Persona 5 the Animation

I'm not going to waste my time with the introduction piece of the review so I'm just going to start with the review. The story follows Ren Amamiya who is sent to Tokyo to stay with family associate Sojiro Sakura and attend Shujin Academy during his year-long probation. After his arrival, he is drawn into the Velvet Room, where Igor warns him that he must "rehabilitate" to avoid forthcoming ruin, and grants him access to a supernatural mobile app that leads the protagonist into the Metaverse and from there him along with his group of friends that he recruits must now steal corruption from the hearts of adultsin an attempt to reform the city under a group called the Phantom Thieves. Persona 5 the Animation is a 26 episode anime and yep alarm bells should be ringing. We haven't got a great record of Video Game Adaptations especially as of late with the lacklustre Danganronpa animes. However, I went into Persona 5 The Animation with an open mind because I thought that maybe this video game adaptation would work. It had director Masashi Ishihama who previously directed the critically acclaimed Shinsekai Yori. Plus the daybreak's OVA for Persona 5 was pretty good. I was actually excited. However, my excitement was immediately thrown out the window when I saw A1 Pictures. For those who haven't caught on, I hate A1 Pictures. I hate the studio with passion. I honestly believe that A1 Pictures is the most incompetent studio I have ever seen. Yes A1 did make some good shows that I really liked like The Idolm@sters, Magi, Shinekai Yori, Your Lie in April and Wotaku but the problem with A1 is that they made a truckload of mediocre, forgettable and terrible shows to a point where a lot of these bad shows seemed to represent A1 as a whole leaving a lot of good shows in the dust. I also don't want to speak about video games adaptations done by A1 Pictures because I heard nothing but awful things about them. I know that A1 Pictures did the Daybreak's ova back in 2016 and it was pretty solid but I never expected A1 Pictures to pass the TV series to Cloverworks aka A1's sub-studio until the studio split they own ways in October 2018. However, this show was released before A1 and Cloverworks went they own meaning this series despite being done by Cloverworks it still had that nasty A1 stench that I hated. Am not going to pull any punches with this one the story was awful and here's why. To start off with the elephant of the room is the pacing. Good god the pacing. Not going to lie this has got to be some of the worst pacings I have ever seen in anime because not only the show is ridiculously inconstant with it's pacing as it either way too slow or way too fast but it also screws up the overall narrative as well the emotional story elements. For example, in the game, Shino attempts suicide being raped by Kamoshida. It was an emotional moment in the early game of Persona 5 that was meant to showcase how screwed up the adults in the universe of Persona 5. It also gave Ann, Ryuji and Akira the motivation to act against Kamoshida. In the anime, it just happens in fin air. No tension, no proper build up whatsoever, nothing. This doesn't end where the show also outright skip various story elements that were meant to develop the characters. Even if you haven't played the games you can easily tell that the show is skipping and rushing many story aspects and as a result of that many of the story elements just feel awkward disjointed and forced. As a fan of the games, I felt insulted of how the show completely butchers and ruins everything that made the game so great in the first. Let's not talk about the social life aspects of the series because they do not exist. The biggest mistake of Persona 5 the Animation was how it adapted to a story that needed at least 51 episodes compared to 26 episodes that it actually got The final nail of the coffin was the ending. That ending alone was a big middle finger to the viewer as the show just ends in a very crappy way that feels unsatisfying as hell. I am aware that the series is getting an ova sometime soon but this is no excuse especially when we watched 26 of this rushed, awkward and poorly animated shit show that barely respects its source material. By the way, the Dark Sun OVA is not much better. The characters in Persona 5 are just lifeless husks of the game counterparts. Not only the character development is rushed beyond belief but they somehow made theses once interesting, well written and likeable characters and turned them into bland stereotypes. To save myself the misery and pain I will be ending the character selection of the review because if the show can even respect its characters than why should I. Now if thought the story and characters in Persona 5 The Animation were bad enough you ain't seen nothing yet because this is where the show officially hits rock bottom. Where the hell does I begin with this dumpster fire. First up the art style compared to the game looks like it was fished out of the toilet. Not only the show looks unappealing as well with its shitty background scenery, horrible lightning and uninspired character designs that look like the came out in early 2000 of anime but the art inconstantly is busted beyond belief where throughout the 26 episodes characters would constantly go off the model. The animation is even worse. I have never seen animation this lazy and lifeless since Black Clover and The Kings Game. Almost every single scene and fights in this show are all horrendously animated to the absolute core. Also, we don't speak about the shows horrendous attempt of using CGI. Good God was it awful to look at. The final nail of the coffin of this shit show was the all-out attacks which are frankly some of the worst pieces of animation I have ever seen in any anime. Every single all-out attack in this show feels like it was animated by college drop out who barely know anything about style when making this sequence in Adobe After Effects. Not even the beautiful fan-service scenes can save this shitty production. If there was anything good to come out of Persona 5 The Animation it would be the soundtrack. Despite the soundtrack being straight up taken from the game, it was still a great listen. The first opening theme BREAK IN TO BREAK OUT" by Lyn is a fantastic opening theme for the show. While it was nowhere near as awesome as Wake Up, Get Up, Get Out its still a great song that perfectly captures the style of the series. The second opening theme Dark Sun by Lyn is a pretty solid opening theme in its own right however until the final episode I didn't like the fact that they reused footage from previous episodes into the opening visuals. However, the opening visuals for the last episode were awesome as it really showed off what the show could have been production values-wise. The ending themes were good but not that memorable. The voice acting was pretty okay as well however I feel like the Seiyuus didn't put much effort compared to the game counterpart. There is no English Dub for this show from the time of this review so if you're a fan of the Persona 5 dub well you're out of luck. Persona 5 The Animation is a total waste of time and effort. I honestly don't know what the hell was the director and Cloverworks were thinking during the production because they took everything that made Persona 5 so awesome and manages it screw it all up. The story is a rushed and poorly directed mess that is filled with horrific pacing that barely tells of what is going on. The characters are nothing but empty shells of the game counterparts and the visuals were horrendous beyond belief. The only good thing to come out from this scrapheap of a show was the music and the openings. If you haven't played Persona 5 and have a PS3/PS4 do your self a favour. Go buy it right now. If you don't have a PS4 or PS3 you can either save up for one or watch other anime with the same episode length like Neon Genesis Evangelion, Cowboy Bebop, Nichijou Rainbow: Nisha Rokubou no Shichinin, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex and the list goes on. Honestly out of all the game anime adaptations why is it Inazuma Eleven and Gungrave were the only one to get it right while others like Persona and Ace Attorney have to suffer. Such a shame. Cloverworks you may now be separated by the EA of anime studios A1 Pictures but you better redeem yourselves in future anime projects because you now have a lot of potential to be a competent studio. Don't let me down Cloverworks.

Persona 5 was one of the best RPGS I've ever played in my life, sensational gameplay the story is very good, have very few holes and plot twists sensational. The characters are great super well developed, as long as the player has an interest in socializing with a certain character. Already in the adaptation made by CloverWorks was different, first of all in the adaptation they decided to adapt 26 episodes until near the end of the game, which would be about 80 hours of history inside the game, of course it was very rushado, the problem is that Person 5 is a slow game that hasthe essence of making your own lifestyle within Tokyo with your own choices in the course of the game, taking that essence and accelerating the pace ends up leaving the feeling of everything being very superficial, whether in the relationship of the characters , at work, at school, in dungeons when he has fights, even in striking moments he can not deepen the scene in which the original had, was much worse. They did not know to take advantage of the characters of the game that can make you more curious about the history of each one and wanting to sympathize more and more, already in the adaptation they left very superficial the characters even more in their interaction with the protagonist, you simply do not care about they. The dramatic scenes and even the comedy scenes did not look good on the adaptation, without any impact, totally superficial, they just happen without a good break. The production was a fiasco, mainly in the fights, they could not pass the style of the fights that have in the game, outside that they tried to recreate the style of "All out Attack" that is one of the most stylish things of the game and was ridiculous, they failed to get a sense of epic battles against the bosses, they used almost no perk within the battles, and they changed certain ost of certain battles that got horrible. In the quieter parts he had many times that unnecessarily bent the design of the characters, besides the color palettes that did not use well. The dubbing is the same as it is very good. The ost used the same of the game that is sensational, and some new ones that were very good, but they were not always able to combine certain osts with the storyboard, in general it was mediocre. He had some cool things, like a better situation in the game that got a little superficial, usually in moments with minor characters in certain scenes, but in general it lacked a lot of character to stand out or receive a better polish inside the story, it was only played for say that there is that character inside that world that is something that the game does not do and has every reason for the character is present in that world. Conclusion: Sometimes it is very cool to follow without commitment and without worrying about the details, after all I like a lot when it involves anything of persona 5, but Persona 5 is much more than that. If you are looking for a good experience with the story and the characters and especially the fights, play the game, that anime is just a small attempt to do marketing with the game that fails miserably.

For a game that's about "stealing your heart", Persona 5: The Animation on the other hand was nowhere close to capture LA's heart... LA only recently gotten into Persona 4: The Animation LA was hyped about Persona 5 as LA didn't play the game, so the anime was a good look into Persona 5, however... Persona 5: The Animation on the basis tries to relive the events of the game, truncating any of the minor events, and with that LA will at least say that trying to cram in a 90 to 120 hour game into a 26 episode anime IS gonna have these kind of limitations,but for what it's worth, Persona 5 did ok if a bit rushed in some of it's arcs. Persona 5: The Animation is inflicted with the video game curse in some sense but not in the way you'd think. Persona 5's plot revolves around the "Phantom Thieves" a group who is able to change the hearts of people and is led by Akira Kur- Ren Amamiya voiced by Jun Fukuyama, the "Joker", but as they continue to gather more members, a bigger plot is brewing that leads Ren to being captured by the police and where the narrative structure of Ren retelling his adventures of changing people's hearts comes into play. Now the narrative structure is fine in some ways, a sorta in media res of Ren retelling his events to Sae Nijima, the detective questioning Ren all throughout the anime and the framing of how Ren got to where he is now is intriguing as well how he built up the Phantom Thieves and the members as well. Persona 5's characters are also immensely interesting to say the least, Ren has some personality to back him up though not the same as Yu from Persona 4 but nonetheless that and Persona 5 compared to Persona 4 have different levels of seriousness and playfulness in store. Due to Persona 5 going through many of the character arcs of the main cast (mainly the Phantom Thieves of course) we do get to see the Phantom Thieves develop through their issues or dilemma mostly through defeating the person or entity that troubles them in the "villains palaces" as a result. With that being said, LA was massively torn between two characters as LA's favorite character...either Makoto Nijima voiced by Rina Satou, the student council president and her views on "justice" tested during her arc (AND she's a badass) and Futaba Sakura voiced by Aoi Yuuki, a hikkimori who has a rather tragic backstory involving her mother and LA could relate to her in some sense due to this. LA's runner up was Ann Takamaki voiced by Nana Mizuki but nonetheless with the anime focusing alot on it's characters and their growth and arcs, made the main cast of the Phantom Thieves likable and memorable in a ways. Persona 5: The Animation's plot as LA aforementioned is was rushed and this was from a person who didn't play the games, each of the character arcs and "palaces" did have some decent screentime, but not alot of downtime much like Persona 4 and how they dealt with their dungeons, we at best get montages of the Phantom thieves traversing through the palaces, but in terms of battles, it's mostly one mob or monster then goes straight into the boss in question one or two episodes later. All LA means by "no downtime", is that the Phantom thieves doesn't have some breathing room in between palaces, though in some defence to this, Yuusuke Kitagawa voiced by Tomokazu Sugita and Makoto Nijima got "some" breathing room in between but still, it was rushed to say the least and this was even with a 26 episode timeframe! So if the characters were done well and the plot's structure had some rushed pacing, what really crippled it?, yeah...the animation is a bit subpar alot of the time. The animation studio CloverWorks round the halfway point, you could easily tell the derpy faces as well as cutting corners ALOT and it just gradually keeps showing up in the later episodes, sure the animation had some sense of detail in it's palaces and it's character designs being visually striking but for the animation to dip and not fully recover by the end of it was disappointing to say the least. The animation was subpar and was probably the biggest detriment to the anime overall. With that Persona 5: The Animation had a major problems but it's small little details that ruined Persona 5: The Animation from being in the same league as something like Persona 4 and LA loved that adaptation. Look, to most of the detractors of Persona 5: The Animation, you just can't cram a 120 hour game into a 26 episode runtime, there is BOUND to be some truncations, BUT for first timers who haven't played the game, it's actually a decent look into the game, with the story being structurally sound besides some pacing issues, characters who are memorable and develop them as the anime goes along BUT where Persona 5: The Animation falls flat is it's animation and that is just something LA can't ignore. Persona 5: The Animation you got some problems but your fine as an adaptation, being by the book in adapting the plot of the game well, but where the video game curse comes in is not having a convoluted stories and superfluous characters and the such but for what a simple thing as not having the drive in making the animation as great as could be as well as occasional rushed pacing, LA WANTED to love ya but by the end of watching it all, all LA felt was a dull thud in what could had been a great adaptation rivaling Persona 4: The Animation, yes LA was disappointed by this adaptation but not outright hate it as it had some strengths to it but nonetheless... Persona 5: The Animation your not misguided just mismanaged...

Persona 5 the Animation stole my heart! Adaptions of video games to other mediums always present problems, and Persona 5 the Animation is no different. Taking inspiration from such an expansive game and condensing it makes the pacing of the show a little wonky, but overall it does a good job covering what transpires over the game. The weakest point of this series is the art itself and frankly, it's just shite. Nothing looks good in motion, along with a lack of overall detail. The voice acting is the complete opposite, with the game VA's giving great performances that really add to the show. Overall this is arelatively solid adaptation of Persona 5, minus the terrible art and weird creepy fan service. Major bonus points for including the best waifu/most beautiful girl Sae <3 and thankfully, the worst girl Kasumi (yuck) is not in this rendition. 8/10

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