The Shin Megami Tensei brand has been taking away hours and hours of my life after having played my first Persona game and Digital Devil game 2 years ago. But, and what I enjoyed most, was the transition after I finished Persona 3 and started Persona 4. So, after coming back to the Persona world (encouraged by the Persona 3 Portable game latest release) I thought about watching this series that I had stored on my hard drive since about one year ago. After I finished watching it I was very dissapointed. I definitely expected a lot more from Persona –trinity soul-, an anime adaptation
...
of one of the best JRPGs ever made.
So, welcome to Ayanagi City, a futuristic metropolis where Persona users seem to be more and more frequent. Here is where the young Kanzato brothers, Shin and Jun, are returning to reunite with their elder brother, Ryou, after the disastrous incidents that ended with their parents and their younger sister lives 10 years ago. Ryou happens to be the chief of the Ayanagi police Department. He has been on the track of a Persona criminal group known as Moribito, who he beliefs are the cause of the incidents 10 years ago. This group was apparently inactive, but when Shin and Jun arrive at Ayanagi City the group suddenly starts to take action. This and other events trigger the awakening of Shin’s persona.
Most Persona fans must be familiar with the “Apathy Syndrome” and “Persona” terms so I’m not going to explain those. Also, and to clarify, I’ll be making lots of comparisons with the Persona videogames (3 and 4) just because I consider it to be pertinent. This being said, the viewer must know that this is a spin-off story from Persona 3 that holds almost no relation to it.
As for the story development goes, the producers failed miserably. The incoherence and slow pace is a constant element that makes the whole story pretty much boring. Most episodes of Persona trinity soul- don’t start “right off” when the previous one ended; this makes it a little confusing for the audience and tends to be tedious, since one will have to wait to the near end of the actual episode to be able to realize what’s really going on. Sometimes there is not any explanation of what happened previously whatsoever.
At the end, the story has it good moments and some awfully and constant monotone passages. The battles are short and a disgrace to those who played the Persona videogames because of the lack of complexity featured. The plot focuses more on the characters as a whole and on their problems. Some episodes might be (to some extent) entertaining to watch, but each episode definitely doesn’t shine on its own amongst the others. The storyline is nothing near engaging or memorable.
On the other hand, the animation is very well done. Somehow the quality and style makes me remember Persona 4, since the characters and locations are drawn pretty much alike. Also the high school male uniform it’s similar to the one used on Persona 4 by the main leads. This makes sense, considering that the Persona 4 game was released in Japan one month after this anime started airing on June of 2008.
Ayanagi City also looks familiar. One can associate the city town district with Gekkoukan City (Persona 3) and the rural area, where the Kanzato residence is ubicated, with Inaba City (Persona 4). Ayanagi City might be, in fact, a hybrid resulted of the combination of both cities.
My only concern with the animation design does come to surface when the personas are ‘summoned’. Fans hoping to watch little Jack Frost freezing an opponent or gorgeous Angel casting a healing spell will be greatly disappointed. The persona’s design on Persona -trinity soul- seems to be taken out from a mecha genre anime and practically all of them look almost the same with some slight differences in contextures and colors. Plus, the personas don’t have an identity or name, they’re just "personas"; this really blurs the whole perspective for the viewer who could wonder: “are these ‘personas’ THAT important to the plot?” At least visually the personas are just a nuisance and might anger more than one.
If I were to point at the best attribute (and probably the only one) that Persona -trinity soul- has, I would say without a doubt: that’s gotta be the soundtrack. While the show follows the usual fast and strong Opening single and slow and tranquil Ending theme sequence that shounens usually tend to use, the tracks are far above average. Especially the second Opening single, “Word of voice” performed by FLOW, needs a special recognition for its quality. The original BGMs are very good and definitely add more sentiment when the moment requires it. There are some remixed versions of some Persona 3 BGMs that can be heard on most of the episodes. Also an old character from the same game makes his appearance half trough the series.
Sanada Akihiko, probably the most popular character from Persona 3 amongst the ladies, appears from nowhere exactly when the anime reaches its second season. Surely a fanservice alternative from the producers to please the audience has to be the case, taking into consideration that Akihiko doesn’t really take any part in the “action”. Even so, he might be one of the few characters that are actually “alive” in the plot.
All the main characters and the majority of the secondary characters are lifeless or, simply put, lame. There isn’t a single moment to break into laugher or a single sad moment because the characters don’t really ask for the viewer’s sympathy. Junpei, Aegis, Yukiko, Fuuka, Yosuke… Persona gamers can find all the previous stereotype characters in this anime roster. Of course, none of the characters share the original’s charisma or seem to be developed to the videogame’s possible extend. The characters could disappear one after another and the viewer probably wouldn’t care or even notice the “change”.
Persona -trinity soul- wasn’t enjoyable, of course being I a Persona gamer. I seriously don’t have the slightest idea if a non-Persona gamer would fully understand the anime scenario. But, I can say this for myself: a Persona gamer will feel angered, disappointed or just will not feel anything at all. I wouldn’t recommend it to Persona gamers, knowing that this is simply a mediocre rip-off of a great theme and I wouldn’t recommend it to non-Persona gamers, since I don’t want them to have a bad impression of the saga. There is a slight chance that the last mentioned group might enjoy it though.
I’m sure the producers tried to make this anime somehow different to the usual content that the fans are used to. As they say: “different is not always bad”, the contrary could as well be applied: “the usual is not always bad”. A shame that the staff couldn’t realize that: “when things go well, why change them?”
Alternative Titles
Japanese: ペルソナ 〜トリニティ・ソウル〜
More titlesInformation
Type:
TV
Episodes:
26
Status:
Finished Airing
Aired:
Jan 5, 2008 to Jun 28, 2008
Premiered:
Winter 2008
Broadcast:
Saturdays at 22:30 (JST)
Producers:
Aniplex
Licensors:
NIS America, Inc.
Studios:
A-1 Pictures
Source:
Original
Theme:
Super Power
Duration:
23 min. per ep.
Rating:
PG-13 - Teens 13 or older
Statistics
Ranked:
#67712
2
based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.
Popularity:
#2325
Members:
82,869
Favorites:
169
Available AtResources | Reviews
Filtered Results: 18 / 18
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Your Feelings Categories Aug 4, 2010
The Shin Megami Tensei brand has been taking away hours and hours of my life after having played my first Persona game and Digital Devil game 2 years ago. But, and what I enjoyed most, was the transition after I finished Persona 3 and started Persona 4. So, after coming back to the Persona world (encouraged by the Persona 3 Portable game latest release) I thought about watching this series that I had stored on my hard drive since about one year ago. After I finished watching it I was very dissapointed. I definitely expected a lot more from Persona –trinity soul-, an anime adaptation
...
Jul 28, 2008
The Good:
- Persona 3 fanservice (it features one of the characters from the video game midway through the series) - Great soundtrack - Beautiful art style The Bad: - Convoluted plot - Seriously...what's up with the whale feathers? - Can be too emo at times - Episodes never start exactly where the last episode left off. Annoying. ... Jul 24, 2008
Persona -Trinity Soul- is a nice addition to the Persona story, and like Persona 3 before it, focuses a lot on character develpment. Even though this anime is considered a sequal to Persona 3, besides having a supporting character from the game, and the occasional mention of the "event 10 years ago," it doesn't entirely connect with the game, and is better considered a story of it's own.
At first, the story is slow and confusing, but the explanations and speed picks up partway through the series. For people hoping to see a lot of Persona versus Persona fighting, sorry. The focus is more on story ... Sep 22, 2009
How cool is it when you put a gun to your head, close your eyes, pull the trigger... and out comes a mask of your personality, a figure of your other self, a being of great power that you can summon...a Persona?
Very cool indeed. That's the theme of the quite popular Persona 3, an Atlus game for the Playstation 2. Persona: Trinity Soul, is a spin-off to the awesome RPG. Sadly, it turns out to be a disgrace to Persona 3, and all of its fans. Trinity Soul has absolutely no relation to the game whatsoever (thankfully). Save one recurring character from the RPG, the rest of ... Mar 25, 2011
Any fans of the Persona series, Persona 3 in particular, will probably be excited to watch Persona Trinity Soul, especially since most synopses describe it as a sequel to P3. Be warned, though, that while the anime does make reference to things in Persona 3 and even features a cameo of one character, it has very little to do with its predecessor. Plus, if you can manage to figure out what's going on, you'll realize there are a few things happening that are actually inconsistent with the video game series.
Story: 3/10 The series goes from boring, to confusing, and ends with disappointing. Like the Persona ... Nov 21, 2008
People who played the games and expected to see many cameos or lots of intense persona battles will find this anime to be disappointing, because the anime took a different direction. It is more like one of those "slice of life" anime series rather than the expected action-packed persona battles. Most of the episodes can be considered as drama rather than action genre action, because there is little to no battle scenes in it at all. On top of that, there were quite a number of twists and irony throughout the anime, as well as confusing points that people who don't pay attention would not
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May 14, 2015
This is an Anime that has gotten a fairly negative reception over the years. A lot of that is down to the fact that it's designed as a sequel to one of the most popular and unique JRPGs in existence. But it's not nearly as bad as some people would have you believe. It doesn't hold a candle to Persona 3, but then what could? As a standalone series it's actually pretty good.
The main plot takes place ten years after the events of Persona 3. The world is continuing on as normal, although all the leads seem to be suffering from the traumatic events of ... Oct 8, 2011
Story: The story line for this anime was amazing. It was not predictable. It was exciting and full of emotion, very suspenseful and eerie. A lot of deaths and turns you wouldn't expect. It has to be one of the most emotional anime's I have seen. The end of episode 13 gave me a heart attack. I cried. I probably cried during 3 or 4 of the episodes.
Art: The art was very solid. The characters looked amazing, and the backgrounds, but the persona's at times were hard to see because they were portrayed as translucent. Sound: ... Jan 16, 2011
First of all, I'd like to say that this review was based solely on the anime, and was not used in comparison with any of the Shin Megami Tensei or Persona games.
Story: 6 Art: 8 Sound: 7 Character: 8 Enjoyment: 7 Overall: 7 The story, I felt, was too confusing. From beginning to end, it never really explains anything. It's difficult to grasp the actual plot as different things in the plot start but then stop suddenly, or never actually have an ending. The way the story was explained, as well, was confusing. While truthfully, the story is unique, the 'confusion' factor is so significant (as you can't understand anything about ... Dec 7, 2010
THIS ANIME IS AWESOME!
especially Jun Kanzato and Yuki Kanzato, they're both cute and good-looking. opening music and the endings are great too, Kita Shuuhei - Breakin' Through and Flow - Word of the Voice with the endings Yumi Kawamura - Found Me and Nana Kitade- Suicides Love Story. I LOVE IT! Jul 3, 2018
Well, it sure was interesting, even if it wasn't very well made...
The series is about two brothers, Shin and Jun, who return to their home town after years away to live with their older brother, the town's police chief. Meanwhile a large number of horrific murders have been occurring, and Shin discovers that he (and conveniently all of his friends at school) have the mysterious power to release their "personas" (giant translucent robots (ok, they aren't actuall robot but they sure look like them) that exist inside everyone and are supposedly the manifestations of people's hearts and souls), and he and his friends are pulled ... May 19, 2019
Somehow I convince myself to watch this because of the song “mellow dream”
Im a big fan of persona game, also all other shin Megan tensei game (nocturne, devil summoner, devil survivor, digital devil saga) Now I know why this film have so much negative review, Its because most of People who watch this are shallow, they only care about the action stuff, dating, high school and pervert stuff Tbh, I amaze by the quality of writing in this anime, and the whole whale feather theme keep me curious ... Dec 21, 2021
tl;dr No reason to really watch this if you aren't a Persona fan, and even if you are it is very underwhelming. Not outright awful or bad, bust long and boring.
Persona Trinity Soul is weird because the only reason anyone would care about it and the only reason it is even remembered is because it is a weird spin off of Persona 3 that was eventually de canonized. This show isn't awful but at the same time it isn't necessarily great or even that good at times. Here's a mostly spoiler free summation of my thoughts. Story and Characters 6 - The main plot of the ... Oct 25, 2018
before a-1 made the crappy p5 animation they made trinity soul, which means they've defecated on the series twice now, the personas are horribly designed, the characters are one note and bland, the story is confusing, and most importantly its boring, although i will admit that the soundtrack is great, but even then its not on the usual level of quality that persona soundtracks offer,if you want to get into the persona series its a terrible place to start, and if you're already a fan, then watching it is only going to ruin your day, you really are better off ignoring it.
May 25, 2020
Much like the early games in the Persona franchise, Persona: Trinity Soul doesn't get much love from fans of the series or even Atlus. In fact, unless you already own the DVDs or are willing to shill out a lot of money, there doesn't appear to be any currently LEGAL means of watching the show. But does the anime deserve such a brutal fate? Well, I decided to take a look and see for myself.
The series follows Shin Kanzato, a young high school student returning to his childhood home of Ayanagi City alongside his younger brother Jun to live with their elder brother Ryo, the ... Aug 8, 2012
I have to admit, unlike quite a few people who watch this anime, I haven't played any of the Persona games, so this review won't be about how faithful it is, but about enjoyability for novices to the story.
I think what first pulled me into the anime was the clean, nice and just good quality animation and art. The sound was pretty decent and the character introductions started off really well- they were all pretty hilarious and had their own quirks- I wanted to know who they were, why they were there and why all three brothers had such different hair colours (...I don't ... Nov 16, 2017
Persona: Trinity Soul centers around three brothers, all of whom are Persona users. The oldest brother, Ryou Kanzato, is a police chief in Ayanagi City and is keeping enigmatic Reverse cases secret from the public. When his brothers, Shin and Jun Kanzato move back in with him, they get involved with Marebito, a group of rogue Persona users.
My thoughts: This was a really good anime. Two brothers, Shin and Jun return to Ayanagi City ten years after a strange earthquake that killed many to stay with their older brother Ryou Kanzato. Throughout all the strange Personas Shin and Jun make friends and uncover the mysteries ... Jul 17, 2023
Persona: Trinity Soul (2008)
2008 shame on you. This show could have been great but stretching what should be a movie into a series made it far too long and so boring. I honestly struggled to watch this because it just goes on and on and on barely achieving anything. If it was 12 or 13 episodes perhaps I could forgive but not 26. The art for 2008 looks pretty good and isn't so bad. It is just that era where everyone looks super skinny and stands weirdly when they have their hands in their pockets. The sound is okay. The OP and ED are kind of ... |