and I'd go as
far as to say that some of it can
qualify as filler it's entertaining
fellow but it's still filler and when
you have to adapt 70 hours of gameplay
in 26 episodes I don't think showing
stuff like this is a good idea overall
though it still follows the same story
murder mystery that hangs over Innova
people getting thrown into the TV by the
suspected killer and it's up to the
investigation team to save the ones
being thrown in and solve the case
Persona 4's story is a novelty that
doesn't have the same punch on repeated
playthroughs but if I could have raised
my memories just to play this game blind
again I would and the anime adapts the
story well hell I go as far as to say
the p4a instead of just my way of
experiencing Persona 4's story if you're
intimidated by the link for the game or
just don't want to play it although I
highly recommend you do because it's a
much tighter more consistent experience
again p4a feels a little rush towards
the end of many of the plot twists not
hitting nearly as hard to say did in the
game I was surprised by how flat the
adachi reveal was and I think if he got
a bit more screen time it may have
worked in the game he is always around
every month for a bit of Chit Chat not
disregarding his social link in Golden
but the anime doesn't do him much
Justice and I also added this Series has
some fire openings and endings my
personal favorite is the second op
because it sounds a lot more grungy than
the previous one but they're both
visually great and musically sound I
love the symbolism of the stack it's
really cool and the endings while not
offering a whole lot in terms of visuals
have absolute bangers for their songs
when it comes to the music in general
though a lot of it is carried over from
the games which is fair enough no pointy
composing and recording a lot of new
tracks if you already have perfectly
good music available from your Source
material but there are still plenty of
original pieces here and they all sound
good and fit the scenes they're featured
in many of the songs here should have
been in the game because they're
honestly amazing just wanted to touch on
that really quickly but this is a series
I could genuinely recommend to people
who have never played Persona before
it's a genuinely great series not many
video game adaptations manage to be as
funny charming and as faithful their
Source material while also offering new
ideas to improve its already fantastic
story or I'd still recommend playing the
game first you can easily jump into p4a
without having the knowledge of The
Game's plot it's a very solid anime very
funny and keeps Persona 4's incredible
emotional beats while adding many of its
own albeit a little off when it comes to
pacing
[Music]
however despite Persona 4D animation
being a great show worthy of the Praises
accumulated throughout the years there
is another person of four anime and just
as I foreshadowed earlier A1 pictures
was here to spoil the fun
[Music]
[Laughter]
all right okay Persona 4 Golden is an
enhanced re-release the Persona 4
release exclusively for the PlayStation
vs
in 2012 it contained enhanced gameplay
features extra story sequences a new and
very bad dungeon changed some other
miscellaneous things gave us a single
best line of dialogue ever put in a
video game I'm sorry teddy only people
have human rights I did an epilogue for
getting the true ending of the game and
also changed the opening song to
generally golden is viewed a lot more
favorably compared to atlas's previous
Persona re-release P3 FES which
contained the answer and that's kind of
self-explanatory but it did have a few
changes that many thought blocked it
down compared to the original PS2
Release with the third semester
specifically being appreciated for
social and completion but also being
kind of you know added on and while I've
only played a bit of the original P4 on
an emulator I can see why some of the
changes annoyed people though I will not
accept any slander of Shadow world thank
you that song slaps and you know it get
past the harmonica and you will see what
I mean I saw an offense when they hear
good music and you'd think with golden
being released after the original
Persona 4 anime there wouldn't really be
a point of making another P4 adaptation
well someone Atlas probably saw a
decrease in their weekly salary of about
5 cents because Here Comes A1 pictures
with Persona 4 the golden animation and
it is extremely not very good nearly
everything we've talked about so far has
had merits and has been plenty enjoyable
the only outlier I can think of is the
third Persona free movie but everything
so far has been solid genuinely great so
it's a shame that I have to finally
start getting pretty negative here now I
realize I've been a little salty about
A1 in this video so I'll just be like
I'll just give some context finally A1
and Atlas have been working together for
a while on Persona they provided all the
animated cutscenes four percent of four
for example but wait why do the
cutscenes not look bad here's the thing
about A1 Pick just all right you gotta
pay close attention to what products
they're working on first or how was
their priority in a current anime season
and you also got to pay attention to
who's working on the projects A1 has a
bad reputation for often providing
incredibly sloppy animation because they
take on multiple projects at once and
clearly dedicate most of their time and
resources into a few this is why shows
like Black Butler and kagiasama lovers
war two of my favorite Productions from
them have consistently clean animation
because at the time of their production
they really priority due to budget
constraints this is also proven by the
fact that at the very time golden
animation was being animated A1 were
working on three other shows for that
specific season out of Noah zero Black
Butler book of circus and the devil
spawn commonly referred to as Sword Art
Online now I haven't watched arthno at
zero and you couldn't pay me in peanuts
to watch Sora online again but from the
clips I've seen the animation for both
of those were consistently clean Black
Butler book of circus is the only one of
these shows I don't regret watching and
I still think it's one of black Butler's
best story arcs and that shows
specifically looked great in terms of
lighting Aesthetics and overall quality
aside from some issue of detail from
afar so you have A1 working on all these
shows at once all of which looking
pretty damn decent from an animation
standpoint and then there's Persona 4
the golden animation I won't dwell on it
for too long but Christ the animation is
terrible the first episode lures you in
with some fun visuals but after that
it's off model janky undetailed horrible
looking slop it is a clear rush job from
beginning to end the aesthetic is also
way off look at the aesthetic of the
original P4 anime and then look at
Golden the colors are sickly bright and
the shading doesn't support them making
all of the coloring look flat and
uninteresting unlike p4a which
consistently looked pleasing and don't
get me started on the number of still
frames talking head scenes lack of
detail also golden animation never got
dubbed I don't know why maybe licensing
maybe none of the va's gave a [ __ ] I
don't know but we're still stuck with
the Japanese cast this time and I admit
I warmed up to some of them eventually
but I still think p4's dub is King you
may also realize that there's a new face
here on the poster this is Marie and
when she isn't being hated with every
fiber Persona Twitter's being she's
being hated by me [ __ ] Marie that's a
little rude let me start over Marie was
introduced in Golden as part of the
extra story content and to say she's
unpopular of most people is putting it
lightly her frustrating personality
along with her existence in the story as
a whole is puzzling she was added as a
way for the writers to explain where the
mysterious Funk that covered Inova came
from and which is you know something we
really didn't need explained and her
social link would honestly be a complete
waste of time if it wasn't for the fact
that Marie's surgery link is required
for you to get the true ending of
Persona 4 Golden that includes the
epilogue her social link is not very
substantial it's a compilation of her
learning about the outside world due to
suffering from heavy Amnesia and just
getting along with the investigation
team but was essentially a string of
pure accidents on her pie and also
consists of the game desperately trying
to make her important by pointing you
towards clues of where her Arc goes and
ending with narakami telling her that
she doesn't need to worry and be scared
about her old memories so long as she's
making new ones of her new friends which
is sweet and all but after she remembers
who she originally was and after a boss
fight there is an absolute pushover her
impact on the story is next to nothing
she didn't need to be in Golden now what
does the animation do to potentially
alleviate this problem but how did every
[ __ ] scene ever including the concert
scene why not the entire point of this
anime just seems to be fan service for
people who'd wanted to see Marie get
animated as well as some of the other
golden exclusive events because the
episodes don't exactly go in a
recognizable structure golden animation
is more like an anthology series that is
specifically tailored for Die Hard fans
who just wants an adaptation of golden
like the series isn't completely devoid
of Merit like there's an interesting
theory that the reason why the plotting
is so weird and why narakami seems
strangely used to everything that's
going on does it this series is supposed
to be narakami going through New Game
Plus which will not only explain why
Izanagi gets away with all of this in
the first episode but it also makes this
next social stance that appear behind
you and in the second opening make a lot
more sense it's an interesting idea but
translating it to a series does not work
the pacing is it's about that good but
you probably guessed that there's almost
no new music here either and as of the
original tracks I think there were the
only one that stood out was the theme
that plays during you and adachi's fight
called yin yang which is essentially
Lotus juice having a rap battle between
himself with the two sides forming an
arakami and adachi's outlooks
respectively and it's a really cool song
I kind of wish it was a dachi's battle
theme in the game actually I will be
modding it in for my next playthrough
and as for the openings we don't talk
about the first one the second one now
that's a good opening the song next
chance to move on is just so Persona 4.
its chill it has this overwhelming sense
of euphoria capturing the game's happy
atmosphere and has some really cool
looking visuals of the characters having
thick outlines and their Shadows
reflecting their personas I just wish
they were using the better anime there
were also some semi-interesting scenes I
did like showing at sadachi's past but
you really couldn't pay me to care
because that was never important the
golden animation is a tragic misfired I
would only recommend to Die Hard fans if
they really wanted to watch another
Persona 4 anime I mean at least it
shorts around 12 episodes if you don't
count the OVA the OVA is titled thank
you Mr accomplish and it's essentially
an alternate timeline to the series that
covers the chilling accomplice ending in
Golden where you side with adachi in
fact if there's anything you should
watch from this anime it's probably this
the animation is still garbage but it's
intriguing to see this be animated
however the game does it a lot better
but why would you ever do that to
yourself overall golden animation is
very bad it's not good it's not just a
bad animation it's not just the horrible
pacing it's not just the fact that it's
incredibly lazy to the point of reusing
Shadow Worlds the song for its first
opening but it doesn't do enough to
justify its existence if you were gonna
watch a P4 adaptation there's already a
really good one you can watch and have a
good time with even if you've played
golden and not the original I don't see
much of a reason to watch this series
it's quite bad
[Music]
now for some of you this is probably the
main reason you even clicked on this
video because let's face it it's not a
secret Persona 5 of the animation is a
god-awful piece of [ __ ] and I want to
hurt it now personally I think Persona 5
and especially Persona 5 Royal is
objectively the most well-designed game
in the franchise from the gameplay
perspective everything is beautifully
streamlined stylish UI helps make combat
and daily activities more engaging and
Visually stimulating the amount of stuff
you can do is insane and despite the
game getting incredibly easy with how
overpowered you could become before
getting halfway through it Persona 5 is
still a fantastic video game when it
comes to storytelling though I think
that's where issues arise now some wise
wanks in the mega 10 and Persona
communities have tried to arguing the
Persona 5 as overall bad writing just
because its story is not as good as
previous games this happened with
Persona 4 and it happened with Persona 3
as far as you can tell from looking at
whiny posts on game FAQs from 12 years
ago and it will absolutely happen when
Persona 6 releases a few years from now
look Persona 5's got writing issues
plenty of them but arguing that it's a
terribly written game is far too
disingenuous for me it has inconsistent
bumps and quality throughout the
adventure and I would only go as far as
calling one story arc of the game truly
questionable and you know exactly which
one I'm talking about okay but overall I
still think P5 tells a good story with
powerful themes and despite the
occasional Plotkin drivers that drives
me up the damn wall I'd love the high
concept story compared to the previous
games I loved every single character
except Morgana I think the game has many
of the best Social Links sorry
confidants in the series the game is
still an emotional roller coaster and
regardless of the inconsistency in story
art quality it always remains gripping
the most gripped I've been by a Persona
story honestly it's not my favorite
obviously but I appreciate Persona 5's
story and I still overall loved it but
one thing that even knows you have
played Persona 5 are aware about is that
the game is Mega Super Deluxe Ultra
super incredibly long now P3 and P4 were
already long games but they could still
in theory be adapted into an anime
without much trouble Persona 5 on the
other hand not counting Royal since
there's no anime for that thank God
takes on average 100 hours to Simply
finish the story not even counting extra
side content and that's without 100 in
the game and with a story there's a lot
more Supernatural and high Concept in
comparison to the Cozy and down to earth
nature Persona 4 and the simple but
effective nature percent free you can
see where there may be some potential
problems an enemy like this needs 4 4
and planning as to how it will progress
a decent budget and animation that
consistently pull off visually
interesting fight scenes instead of
static RPG battles where characters just
shoot colored energy each other as well
as being able to replicate and smoothly
integrate aspects of persona 5's
gorgeous visual style and aesthetic into
the animation it needs a lot more than
20 or so episodes since this is a 100
hour video game would greatly benefit
from a larger season and it also needs
to balance live Sim day-to-day life and
relationship building via conference and
expressing their importance with the
high stakes Adventures of defense and
thieves and the metaverse and it also
needs to give a sudden protagonist
decent personality to differentiate
himself from the blank safe version in
the video game all of this stuff is
basic anime stuff that even the basic
adaptations have managed to get right
now let's see how many of those they
[ __ ] up
[Applause]
okay now take percent for the animation
persona for the animation story while
not having the greatest fight scenes or
attempts at Social Link integration at
least managed to retell it the story of
the video game in a fun and interesting
way but more specifically and
alternative way making it accessible for
newcomers who can't play the game and
also appealing to those who have already
beaten it Persona 5D animation is much
akin to prisoner for the animation and
it retells its story in an interesting
way however it does that by sucking
massive STD riddle Jesus where to begin
okay the stock storytelling it tries
really hard to follow the plots of the
video game almost religiously there's no
extra touches to make it unique no real
like substantial additions it attempts
to be a straightforward adaptation the
cardinal sin of the Persona 3 movies but
it somehow fails at doing that by being
different to the game and how everything
is paced and moves along Persona 5 is a
game of massive pacing issues but not
even the percent of free movies got to
level of Watts that this series did it's
like they set their sights on doing
stuff tried to squeeze in some of the
confidence into the story but screws
them up cholesterol damage realizes they
don't have enough time goes back to
following the story skips through
everything that may Persona 5 story and
dialogue and character interactions
interesting has never cracked with the
confidence screws it up realizes they
won't be able to include all of them so
they pick a random selection of ones to
go through still manages to shaft him
goes back to the story do you need help
you know people may rag on how long
Persona 5 takes to establish its main
plot and how stuff like the metaverse
functions but at least it's competent
Exposition and ties everything together
without being confusing Exposition is a
narrative tool for a reason not
everything can be established with show
don't tell p5d animation rushes through
the story so badly that by the time they
begin infiltrating Kar machines as
Palace you have only the most basic
explanation of what the Phantom thieves
are doing and how it works like it's
easy to understand what they're trying
to accomplish and what's going on in
general but the how and why are
completely missing or are so poorly
explained it makes keeping up with the
story in utter chor and let's talk about
confidence for a second because holy God
if you focus on the force anime shafted
them the way Persona 5's anime intends
to interacting the story is messy at
best a substantial number of characters
are reduced the background characters
some characters get some scenes with the
protagonist but nothing really
substantial and the character arcs of
defensive fuse themselves are developed
in the most superficial level imaginable
they are casted deep into the shadow of
the vastly superior Source material I
think most Persona 5 fans will look
great at Makoto's Confidant was one of
the least satisfying gripping in the
game it was okay but it largely focused
on you and Makoto saving her new friend
from being boost to work for an illegal
business it doesn't focus enough on
Makoto as the character now for the
anime adaptation this is a perfect
chance to take creative liberties with
the source material and potentially
improve on it taking the brief moments
received a much more interesting family
situation Makoto has with her sister and
the death of her father however p5a
doesn't change anything from the
original story unless you count the fact
it does everything a hundred times worse
so we get the exact same boring
confident storyline now made worse due
to the pacing and unsubstantial dialogue
this Rings true for every Phantom FIFA
show tries to develop ryuji on yusuke
Makoto Futaba Haru all get their arcs
remade but we'll shoot their dialogue
and pacing so all the stories themselves
might be great like use game for Thomas
conference which are some of the best in
the game they are done basically zero
Justice confidants outside the Phantom
thieves that are acknowledging the anime
are passable at best like Mishima and
kawakami but are just jaw-droppingly bad
at worst hifumi is best girl fight me
yes while on a purely subjective level
flushing out some confidence from
outside the Phantom thieves as a step up
from p4a on an objective level p5a
butchers so many of these arcs to
straight up ignores some of the best
ones so much and so often that I would
have honestly preferred if they stuck to
trying to tell the main story and even
if they did do that they would not have
enough time a two-core anime season is
simply not enough for a game of their
scope it is filled with emotional
informatics substance with a colossal
story spanning over a hundred hours this
needed two seasons at a minimum what
doesn't help the b-tech retelling of the
game's story and its confident plot is
that they are backed up by a shockingly
boring protagonist if there's one thing
I can very easily commend about the
adaptations for P3 and P4 is that they
took the silent protagonists of their
respective games and expanded upon head
cannons based on the game's dialogue
choices while still giving them their
own individual personalities and
character development so the reason why
narakami is even considered the best
Persona protag by most people is because
of how much Justice the anime gives him
the anime was the blueprint for use
characterization which has remained
consistent over the Persona 4 spin-off
games like P4 Arena and dancing all
nights even Makoto who can't even appear
in future games due to the consequences
of being dead was done so much justice
as an emotionally compelling character
overcoming its apathy and depression in
the movies and is arguably the one thing
each movie consistently nailed the
animes for both of these games had
nothing to work with aside from vague
dialogue options to build a character
from and came out on top of Two fleshed
Out characters that work within the
game's story now we come to Persona 5's
protagonist Joker if there's one
character you know from Persona if
you're an outsider it's probably Joker
he's the face of Persona 5 he was the
Persona rep in Smash Bros he's on every
piece of promotional artwork looking or
Sly and smug and enjoying himself I gave
him credit he has more lines of dialogue
than any of the pro tanks in the video
games Makoto and Yu never spoke outside
of battle when even then it was mostly
grown
actually talks and makes brief comments
on stuff outside of battle there is a
clear difference between his soft-spoken
timid side in the real world and is more
enthusiastic lines when exploring the
metaverse that right there gives you
more foundations than the previous two
pro tanks and that's not even
considering his dialogue options where a
large number of them came off as defiant
sort of sassy you know he's a quiet kid
who holds resentment for the society
that's wronged him and he enjoys being a
phantom Thief you see more of an
innocent smile on him when he's not in
the metaverse but when he Dawns the
masking clothes he's a phantom Thief
this is mainly my head Cannon dudes a
theater kid he loves the theatrics and
getting back at Society while keeping to
himself in the real world even if you
don't agree with that head Cannon I
think all of us can agree that it's a
country mile better than how Joker is
handled in the anime enter Ren Ami Maya
so your dreams of naming him banging
kawakami are again dismissed but at
least in this game you can in fact bang
kawakami wanna know why I've only been
calling him Joker by his code name
because no one I repeat no one can can
decide what this kid's actual name is
it's more divisive than the debate
between Minato and Makoto honestly and
it's largely because Joker's manga name
Akira karusu sounds a lot cooler and
stands out a lot more to some people
obviously not for everyone people still
call him Ren but personally I swap
between the two when I feel like it for
the time being though I will simply be
calling him Joker given Joker's a lot
more to work with when creating an
independent character with actual
thoughts and feelings divorced from the
players it really saddens me to say that
joker is bafflingly uninteresting in the
anime just to be clear I am trying to
judge all these adaptations without the
dots in mind first p4a is still really
funny without the dub even though the
dove does greatly enhance the experience
mp5a's dub is something I'm going to
talk about in a sec for now though
judging pivave slowly through watching
it subbed I was absolutely bored to
Tears by Joker's characterization his
dialogue his impact on the story
everything despite talking the most out
of all the protags in the games Joker
somehow speaks less than Makoto does in
the anime and when he does open his
mouth about a quarter of it is over him
grunting saying a singular word or
stealing a line from Eugene the times
where he's speaking four sentences he
just doesn't say anything interesting he
barely has any impact on conversations
there's no real difference between this
behavior in reality and the metaverse
his voice acting is good but it doesn't
save a fundamentally boring character
the protagonist of an anime series
barely talks and when he does it amounts
to nothing I cannot begin to describe
how much this hurts this already wounded
puppy of an adaptation Joker has a
reason to be subtle in the games his
personality is decided by your dialogue
choices and he gets plenty of them
firmly establishing that he does have at
least some input on what's happening I'm
fine with Joker being a quiet kid in
fact that's a great bit of
characterization for him but there's
nothing else to the guy at all he
doesn't get a smidge of noticeable
character growth scenes in the game
where he actually has plenty of dialogue
choices to provide the illusion of
audible input are neutered in the anime
and it's like he doesn't talk at all he
has no compelling Arc no notable
character traits he's more of a blank
slate than the blank slates all he does
is fill the role of the protagonist and
leader of the Phantom thieves simply by
virtue of building multiple personas he
is the same character from the moment he
arrives in Shibuya to the moment he puts
a cap in God's brain this reeks of a
script that tries too hard to be
faithful to a story or he has no hope of
adapting properly taking the aspects of
it that require gameplay in order to
work and retroactively ruining them
Joker is such a disappointment in this
series and I have to seek his suspicion
not a fact just a sneaking suspicion
that it's because this interpretation of
his character received mixed reviews
when compared to narakami Joko remains a
mute character in Persona 5 Strikers
like what reason was there for Joker to
remain a mutant Strikers exactly
narukami is out here speaking four
sentences in multiple spin-off games and
Joker's still stuck with the dialogue
choices although I will admit the
dialogue choices in Strikers get so
consistent sometimes that it's sort of
clear what character they want Joker to
be what dude shut up alright I'm getting
sidetracked you want to know what's
funny all of this butchering of the
story and the characters because of the
rushing of the series and they still
need an innovate to wrap things up
that's right p5a's last episode is
literally just a catchy killing Joker
and then it ends I didn't see the other
two episodes before that so I I found it
pretty funny there are two hour long
ovas going over to Shido Arc and the
finale of Persona 5 respectively are
they any better uh no all of the same
problems as the anime just with a much
longer run time and a massive Reliance
on CGI like holy hell a lot of CGI I
tend to find CGI complaints in anime
rather Petty especially when it looks
perfectly fine but there's honestly no
excuse here this stuff just looks bad
the only thing good about these is the
scene where Morgana returns after
supposedly dying is executed better in
the anime and throws more natural in the
game but if I only get to praise one
scene for the show in comparison to its
source material I'm a funny guy all
right now let's talk about the dub if
you ever feel like watching the show
don't then go and pick the dub this is a
very strong recommendation this whole
time I've been talking about p5a as it
stands from watching the subbed version
however while the show is still a
dumpster fire well dubbed p5a's English
voice actors must have gotten told or
something because they managed to make
the anime rather entertaining at times
Persona 5 easily has the best English
dub cast in the series hands down the
voice acting is really good in both
English and Japanese yet the English dub
feels like an Abridged Series at times
and usually I'd say this hurts a dub
more than it enhances like yes the
narrator from Lover's war is funny but
it's really distracting but when you
have an anime like p5a that gets so
achingly boring a little silliness can
go a long way
especially from xandermobos as Joker
Joker may be an uninteresting character
in The subbed version but damn it Xander
managed to deliver his lines with really
good comedic timing and sounded like he
was actually having a lot of fun
[Music]
show me your true form
get it together dude
my bad joker sounds like he has a
personality even if his actual character
writing leaves a lot to be desired his
voice is soothing of a hint of dorkiness
that makes him easier to like welcome
hey
are you old enough hey uh in his voice
in the metaverse is powerful and
commanding of your attention
because the issues with Joker as a
character but the dub does Joker so much
Justice all the dab actors managed to
make the dialogue more engaging actually
there are several new scenes in p5a
between Joker and a catchy establishing
that they have more of a friendship and
playful rifle even shown in the game
while discussing their ideals they give
this show some honest to God credit this
is good Joker and a catchy's
relationship was dramatically
underdeveloped in vanilla Persona 5 a
Persona 5 Royal finally giving a catch
in all new Confidant that blows the
original game out the water the anime
scenes were simply a Band-Aid fixed for
this issue before Royal came out but
they're all greats and the conversations
between a catchy and Joker and the dub
sound natural and interesting largely
because Robbie Damon and Xander Mobis
have a lot of underutilized chemistry
together and we get to see glimpses of
that here I just wish Joker talked more
man and I mean at least the dub doesn't
bore me to tears and can produce a
decent chuckle from me just like p4a I
recommend watching the dub on this one
no hated the Japanese voice actors at
all they're really good but The Abridged
take on some of the scenes and dialogue
for the dark match to make a shooting
adaptation slightly less painful right
what else is there oh yeah the animation
you know the main thing people tend to
dunk on about this show yeah it's no
secret by now that Persona 5 the
animation is one ugly looking anime now
there are a few misconceptions about who
actually made this anime many people
just say it's A1 pictures and writes it
offices never failing by them and what
they technically aren't wrong this show
is actually animated by none other than
cloverworks thing is at the time
cloverworks was still a subsidiary of A1
had not split off yet so while it is
true that A1 was involved with the
show's production and potentially are
responsible for the state of its
animation since they take on a lot of
projects at once and seemingly just
handy clever works the key is told them
to have it ready by 2018. I did want to
point it out that this wasn't exactly a
high priority show for A1 now today most
of you known cloverworks for their
really good animation in plenty of
critically acclaimed anime like Wonder
egg priority my dress up darling and
most recently spy X family they are a
very talented and capable studio so it
really does beg the question of why this
Show's animation turned out so bad A1
this work does not look professional
this is something I'd expect a freelance
animator on YouTube to propose Pilots
the artwork is low quality lacking
detail even when really close and when
it's far away where you'd expect there
to be less detail it just looks like a
child Druid that's not even mentioning
the actual animation which is stiff
janky all the action scenes in the show
look over extremely Janko just
consistently personas hurling colored
energy towards each other there's no
impressive fight choreography none of
the colors pop and the show looks
incredibly washed out there's no even
spectacle it just looks bad I'm
struggling to decide whether this or the
golden animation look worse I've never
watched an anime where characters go off
model this consistently and all attempts
at making the action look cinematic full
flat
combine this with the awful CGI in the
ovas and you ever showed it honestly
hurts to look at you know what's most
embarrassing about this well there
aren't many of them the anime cutscenes
in Persona 5 the game look a bajillion
times better than the anime like they
aren't even that technically impressive
but they're competently composed there's
good lighting consistent character
models with great detail it looks
acceptable an anime at the very least
should make its animation look on par or
better than a video game cutscene
Persona 4 managed that the anime blows
The Originals animation out the water
granted percent of 4 came out in 2008
but there's not that much of a Time gap
between it and its anime p4a still looks
mild special than p5a which released
seven years after and I don't really
want to hear that the show was rushed
because yeah no [ __ ] the animation is
still really bad and not only does this
look bad it also just doesn't look like
Persona 5. you've got the characters
here you have the phone aesthetic
there's an attempt an all-out attack
what the [ __ ] am I looking at but
overall the anime looks Bland the colors
are the saturated every scene outside
looks extremely muggy and also where is
the style the most highly discussed and
widely recognized thing about Persona 5
is its impeccable visual style and
aesthetic the game is personality
incarnate the Punky rebellious manga
scrapbook whatever you want to call this
style it's easily the most memorable
part of the game's art Direction I'm not
saying to animate the show primarily in
red black and white but nothing about
p5a's animation screams Persona 5 to me
at the very least incorporate the visual
style into the action scenes actually
that already exists ladies and gentlemen
I give you percent of five the
daybreakers this was a promotional
animation for the release of Persona 5
that was animated by none other than A1
pictures not cleverworks or any Studio
they just dumped this project onto Atlas
pay to have a promotional 24 minute ov8
promote the release of Persona 5 in
Japan and I think it's a shame most
people don't know or care that this
exists because oh my God not only are
the character models consistent with
good detail but the colors just look
much brighter this could be a cut scene
from the game and I honestly wouldn't
notice and that's not even the best part
when the thieves Venture into mementos
we get an absolutely spectacular action
sequence there's some gorgeous animation
fluid and snappy movements eye-popping
colors and they even throw in the visual
aesthetic of Persona 5 into the fight
scenes they appropriately managed to
stylize their action scenes to make it
look like something from Persona 5. also
while it's not much Joker feels a lot
less restrained here and you can easily
tell the difference between how he is in
reality and how he enjoys being a
phantom Thief this is an an extremely
high quality OVA that has literally none
of the issues the anime has and it's
literally a [ __ ] commercial it
astounds me that A1 poured their heart
and soul into this OVA yet then we get
Persona 5 the animation I'm not
expecting this level of quality per
episode I think that's slightly
unreasonable but just having consistent
animation would have worked wonders not
to mention this OVA is an expansion of a
Memento side quest in the actual game
giving it more of a story while having
it take place realistically during the
main plot of persona 5. now imagine this
p5a isn't a one-to-one attempt at
retelling the game's story and is
instead a series of memento's missions
from the game that are more fleshed out
letting us get to know the characters
involved their struggles desires and
then having the plot focus on solving
that while p5's main plot progresses in
the background hell it doesn't even have
to be missions from the game and can be
entirely new ones that we don't see
represented it would be formulaic
knowing each episode would end in a big
fight but I could have seen this working
wonders and it would have honestly been
a neat companion based on the main game
perfect for fans while not entirely
ruining the story or spoiling anything
substantial for newcomer actually
something of that sort already exists
Persona 5 mementos missions is literally
an original manga about this exact
concept it's not technically Canon but
compared to the P5 enemy as well as the
manga adaptation of P5 it's honestly a
lot of fun I was surprised at how much I
enjoyed it since it doesn't really take
itself that seriously and it's just a
fun piece of spin-off content just make
an adaptation of that alas I can only
dream there's only a few more things to
cover here so I'll go over the openings
the running joke about discussing the
show is that all the budget just went
into the openings and honestly I do see
that opening one captures p5's visual
style and has some really nice symbolism
some really cool shots and the song
Break in the breakout is a pretty good
song and if it's the story rather well
Dark Sun on the other hand oh God I'm
gonna get my heart changed for saying
this but I really don't Vibe with the
song that much it is really good when
you get to the drop-off dark son
wherever you shine I see but I find it
pretty bland leading up to that what's
not helping other visuals all the fans
of foods at the start distractingly
undetailed but second half of this
opening is some straight garbage what
the heck is this what does this mean why
is ryuji naked Anna Makoto are dating I
guess good for them Yo futaba's freaking
bowling holy [ __ ] these visuals are
utter nonsense they have absolutely
nothing to do with the main plot or the
characters except maybe Morgana but even
then they're so comically dark and out
of place this is not a good opening the
ending themes are a lot better I like
these a lot the music well most of it is
just taken for B5 soundtrack and that
needs no introduction whether you're a
fan of the series or not you have 100
heard this soundtrack using a YouTube
video at some point it's really good the
original music that is here isn't too
bad either well that was a very long
rant so overall Persona 5 the animation
is a textbook example of a garbage video
game anime and there are quite a few but
the others are usually garbage for being
too different this one is garbage for
being too similar because the story
doesn't work as an anime that's this
short maybe if they were given two
seasons but it's a video game anime of
course they weren't getting that as much
as the golden animation sucked it at
least had some entertainment value from
seeing the people forecasters interact
with each other p5a is a joyless cash
grabbing adaptation to honestly either
deserves better or shouldn't have been
made in the first place if you've
watched this anime and haven't bothered
playing Persona 5 you are actively
making your life worse my guy just play
Persona 5 better yeah play Persona 5
Royal the re-release it has new content
and ending since one of the best games
I've ever played it's coming to steam
Xbox and Nintendo switch on October 21st
this year so pick it up when you can you
are doing yourself a disservice by
letting this piece of garbage serve as a
substitute for Persona 5's narrative
just play the game and stay far away
from the show if you aren't curious it's
a waste of time
all right well that's all the
adaptations out of the way I feel like
something's missing though
okay since this is an anime of the
Persona name though it's not an
adaptation I'll give it a brief look
oh
yeah
[Music]
ah yes Persona Trinity Soul just a
question for all my Persona one and two
fans out there what's it like to feel
neglected because I'm telling you guys
just because Atlas doesn't make games
for you anymore doesn't mean they act
like you literally don't exist Trinity
soul is an anomaly of sorts this is less
of a black sheep and more of a lost than
forgotten cat I can count a number of
people who I know who have watched this
show on one hand Me Trinity soul is not
an adaptation of any of the games it is
in fact an original series taking place
10 years after the events of Persona 3
and was supposedly Canon at some point
until Persona 4 arrived a few years
later saw the idea of adults not being
able to use personas said LOL no and
created adachi then feeling unsatisfied
Persona 4 Arena arrived a few years
later and promptly passed all over its
grave now it's just a non-canon
alternate universe set 10 years after
Persona 3 though you'd probably forget
that when watching it because Persona 3
isn't really a required viewing or
playing to watch this although it does
help when akihiko just sort of pops up
for a few minutes that was a thing that
happened you know it's kind of hard to
dig into what exactly Trends your soul
is what it's trying to be because in all
honesty I don't really know it feels
like after the breakout success of
Persona 3 Atlas just didn't really know
what to do of that success so they tried
creating something akin to the social
set of Persona 3 of the noir-esque style
Persona 2. if that sounds like Persona 5
to you then yeah basically but Trinity
Soul was evidently a testing ground for
that kind of concept the big critique
that often gets levied against this
anime is that it's incredibly slow like
this is the slow burniest of slow Burns
but it unfortunately doesn't really
excite you a whole lot of what happens
at the end of that Slow Burn there are
long stretches of time in the show where
nothing happens the atmosphere is
incredibly dry and it's somewhat
refreshing for a Persona property but
the execution doesn't fare too well
there is sort of a Serene calmness with
the show's atmosphere and pacing though
it's different and can often be
unbearable but it's hard to knock the
chill Vibe they wanted to go for many of
these scenes the story revolves around
Shin an official protagonist in The
Persona 3 Canon that Atlas wants you to
forget ever existed and the show filled
to Convention of the Persona formula a
kid transfers to a new town new school
has to live there for a while before
eventually getting tackled up in
Supernatural nonsense although Shin
doesn't really get a Velvet Room Igor
just shows up to him in person it's like
they realize this guy wouldn't amount to
much but Shin isn't alone here as he
transfers with his younger brother June
the stare of his older brother Rio with
Brotherhood being a main theme of the
series so just like any modern Persona
gamer has a starting formula but it's
what it does with that formula that
makes each game unique whether that's
the specifics of the plots the themes
that are covered or and the Dynamics
between the characters Shin's in the
right protagonist is nothing to write
home about but he still puts him above
sub version of Ren in my book as The
Show Goes On you'll learn more about the
bond between these three their family
what their parents did because as his
customary of most stories like this the
parents are to blame and you get the
sense that they all do care about each
other they're not bad characters they're
just nothing really special Rio is cold
almost his brothers to stay out of his
work and out of Harm's Way frustratingly
even after they awaited their Persona
which is just but he's fleshed out just
enough for you to believe that okay this
is an actual person that's probably the
best summary for the Trinity Soul cast
they're Simply Good Enough they're
possible Shin's classmates consist of
megumi takuru and kanuru out of the
three megumi is easily my favorite and
is definitely the best character in the
show although there's not a whole lot of
competition she's one of the few
characters that feels like she could
have been in a Mainline Persona game
she's peppy extroverted in a generally
likable character but of course has to
have a track as a backstory when in a
car accident as a child her Persona
protected her and her parents but wasn't
able to protect her brother as a result
she hates herself and personas in
general but the former sentiment is held
very much by her mother who admits to
her from a young age that she loved her
son more than her and wished it was
megumi who had died Instead This trauma
and bitter divide between the two Lisa
megumi getting a one-off episode
dedicating to men that Bond her mother
realizing that magumi had protected all
of them that day and feeling sorry for
what she had done it's a moment of
actual Brilliance and it feels
incredibly out of place with the rest of
the anime it's sort of powerful actually
if there's one episode that deserves to
be watched here it's undoubtedly this
one it feels like it belongs in a
Persona game this is a genuinely well
written and impactful storyline that
single-handedly turns a likable but
bland archetype of the extroverted girl
character into the best character in the
entire anime it is legitimately not even
close Sakura is fine enough but it's
clearly another attempt at the comic
relief best friend character and that
doesn't really go a long way when
nothing funny ever happens instead
takura was largely carried by his
one-off episode except unlike megumi
it's simply not as impactful basically
due to confusing plot stuff and an event
that happened 10 years ago his father's
mind was swapped with this woman causing
takura to be abandoned by his father at
a young age with no knowledge of where
he went or what even happened this woman
is takaro's Father only in anime ladies
and gentlemen and it's a fine episode
nothing much else it's sweet very weird
but sweet then there's kanuru and here
it becomes evident that they'd maybe
just you know just maybe borrowed a few
ideas from Persona 3 kanaru as a robot
in the love interest of shin who dies in
Shin's arms Makoto is rolling in his
door grave obviously there's the
difference that I guess wasn't the one
who died it was Makoto but this is still
a very on the nose inspiration I'd
hardly call it inspiration honestly it's
just straight up theft speaking of
Persona 3 here comes the blue Peter
versions what were already Bargain Bin
antagonists the maribito are a joke
they're not even a funny joke I can't
even make fun of how laughable they are
because I just feel bad they mean
absolutely nothing in the grand scheme
of things outside of this chick who I
forgot the name of because she was the
only one allowed to actually have an
input on the main plot back to kanaroo I
mean hell even comparing her to I guess
is doing I guess a disservice because
kanuru isn't all that interesting her
backstory kind of is but she's as Bland
as a piece of Yukiko I mean cardboard
otherwise she's addicted to something
called Shadow extraction oh right I
haven't really mentioned details about
the main plot have I sorry if this
section is disjointed but Trinity Soul
really did bore me to tears it's not
even a bad anime but it's just not that
interesting and it's honestly really
forgettable I'm only including it here
because I know there'd be some [ __ ]
Troublemaker smt fan who'd chew me out
for neglecting it in a video about
Persona anime back on track the main
plot revolves around something called
Persona extraction basically a number of
corpses are turning up with their skin
removed which is definitely a 2000s
Atlas idea it's wonderfully dark and it
involves the you guessed it extraction
of one's Persona this is the case that
Shin's brother Rio was working on and he
knows the person who is behind it a
neurologist named kaisuke a man obsessed
with Reviving his dead daughter ayane
for the use of personas there's also
another process called Shadow extraction
where instead of stripping a person of
their Persona they're stripped off a
part of their Shadow which gives them a
great sense of euphoria this is a
legitimately cool idea too bad it's not
explored in the way that does it much
Justice you see Shadow extraction is
instead uses a massive allegory for
anything the series wants to make a big
statement about whether that's drunk
driving drugs or unprotected Scaro is
addicted to Shadow extraction and is
placed into the majority of the show's
social scenes because it's not a [ __ ]
Persona media without at least one
moment of contradicting your own themes
she's a naive reserved girl and is
honestly a character I don't like she's
not very interesting outside of her
backstory and before she gets the chance
to be worth appreciating she's already
dead the reason why I've been going over
the characters first and I've left the
story on the back burner is because
Trinity soul is a very character in
conversation based series there's not
much action here and the action scenes
that are available are short and crappy
and I don't mind that if it has some
sort of flare or personality but so many
of these scenes are just boring
Exposition or just moments where nothing
happens you can appreciate the calm of
Trinity soul but not when there's little
to nothing happening as a result it's
just easier to talk about the characters
in any actual plot points because this
show still finds a way to make things
super convoluted towards the end it's a
weird series and I can see why Atlas
treats it as if it doesn't exist it's
not even getting into the stuff
pertaining to adults using personas
Trinity soul establishes that adults
cannot use their personas and the ones
that can have to take special drugs that
allow them to use them effectively but
not taking them will result in their
Persona going berserk and attacking
others or the user this is basically an
expanded concept of the pills from
Persona 3 that we use this helps
suppress a violent Persona in Persona
users who couldn't summon their personas
naturally which applied to Shinji as
well as every member of Strega this is a
really neat concept and it's Unique to
this series explaining why Rio can use
his Persona at age 28 however this
concept was completely thrown out the
window of Persona 4 with its spin-offs
not treating Trinity Soul as a Canon
sequel to Persona 3 and if you want to
go even further back this concept
completely contradicts Persona 2 where
personas could be summoned by adults and
if you want to get even more specifics
and kichi from Persona 5 Strikers is the
first Persona user in a long ass time
who awakened their Persona as an adult
basically it's easy to see why this
concept didn't last outside of this
series and why this series is ultimately
not considered Canon as previously
mentioned akihika from Persona 3 shows
up in this series but he's the only real
connection between Trinity soul and
Persona 3 if he didn't show up you could
show this anime to a lot of people and
they wouldn't even be able to tell you
that it was a Persona 3 sequel as for
Aki himself he does nothing like
literally nothing he shows up for a few
episodes but he doesn't discuss C's or
any of his friends the Dark Hour
Tartarus next personas he doesn't even
act as a mentor as a fool with guidance
he just shows up without being able to
use his personal in adulthood and does
nothing beyond that it's just really
lame taking one of p3's best characters
and doing nothing with him I'll take
Arena zakihiko over this any day at
least he has a personality you know
despite being flanderized into a walking
protein advertisement all in all true
soul is not a bad anime it's not
offensively awful or anything and there
are things here that I like and Concepts
that have a lot of potential that I
think should be recycled for future
Persona projects but you can't help but
feel indifferent to the series it's a
perfectly fine slowly paced anime that
borrows elements from persona but
weirdly doesn't feel like much of a
Persona series your enjoyment will
largely stem from the pacing I have a
lot of tolerance for slow pacing Steins
Gate is my favorite show of all time and
it's infinite for having its first half
being incredibly slow but stuff actually
happens in Steins Gates it all serves a
purpose Trinity Soul half the time feels
like dead air a failed experiment for
Atlas to try and capitalize on percent
of free success without knowing how fun
fact this was actually one of the first
anime A1 pictures ever worked on and for
one of their first projects it doesn't
look too bad for an anime released in
2008 characters are on modeled the
artwork is clean and actually looks like
an adult through it it's the animation
that has its issues with plenty of
talking head scenes and underwhelming
action the show isn't stiff it just
doesn't have much going on overall I had
to include Trinity Soul because it
counts as a Persona anime Canon or not
it's a fine series that I don't really
recommend but I don't suggest you avoid
it like the plague either
holy wow after 10 months of working on
the script on and off and it's finally
done Jesus Christ Persona will forever
be a series I hold close these games
were having their share of writing
problems are all about their characters
telling interesting stories with
powerful themes and populating them with
these believable lovable people that you
grow emotionally attached to all brought
together by its marriage of these
elements with its dungeon crawling RPG
gameplay that remains fun and engaging a
Persona anime will never be a perfect
way to experience these stories there's
so much content and substance held in
these games that you have to be in a
very fortunate position with episode
orders to even cover half of it
extremely well but as we've seen
throughout the course of this video the
best adaptations are the ones that know
their limits and respectfully expand
upon the story of The Originals with
their own ideas acting as faithful but
well-made companion pieces that in some
areas even surpass elements of the games
Persona 3's movies had brief glimmers of
being something far greater before
eventually coming into its own with an
emotionally powerful conclusion Persona
4's anime took what it could reasonably
adapt and did so accordingly with minor
hiccups while injecting its own sense of
humor and incredible interpretation of
the game's protagonists into the mix if
Persona 6 ever gets an anime which it
most likely will or if they decide to
give P5 Royal its own anime akin to
Golden I hope they take their time of
crafting away in which to adapt the main
story and the social elements that they
can but to also not limit themselves by
trying to effectively retell everything
stay faithful to the source material but
use the anime as a way to explore more
unique Concepts or different
interpretations so long as I don't end
up conflicting with important parts of
the game or if by some miracle they're
given more than 24 episodes use that
time effectively no filler no [ __ ]
if adaptations of these games have to be
made they should at least be unique
companion piece that doesn't fly in the
face of what made the game so great p4ga
and p5a suffer the most from being
incredibly rushed and handling
everything poorly and I'd very much like
for that to be avoided in general I
prefer these games not be adapted at all
I spoke too soon Sega please stop but if
they have to be made make them like p4a
winter rebirth Etc either way if you
haven't played the games yet and are
aware that I just spoiled them all
rotten I'd still recommend picking them
up and experiencing them for yourself
these are all fantastic top shelf RPGs
and I'm glad they're finally becoming
more accessible after all this time
alright now it's time for the ranking
this shouldn't take too long so let's
have a look
at the bottom of the list we've got
Persona 5 the animation Persona 5 is a
game packed with so much content and
story depth that a single season anime
adaptation was frantically doomed from
the start and the schizophrenic way
handled confidence character development
and the main story didn't help
especially with how ugly it looks
beating it out by a small margin we've
got Persona 4 the golden animation
golden aims to do something different by
being an anthology series which is
commendable but an execution doesn't end
up working and comes off as very
disjointed and doesn't justify its
existence harmed by its incredibly poor
visuals and animation beating out by a
considerable margin but still not being
viewed too favorably in my eyes we've
got percent of Freedom Movie Falling
Down despite boasting gorgeous artwork
and satisfactory animation along with a
fantastic new soundtrack falling down
suffers greatly from throwing percent of
prehistorian characters out the window
and doing them a horrible disservice
just to try and put Makoto and ryoji in
the spotlight up Nexus Persona Trinity
Soul Trinity soul is a literal
definition of a 5 out of 10 anime it
gets the job done none of it's faltered
that detrimental but it generally does
nothing special outside of some very
rare standout moments and it's slow
pacing makes it a slog to watch through
Persona 3 the movie spring of birth this
is a perfectly enjoyable well animated
adaptation of persona 3's first 20 hours
and does a lot of things right including
some stuff that works better than the
originals unfortunately It suffers from
being too much of a straightforward
adaptation at times which leads to poor
pacing and a complete absence of Social
Links despite keeping the game's
calendar system makes it feel more like
a highlight reel of events in a cohesive
narrative Persona 3 the movie Midsummer
Night's Dream despite the first half
being bogged down by some issues that
plague the first movie the film's second
half is so unfathomably good in
comparison that makes the weight worth
it being a legitimate Improvement on the
game's story in nearly every aspect with
very few hiccups Persona 4 the animation
the crown jewel of anime adaptations of
video games p4a is a hilarious and
genuinely great way to experience
Persona 4 even if you're an outsider to
the series and containing a plethora of
interesting and emotionally satisfying
creative decisions to help it stand out
balancing the game's story and has
decided to be different near flawlessly
despite the shafting of Social Links and
finally at the very tipty top we have
percent of Freedom movie winter of
rebirth despite not being the easiest to
get into as an outsider is to say
visually stunning emotionally gratifying
and damn near perfect adaptation of
persona 3's final story arc finally
managing to set itself apart from the
anime as a new experience while
Faithfully adapting the story capturing
and in many ways improving the feeling
of dread and heartbreak the eighth
percent of Bree's conclusion so
impactful I'll be honest I thought a lot
of these would be worse when going into
them some of them are certified stinkers
for sure but I was surprised with just
how much potential was buried under
somebody's perfectly adequate shows and
movies and was pleasantly surprised with
how some of them finally unlocked that
potential and became something genuinely
great when it comes to video game
adaptations you can certainly do a lot
worse than Persona I'd say I'm satisfied
on that note thank you all for watching
I've been working on this video for far
too long and I'm finally happy to be
done and dusted so I will wrap things up
with a request go stick your Studios
with low priority projects on a low
budget don't skimp past important
emotional scenes and to Atlas
specifically stop overpricing your
[ __ ] games
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foreign
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