Persona 5 the Animation TV Specials

I decided to watch this series after seeing a letsplay by Lost Pause for Persona5 and was curious at how well it would do compared to Persona4: the Animation. I have not played any of the Persona games, full disclaimer, so I can not compare whether this was a good adaptation of the game. Overall, this is a decent anime, and this review assumes you'll be watching the actual series prior to the specials.

The story and characters have to be summarized for a project of this nature, so there is a sense that a lot of the minor characters are sort of shoved into the ... narrative. This is a bit sad considering that the Persona4: the Animation and Persona5 (from what I've seen), plays heavily on the idea of forming relationships with characters.

The animation seems to get a little spotty at points, but that is more the exception to rule. The music is catchy and I can see why the original game got a lot of praise for the soundtrack. Overall, this show has a decent story with decent pacing, though a cliffhanger ending to the first special made me angry after the series proper ended on a brutal cliffhanger.

I would recommend this series to either a fan or a novice who wants a summary of the game rather than playing. It also works as a very long advertisement for the game, and perhaps I will edit my review once I play the game.

Until then, I hope you enjoy.

Well, well, I've never played any personas, so I'll only evaluate them as an anime. Overall it was quite disappointing, I had really enjoyed the first special, but the second/conclusion, left a lot to be desired, simply the final battle is decided with a cry of support, an invocation of a very strong "persona" who decided everything with a blow, besides those classic phrases of effect that have no effect at all, because we agree, are very bland, honestly, it seemed like generic anime that has no idea for a battle or for the construction of a dialogue, another negative point were the characters that ... had a prominence in the scene as if they had in fact some relevánica in the anime, and they did not have. In the end, I was really sad at this conclusion. (sorry for the spelling mistakes)

I hate that MAL updated this to include both OVAs because it means I need to delete my review and rewrite it. Anyway, thank you for upvoting my previous review to the top spot and I appreciate every single person that takes their time to read what I write.

So without further ado, hoy lads. Welcome back to the review. On today's episode, I promised to show you how to how to hack into the Pentagon whilst only using Futaba's social link.

It's the same shit as the 26 episode anime. It's an uninspired mess of a good game and it's truly just sad to watch. ... It's potential gone to waste. Now for step 1, make your way to Washinton D.C. so you can use the Pentagon's free wi-fi.

I've written a full review on the first 26 episodes already and it mostly applies to this OVA too; pacing is off and feels gross. animation quality is poor albeit improved a tiny bit for the OVA, sound design can get awkward, and some of the greatest moments are either cut or cut down to meet that 55 minute mark. Speaking of, it's much too long and should've been just been with the original episodic run, especially considering the quality. I found myself constantly checking how long I had left which is not a good sign of anything. They could have easily split this up into 3 to 4 additional episodes, 4 preferably so it wouldn't feel as stupidly rushed as it does. The fight scenes are still a disgrace to watch, I mean they're summoning demons that represent themselves, you can do a bunch of cool stuff with that. What is supposed to be the 'final' fight of the game just turns into a snore fest; Persona breathes fire, character hit, some voice foley, rinse and repeat until the dude breaks. Things simply just happen. Some other scenes were awfully pointless too, such as Tae casually walking passed LeBlanc or Kawakami sitting with the protag asking if he wants a massage. These could've easily been removed in favour for absolutely anything else that drives the plot forward or to reduce the duration of the episode. As for step 2, on their wi-fi, Google "how to hack into the pentagon" and follow the first YouTube tutorial.

The second OVA, Stars and Ours is no better. In fact at times I thought it was even worse. The 3D models they used are what stood out to me the most, as well as the horrid framing of specific shots that should not have been so terribly framed. Pacing was gross, music was lacklustre, it’s what you’ve come to expect from the anime, however this time voices often felt out of sync with mouth movements. That could have been a clientside issue but I’ve never had this happen before so I’d like to believe it’s not. Personally, I was hoping for an alternative ending, considering someone in CloverWorks said they were going to do something different. The only thing different to the original game is this dreadful quality. Step 3, throw your phone in the bushes across the road and turn location on; this'll distract the pentagoons as you do the next step.

Finally though, the anime has come to a close. We’ve been given an announcement for Persona 5 The Royal and things are looking fairly okay for the future of Atlus’ most profitable franchises. But to reiterate and round this review off: Sega/Atlus, get rid of CloverWorks and whoever owns the license to do your adaptations now. They either don't care about your work or you're forcing them to pump this out at ridiculous speeds, and I'm starting to think you may not care either if it's netting you income. That's not a good look. Final step, enter the building with Futaba, she has the keys.