Persona 4 the Animation

Serial murders have recently plagued Inaba, with the police struggling to find any leads. Despite this, due to his parents going abroad for work, Yuu Narukami moves to the small town to live with his uncle for a year. He enrolls at Yasogami High School, where he meets and befriends Yousuke Hanamura, Chie Satonaka, and Yukiko Amagi.

While hanging out together after school, the group fills Yuu in on the urban legend known as the "Midnight Channel"—a mysterious TV channel that only appears at midnight on rainy days while the viewer is alone. Curious about the claim, Yuu decides to tune in that night, only to see the next victim of the serial murders appear on the screen instead. He also finds himself being drawn into the TV, which intrigues his newfound friends enough to want to investigate.

Yuu ends up falling into the world within the TV, which is blanketed by a thick fog and swarming with hostile creatures known as "Shadows." Realizing that this world is somehow connected to the murders, the Investigation Team forms with the goal of uncovering the mystery behind the incidents.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Narukami, Yuu Main

Namikawa, Daisuke Japanese

Shirogane, Naoto Main

Park, Romi Japanese

Satonaka, Chie Main

Horie, Yui Japanese

Hanamura, Yousuke Main

Morikubo, Shoutarou Japanese

Kujikawa, Rise Main

Kugimiya, Rie Japanese

Tatsumi, Kanji Main

Seki, Tomokazu Japanese

Amagi, Yukiko Main

Koshimizu, Ami Japanese

Kuma Main

Yamaguchi, Kappei Japanese

Adachi, Tooru Supporting

Madono, Mitsuaki Japanese

Doujima, Nanako Supporting

Kanda, Akemi Japanese

Kananiwa, Kozue Producer

Maruyama, Hiroo Producer

Adachi, Kazuki Producer

Sakurai, Takashi Producer, Editing

Reviews

Sep 23, 2024

SaiCicada

Recommended

I think this anime is a good companion piece to the game itself.
Although, standalone, without prior knowledge of the game, I can see it maybe being a little hard to watch.

One complaint I read about was that the pacing of this anime is too quick, some scenes are long while others are very short.
The anime also tries to follow the calendar that is ingame, though it sometimes skips a lot of days forward.
I did notice that while watching it myself, but then I thought about it for only some minutes.
What the anime is skipping out on is the downtime between more major events, it won't ... spend time on showing the days where you do almost nothing, like grinding the current dungeon or walking around Inaba.
So I think the pacing is not really a problem, it is even less of a problem if you have already played the game.

Most of the scenes are faithful to the game, it even uses a lot of the music that is in the game, along with completely new tracks.
The fighting scenes that are spread out a bit are fine enough, it mostly depicts the game mechanics and combat well.
Other than some things, things you can't do in the game, like putting your Persona in front of a party member to shield them from an attack, two party members using their turn at the same time.. etc. Good to see it is taking advantage of the difference in medium.

Persona 4 is a long game with a lot of story beats, long social links and a bunch of other content, I think they managed to cram it all into 26 episodes well enough. It's not a completely perfect adaptation but still great.

This anime also has some completely new scenes or added something new to already existing scenes.
For example the scenes where we get backstory on the characters, and some of the social link events.
I won't spoil anything, cause it was pretty fun for me, a player who loves the game, to return and watch what they did with this.
To me it feels more like it was meant for people who played the game, so they could experience the story again but with new insight and some nods to things that the fanbase think about the game.
Because of that, I think going into this completely fresh, without having played the game, there probably is a lot you won't catch onto or understand. It is mostly smaller things that will be hard to appreciate.

That is why I made this review, I've judged this anime as an extension, or rather, a companion piece to the game, instead of it being its own thing.
So, I want to recommend this to anyone that likes the game and other Persona 4 media, to try it out.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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May 2, 2024

XOArama

Mixed Feelings

Standalone, I can't say this is a great anime. Many of the core gameplay parts are translated well enough, but even with a 24-episode runtime, there were too many things cut that made up the joy of playing the game.

However, as a companion piece to the game itself, I'd say it was enjoyable. It's nice to have some of these fights animated, and a lot of the goofy things the gang gets up to are shown in full animated glory. There's also a good amount of anime original scenes that are really fun to watch; you can't be mad at extra content.

Overall though, it fails ... to capture the charm and emotional depth of the original game. I definitely can't recommend it to anyone who hasn't played the game, but if you've played it and you enjoyed it and want to spend some more time with the gang, then I can recommend this as a fun time.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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May 27, 2018

Kuta1

Not Recommended

Funny

(Spoilers incoming) This review is coming from someone who's played the game multiple times. I think it's an understatement when I say the show is a very big disappointment.

Story: 7/10. The story is really nothing special: there's a series of murders going on, and our protagonist and his friends investigate a parallel world using their Personas in the attempt to save victims and find a lead on the murderer. The setup for the story is alright, and the biggest appeal is the mystery of who the murderer might be. Other than that, the execution of the story is pretty formulaic and uninspired. It essentially follows ... the pattern of:

1) Person gets captured
2) Hero + friends find a lead and jump into the TV world
3) Big persona battle happens, person is rescued
4) Person joins the team
5) Bunch of filler social life until next kidnapping occurs

After a while, the story gets stale until we actually reach the climax of the show.


Art: 6/10. The art isn't anything special, in fact there were times where the characters just looked awkward and stiff.


Sound: 8/10. Persona is known for its fantastic music, although I'd say even in the games Persona 4 is known for having the 'worst' OST. I say 'worst' in relative terms because it's still a fantastic OST. I think better choices of music could've been used for certain scenes though.


Character: 4/10. The characters suffer from a lack of depth and are essentially caricatures of what they are in the game, although that's to be expected when you only have 20 or so episodes to flesh out a team of several people. If you played the game and come into this, you'll probably be surprised at how shallow the characters are compared to their game counterparts. If you're coming into this show without playing the game, you'll might still think the characters fall flat.


Enjoyment: 2/10. Instead of watching the anime, I should've just replayed the game. The anime does little to convey the true appeal of Persona, which is to engage the player into the world and characters as an active component in the narrative. With a game, you're part of the story: a driving force that can do whatever you want, building the relationships you want and forging the story you want to follow while enjoying a well-made RPG. The show in comparison is just a slideshow of Persona 4's main situations and social highlights. Personally, I found the show something unnecessary, as it just showcases parts of the game and adds nothing new to the series itself.


Overall: 4/10. Despite my abysmal enjoyment, I think someone who hasn't played the games might be able to find (marginally) more interest in the show and be able to look over some of its flaws. However, I still think these flaws bring the show down quite a bit, and whether you've played the game or not I think the flaws of the show far outweigh the positives. I highly recommend picking up the game and playing through it yourself, because Persona shines as a phenomenal series when you experience it through the video-game medium. As an anime, it's nothing more than a sub-par detective story with mediocre characters and awkwardly fitted social events made in an attempt to cram 80 or so hours of content into a 20+ episode series.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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