This is it! The moment that fans of Atlas, anime, and more specifically, Persona 4 have been waiting for! Starting October 2011, the new Persona 4 anime has debuted! For those who may not know a lot about this series, the game Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 was a JRPG game released by Atlas for the Playstation 2. It was released in late 2008, and has since spawned a manga series, a remake on Playstation Vita, and a side-scrolling fighting game to be released on the Playstation Store and Xbox Live Arcade.
Before actually watching the first episode, I have no doubts that this series will have a fantastic plot. However, will it live up to its video game counterpart, or will the series become something that isn't worth the watch? Regardless, find out my thoughts after the jump!
The story begins with a boy named Yu Narukami, who is riding on a train to meet his uncle and niece, both of which he is going to live with. Right off the bat for the episode, the show throws back to the mood of the original game by playing "Pursuing My True Self," the opening to the game. Personally, since the song is so catchy, I couldn't help but sing along with the song. That really helped to make the train ride scene, short as it was, fly by.
As the episode progresses, Yu gets introduced to various important characters that will show up throughout the story. A lot, if not all, of these characters retain their original Japanese seiyuu, so to give a nice familiar touch for players who used Japanese voice acting. The dialog throughout most of the episode ran extremely parallel to the game, with some lines even being exactly identical to its game counterpart. Since this episode was compacting around 45 minutes to an hour of game dialog into a 25 minute episode, some of the dialog had to be cut from this script. This cut, however, doesn't feel rushed at all. It adds a nice, short and natural flow to the events, and allows viewers unfamiliar with Persona 4 to get up to speed with the characters and story without taking too much time.
The main plot for this show begins as Yu is introduced to the mysterious Midnight Channel by his classmates at school. Intrigued by it, he turns on his TV at midnight. He discovers that he has a strange power of going inside a TV, and brings his classmates Chie and Yosuke inside a TV by accident. Unfortunately, since by this point the episode is near its conclusion, the anime has to slightly diverge from the events of the game. While in the game, the protagonist summons his Persona Izanagi later, Yu summons him near the end of the episode.
Now, I must say. The animation up until the end isn't very good. While a lot of the coloring and shading techniques make the characters look very similar to their game images, the perspectives of a lot of the characters seem off at times. I've noticed this a lot with Chie, as her head and especially hair seemed to be off-proportion during a lot of scenes. Maybe I'm attached to her since my protagonist dated Chie during my playthrough of it, but something seems a bit off for the animation. However, the fight scene at the very end of the episode was glorious! The animation worked wonders for this, as Izanagi kept running about, enemies flailing at him. His glowing gold eyes worked wonders to contrast the dark background and black clothes that he was wearing. If there's one thing done best in this episode, it's the fight scene.
Overall, the first episode was a very good start to the series. It did a very good job capturing the mood of the video game while also making the series fit the transition to a TV anime. It's a great watch for both those who are long fans of the series and newbies as well! You can check it out by clicking this link.
Keeping in theme with Persona 4, here's this post's video. It's the ending theme for the anime. Thanks for reading, and enjoy!
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