Persona 4 the Animation

As a fan of the games, the Persona 4 adaptation is a real shame. It exemplifies everything that can go wrong with video game adaptations. Not only is it poorly done in respect to anime as a whole, but it is poorly done even compared to some other video game adaptations. I fully expect I'll get a lot of hate for this, so please let me explain first.

The story is pretty typical for what you would find in most JRPGs these days, but one of the unique things about the Persona franchise has been the blend between the dating-sim styled day-to-day activities and the ... RPG combat. Most of the action takes place in a world hidden by all but a few lucky people granted the power of a Persona, the manifestation of the person's psyche which is used to fight shadows inside of the TV world. While it's fairly generic and comes with its fair share of clichés, it works well because the story is self-aware and does not try to take itself too seriously. It's a fairly light-hearted story even in the midst of all the murders, kidnappings, and crazy things going on.

There isn't any inherent problem with the story here because it's simply being taken from an already well-written series. The story was fine in the game, and for the most part it's fine here too. What there IS a problem with, however, is the pacing.

The pacing can be likened to teleportation. It's a disorganized mess of scenes abruptly changing from one to another with a calendar flashing for a few moments. No, the people behind the adaptation don't care about pacing-- instead they use the calendar as a lazy excuse to not deal with coherent pacing. You might have the main character sitting at a table talking with the group for all of around 30 seconds and then the calendar will simply flash on screen, skipping past several days and taking you into a completely different scene with almost no link or correlation with what just happened. Sometimes the days flash by so fast that you don't even know what the hell is happening any more. Sometimes you will have a dungeon given three entire episodes dedicated to it, and another dungeon will have less than half an episode. It makes no sense.

The calendar system and the day-to-day activities worked fine in the game, but this is not the game. It does not work here and it does not fit. This is an anime, not a video game, and the people behind the anime should at least try and make sure it translates properly into a condensed, strictly visual form. You can't simply take the game and then slap it into an anime. You need to make adjustments, you need to make changes, and you need to make sure it fits the medium that you are adapting it to. The staff behind the Persona 4 adaptation don't understand this important philosophy. It instead feels like they're awkwardly trying to recreate the feel of the game, but failing pretty miserably at it. I felt like I was getting a headache at times trying to follow the constant warping of the characters.

So, if you haven't played the games, don't expect to understand much of what is going on. You will probably be lost and confused amidst the pacing, especially when important plot points and characterization is skipped upon and barely explained. There really needed to be two seasons of anime here because it's clear as day how rushed it is.

Unfortunately, that's not the only problem here. Both the animation and the art style are also poorly done. There is a strange lack of color throughout the entire show, which is odd given how colorful and vibrant the game was. Each character is drawn poorly and colored in with ugly looking gradients, something that you would expect from a high school computer animation class, not a commercial product created for thousands of people. It's all very bland and amateurish. There's also a startling lack of animation here. One character will have their mouth flap while everybody else in the background is static and motionless, often complete with disproportional faces and odd expressions, looking stupefied. For a lack of a better term, it's very 'derp'. Even when there is a decent amount of animation happening on screen it's usually done poorly with glaring mistakes in between movements, usually body parts morphing into strange shapes. Either they were lacking budget or something went horribly wrong in the production of the anime... either way, it has some of the worst art and animation I've seen in a mainstream anime. For all the years it took for the series to get a 'proper' anime adaptation, when it looks as poorly as this, well... was it really worth it?

On the plus side, the music is very nice and the remixed and new tracks are greatly appreciated. It helps to spice things up a little bit from the game, though there are problems even here since the background songs will abruptly switch from one to another with complete dissonance and shifts in tone. The music itself is good, but the application of the music is not. Instead of awkwardly switching between music all the time, the staff could have opted to just use silence or ambient noise from time to time instead, and save the music only for the scenes where it truly fits in. It should feel natural, and here it just stands out in a really unpleasant way.

Sadly, there just isn't much good I can say for the anime. There's a few brief moments of hilarity scattered here and there, and while it's nice to see all the characters fully animated, the entire time I was watching it just made me want to go replay the game instead. A good adaptation wouldn't make you want to do that. The anime is nothing more than fanservice for people who have played and enjoyed the games, and even as fanservice it fails in some pretty major areas.

Maybe other people will enjoy it more than me, but Persona 4 deserved so much more than this.

The majority of people seem to praise Persona 4: The Animation for its faithfulness to the source material, calling it “the best game-to-anime adaption ever made.” As someone who finished their first playthrough of the game while the series was almost halfway through syndication, I’ll agree, the series is certainly faithful. And game-to-cinema adaptions don’t really have a high standard anyways, so this is probably the best adaption also. However, this is ultimately one of the main reasons why The Animation fails to be as good as the original game. (And since the original game’s story was merely “good” in my eyes, this causes The ... Animation to sink down into mediocre.)

There seems to be misconception that if an adaption is faithful enough to the source material, than it’s garanteed to be good-so long as the source material was good in the first place. This is incorrect because when a story is written for certain medium, it tends to work best in that medium because that’s what the story was designed for. Persona 4 fundamentally works best as a video-game, because that’s what it was written for. You could still make a good television series out of it, but in order for that to happen you have to actually change stuff and play around with it.

The first of these problems is the pacing. Persona 4 is a game where you live out the player-protagonist’s highschool life day by day, with trips to the TV world every few weeks. It takes about 60-80 hours to beat, and features a very slow pacing. For a 25 episode television series, they of course would need to compress the overall story.

For example, it’s not until a whole hour into the game until the player-protagonist actually gets to fight some Shadows. Since fighting Shadows is apart of the show’s premise, you of course need to include that in the pilot. Therefor, the writers had to rush through the first hour of the game and compress into a 20-minute episode, which results in an overtly fast pacing.

Secondly is the formulaic structure that comprises the majority of the plot. It roughly goes something like this: “Episode A: The heroes find out who’s on the Midnight Channel, and try to gather information on them so that they can save them from the TV world –> Episode B: The heroes go into the TV world, and rescues the victim. The victim then joins their party and helps out in the next story arc–> Episode C: Filler episode –> Repeat.”

The formula was no problem in the game, since the slow pacing made it so you barely even noticed the formula in the first place. However, since the formula goes through a mere three episodes of the anime, the quicker pacing makes it seem more repetitive.

Lastly, there’s Yu’s ability to summon multiple Persona’s, and acquire ”Social Links.” In the video-game, these are only briefly explained, but it’s no problem because it makes sense in the context of a video-game. But with The Animation, they still don’t bother to give an in-depth explanation, and it no longer makes any sense because it doesn’t have the context of a game to back it up. In the game it makes complete sense from a game play mechanic, but in The Animation it serves absolutely no purpose other than to occasionally show off some of the obtainable demons.



This is one of those shows where it starts out rather nicely; even though the first few episodes suffered from such overtly-fast pacing, they were otherwise rather enjoyable and of decent quality. After episode 4 however, the series started to steep deeper and deeper into mediocracry, and it wasn’t until episode 21 (near the end of the series) that it finally started to be of exceptional quality. This is partially due to how the series quickly starts to focus less on the mystery aspects of the plot, and more on the formulaic nature of rescuing people from the TV world and forming Social Links. In other words, barely anything interesting actually happened for a large part of the series.

When each character is introduced in their respective story-arcs, they are indeed compelling characters with a good amount of depth to them. However, as soon as they face their inner selves and are rescued from the TV world, they quickly degrade into flat one-dimensional characters. They’re all still likable to a certain extent, but not enough to make slice-of-life episodes (i.e. the filler episodes) worth watching.

The fight scenes were also underwhelming, usually feeling rushed. They barely have any tension to them, and usually ended far sooner than you would have liked them to. A few times they tried to mix up the fights by adding in some zany element, such as the male characters turning into old men, or the a hot liquid appearing on the floor that impaired the characters movements. Sometimes it worked, but other times it was just added a bit of stupid and unnecessary comedy.

If there’s anything that saves this show from being terribly mediocre, it’s the final four episodes that manage to pull a few plot twists and make the whole mystery plot actually interesting.

Overall Rating: 6/10.

For the most part this is a mediocre series, but it had enough saving qualities for me to rate this as “above average.” For a short while each character was compelling and complex, and the last four episodes were of exceptional quality.

But even so, I highly recommend you avoid this series, and just play the original video-game. I wouldn't call the game a masterpiece or anything, but it's certainly better than The Animation is virtually every way.

so here goes my first review. I felt like I had to get this off my chest because I loved Persona 4 (and 3) and I was really looking forward to this anime since I heard of its existence a while back. I will say this: this will be my honest and brutal as-can-be opinion. I haven't really decided yet what scores I'll give in each category as of writing this sentence, but I have a feeling it's going to be pretty low in some of them. however, I still enjoy the show merely because I enjoyed the game so much. I'm even watching it ... with friends who haven't played it (one of them played 3) and I like being the "expert" telling them facts and trivia about it. I'd also like to apologies for my writing, if it actually bothers you because of its length or its awkward wording. anywho, on to the actual review.

Story: this is one of the times I wish I /hadn't/ played the game. I don't know if it's because of that, but the show seems to really rush through things. as mentioned in other reviews and even something I was expecting before I even watched the thing, quite a few scenes from the show is either omitted or switched about. I would say that the scenes they omitted were trivial if it weren't for the fact that there are one or two trivial additions. when I watched the pilot, I was surprised when I saw that I was already half way done. if I remember right, they were only going to do 26 episodes or so(?) so I guess they have a lot to squeeze in. I don't remember where I heard that number from and I can't find any good sources to an exact number either, so don't trust me on that. some scenes seemed a little over-exaggerated from how they originally were, also. for example, I don't remember Kubo being as aggressive and creepy as he did in the anime. nervous and creepy, yes, but not this. aside from that, it's pretty faithful to the game. I was somewhat shocked with how faithful it was in some aspects. I wasn't so sure they would include the Wild Card system because I wasn't sure how they would implement it, but it looks like they're gonna have a go at it. I also enjoyed how they kept the weather system and the player status and even how they made up for some scenes that would otherwise be awkward to convey out-of-game. not bad.

Art: this is the main thing that bugs me and I can explain it very simply. just by looking at Yosuke's hair, you can tell the difference in art. one style has Yosuke's hair a bit wavy, while the other has it... er... a bit too spikey, even for Yosuke. we could say "well, they might've done the scenes out of order and later they got too lazy to put so much effort into his hair." however, you can also tell the difference from other things like the body build, facial structure, etc. and then there is the third that actually looks like the original artwork. so there is a good, middle and bad, original-artwork-looking-one being the good and horribly-spikey-yosuke being bad. as for the coloring, well that's the easiest to explain. I didn't really care for it in the game and I don't in the show either. It's really, uh, mushy? the actual animation also shifts a bit. it goes from being a decent modern day animation to a decent early 90s animation. some movements seems well done while others seem to cut corners and make the characters look stiff. all in all, I'm a big fan of Shigenori's artwork, so I'm a bit disappointed how this turned out.

Sound: this is another instance where I sometimes wish I hadn't played the game, but this one isn't much of a big deal. most of the music comes from the original. yes, this means the silly engrish songs too. there's a few new songs, I believe. either that or I've never picked them up, in-game. the songs are put where they need to be, so good on them. the reason I regret my playthrough is because every now and then you can tell where the music has been edited, which will throw you off. but, again, it's not a big deal. the voice acting is done with the original cast from the game (if you hadn't already heard for the millionth time). I played the game dubbed and only played the undubbed for maybe an hour or two, so I can't really say much. the voice acting by itself is obviously very good. with the animation, though, I would honestly have to say it's wasted effort. I had wondered from the beginning if this would mean that the english cast would dub the anime, if they decided to bring it overseas.

Character: Main character first, seeing as how this is what I was the most curious about. humorously enough, it was just as I expected if not a little more. he's bland and unfazed, just like how I made myself in 3&4. it also makes it comedic. I also see hints that he will be quite brotherly to Nanako so yaaaay! the other characters on the other hand... is just another thing that seems really rushed in the sake of development. I also think quite a few important qualities are missing from the characters. Yosuke doesn't seem nearly as annoyed about the world as he did in the game, Chie seems a bit too feminine, and Yukiko... is she even in this show? sometimes I forget she even is and I can't help but gasp an "oh" when I see her. they all seem just like regular ol', generic anime high school students. maybe it'd help if I didn't already know the characters in depth. the main reason I fell in love with the game was that I was attracted to the characters and their personalities. as lame as it sounds, they really did feel like my friends. it's only two episodes in so I'll cross my fingers.

Enjoyment: well, of course I enjoy it. despite all its flaws, I'll still watch this through to the end. the way I see it, the fans will be split between those who will and won't continue to watch this. they each will have their own reasons as to why whether it be obscure or dot-the-i's specific. over-fanatic, over-disappointed, over-whatever. mine is pretty obscure; I just want to watch this thing. and I am, in fact, enjoying it.

Overall: well, there's my review. I really do hate rating animes as a whole, and that especially goes for unfinished ones. I'll just go with the average. As much as I looked forward to it, I guess you can say I realistically expected it to not be all that great. The Persona series are great games, but they're not the best or most popular. And let's be serious. This is AIC ASTA we're talking about.

Story: The story will probably be about the same as the video game seeing how it is playing a long, so I don't think I will really have any issues with it. However the scenes seem to be a bit choppy. They chopped it up to quickly and it goes to the next part before you are able to capture the emotion. Like when his hand first gets sucked into the TV, it was not anything close to suspenseful, and I am not saying this just because I already knew what would happen.

Art: Oh my... I am very upset with ... the Art. The characters faces are blended strangely. The coloring just doesn't look right. The pattern on their uniforms is an eye sore and the character art does not compare to the art from the game. It is not as solid, and the expressions are not solid. this was one thing I thought I wouldn't have to encounter with this Anime. The Art for the Persona at the end of episode 1 was much better than the art through out the episode.

Sound: The sound seems to be okay, Yosukes voice does not quite fit his character. Some of the less important characters voices are not that great. When it comes to music they used the exact same music from the game which isn't shocking but they could of mixed it up a little bit. I feel like at this point that they were just trying to play it safe.

Character: The characters are okay. Except it seems to clip from one emotion to the other too quickly in some parts. Character display can go by too quickly at times. Once again the character off is a little off. I don't really like the changes.

Enjoyment/Overall: Unfortunately I am pretty disappointed with this so far. I expected something at least a little better than this. It would make a huge difference in the other categories if the art was better. The music is enjoyable because I am so attuned to it. I wish the main character stood out more. I will probably watch the rest of it though to see what becomes of it. If I had not played the video game I would probably of tossed this one to the curb and looked for something better to watch. I wish I didn't feel like I had to give this such a terrible review.

Note: This is just from watching the first episode so I will re evaluate my opinion when I am done watching it.

First of all this is the first episode so nothing is certain yet.

Anyway, let's start wasting my time on a review.

First, this is based from Persona 4, a PS2 videogame and a sequel to Persona 3 (Makes me wonder why there is no P3 anime). Takes place in the same universe, just no big creepy towers this time. As mentioned earlier it's the first episode, so I can't speak much yet, but..

Story:
Some things are omitted from the game. Mostly trivial stuff, things that do not make a significant difference. The story didn't develop much.. yet.
Everyone who played the game now should know how the story ... goes. And unless you're one of these New Game++++++++++ people, omitted stuff should not or annoy you very little.

Art:
Crap. I've got to the graphics part. Damn, this is not a videogame but hell it seems it invaded everywhere. Well, some people say looks don't matter, but people who know what marketing is would disagree. I'd also like to comment on them: Go protest for gay rights. (I do hope that offends.) It'll be great if they feel trolled, because those self-righteous bastards always find it justified to call me shallow.
Anyway as other reviewers noted, the art is not the best. But damnit, what were you expecting? 3D characters? Tactics menu? Personally I think the art is heartly enough, but that's perhaps because I watched it 720p on a 32' HDTV..

I bet the art will get 100/10 once we get to Rise's part.

Sound:
It's based on the game, so naturally the BGM from the game will be played. Because it is the game, just an anime version, tracks play accordingly.

Characters:
The only notable character is the MC, because in the game he doesn't speak (He does, you're just given usually three choices but there's no voice) and he does now. Feels the same for me.
Other than that, Yusuke still sexually harasses Chie and they get into occasional fights. Your normal animeistic fighting characters. Kind of disappointing.

Enjoyment:
Enjoyment.. it's pretty subjective. Actually, every damn word I type here is subjective. I enjoy it. Pretty sure some other people enjoyed it. Others maybe less.
I think that people who played the game will have a different type of enjoyment than people who did not. Different type is not less or more, don't get confused.
There's also some elements taken from the games. The day progression and the character development.

Overall:
Overalls suck! Oh, this isn't a fashion debate.. damn fashion disasters always have to ruin my day.
Overalls... this is the first episode. You know, magical stuff happens. Creepy people inviting you into their limo, with their assistant and who knows what happens there. There's still much to see.

Many video game-based anime titles I've come across haven't wowed me too well considering such titles are used mostly to promote their hit game source material and these don't always transition too well in creating a quality plot for an anime series. Persona 4 is another title I add to this growing list considering it's Playstation 2/ PSP video game source material was a huge hit with both American and Japanese fans thus this anime adaptation coming about. From what I gather, the video game is notable for its mix of RPG and social simulation elements through its Social Link system where your regular interactions ... with your teammates and other characters allowed you to gain and strengthen the abilities of powerful beings called Personas that are used to fight monsters called Shadows within a mysterious world that can be traveled into through televisions as the bonds you establish with the game's characters deepen.

This anime adaptation of Persona 4 takes on a mix of mystery/ action and slice-of-life comedy elements as the series mixes up episodes featuring Yu and his friends trying to figure out who is responsible for the mysterious murders and disappearances involving the TV world where they often battle enemy Shadows and gain a new ally in helping them solve the mystery like the former genre; and going about everyday activities like you would find in the latter genre. Rather than the series being prominently focused on the growing bonds that Yu establishes with different characters though, this anime adaptation appears to focus on how Yu's character becomes more open to others as he becomes more involved with the townsfolk, his friends and the relatives he stays with. This is clearly seen through the show's more mundane episodes as we see signs of Yu becoming more active, less withdrawn and willing to toss in the occasional witty line. This, and some of the show's mundane episodes, were highlights for me since there was clear development with Yu and some of the silly predicaments that he and his friends get themselves into. The show also sports some good quality visuals as they have bright colors and a good amount of visual detail with vast settings and the character designs very closely resembling how they looked from the video games.

Beyond these praises though, Persona 4: The Animation does suffer from the fact it seems to be trying too hard to be as faithful to its video game source material as possible. The opening sequences seen at the start of many of the show's episodes with Igor and Margaret are actually quite pointless in this anime adaptation as the two don't contribute anything and seem to be added on just to please fans of the video game. The Persona/ Shadow battles aren't too engaging at many points as either they seem to try too hard in adding elements from the game like gaining new cards, summon animations in the style of the video game and Yu conveniently being the only character capable of summoning different Personas; or adapting elements from shounen action titles with characters either getting up after being heavily damaged in battle and suddenly getting power boosts or upgrades to beat their seemingly unstoppable foe. While the show's various mundane episodes are usually fun to see, they add nothing new to Persona 4's main plot with the TV world and actually make that plot slow to a halt when they come along. Plus while Yu does get some reasonable character development throughout the series, the same can't be said for many of the title's other characters, especially those among Yu's group who are tacked on with differing archetypes and don't develop any further once they come to terms with their Shadows when they are rescued.

The Persona 4 video game seems like a fun little premise I'd be willing to play on my PS2 whenever I work up the interest to buy the game. But as an anime, it tries too hard to incorporate as many of its elements into the animated adaptation as possible, even if those elements aren't exactly relevant or hinder things such as plot progression, engaging action scenes and character depth. This is yet another addition to my list of mediocre and horrible anime adaptations of popular video games I had to sit through.

Persona 4 The Adaptation results

"Persona 4 The Animation" is based on the PS2 Game "Persona 4", and adapts the plot it in 25 episodes, covering it untill the normal ending (the game has multiple endings, and the "True ending" will come out as an OVA later).

[If you have not played the game and are interested in playing it, I recomend you to do so before watching so you won't kill the 60 hours+ gameplay's suspense, where the plot is much more detailed. The game is much better, really.]

People look to this anime in 2 ways: comparing it to the game, or looking at it independently. ... I will try to put things in both perspectives, but I can not deny the game keeps advantage by far in quality.

The story progression analysis

>Intro (Quite good)

The story begins when Yu Narukami (canon anime name of the game's nameless silent protagonisti) moves to his uncle and cousin's house in the "peaceful rural town" of Inaba, to stay for a year while his parents work aboard. Then, after his arrival a series of bizarre murders start to happen.
The first episode speeds up the slow game intro events into a wise way, merging part of the two first times they enter into the TV world into one, thus allowing an action sequence in it.

The scenes with the velvet open the episodes keeping track of the evolution of Yu's arcana powers by linking to other people. That was an aewsome idea and fitted very well the anime to represent the protagonist's visits to it (alongside some scenes with it during some episodes).

>First major change (Kind of upsetting)

Then the second episode made one of the major changes from the game (that became more clear as new episodes came out), the persona users would not use weapons nor fight directly agains the shadows. The combat in The Animation is fully by summoning, and if the casted personas take a hit, it's master will fell the damage.This second point is interesting and a good addition, but the lack of weapons helped to kill the action, even thou making sense (once in the game, even after the police oficcer issue they still carried weapons to Junes by "hiding" them and a lot of armors into their school uniforms, and we never saw any backpack...)

>The Action sequences (Bad)

If you have played the game you might be a little upset by now with this change (removing the weapons), but even the new audience may think the combat is dull, lacking of action and in most times "to easy" to win. Party members other than the protagonist are most of times useless and most of the job is done in seconds by him.
The animation in battles even in the bluray versions (that fix some weird animated points) doesn't help a lot, it's just not exciting.

>Social links (Good, well made for just 25 episodes)

In the game the "social links" were some sort of simulation date event's to raise the friendship level with someone, powering the arcana that represents it's life dilema thus making the protagonist more powerfull to summon personas of that respective arcana, and by it's max level allowing him to summon it's signature ultimate persona.
Without a guide and a new game+, most people will not master all the 21 social links, the anime covered that by shortcuting what takes to master or even the concept of really mastering them. It's hard not to be expectiong a game that can take more than 80 hours to finish to not be rushed in 25 anime format episodes. In that point, Persona 4 The Animation was good, but seeing how Persona Trinity Soul (weird and boring anime sequence to Persona 3) got twice episodes makes me wonder that this anime could have used the links a lot more, beeing even able to make fillers about side stories withou it beeing non interesting once these plots are really relevant for the game.

Mixing social links like with Strenght and Moon in one episode was a good Idea as well, that made the event's not that acurate to the game but turned it in the kind of "filler"/ modification that makes sense.

The first ending showing the obtained arcanas of the episode falling to Yu's hands was brilliant.

>The plot suspense (Bad)

Due it being rushed, the storyline had only a few moments to focus on beeing tense and create a heavier mistery atmosphere. That along with most of the humor scenes apearing among the investigations made it sound like joke or superficial. Even that simple the plot twists and suspense seemed a lot more intense in game then in the anime adaptation.
If you haven't played,once the plot is very rushed and it doesn't have a lot of episodes, you might watch it beeing ok to it due the lot of information they will be throwing at you (not that much).

>Humor (Sorry, but it was funnier in the game once it didn't seem that much like a joke most of times)

For the ones who played, most of the funny parts are in The Animation, but it's not that funny 'cause the rushed plot made it sound like the same jokes were beeing told again in short periods of time.
If you haven't played the game you may still notice a lot of humor sequences, I do not guarantee they will succeed, but there are some funny events.

>Silent Protagonist personality traits and power evolution (Ok but too rushed half of time)

The protagonist in game was silent and almost only talked by choices given to the player. With hiis personality becomes more strong by making friends and raising traits and that can be seen in the anime, where his trait status apears in the between break scene. Again that is something that apears to be too much focused in comedy, when sometimes he stands in a way players would not imagine (this akward moments are kind of funny for the ones who played, talking about fun who want to talk about murders? I mean, about the moment he falls in the river with the most "silent protagonist" face).
As he gets stronger bonds he is able to summon and fuse more powerfull personas, what gets kind of rushed for him to be summoning high level stuff in what should be the second dungeon of the game for instance.

>Audio (Ok, a lot from the original game sound track with some reencarnation remixes and good new ones, but many times missplaced)

I guess everything was too rushed to make some relevant sound tracks apear for a decent time (noes Heaven plays for only like 8 seconds).
The dub had a lot of actors who dubbed the game and that a very good thing.

>The Animation (Bad, lol)

Apparently the studio was having some issues among the cast and it not end well. Some of the animation was fixed to the bluray version but it doesn't save the action scenes just because they may look better in graphics.

>The Design (Good, downgraded in the anime)

The game's original Atlus' design looks more elegant, the old animated cutscenes from it are simple and the characters barelly move on them but the art style was "darker" even in the "everything is yellow" concept of the game. As I said, I don't think the animation keeps up with enough suspense.
In the animation the boys seem a little too "big / large" maybe because the way the uniform was drawn.

>Conclusion

Played the game score: 5 of 10

Haven't played the game score: 6 of 10

If you have played the game you may have a lot of complains but it's still enjoyable to watch to review the facts. If not it's quite a regular show but I still recomend you to play over to watch it if you have a chance.
Persona 4 The Animation had everything to be a great anime with more episodes, and the social link aspect could be used to creat cliche happy-go japanese anime schoolife fillers that would even be sort of fun to watch. Too bad it was so rushed and the combat so nerfed, being utopic here I would like to see a Persona 4 The Animation: Goldenhood (only the smarts wil get).

Adapting a video game story into any sort of media outlet is much, much harder than adapting, lets say, a manga into an anime. Video games are the most immersive medium of entertainment I feel, because for all intents and purposes, you ARE the main protagonist, and you are living out the story and setting the creators have given you. That being said, the tools used to create these immersive settings for the player, the game mechanics especially, are extremely hard to translate into any other medium, since you are not interacting with the world, just observing.

Quick disclaimer. I have played the game through ... once, and went straight into the anime after finishing it, so I apologize if it influences my review of the anime. I am under the belief that an adaptation doesn't have to be faithful to the source material in order for it to be good, so I will try to view it as it's own seperate entity.

The first thing I would like to talk about is the overall flow and pacing of the show. Translating 80+ hours of gameplay into 13 or so hours of anime means things are going to be tweaked around a bunch. That being said, the anime does a very good job of keeping the story in characters intact with such a limited timespace. However, the whole show feels very disjointed as a result. After revealing a certain plot point that is relevant to the story, the anime loves to timeskip to other days that are also important to the plot, creating this awkward pacing that sometimes skips through multiple days making it too fast, and sometimes having one episode be focused entirely within the timespan of a couple days, making it too slow.

However, there are some moments that I believe actually surpass the original source material. The biggest factor in this would certainly be the comedy. You'd think that the episodes focusing on comic relief would be kind of bad, but I enjoyed these more than the actual mystery parts of the show.
The actual mystery of the show is fairly weak, so that's probably the reason why.

A big part of this show is the main characters of the show getting kidnapped and thrown into this "TV World" where they meet their shadows. These shadows are pretty much the repressed feelings of that characters inner self; something inside of them that they want to forget about. Each main "party member" (except for the MC) gets these shadows, and they have to accept them, and when they do, they become personas. It's a pretty half baked explanation I know.

This setup creates some of the easiest character development possible. There wasn't as much as a focus on this as in the game, because of time restraints, but there was enough to create characters that are fairly layered. Other than that, the main bunch are extremely likeable, and add a lot to the enjoyment of the show, my personal favourite being Chie Satonaka. The side characters are less than spectacular for sure, since they are sidelined for the mystery, the main characters, among other things. Like, there is an episode where they try to develop 6 characters at once, that doesn't really work out at all.

The main protagonist, Yu Narukami, is pretty much a blank slate. This is one of those things that works much better in a game since you basically build his personality to your liking, but in anime, he is only seen as boring, and at times, without a personality. Granted, there are times where does genuinely have some great moments, particularly at the end of the show. That, and he is a surprising factor to the comedic aspects of the show (mainly because of the dub, but we will get to that later).

I won't spoil the main villain for you, but let's just say you probably won't expect it. The way they hide who the villain really is is one of the better aspects of the mystery. As for the villain itself, you might find him a bit of a turn off since his main motivation is "because I'm bored", but he is still an okay villain by the end of it.

The art stays pretty faithful to the game, which is nice. Everything looks very detailed, and the character designs are well done. The music is mainly just copy and pasted stuff from the game, which is fine since I like the music from the game. The standouts for OP's and ED's for me would have to be the second OP and ED (which aren't copy pasted).

The animation is a weird thing to talk about. I'm not an expert on this, so I apologize if I am wrong, but it feels a lot like how a poorly shot western action movie is filmed. With those movies, the action is filmed with quite a bit of shaky cam and lots of edited shots that last only a couple seconds to indicate that stuff is actually happening. This is used mainly to mask bad directing. This is kind of how the fight sequences in Persona 4: The Animation look. Multiple quick camera shots are used with a very heavy motion blur to make it seem like the animation is high quality, but in reality, it isn't. Granted, there aren't many fight scenes to begin with, but that is just something I felt needed to be adressed. Other than that, the animation is standard fare.

Finally, I'll talk about the dub. Since I played the game in English, it only made sense to watch the dub, since most of the people were voice actors for the game reprised their roles in this anime (except for Chie's VA, which made me very sad for a while). I feel they did a fantastic job, moreso than their performances in the game, but I have to mention two performances.

The first being Johnny Yong Bosch. In the game, he is the VA for the main character and Adachi, a rookie police detective. Since the MC barely talked at all, he only had to do various grunts and stuff mainly, and only had to do the VA for Adachi. However, in the anime, he still plays both roles, but Yu Narukami (the MC) gets much more talking roles, which meant he had to try and make two people with decent amounts of dialogue sound different from each other, and for the most part, he pulls it off, which I applaud him for. Not only that, but he is a big part in Yu actually having some emotions, along with his delivery of some of the comedic lines he says.

Secondly, we have Mary Elizabeth McGlynn for her performance of Naoto Shirogane. She plays the part of a male detective character very well to the point where she actually does sound like a guy, which is an impressive feat.


I want to say that the biggest problem with P4: The Animation is that it is too short, but that isn't really it's problem. With more episodes, even if things would be fleshed out more, it would be very hard to keep the viewers interest. This is exactly why game adaptations are very hard to make. That being said, it is probably one of, if not the greatest game adaptations for anime. It's shoddy pacing, lackluster side characters(except for a couple) and Yu Narukami, and average mystery/plot didn't really kill the enjoyment for me, as I still enjoyed the series wholeheartedly. Whilst not at the level of the game, I was invested into the characters, and the dub and comedy was a large selling point for me as well. If you don't want to spend 80+ hours on the game (which I would recommend as the game is quite fantastic), Persona 4: the Animation is actually a decent alternative.

This story is heavily laced in spoilers, so if you want to discuss it with me further, give me a shout on my profile. You can do the same if you want to discuss the game this anime was adapted from.

Decent adaption, If your looking to get into persona 4 just play the game on ps2 or PlayStation vita.

The plot is rushed(as expected) And just didn't have the same overall feel that the game has. There are some good comedic moments splattered around and there's no doubt the star of the show is of course the main protagonist,


But overall all the anime made me want to do is play the game again or im just tired of persona 4 because I couldn't count how much times I dozed off watching this.

This is one of the anime, where watching it can be a brilliant idea, or your worst choice in a long time. Starting from the routes, this anime was adapted from a game. The game was brilliant, and was highly renowned for being one of the best games of its kind on the PS2; so when the anime came out, people who played the game and were really looking forward to one of the best anime of the year, were quite disappointed. It wasn't that the anime was bad, for if it had been released as an anime before it was a game, reviews ... would probably have been higher. It's just that the anime paled in comparison to the game. Partly because scenes were missed out, partly because they knew the plot among other reasons.
However, if you have never played the game, this is an okay watch. Starting with the story, we have a pretty different plot. It deviates from the generic romance and happy supernatural anime. There is death and mysteries to be solved, however there are heroines, but don't watch the whole anime hoping for a love scene.
The art is good once you get used to it. The illustrator adapted something new into his work which is meant to make faces look more realistic. It does work, but for a while the characters look like they have tanned chins. The sound is fairly good, taking some songs from the game, along with using some new songs and sounds not used in Persona 4 or previous releases of the Persona games.
The characters are a bit odd. The protagonist has this whole 'bystander looking out for everyone from the sidelines, whilst still remaining the center of attention' thing going on. This strangely works and is one of the things I like about the show. In the breaks of episodes you can see the protagonists development in his bonds with other people, improving his diligence, knowledge, expression, understanding and courage. The other main characters seem to all revolve around the protagonist, with completely different personalities. It's actually amazing how they all became friends, even in the circumstances they had to deal with. There is slight romance, but nothing to really take notice of.
On the whole, I enjoyed this anime a fair amount, but nothing really stood out, so I'm giving it a fair six.

It's ironic that a game structured similarly to an Anime would create such a poor adaptation. For the interests of disclosure, I am a huge Persona fan. The expected fanboy criticism of an adaptation is that it isn't loyal enough to the source material. I actually think this is remarkably faithful; what this anime lacks is the re-imagining needed to make a great game into a great anime.

For those completely unfamiliar with P4, it begins with a high school student, Yu Narukami, moving to Inaba for a year. His arrival coincides with a serial murder case that seems to be tied ... with an urban legend named "The Midnight Channel." Yu and his classmates find themselves caught up in this case as discover an ability to enter TV's, use summonings called "Persona's," all of which relate to the serial murders.

The biggest discrepancy between a persona game and an anime is the silent protagonist. Its role in a game is to enhance roleplaying, perhaps immersion, but this has no place in an anime. Somehow, Yu actually manages to reprise his role as the essentially silent protagonist. A rare deadpan joke with 1 or 2 lines meant to inspire at ciritcal points are the extent of his verbalizations. His utter LACK of leadership and vapid, almost robotic personality doesn't fit with the respect he gets from his comrades. He is seen as the leader by the group when to viewers, he's clearly a Robin, or maybe even an Alfred. Not a Batman.

The pace is breakneck, and the series suffers for it in the early going. We never get to soak in the creepiness of the murders, the newscasts, the body positions, and the bizzaro TV world. Even the "social links," relationship building sequences between the main character and classmates, feel rushed. Absent are the dramatic changes of tone, or the critical moments that completely change the relationships' course.

It seems this Anime was designed with fanservice in mind. It assumes everyone knows the story and doesn't bother illustrating it properly. Instead, it just tries to cover as many events in the game as possible. Less is definitely more in this case. It's a nice recap of the P4 story for those who have played the game for anyone who needs one, but I wouldn't recommend it beyond that.

Alright! My 4th review here at mal.. first if you are a grammar nazi then don’t bother reading my review. Why? English is not my native language. Some or most are spoilers ahead so if didn’t played the game then it’s better to back off and read other’s review for this adaption. Since this contains major or a lot of spoilers thru out the anime be brave enough to click the spoilers button if they have lol. And I am a huge fan of Persona 4 so here goes nothing lol. So, if you are disappointed with my grammars then I am sorry seriously ... :P


Alright let us start with the BGM, I rate it 7. The BGM is poorly overused. Sometimes the BGM is making it awkward to watch this cause the game itself doesn’t have much voice over thru out the dialog. The anime is different cause you will hear the characters talking to each other with voices. Although the execution when on the dungeon is still there the dialogues are purely voiced out or overlapped so the great BGM is replaced by shouting/talking. This is also great cause they’ve used the original cast from the game. Also note that the OP 1 and OP 2 are from the game. Pursuing My True Self as OP 1 from the OP Credits from the game got remixed. Longer instrumental lol. Sky's the Limit well, kinda good for the beat.Beauty of Destiny for ED, I didn't really listened to this one. Except for the ED song from Episode 18. Burn My Dread OP at episode 15 brought back the atmosphere at persona 3.


Art. I will rate it 7. 2d isn’t fit for the usual characters that I often see when I am playing the game version of this although Yukiko is hotter than usual lol. I have no complains either at the animation. Some fighting scenes are good some are not. The lack of color is what I am pointing out here. But if you don’t mind the colors like I do its fine.


Now for the story …. If you didn’t really played the game before you won’t understand a goddamn thing about this. Social links are the HUGE yeah I really mean HUGE part of the story. Although I am happy the social links fit the situation from the anime, some are really out of place like. I will give out the details later on when the airing is finished so there would be not much spoilers. I will rate 6/10



Like I said earlier about the story you won’t understand a goddamn thing about what the eff is happening at the characters. The characters revolves around the Social Links. some scenes are cut or rather than giving them more screentime they just cut the whole thing out. I will put 6 at the characters.


Now for the enjoyment so far for me. I will give it 7. I understand what is the “Social Link” so the enjoyment for this anime is a hit for me. I think they only focused on the Hermit, Chariot, Lovers, Magician, Emperor, Fortune, Star, Priestess and Justice social link. Although some of the awaited social links are seen over the anime but not that good compare to the game.
Overall? I will give this a 6. Some fit some doesn’t . I believe that handling a game to anime is HARD. But not this crappy show although I am still watching it and barely holding until the “ true ending “

So this is objectively pretty good in most ways, but when it comes down to it my question is why does this exist.

If you haven't played the game, this gives you a pale imitation of a lot of the best events. You should just play the game.

If you have played the game, then this mostly provides rushed rehashes of a lot of scenes and is not worth most of the time it takes to get through the series.

The thing that this show was best at was characterizing the down time and casual moments in the game. Being able to hear the protagonist added a ... level of flow that made the comedy feel more natural. The summer break is probably the best addition to the Persona brand.

So while the story is adapted well, and it looks and sounds good, I really recomend playing the game over this, and if you've done that, watching a funniest moment compilation on youtube.

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 ... & P5 over P4. Certainly doesn't help that Rise's simping for Yu, Yosuke's homophobia & Teddie's sleaziness really got on my nerves quickly.

6/10 for me, but it's an 9/10 or maybe even a 10/10 at it's peaks. Too bad this show is so inconsistent...

Link to read “The FeMC Paradox” series here: https://archiveofourown.org/series/3456529

If you’re a fan of Persona 4, the author of this series may have something in the works for you soon…