Persona 4 the Animation

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Alternative Titles

Synonyms: P4A

Japanese: ペルソナ4アニメーション

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Information

Type: TV

Episodes: 25

Status: Finished Airing

Aired: Oct 7, 2011 to Mar 30, 2012

Premiered: Fall 2011

Broadcast: Fridays at 01:30 (JST)

Producers: Aniplex, AIC, Mainichi Broadcasting System, ASCII Media Works, Index

Licensors: Sentai Filmworks

Studios: AIC ASTA

Source: Game

Genres: Action, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Supernatural

Themes: School, Super Power

Duration: 25 min. per ep.

Rating: PG-13 - Teens 13 or older

Statistics

Score: 7.51¹ (scored by 130,056 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #1839²

² based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #915

Members: 264,191

Favorites: 2,389

Available At

Official Site

Resources

AniDB

ANN

Synopsis

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]

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Background

Persona 4 The Animation is based off of the critically acclaimed RPG series by Atlus.

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Related Anime

Adaptation:	Persona 4
Alternative setting:	Persona: Trinity Soul, Persona 3 the Movie 1: Spring of Birth, Persona 5 the Animation
Sequel:	Persona 4 the Animation: No One is Alone
Summary:	Persona 4 the Animation: The Factor of Hope
Alternative version:	Persona 4 the Golden Animation
Other:	Persona 4 the Animation: Mr. Experiment Shorts, Persona 4 the Animation: A Brief Lesson on Izanagi & Izanami

More characters

Characters & Voice Actors

Narukami, Yuu

Main

Namikawa, Daisuke
Japanese

Shirogane, Naoto

Main

Park, Romi
Japanese

Satonaka, Chie

Main

Horie, Yui
Japanese

Hanamura, Yousuke

Main

Morikubo, Shoutarou
Japanese

Amagi, Yukiko

Main

Koshimizu, Ami
Japanese

Kujikawa, Rise

Main

Kugimiya, Rie
Japanese

Tatsumi, Kanji

Main

Seki, Tomokazu
Japanese

Kuma

Main

Yamaguchi, Kappei
Japanese

Adachi, Tooru

Supporting

Madono, Mitsuaki
Japanese

Doujima, Nanako

Supporting

Kanda, Akemi
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Kananiwa, Kozue

Producer

Maruyama, Hiroo

Producer

Adachi, Kazuki

Producer

Sakurai, Takashi

Producer, Editing

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Opening Theme

	1: "Pursuing My True Self" by Shihoko Hirata (eps 1)
	2: "sky's the limit" by Shihoko Hirata (eps 2-8, 10-12)
	3: "True Story" by Rise Kujikawa (Rie Kugimiya) (eps 9)
	4: "key plus words" by Shihoko Hirata feat. Yumi Kawamura (eps 13, 14, 16-23)
	5: "Burn My Dread" by Yumi Kawamura (eps 15)

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Ending Theme

	1: "sky's the limit" by Shihoko Hirata (eps 1)
	2: "Beauty of Destiny" by Shihoko Hirata feat. Lotus Juice (eps 2-12)
	3: "Koisuru Meitantei (恋する名探偵)" by Loveline (Yui Horie) (eps 13)
	4: "The Way of Memories -Kizuna no Chikara- (The Way of Memories -キズナノチカラ-)" by Shihoko Hirata (eps 14-17, 19-24)
	5: "Honto no Kimochi (ほんとのきもち)" by Shihoko Hirata (eps 18)
	6: "Never More" by Shihoko Hirata (eps 25)

Reviews

Jun 23, 2022

allieturs

Recommended

I'll start saying that I haven't played the game yet, so what I know from the game is just from a little gameplay I watched. So, no comparison to the original, my opinion will be only based on what I watched.
The serie is actually enjoyable, with the high and low typical of a 25(+1) episode serie, given that at this point it is considered a "long" anime. Being a P5's fan, I knew what I could expect, but the story was really intriguing aniway.
It's like a detective story, there are some crimes and the cast of main characters has to discover the truth about it. ... I actually understood who the culprit was, but it isn't something really prevedible, so I'll give points to that. Even the system of how the crime works is really interesting, though I would have liked some more details, it felt a little rushed as an explanation. Maybe in the game is explained better? I have no idea, but I'm on the "every media is only for itself" so I should be satisfied with only the anime, without having to play the game. The real problem, for me at least, are the one-shot episode, there are few of them and they feel like really out of place. I perfectly understand that they're needed to introduce some of the Confidants that aren't in the team, but at the same time they cut the flow the investigations have, feeling like unnecessary fillers.
Something I really really loved are the break time, when there are few slides between the first and the second part of the episode, since there are the first drawing for the series and they look pretty cute. And also the "change time/locations" since they are completely inspired from the game, with the day that change everytime the time passes and the skills' star that takes points everytime Yu improve himself in something.
Talking about the world building, the little town is one of my favorite place to set a videogame, specially a detective one, so I think it's perfect as a location. There are some locations of interest, like Yu's house, the restaurant, the school, it actually gave the same vibes of when you have to play the game and you have to decide what to do with the "free time". I was a bit disappointed about the TV World though, since they literally showed nothing of it as world building, there are few screenshots of the "general" and few of each dungeons, so it wasn't that much of a scene. Disappointing mostly because the world building is the best part of Persona in general as a series, since it's also always different from game to game. I would have liked to see more about it, but here are just locations, without anything more. It's a real pity.
The characters for me are the real flaw of the anime. I didn't love any of them, I wasn't interested in either of them, finding most of them a little irritating too. The Protagonist (Yu) was confused in how to act, something he was cocky, sometimes too serious, and I know that it's because technically you as a player should choose what to say, but since here he is a character, it should've been better to give him a personality and let him act like that all the time, because everytime he seemed really OOC. Yosuke was disappointing too, he seemed really bland to me, there was something missing in his personality. Chie was okay, but I rolled my eyes at her every now and then, the only one that I liked (but nothing more) was Yukiko because her storylike was enjoyable and she surprised me when we know her better. The mascot, as usual, is only annoying, and I hated the plot twist about his appearance. The ones I liked the most were Naoto, Kanji and Rise, I already knew Naoto's storyline and I think of him as the best character in the game, he has a deepness that the others don't have. The chara design is really cool for all of them though, though, being the anime a little old now, the quality of the animation is swinging.
The opening was pretty meh, but the music (that I think are from the game itself) were really cool and fitting for the atmosphere of the various situations.
In general, the anime is good, but not perfect or great, something or for fans of the game, or for those who can't play it. If you have the possibility to play it, just do it, this would feel like a loss of time.

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Feb 9, 2024

NN010

Mixed Feelings

Watched over the course of 7 weeks as part of watch parties on the "The Paradox" Discord server (link to join the server here: https://discord.gg/xy5yYFM7)

Persona 4 the Animation (much like the game it's based on), is a story filled with peaks and valleys. When it's good (ex: the last 3-4 episodes (and the OVA), the King's Game), it's REALLY good. But when it's bad (ex: the accursed Hot Springs episode, Kanji, Rise & Naoto's dungeons), it's REALLY bad. But this is not a BAD story or a bad anime on the whole. It's just aged really, really, REALLY badly. Needless to say, I prefer P3 ...

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May 27, 2018

Kuta1

Not Recommended

(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.

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Persona 4 the Animation

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Narukami, Yuu

Shirogane, Naoto

Satonaka, Chie

Hanamura, Yousuke

Amagi, Yukiko

Kujikawa, Rise

Tatsumi, Kanji

Kuma

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