PERSONA 4 THE ANIMATION
STATUS
COMPLETE
EPISODES
25
RELEASE
March 30, 2012
LENGTH
25 min
DESCRIPTION
Persona 4 takes place in a rural town named Inaba. There have been mysterious murders occurring whenever there was fog after heavy rain. There were also rumors about a channel on television airing only at midnight called Mayonaka TV, during which it is said that one can see his/her "other half" when staring at the TV screen.
After hearing about a recent unsolved murder which occurred during the fog, the characters—Narukami, Chie, and Yosuke—discuss how each of them had attempted to watch the mysterious TV channel and witnessed the murder victim. The protagonist later realizes that during midnight when the channel is on, his body can phase into his television set as a gateway to enter another world infested with shadows.
After discovering this, they all decide to explore. When first completely entering the world, dazed and confused, Narukami meets Teddie. Mayonaka TV and the town murders seem to have a connection. The murder victims may be merely victims of Mayonaka TV. Everyone decides that they will together try to solve the mysterious murders by exploring the hidden world of Mayonaka TV.
CAST
Naoto Shirogane
Romi Park
Yuu Narukami
Daisuke Namikawa
Rise Kujikawa
Rie Kugimiya
Yousuke Hanamura
Shoutarou Morikubo
Chie Satonaka
Yui Horie
Kanji Tatsumi
Tomokazu Seki
Yukiko Amagi
Ami Koshimizu
Kuma
Kappei Yamaguchi
Tooru Adachi
Mitsuaki Madono
Nanako Dojima
Akemi Kanda
Ryotarou Dojima
Unshou Ishizuka
Margaret
Sayaka Oohara
Igor
Isamu Tanonaka
Chihiro Fushimi
Ai Maeda
Aika Nakamura
Aoi Yuuki
Ai Ebihara
Kanae Itou
Kou Ichijo
Daisuke Ono
Ayane Matsunaga
Tomoka Endo
Kanami Mashita
Minako Kotobuki
Daisuke Nagase
Tomokazu Sugita
Fox
Sayoko Uehara
Natsuko Kuwatani
Noriko Kashiwagi
Hitomi Nabatame
Saki Konishi
Hina Nakase
Naoki Konishi
Tsubasa Yonaga
EPISODES
Dubbed
Not available on crunchyroll
RELATED TO PERSONA 4 THE ANIMATION
REVIEWS
SunlitSonata
73/100While not the preferable Persona 4 experience, it does well as an adaptationContinue on AniListPersona 4 and the Inevitable Tolls of Adaptation
When it comes to all the mediums that could potentially be turn into an anime, such as a manga, light novel, visual novel or even a movie, few are trickier than a video game. While adaptations from other forms tend to turn one non-interactive media into another, video games rely far more on interaction and players getting as much time out of them as they put in, based on the speed they can get through its challenges or how much side content players go for, which won’t be the same for everyone.
This inherent difficulty is why so many video game based anime either are original stories that have game elements present, such as Kirby Right Back at Ya, Sonic X, and most notably the long running Pokémon anime, original stories that directly tie into the game canon like the Professor Layton/FFXV movies, anime that remove the game elements entirely like God Eater or Tales of Zestiria The Cross, or in general glorified advertisements to the game without closure to anything brought up, not wanting to flesh anything out more than the video game could.
Even those times you get full adaptations of games like Danganronpa: The Animation, BlazBlue Alter Memory, and the Ace Attorney anime, they tend to be seen as rushed, sterile retellings that ruin the plot experience for newcomers and offer almost nothing of new worth to established fans. But years before those deflating series, there was Persona 4 The Animation.
Attempting to adapt Persona 4, a nearly 80 hour RPG, into a 10 hour TV series would be a herculean task to any staff, but the great thing about Persona 4 The Animation is how it manages to think creatively and pull together, even if there are notable problems in dealing with the interactive to non-interactive pitfalls. This is less a “review” in the traditional sense and moreso an analysis on the creative choices involved in Persona 4 The Animation’s development to their effect on presenting the game to a wider audience.
1. The Storytelling
So in terms of basic storytelling, Persona 4 stars your player character, entering high school in the town of Inaba when suddenly, murders start happening, you find out you can enter a world inside of TVs, you link the two subjects together, and try to prevent any more from happening while slowly learning more through investigating. For JRPG standards, it’s an appreciably digestible, simple plot that focuses on the chemistry and characterization of its protagonists over convoluted plot beats, with a unique overarching theme of societal conformity and acceptance that echoes through all of the game’s major characters. The game alternates between fun bonding scenes between you and your friend group, serious scenes involving the murders and kidnappings, fantastical dungeon crawling, and heavy character exploration through these dungeons as well as “Social Links” which help you better connect to Inaba as a community.
The anime, to great credit, covers the entire main plot of the game, minus the hours spent dungeon crawling against enemies. It, plus the additional OVA for the True Ending, complete the entire story in a fairly cohesive way without adding any anime-exclusive plotholes. Additionally, it well retains the balance between the serious plot and bouncy character moments just like the game, letting each character be themselves yet still contribute in a meaningful way even after their character conflicts.
The character conflicts themselves are often the type that fly incredibly close to the sun. Topics such as repression via gender norms, excess overcompensation, and image in place of identity are represented by one or more characters and just like the game they’re bold topics for the YA audience. One could argue the intentionally over exaggerated presentation of these elements creates certain unfortunate implications but from my point of view, the nature of what these problems piled up as is presented in a deliberate incomplete, inhuman way to still properly supplement the conflicts. Greater expression of anime shows these off than they were before for better or worse, but it’s genuinely well meaning and what the characters learn from these experiences is reflected in future moments as well as the core theme. In general this aspect was a win for the anime, with certain conflicts like Yukiko’s and Naoto’s having some more anime original backing to them, perhaps to account for the missing Social Link info.
It’s also very nice how P4’s anime is able to maintain the sense that “filler-ish” scenes really ARE a great course of character building and camaraderie in conjunction with the main plot and characters. They help to structure the repeating pattern of the plot and add further to the characters even after their main conflicts conclude. Several of these, such as the camping scene, night party scene and school festival scene are genuinely fun moments that bring out a lot in the cast as a group, helped a lot by how much fun you can tell the voice actors are having. Regrettably though, the anime does nothing to fix the worst of these scenes: the infamous Amagi Inn incident (a scene where gender roles are divided to where it’s practically torture porn for the guys when it’s meant to be funny). It's even somewhat made it worse with an entire episode to further build each part of it, only mildly mitigated by a rather rushed Social Link integration that feels more out of place compared to the one there in the game.
Thankfully though, once the plot does get on track in the final fifth of the TV series, it really stays on track. The mystery’s conclusion makes sense and the last handful of battles, while not amazingly animated, are well put together for animation and there’s clear spirit to it, despite how much it wanted to rush the falling action to hold off on the true ending. And the way the separate true ending OVA was handled was........................................not very elegant.
Regardless, the storytelling itself is properly maintained, with the mystery, character moments and message for the sense of community still coming across.
2. Spacing and Flow
Despite the proven competence of the story, this is, unsurprisingly, where the series has the most problems, having to do with of the amount of content it feels like it has to show in an attempt to downplay the “gameplay for gameplay’s sake” aspects of the game. That being said, the handling is very much a mixed bag.
I mentioned above how it felt like the anime maintained that character building comedy in between conflict, but for a good dramatic example, at one point in the plot, a major character is kidnapped, forcing you to enter a dungeon filled with high leveled enemies and a boss if you want to rescue them. It’s an incredibly desperate situation, but in the game you can massively reduce that by holding off the rescue for days of grinding, or progressing Social Links within that timeframe. In the anime, the rescue and confrontation happen immediately after so the sense of urgency is fully maintained, with the battle following being one of the best moments adaptation wise for how it adds onto the drama of the battle.
Similarly, there are a number of Social Links in the game relating to side characters that do not impact the plot in any way, and a couple of them were presented in ways that make sense for being non-interactive. Some of them, while not as delved into as the game ones, are shown in a really fun comedy episode that practically mocks the game player‘s daily activities. Four more Links (in pairs of two) get their own episodes to help break up the plot (Episode 5) and in Episode 18's case, neatly combine two stories together rather than force them to be separate like the game. This helps create a stronger emotional punch with the anime’s expressiveness.
That’s not to say all of them are well adapted though and you can really tell sometimes. Naoki Konishi has his entire character spat out in less than five minutes only for the anime to consider it a done deal. Margaret’s Link doesn’t exist in any capacity. One Link, for a little girl named Ayane, gets the worst of this. Rather than feeling like an actual struggle to work through like in the game, it just comes off as a short bit of emotional manipulation, before said character disappears completely.
Other moments as well greatly suffer from a lack of clarifying these in-between parts, especially for viewers who haven’t experienced the game. For instance, every episode begins with a brief segment in the “Velvet Room”, which game players would know is the place where you can fuse Personas together and gain ones for your party by using the Compendium. The anime, however, makes no attempt to explain the Velvet Room despite having scenes featuring it at the beginning of every episode. In the anime, Yu fuses Personas inside of dungeons several times instead of using the room, and neither does it clarify where he actually gets his Personas, which seems to downplay its purpose even further despite how much they show it, and the pleasantness of Margaret’s voice.
Individual episode pacing wise, Episode 10 is definitely the low point. It attempts to cover entering a dungeon, a character’s confrontation, and two boss fights in the space of a measly 21 minutes, which was just not enough to cover so many events, let alone events that even in the game itself were explained poorly. On top of that, the boss fights themselves aren’t conveyed in nearly as fun or interesting a way as the boss fights before and after this, likely because of how much they had to cram in.
However, that’s just a matter of time constraints. What’s truly jarring is a brief bit of editing in Episode 12. Most of the time the show’s editing is perfectly functional, aside from little things like not showing a double punch or a sliding fall animated, but this episode had an odd segment. There’s a scene in which the team confronts the dungeon boss, and then mid-villain monologue, it hard cuts to Teddie doing a silly comedy bit with the team outside, completely taking you out of the scene with no transition to showing the battle as a foregone conclusion. They later bring you back into the scene, mid-fight, about 9 minutes later, in what’s conceptually a pretty epic scene. This could’ve been one of the best moments in the series, but with no proper transition, or attempt to show what happened in the meantime, it felt jarring and disconnected. Almost as if the director had a good idea for a scene, but didn’t know how to properly implement it, so he just hard cut and thought people wouldn’t notice because of what it leads to. But people will. Thankfully the rest of the series avoids this incredibly jarring editing..................until the True Ending episode which continuously cuts between three plots at once in half an hour, which is disappointing but not irredeemable.
These issues aside though, the editing never precludes the game experience and despite this rushed pacing, the bulk of what the game aimed for is still there and does come across despite occasional rushing, condensing or slotting in events elsewhere.
3. Comedy and Characterization
This is where the series shines. While the game had notable moments of comedy, they often had to rely exclusively on line delivery and the small portraits since the models were not very expressive or animated. Completely the opposite here, where models move to the beat of every joke to add to the punchlines. Many of the comedic scenes from the game are retained or added to, sometimes with more expressiveness and other times thanks to cute new character Aika Nakamura and her tendency to always be around for food deliveries. The fact that there’s more jokes may result in some of them not landing (some may find Teddie’s jokes to be unBEARable), but the only parts of the anime to me that weren’t funny were scenes that weren’t funny in the game.
A new element that adds to the comedy is the anime’s portrayal of the game’s silent protagonist, now named Yu Narukami, into non-interactive animation. As a character he works for the most part. He’s reactionless enough to still project some, but also witty and funny enough to feel distinctive character wise as the collective straight man, combining aspects of every choice path the player could make into an engaging character. It’s his comedy moments, many of which were original to the anime, that got a lot of the laughs out of me from the series. Some of his louder emotional moments do feel a bit “on cue” because of this, but Daisuke Namikawa and Johnny Young Bosch still put in the effort all the way to sell it.
I’ve already brought up the side characters in terms of spacing, but as for the rest of the main cast, thankfully Yosuke, Chie, Yukiko, Kanji, Rise, Teddie and Naoto all maintain their strong personalities from the game and in the chemistry from their voice actors old and new continues to shine just as well in the more expressive medium. Everyone gets their due, and something I really appreciate about Persona 4’s characters is that even with their initial arcs, they maintain a sense of relevancy to the core theme, add further to the team investigation, and each play off of each other in a way that goes beyond being token party members into genuine friends. The anime adds some strengths and weaknesses to adapting them. On the plus side, the anime adds more scenes to foreshadow their conflicts prior to their climaxes, which help to make them seem like built up, real problems seen in the present, rather than simply having sad backstories expositioned out for quick feels with no buildup. The downside is that, with the inability to get all of their Social Links, the most you get for aftermath is one scene from each character’s link placed at random points in the narrative. These don’t have the same depth, but most of them do help to an extent that is better than nothing. Teddie’s the only one majorly hurt from this, because his Link is story mandatory but several pertinent scenes are cut short or cut out.
The real-world supporting community aspect of Persona games is something that’s present, particularly in Episodes 13 and 14, even if the whole thing couldn’t be fleshed to nearly the same extent in this TV series. It’s at least better than the Persona 3 movies which don’t have any time for it at all, but there is that sense that many conflicts have further places they could go, and the anime just didn’t have time. But for the sake of preventing disjointedness, I get some of it. The player making the decision each day to pursue Social Links or dungeon crawling works because it’s an interactive medium. In an anime though, hopping continuously between over 20 different characters would not only stall plot momentum but be bland to watch on its own from a passive point of view. So while not the most substantive, it’s a choice I can buy.
4. Presentation/Animation
While faaaaaar from the best-looking show around, especially in a season where Fate/Zero and Guilty Crown aired alongside it, Persona 4 The Animation nonetheless properly uses the perks of an anime in comparison to the videogame presentation wise, in at least consistently getting the job done. Shigenori Soejima’s character designs still maintain their distinctiveness and as of the latest release there aren’t any “off” looking scenes, but conversation scenes themselves are mostly average. The one odd differing detail is Adachi’s hair. I have no idea why they decide to make it more of an auburn compared to the blackish grey from the game, but it’s the type of odd choice that newcomers won’t really care about.
The Persona themselves were all rendered cleanly and distinctly in 2D animation to capture their unique designs and abilities, in a way that thankfully did not use CGI as a shortcut. At worst CGI was on a few objects and certain places in the one area where computerized designs fit. On the downside, few of the action scenes themselves leave much of an impression or engaging choreography. They are certainly commendable when it comes to how the directing creates an increased sense of space and scale for say, the first two major battles, and the penultimate boss battle of the TV series, but the fight choreography itself isn’t particularly standout, often using fast cuts that reduce visceral impact. To their credit though, they are at least animated loosely rather than stiffly, which fit for the nature of Personas themselves.
Backgrounds look great when trying to replicate the game’s dungeon and at least average anywhere else. The one place the art faltered was inside the Junes supermarket. While the backgrounds had generally been believable enough otherwise, in the market, it looks as though the background was taken directly from a REAL store, so the 2D characters create an unintentional Roger Rabbit effect that makes the market look extremely off in every scene that takes place there. It’s just odd compared to everything else. It has a look that could be better, but it could look FAR worse.
5. Audio
The great thing about being adapted from a game with such a large number of music tracks is that the anime doesn’t need to change many of them or make a whole new soundtrack from scratch And the game has a GREAT set of fitting tracks. But even still there are a number of anime exclusive tracks, whether for tense scenes or for comedy moments. Along with these include the first OP, which sounds great, the first ED which has a great melody change in conjunction with the visuals, the second OP which isn’t as good as the first but still has some slick visuals, and the second ED, which is a decent track, but pales compared to the three preceding. The only real negative I could say score wise is that certain tracks could occasionally be either cut too short or misplayed. The song that precedes boss fights being used around comedy moments doesn’t work nearly as well, a brief playing of Your Affection in Episode 20 felt similarly out of place, and some of the unique boss music near the end of the game would often get cut short for a mixing of tracks to varied effect. As for the dub, nearly every voice actor from the game returns, and those who don’t get replacements who are either better or just as good as the original voices. They do their best to bring out all the fun they can in the script, even if one may find Teddie’s bearly contained pun catalog a bit grating. Adachi’s voice was the only partial sacrifice, because Johnny Young Bosch uses the tone he used in the game for Adachi for the now talkative Yu, so Adachi now has a slight helium to his voice. It still works well enough when it needs to but to some it could make the voice more grating; I got used to it enough.
6. The Little Touches
Ultimately this section is what led me to want to write this review, because it feels like that even with the series’ pacing issues and average animation, the team at AIC ASTA made sure to add a load of great, appreciated small elements that while not much on their own, add up to show that it’s clear those involved cared about its game origins. Though anyone who doesn’t want to know about some of these can just skip to the last part.
•The eyecatches, often used in most shows to simply say the title, only occasionally showing cool pictures, feature a stats screen for Yu's progress at the moment.
•Yu pulls out Pyro Jack, a Persona can learn the ability to absorb Fire, to counter a boss that primarily uses Fire attacks as a distraction
•The first ED not only is a great song that changes song styles exactly when the animation does, but it displays the current Arcana Yu gained in the episode, as well as falling cards that show every previously obtained one. It’s a great example of an evolving ED because of it.
•The show is more than willing to change the OP song every once in a while. While the original songs are great, they’re able to change up the songs for episode-specific events just enough for the changing to not become a dull trend by itself
•One episode ups the Persona 3 fanservice even FURTHER than the game did, as if they had the entire soundtrack on speed dial. It’s really nice appreciation for those fans over a year and a half before it got its own anime
•The clop clop clop of Teddie’s footsteps is maintained while walking through the dungeons.
•Analysis screens not only display Persona weaknesses like the game did, but also some additional comments without actually needing to say them.
•Ayane on her trumpet is playing a version of I’ll Face Myself, the game’s boss battle theme used in the game and remixed in the anime.
•The main villain uses the Reaper as a potent distraction, which Persona 3 fans will understand given the sheer wrath it has in the game without cheesing.
7. Conclusion
In a world where Disney can get away with re-releasing their animated classics such as Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and The Lion King as soulless, shot for shot remakes that bloat with nothing necessary, there’s a great deal to appreciate about the genuine effort of this series to do the opposite. In becoming a series, Persona 4 adds much more expressive characters, expressive comedy, expressive direction choices (even if some don’t work) and expressive new scenes to allow the whole thing to function as a good series, if not a great one. However, it is still inferior to the game, as the anime can’t compete with the density, playability, measured endgame and more intimate connection with events that the game provides. Despite these downgraded elements in the transfer, I believe the anime understands the game’s core and has enough heart put into it to be on its own, a solid anime series either way with action, laughs, intrigue, character and a relevant overarching message. True Ending aside, it’s cohesive enough for newcomers while providing enough differences to keep interest for longtime fans. While watching this as a game player, I wasn’t thinking “man, I really wish I was playing the game, but rather “I can’t wait to see what they present next” and when it comes to video game adaptations, that’s something really admirable.
KazuKazu
96/100Persona 4 and how a good adaptation can enhance the overall experience.Continue on AniListPersona 4 and How a Good Adaptation Can Enhance the Overall Experience. First of all, while not being the best way to experience this story, because it is impossible for an anime of 10-ish hours to convey all the aspects which a game of 70 hours provides, such as the exploration of the characters, the setting, and the inherent connection that is created thanks to the medium (videogame) itself. Persona 4 (and Golden) relies on how you as a player can interact with everything surrounding you and because of this, no anime can replicate this feeling and that's not a negative trait per se, it is just a limitation that other types of medium suffer. With this in mind, it is logical to ask ourselves: "Is it worth getting into the anime? Will the anime give me something extra in my experience with Persona 4?" To these two questions, I think that the answer is a resounding yes.
Let's tackle this with different sections, shall we?
1. Plot and Rhythm. In my opinion, this is the pivotal point of the adaptation. The plot of Persona 4 is not complex. The protagonist (a city boy) arrives in Inaba, a rural town. In this place, he will start bonding with the rest of the cast and try to solve a supernatural crime that involves the use of rumors and a parallel world called the "Shadow World." As a result of this, both in the game and in the anime, the plot can be set aside, and we can just enjoy seeing the characters living their daily lives. Persona 4, at its core, focuses more on the characters and their daily struggles than on providing a deep story full of twists and philosophical questions about life choices. The anime does an excellent job of telling the story while maintaining the goofy essence of the game. It achieves this without adding elements that could feel unnecessary or out of context. Something that surprised me is how they handled the secondary social links (the ones outside the main group). Some of them are adapted in groups while others have individual chapters, adding depth to all of them and giving us fresh air in their re-telling. This, along with how they got rid of the dungeon crawling, gives wonderful points to the adaptation itself. It can be complicated to re-tell a story from another medium and maintain what makes it special in the first place. The decision to make the true ending into an OVA is weird. I don't know whether this was intentional or not, but the content of the OVA itself is excellent, and when "Never More" hits at the end, it truly felt like playing the game for the first time.
2. Characters and Characterization Kudos to the anime for this one. As an adaptation, one of the critical aspects that should remain faithful (if not better) to the original source is the characters. While maintaining their design is relatively straightforward, capturing their charm, nuanced writing, and depth in a different medium is often a challenge for many video game adaptations. However, Persona 4: The Animation does justice to its characters, allowing us to delve deeply into their arcs and growth.
Yosuke: The anime poignantly portrays Yosuke's grief over losing Saki and his initial jealousy of Yu. His journey of self-discovery and overcoming his insecurities was successfully translated into the anime.
Chie: Chie's storyline with her internal conflict and jealousy towards Yukiko was perfectly intertwined with her own chapter, giving us a beautiful scene between these two.
Yukiko: Yukiko's arc about coming to terms with her life in Inaba effectively showed her struggles and eventual realization of why she loves her hometown and friends so much in the anime.
Kanji: Kanji's storyline can be particularly touching (and kind of misunderstood by the fans), as he grapples with his hobbies and how they affect his sense of masculinity. The anime handles his journey towards self-acceptance with a touch of humor and excellent direction.
Rise: Rise's character is beautifully explored as she navigates her dual identity. Recognizing that while Risette is a part of her, she is not solely defined by her idol persona, adding layers to her character.
Naoto: Another problematic one, Naoto’s struggle with her femininity and her role in the police force is handled with care. The anime showcased this in a perfect way, showing us how she does not have to pretend to be something she is not (a boy).
Yu: Finally, we have Yu Narukami, the main protagonist. In the game, Yu serves as a blank avatar for player self-insertion. Thankfully, the anime fleshes him out into a fully realized character. Yu is calm, friendly, and overall a good person. His character arc revolves around his transient lifestyle due to his parents' work, which prevented him from establishing meaningful relationships. It is in Inaba, a small town, where he finds happiness and a family that accepts him just as he is, helping him realize that he is not alone.
Persona 4: The Animation succeeds in translating the essence of its characters from the game to the screen, allowing viewers to connect with and appreciate their individual journeys and growth. This faithful adaptation is one of the highlights of the series, making it, for me, a must-watch for fans.
3. Slice of Life and Comedy. This is where the adaptation was sold to me. While the game had its fair share of comedic moments, they were often limited to static portraits, as the character models were not particularly expressive. The anime, however, is a complete contrast, with characters moving fluidly to match the rhythm of every joke, enhancing the comedic timing and delivery. Almost all of the comedic scenes are retained and even expanded upon, with greater expressiveness and the brilliant addition of Aika, a new character who frequently appears delivering food, adding a fresh layer of humor. (Seriously, her gag is awesome; I hope we can get her in the eventual remake of the game).
A standout element that adds to the comedy is the anime’s interpretation of Yu. Now he can actively participate in the jokes themselves and not be only a model who laughs in the background because of his avatar status, all of this going accordingly with his established personality in the anime. One of the moments that show this is when he manages to convince his friends to join in the beauty pageant (and not forget the scene of him interpreting a girl in the event of his class). The comedy was one of the key concepts of Persona 4, and thankfully, the anime managed to deliver this in a good way.
Final Thoughts. As I said at the beginning, while not perfect, this adaptation is genuinely something special. The anime was loyal to the original source and at the same time gave us little details making use of the medium, which only enhanced the experience. The comedy was fabulous, the characters were in context, and the serious moments were treated with respect as they should. Not a lot of game adaptations can manage all of that and be able to stand on their own as Persona 4: The Animation does. In a world of awful adaptations (of any medium like games, mangas, novels), we should be grateful that we have this wonderful piece. Now, should you play this game or watch the anime? Honestly, you can do what you think is right. I always recommend the game first, but if you do not have either the money or the desire to play it, you can always watch the anime; it is really good.
Doesn't matter how far apart we are. The bonds we made will remain strong.
Everyone's heart is connected to the people they know and trust.
It's those bonds that let us all search for our purpose in life.
As long it's a purpose you believe in, there'll always be someone who can help you fulfill it.
For you, me, and everyone else... There are no barriers. Our hearts are one.
-KumaSmumbo
75/100A great adaptation of the Persona 4 gameContinue on AniListThis review encompasses both Persona 4 The Animation and Persona 4 The Golden Animation
P4A and P4GA were more or less a pretty straightforward adaptation of the Persona 4 game, with the Golden Animation acting like an “anime expansion pack” representing the Golden content from the game. While the exact events diverged pretty heavily at a couple of points, it was pretty much just the game in anime form. As the game itself is basically a playable anime, this was about as much as I could’ve hoped for. The animes also contained many visual setpieces that were a lot more unique and less repetitive than the game was able to achieve with its JRPG dungeons and combat, which made it a lot more digestible story-wise than the game.
I can’t decide which series I prefer visually. While the art of The Golden is much cleaner and more colorful, I felt the characters in the first series looked more accurate to their in-game counterparts, and the animation itself was smoother and more lively, where The Golden felt more choppy to me. Though one weird aspect of the original series is how the characters’ faces are all drawn with this vertical gradient that kind of makes them all look like they have five o’clock shadows. While I’m complaining, I would also just like to say that Nanako’s depiction in the anime leaned far more into loli territory, which I find disgusting and upsetting, doubly so because her character is portrayed as a little sister figure to the protagonist Yu Narukami.
Onto aspects I enjoy, I liked how much more fleshed out some of the characters were than in the game. Yukiko Amagi was one character that I actually quite disliked in the game, and while she still has some annoying traits here in these shows, I loved how much more they delved into her backstory and character motivations, which we see very little of in the game. The episodes where we see the goings-on at the Amagi Inn made me feel so much more empathetic for her as a character. I also thought that, despite still being pretty shallow and lacking in some areas, Ai Ebihara and Adachi were handled somewhat better in the show, which was nice to see. The character of Aika Nakamura was a completely original addition to the anime who I loved. She comes off as confident and knowledgeable but bored, and I thought she was such a great comedic addition whenever she appeared working at her various jobs. It was a fun addition, and I’m still kind of surprised they managed to cram in another character despite there being so many to work with already. Also, the English voice actress for Naoto felt much more androgynous & masculine than the English voice actress that appears in the game, which made her character immediately so much more believable to me.
These animes were also even funnier than the Persona 4 game, which I previously thought was a funnier game than Persona 5. I guess it’s a lot easier to convey comedy in an animated format compared to interactive visual novel style dialogue scenes, but there were genuinely so many laugh-out-loud moments.
Overall, like the game, Persona 4 The Animation and Persona 4 The Golden Animation comprise a nice, fun, and humorous anime adventure story that’s full of heart and optimism.
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SCORE
- (3.6/5)
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Ended inMarch 30, 2012
Main Studio AIC A.S.T.A.
Favorited by 881 Users