Persona 4 the Animation

Persona 4's anime adaptation came as a huge, but welcome surprise. Any fan of the highly-acclaimed video game would be curious as to how such an endeavor would turn out. After the initial announcement, there had been six months of waiting for previous and further announcements; it was six months of building hype until the airing of the first episode. Did it live up to the hype? A difficult, opinionated question, but as for myself, it managed to live up to expectations, and more. Persona 4 the Animation adapts one of the most critically-acclaimed JRPGs ever to grace the PS2. Just knowing this, it would either turnout to be a huge success or a huge failure depending on how it's handled. Thankfully, director Seiji Kishi manages to handle the difficult parts of adapting the game and manages to present not only a watchable, but an enjoyable adaptation. The biggest challenge to adapting a video game into an anime is making the anime enjoyable for both newcomers and old fans alike. Persona 4 the Animation manages to do so by keeping the game's atmosphere intact. I can't help but think that Seiji Kishi's brand of direction -- which one may be familiar with through Angel Beats! -- is well-suited for this particular anime; his balance of comedy and drama works for Persona 4 as it is the most light-hearted video game in a series known for its dark, dramatic and post-apocalyptic plots. The infamous comedic aspects of the game -- the camp-out, the school trip, and the school festival -- remain no less hilarious when animated, and the anime even manages to add to the hilarity with original content. Another nice touch is how the staff intersperse many game mechanics into the anime. Fans of the video game would notice many subtle (and not-so-subtle) shout-outs to the game, such as the eye-catch for the Social Link stats, the passing of time, the various skills and abilities in the dungeon-crawling segments, and the Velvet Room segments at the start of each episode. They even managed to sneak in all of the Social Links, though the results of doing so are varied. The drama doesn't lag behind from the comedy; the final story arcs in the anime manage to handle the most serious and dramatic parts of the game with great care, especially the episodes dedicated to a certain character's plot-related death, as well as the parts dedicated to the Investigation Team's decision to search for the truth. The episodes focusing on the Investigation Team characters -- particularly Rise's arc, which manages to integrate her Social Link development -- are particularly well-directed in terms of drama. The biggest draw to this anime comes from the sound direction, especially the music. Shoji Meguro returns as the composer for the anime, rehashing many of the great tracks found in the original video game. The anime's music is a mix of rock, J-pop, jazz, and piano music, providing a large variety of tracks to use for atmosphere. The opening themes -- "sky's the limit" and "key plus words" -- set the anime's tone similar to the game's with the familiar stilted English that fans of the Persona series have come to love. Episode 1 even rehashes the game's opening theme, Pursuing My True Self. The ending themes are fitting to end an episode with, showing the arcana that the main character has obtained through the course of the plot. The anime's voice acting is spectacular; of particular note are Rie Kugimiya, who manages to break out of her tsundere pigeonholing -- especially with Rise's brooding, depressed attitude during episodes 9 and 10; Yui Horie, who manages to make Chie Satonaka an energetic, lively character; Romi Park, who is particularly well-suited for the role given to her; and most especially Daisuke Namikawa, whose performance as Yu Narukami is impressive in both the deadpan and more expressive aspects. Unfortunately, while Persona 4 excels in many aspects, it also has its flaws. The animation and the art is, while not particularly terrible, less-than-stellar at times. This is no longer much of a problem in the later episodes, but there are times where you might wonder if the artists and animators were half-asleep while working on the characters. Fortunately, this doesn't bleed into the action scenes, but it's still jarring to see the characters full of life in one scene then seem so lifeless in another. Certain plot events may also come across as cheesy, clichéd or contrived, a problem which was also present in the game. However, one can argue that these events are part of the game's themes -- that the bonds of people are the true power, that no one can live without facing themselves and other people, and that we must pursue the truth which lies behind the fog of lies. Now, the all-important question -- will you enjoy this anime? If you were a fan of the game, then yes, you will enjoy this anime for how well it adapts the original. If you're a first-time watcher, you'll enjoy this anime for the same reasons people enjoyed the game -- the comedy, the themes and the mystery. Due to time constraints, the last episode and the "True Ending" will be on DVD and Blu-ray on August 2012. The ending is deliberately cut short with the game's "Normal Ending", a clever piece of direction which manages to keep to the game's theme of "seeking out the answers" while advertising for the DVD and Blu-rays. Reach out to the truth, indeed.

Many video game-based anime titles I've come across haven't wowed me too well considering such titles are used mostly to promote their hit game source material and these don't always transition too well in creating a quality plot for an anime series. Persona 4 is another title I add to this growing list considering it's Playstation 2/ PSP video game source material was a huge hit with both American and Japanese fans thus this anime adaptation coming about. From what I gather, the video game is notable for its mix of RPG and social simulation elements through its Social Link system where your regular interactionswith your teammates and other characters allowed you to gain and strengthen the abilities of powerful beings called Personas that are used to fight monsters called Shadows within a mysterious world that can be traveled into through televisions as the bonds you establish with the game's characters deepen. This anime adaptation of Persona 4 takes on a mix of mystery/ action and slice-of-life comedy elements as the series mixes up episodes featuring Yu and his friends trying to figure out who is responsible for the mysterious murders and disappearances involving the TV world where they often battle enemy Shadows and gain a new ally in helping them solve the mystery like the former genre; and going about everyday activities like you would find in the latter genre. Rather than the series being prominently focused on the growing bonds that Yu establishes with different characters though, this anime adaptation appears to focus on how Yu's character becomes more open to others as he becomes more involved with the townsfolk, his friends and the relatives he stays with. This is clearly seen through the show's more mundane episodes as we see signs of Yu becoming more active, less withdrawn and willing to toss in the occasional witty line. This, and some of the show's mundane episodes, were highlights for me since there was clear development with Yu and some of the silly predicaments that he and his friends get themselves into. The show also sports some good quality visuals as they have bright colors and a good amount of visual detail with vast settings and the character designs very closely resembling how they looked from the video games. Beyond these praises though, Persona 4: The Animation does suffer from the fact it seems to be trying too hard to be as faithful to its video game source material as possible. The opening sequences seen at the start of many of the show's episodes with Igor and Margaret are actually quite pointless in this anime adaptation as the two don't contribute anything and seem to be added on just to please fans of the video game. The Persona/ Shadow battles aren't too engaging at many points as either they seem to try too hard in adding elements from the game like gaining new cards, summon animations in the style of the video game and Yu conveniently being the only character capable of summoning different Personas; or adapting elements from shounen action titles with characters either getting up after being heavily damaged in battle and suddenly getting power boosts or upgrades to beat their seemingly unstoppable foe. While the show's various mundane episodes are usually fun to see, they add nothing new to Persona 4's main plot with the TV world and actually make that plot slow to a halt when they come along. Plus while Yu does get some reasonable character development throughout the series, the same can't be said for many of the title's other characters, especially those among Yu's group who are tacked on with differing archetypes and don't develop any further once they come to terms with their Shadows when they are rescued. The Persona 4 video game seems like a fun little premise I'd be willing to play on my PS2 whenever I work up the interest to buy the game. But as an anime, it tries too hard to incorporate as many of its elements into the animated adaptation as possible, even if those elements aren't exactly relevant or hinder things such as plot progression, engaging action scenes and character depth. This is yet another addition to my list of mediocre and horrible anime adaptations of popular video games I had to sit through.

Before I start, please keep in mind this is MY OWN PERSONAL OPINION and that this is my review on the anime, NOT the video game. I'm a huge fan of the Persona 4 video game, so I was excited when I found out there was an animation. I was expecting the anime to be a total bust judging from other (poorly) done video game adaptions I've watched or heard about, and I was pleasantly surprised when I began watching as it far exceeded my expectations. Story: 9/10 The plot is pretty straight forward - the protagonist moves to Inaba with his uncle as his parents are stuckon a business trip and a series of murders begin occurring. It's original, enjoyable, and most importantly, well done. There are many plot twists throughout the entirety of the series that will make you keep on watching to the very end. The one thing that seemed to bother me was that it seemed to leave out some minor, and very rarely major information that may leave someone who has never played the game for themselves very confused at times. Art: 10/10 I, personally, loved the art style used in this, especially since the creators stayed loyal to the video game style which made me very, VERY happy. The art particularly shines the brightest during the battle scenes. There's always so much going on during them, and they managed to pull it off with a great deal of success. Sound: 10/10 When I began playing the game, the first thing I noticed was the great soundtrack, so seeing all the songs from the track being put to use was amazing, especially "Castle" and "Reach Out To The Truth". Characters: 10/10 The characters are what makes the show what it is. The characters are extremely lovable, each one taking on their own unique personality. By the end of the series, you're 100% going to favor a certain character. I guarantee it. Enjoyment: 10/10 This may be an inaccurate score as I watched the entire series with a close friend of mine, though I firmly believe that even if I had watched it alone, I would have enjoyed it just as much. We started it, watching constantly and before we knew it, we had finished the series. I haven't had this much fun watching anything in a long, long while. Overall: 10/10 Don't assume that I don't believe the series doesn't have its flaws, because of course it does, along with any other anime, or any show for that matter, but there doesn't seem to be any crucial faults that necessarily need to be pointed out. This series made me laugh, cry, and maybe even do both at the same time, which is why I give this series a 10. I enjoyed it a lot and I think that's really all that matters.

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