Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth - Side:P3
Persona Q Shadow of the Labyrinth Side: P3

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Persona 3 is one of my favourite games, if not my favourite. Sadly, I did not get the opportunity to play Persona 4 or Persona Q. However, this did not stop me from having a good time reading this manga.

Personally, the strong point of this mange is definitely not the story. Covering only what I assume to be half of the game it is adapted from, I imagine that the author's focus was to simply have an adaptation of the game. As I am writing this review, I recall that there was no major story to talk about. There was still an exposition to give ... the characters motives, but that was the extent of the story. There is no clear progress or changes as the story goes on, making the cast continue their journey without reaching the end, as mentioned previously. However, considering the game which it is adapted on, the story is not the main point of focus. Rather, it is the interaction between the two casts of Persona 3 and 4.

It is pretty much common knowledge that characters from Persona are amazing. Considering this, many people would expect this manga to reflect the great personalities that the original casts have. Well, it turns out that the authors did... to an extent. I loved the cast of Persona 3 when I played the game, with the game really fleshing out their personalities throughout my play through. The characters of 4 are great too, as well as the two new characters, Zen and Rei. The whole cast is fun, likeable, and quirky, with some interactions being hilarious. However, there is almost no character development, which should be expected of a manga that focuses on two entire casts of games that take around 80 hours to complete. The only character development which I could notice was with Zen, which is probably due to the fact that he is a new character. Overall, no character development can be made in only 10 chapters, with the characters staying the same. However, it does not prevent the cast to be great, with everybody having great personalities, as all characters of a Persona game should have.

Personally, I quite like chibi art. In Persona Q, all of the characters are brought to a chibi form, making the characters to be quite cute. And if you have read some of my other reviews, you would notice that I love cute stuff. I am well aware that chibi art can ruin a manga in the eyes of other readers, but for me, the author managed to use the art style quite well. There is nothing else to say, apart from that the chibi forms of the Persona characters are cute.

In the end, I quite enjoyed the manga of Persona Q, despite having never played the game. I am well aware that Persona Q (the video game) was mostly a way for ATLUS to gain more money from the fans. However, it did not prevent me from enjoying this manga. The sole fact that it is part of the Persona franchise is enough to make me enjoy it. There are indeed many flaws to this manga, but the positives manage to outweigh most of the negatives. Overall, this manga brings the reader a fun time, even if they only have played Persona 3, 4 or Q. I would only recommend this to fans of the series, as the fun comes from watching the characters you know interact with each other, bringing the amazing casts from the respective games together.