Anime: Persona 4 The Animation

Being new to the whole Persona universe and having read roriconfan's review i decided to give this anime a go...
Well, let's just say there is a difference if you are already a fanboy or if you are new to it... this anime atleast didn't get me too interested about Persona.

Animation 7
The animation work is done quite well and although in some fight scenes it might appear a bit chaotic it's still decent.
Backgrounds however are lacking in detail, especially in real world scenes. Special effects in the battles are quite nice but i wish they would have kept them only at that... having stars blinking on characters during conversations is very distracting just like over sized sweat drops etc.

Sound 7
Well, with the VA cast this series has there is no question about the voice quality, it's top notch.

The music sounds pretty generic and average but seems to suite the situations quite well.

Sound effects are alright too although some of them sounds like they are from a game.

Story 3
When you get in the core of the show it's once again the "Friendship is power" "Accept yourself" type of show.

It follows the basic formula of introduce characters, problem arises, fight baddies, almost losing, awaken new power, problem solved. Fill the gaps with rather boring and out of place feeling school comedy and rinse & repeat dozen of times until the final mystery reveal at the end.

You are even being told at the beginning of the second episode that the main characters power is infinite, really? So depending of the situation he will always get the power to deal with it, so much for the tension.

This show also fails to make those character introductions interesting... the first few eps i was seriously on the hinge of dropping this series but barely managed to hold on, the characters play major part in this and they just aren't interesting enough for you to care about them.

Characters 2
One of the most bland main characters ever.

Introducing one of the most annoying mascot character ever, kuma.

Someone might argue with me but the character development stops for most the moment they accept their darkness. Add to this that the characters aren't memorable at all and you don't really care about what happens to them. What a waste of the good VA's.

Value 3
After you have seen it there is no point in watching it again... unless you are really huge Persona fan like roriconfan. From my point of view this series is clearly aimed at the Persona fanbase and they might enjoy this a lot more than i could.
Maybe if i had played some of the games before i could see it in different light?

Persona 4 is an interesting yet somewhat bizarre action/mystery about a group of friends, led by the most blank protagonist I have ever seen, who work to try to end a string of mysterious deaths in a rural town. Watching this almost on the heels of Another, I couldn't help but use the other series as reference. If you're looking for a faithful game adaptation, this is apparently a really good one, though I wouldn't know so please refer to roriconfan's in depth review for that aspect, as well as for your daily pun dosage. I'm writing this purely based on the merits of the anime.

Our very quiet protagonist is spending a year in an extremely dull rural town, where the only thing interesting happening are gruesome murders. Yuu soon discovers that TVs in the town are somehow portals to another dimension in a very Alice in Wonderland-like way. In the other dimension, humans face their "shadows", whatever side of themselves they hide from normal society. Luckily for our protagonist, he has a Persona, think Pokemon/Digimon-ish thing that is summoned through a card. Will this trump card be enough to get him through his adventure?

This is one of those series that combines multiple elements from different genres. It has some elements of mystery, thriller, action, comedy, slice of life all shoved into a single package. As is expected, some elements are a lot stronger than others. For instance, there is a strong action focus, which somewhat dulls the mystery aspect. Compared to Another, this is a less focused series, it has enough time to even insert some filler episodes between the two seasons. Like Another, certain elements in the story feel forced, though not nearly as comically as done in Another. However, the entire story is supposed to be about the importance of bonds, and so unlike in Another, there is a strong character-focused feel. That being said, while there are some pretty good relationships, they aren't of the romantic sort. Overall, this was a fair watch, but a bit too repetitive with overused elements. If you're looking for a thriller to keep you hooked, this might not be it.

Animation:
The animation is definitely very unique here. I'm not sure if I'd count it as a value item but I have never seen anything quite like the TV dimension. All the shadows are just strange things such as floating tongues or other things that I can't even begin to describe, all of a sudden Arbolest from FMP looks quite pretty. The TV dimension is definitely strange, only thing in recent memory that begins to compare would be Yumekui Merry's cat dream world, the major difference here being less CGI (thank goodness...).

The series makes use of a lot of colors, varying significantly from scene to scene. Backgrounds are questionable at times but in general I think they were fine, I think a lot more detail was used in the TV dimension. Characters are readily distinguishable, and not all moe-like as found in the majority of series these days. However, if you look closely a fixed gradient was used on everyone's face, which sometimes makes everyone look as if they were sunburnt on their cheeks. Then you have Kuma kun, a mascot from the world of amusement parks who often lightens the mood of the series (at the expense of tension).

There is a significant amount of action in this series, mostly carried out by Personas and shadows. The action isn't all that well choreographed but the series makes up for this by having lots of special effects, many of which are done without resorting to CGI. There is also some blood though they hide it a lot more than they did in Another. There are also one or two slightly ecchi scenes but nothing really NSFW.

In general, if you think the original designs on the personas/shadows are cool, then you'll enjoy this series. I found them a bit odd and illogical, but oh well...

Sound:
The OP has a very clean, clinical feel that isn't too bad if there wasn't so much Engrish. The ED fits well with the series though again there's a lot of Engrish. The BGM in general is supportive though not terribly memorable. There is a particular march-ish theme used in TV-land that does stick though. I really liked the filters they used for the voices on the TVs.

Ok, I'll admit it. I was totally going to pass this series until I saw the inexplicably strong list of VAs in the cast. I mean, when was the last time you saw a series with Ami Koshimizu, Rie Kugimiya and Yui Horie all as main heroines? Despite the overly-bland protagonist, the other main characters are all superbly strong with very distinct personalities (and shadow personalities). The cast by itself made this series worth picking up with their great performance, if only some of the lines didn't translate so oddly through subs...

Story:
While there are a lot of unique features to the setting in Persona, the actual storyline feels a bit plain with a lot of overused bits. I mean, almost 2/3 of the entire first season is dedicated to introducing the friends that will later work together to try to solve the mystery. The story can be divided into a dozen or so short arcs spanning 1-2 episodes where a similar pattern is repeatedly used: introduce background, somehow end up in TV-land, fight some shadows, almost lose, unlock new special power, poof everyone is happy and return to "reality". Granted, it is true that you really can't tell how the actual mystery will eventually unravel until very late. However, as other people have mentioned in the discussions, I wonder if this would be better as a slice-of-life comedy than a mystery/fantasy as the fairly good comedic, slice-of-life elements really do detract from the seriousness of the grave situation the town is in.

As any Naruto watcher knows, fillers can be excruciatingly painful. However, the actual filler episodes at the end of the first season here were surprisingly engaging; I think execution-wise they were the best in the entire series.

Fillers aside, the story does eventually resolve itself on one final push, testing the limits of plot shields before a disappointingly cheesy ending. Apparently, the "real" ending to the series will be released on Blue Ray sometime this summer so I'll probably need to update this at that time. But as is, the ending smelt of a harem where nothing really gets resolved.

Character:
The main protagonist aside, the characters in this series are very well developed as their role is crucial to the entire point of the series: everyone has a side that they try to hide from society, and learning to accept that side is something very difficult at times. Though a lot of the lines around this point sounded very cliche in the series, the point does make it across.

The main character, on the other hand, doesn't really have very many emotions. Yet he is able to forge many "bonds" with other people, which apparently grants him additional personas to use in the TV-realm. I wonder if the other characters found him strange at all, being so unusually quiet for a lead.

Overall, I feel that the characters in this series were well utilized and really formed the substance of this series, more so than the actual mystery that supposedly kept everyone together.

Value:
In terms of overall involvement, this series isn't one that you won't be able to put down. It's a fair watch, and then some at times, but it doesn't grip as firmly as some other mysteries do. Perhaps the addition of action and slice-of-life comedy made the series have greater appeal to a wider crowd, but it detracted from my desire to actually figure out what's going on. As a concept, this series is quite unique, with crazy animations and other premises, but the overuse of themes and repetitive techniques to advance the plot made me feel that this is targeted towards younger audiences. Overall, an interesting setting with vivid characters but unclear in the direction it's trying to go (is it a mystery or a slice-of-life comedy?).

Can any of you actually say there was a good video game based anime series? Seriously, the majority of them are... er, bland, and that's just saying the least about them. Regarding the Shin Megami Tensei Persona 3 based anime, I think I speak for every fan of the persona series when I say that it was nothing that we were expecting in the worst way possible. Yet, not all of them get a rare second chance at redemption like the Persona series, and the Persona 4 anime could very well be the best video game based anime we'll ever see to date, but of course it has it's share of problems.

STORY: In the backwater town of Inaba, mysterious events, from strange murder cases to midnight showings of people in ways they have never been seen before, begin to arise. But fortunately a transfer student with strange powers is on the case with his slowly growing group of friends.
With my dose of sarcasm out of the way, Persona 4 The Animation is based off of the popular (Not in sales numbers but in fandom) Playstation 2 game, Persona 4 (The name gives it's self away). As video game based anime go, this could honestly be the best in very many aspects.

For starters, the anime is very true to the source material. Character models are close to original as they will ever be, the adaption doesn't take very many liberties with the story so fans shouldn't be disappointed, and it even goes beyond and takes many elements from the game to add oh so many charms and lovable quirks like the critical hits animations. It's all great, but, this anime may be just too faithful to the game it's based on.

As for the characters, the main character, Yu Narukami (Which isn't his real name, but Protagonist isn't an actual name so anything would've worked, even Fluffy Puppy would work because you can name him whatever you want, and yes that's what I named him in my game), is the biggest blank slate of a main character I've ever seen. And, unfortunately, it's understandable, a main character who acts according to your commands in the game, will never be a deep and interesting character with your commands now stripped away, but at least the dialogue that comes from him is hilarious at times. But it feels like you're watching him on cruise control, that is if you played the game. But the rest of the cast is so much more animated and filled with with more life than the game, which is to be excepted. If they weren't, they wouldn't be animated. Bad pun... but it's also about as funny as the humor is, which is an abused amount of overreactions from each other and an out of no where and dragged out cartoony chase scene that is uncomfortably forced.

Then we have the pacing, the pacing is very questionable at times, though I myself agree with the sped up beginning (Which in the game, what took the anime one episode to do, took the game literally four hours to accomplish before any actual gameplay would begin), several episodes tries way to hard to cram back story of characters into them and to conclude what took many hours for any player of the game to finish one dungeon and rescue one character, all done in a single episode or two. The pacing often feels awkward and rushed, but strangely enough these episodes actually add on to characters, that the game itself neglected to do, in a small amount of crammed time in single episodes.
For example, the characters Chie and Yukiko are friends as soon you see them, but the anime goes into how they met, in a very limited amount of time, however.

But, the way the story progresses is understandable if you think about it like this: The whole let's go to a dungeon to save someone and have them join up rinse and repeat is not the anime's fault, but the game itself. That's because, even though the story is very anime appropriate, there's the challenge of turning (As a fan of the persona series I'll admit) repetitive dungeon crawling into a cohesive ongoing story. It's easy to do short term by filling those moments with heavy action sequences and forced comedy, but it's going to be repetitive in the long run because of how faithful the anime is inspiring to be.

ANIMATION: Action scenes are spectacular and well animated, and the personas look great (And not ghost-like, like in that other persona anime). Character designs are diverse, and creatures and personas are very creative looking. There are animation quirks and even a lot of times where characters go off model, but it's not enough to fully shit talk about (And apparent rumors are apparently half right about the animation quality).

SOUND: I love Shoji Meguro's stuff, and as a fan of both the game and his music, I'm ecstatic to hear that the original soundtrack is being used in full force. But it is probably the laziest thing about the anime on a whole. Unlike that other persona anime where it had it's own soundtrack to work with, it's clear laziness that the animation company used the original soundtrack from the game itself in order to be faithful. But it really helps that the soundtrack is great and incredibly catchy, and the opening and ending theme music (Which is the only original music made for the anime) are of that quality.
The Japanese voice acting is good, but as an english speaking subtitling reader, I'm waiting with baited breath for the english dub.

OVERALL:
The Good:
+ Decent animation with faithful character designs to the original.

Mixed:
+/- Faithful to the original source material / Faithful to a fault.
+/- Added character development that the game neglected / Too short of time to work with development, main character isn't interesting.
+/- Great music / Recycled music from the game is abused.

As a fan of the game, I'm satisfied with the results, and I'm glad I'm not anal and nit picky like most stubborn fans. The Persona 4 anime is as good as it gets as game based anime is concerned. I'm personally happy how faithful it is to the game, but newer viewers are going to need to brush up on the game to fully enjoy the anime as a fan like myself has.

Game adaptations were never successful in capturing the mood of the original. They were always messing something up, such as making the characters robotic, presenting events as dull as possible, or just stopping in the middle of nowhere. No matter how many times I tried to enjoy them, they felt like an Eternal Punishment.

“That’s sad-kuma.”

Yes Teddie, I agree, BEAR with it. But guess what, so far Persona 4 appears to have broken the circle of bad karma and as an exception it looks GORGEOUS!

“Hooray!”

The thing is, there have been lots of bad rumours considering the production of the show; something about someone stealing the original copy of an episode before it airs, the staff being unpaid for months, and many being ready to drop the project. All that made me have even lower expectations than normal, since an adaptation is by default bad and with such nasty things being said behind the scenes it should be completely horrible.

“Grizzly!”

And yet those rumours are BEARily true! So ok, there are some sloppy scenes in each episode but they hardly take out from your enjoyment. Maybe this was a conspiracy by some villain who spreads rumours as means to alter reality if enough people believe in them. Who knows, maybe by tomorrow the show will magically be horrible and Hitler will be alive and have ruled the world with robotic knights.

“Don’t say that-kuma! It’s an unBEARable thought.”

Ok Teddie, I stop. Until that happens (IF it happens) I consider this anime to be the most faithful videogame adaptation ever made. And by faithful I mean it LITERALLY! It’s like I am watching the cut scenes from the game with more variety in motions, camera angles, and the protagonist having a voice. They even use the same visual effects to depict emotions, which is a great treat for those who played the game. Heck, this is also the first time the soundtrack was left the same from the game instead of making a new one for the anime version. Which is both cool AND saves the makers time and money.

“You make it sound BEARy good so far-kuma.”

Indeed I do. But it’s not like I haven’t seen other anime where they tried to keep the cut scenes identical. The result was terrible as it felt like they were jumping from one scene to another without showing the in-between battles and the game engine generated dialogues. It felt very boring and dried up. But in this case, they are doing a fine job so far and I feel how the characters feel. They are so lively and I really like how they made them act so natural, without those stiff motions from the game. I mean do you rememBEAR how cold and distant they were in Trinity Soul where…

“I TOLD YOU NEVER TO MENTION THAT NAME AGAIN!”

Woops, I forgot. Sorry for the emBEARassement; can I call it an Innocent Sin and be spared the “ Dark Hour on a floor with Death” punishment?

“There is no Persona 3 anime-kuma.”

Right, and no Tsukihime one either. So let’s leave those BEARied and forgotten and go back to what I was talking about. The characters easily BEARcome likable and both visuals and soundtrack are extremely faithful to the original source. Of course there are those who complain the story is moving too fast or the characters feel a bit different but, come on, there were bound to be differences and you can’t possibly expect to have included EVERY SINGLE LINE OF DIALOGUE from the game.

“Well that makes sense-kuma. Does that have any significant BEARing on the series though?”

To be honest, at first it does try to cram in as much plot as possible just so it will have a major battle with a Shadow boss in the last minutes and a character accepting his hidden personality. That makes it feel like a monster of the week type of show, which turns it to repetitive and predictable. Rather TEDDIEus if you get what I mean.

“The story is not predictable! I will beat you up with my BEAR hands if you say that again.

Yes, I know, it is very complicating and has a very good concept around the feelings we hide inside and the role we are supposed to play in front of everybody else. I am just saying up to episode 4 it follows a pattern when all the juice of the story is the interactions amongst the various secondary characters. And in episode 5 we indeed got exactly that by presenting the people the protagonist forms Social Links in the game. No Shadow battles and just nice character colourization all the way.

“Yes, it was a polar BEAR opposite to the rest of them.”

That is enough to make most change their minds about the show being simple. I mean, when they see your real identity at the part where you are BEAR naked and…

“Hey, no spoilers! My BEARutiful self will be revealed in its proper time.”

Oh right, we need to enjoy you in your full trEDDIE glory.

“Indeed, I am close to BEARfect! Just like this show.”

Now wait there a second little bear. All the things I said so far consider my impressions as someone who already played the game it is based upon. It won’t cause a PANDAmonium amongst those who didn’t play it or who are quality whores. Unfortunately most viewers will place it far bellow other scenery porn anime of the same year, such as Madoka Magika, Steins;Gate, and Fate/Zero.

“That makes me a saaad panda.”

Well, you can’t keep everyone happy. Just think how many complained about the protagonist not showing any emotions, or how the whole detective and thriller aspects of the show were boged down by lots of school comedy. Or how the battles were not interesting. Or how the animation did not cost enough to buy a small country.

“The things they find to bitch about these days. It’s unBEARlivable!”

Yes, I agree. Those are quite minor issues in my eyes and I consider them to be nothing but the voices of a few haters.

“VOICES VOICES!”

Oh you are such a JOKER Teddie. So, let’s celeBEARate for this most amazing show.

“Sure thing, wait a second to bring my BEARy juice.”

Oh lol, such a joker. And such a good anime too, I sure BEARfare it to all those other overhyped nonsense shows. Man, how many plot holes and inconsistencies did I find in each one of them? Must have been dozens. This ranks for me as the best of the year in the enjoyment department. Likable characters, fast pace, lots of colouring, lots of mystery, lots of fun. Pure win!