Reviews

I don't get how this movie (and the persona animations in general) get 9s and 10s. They have always had rushed episodes, subpar art and animation, and in the case of the P3 films, go through progresively worse directors and scriptwriters as the films go on. I went into this particular film exprcting a swift end to the shitstorm of a series this was. To my surprise, however, we got 40 striaght minutes of fantastic character development and internal conflicts being expanded on in the wake of what is thought to be the last days of humanity, catalyzed by their own actions. We see the city fill with apathy syndrome sufferers, and eventually just empty out altogether, leaving a feeling of isolation and dread. I was caught off gaurd with how well the movie captured this environment and these feelings so well, and I was excited for the conclusion of this movie, where every member of SEES overcomes their trials alone and evenyually comes back stronger than ever with a goal to defeat and seal Nyx.

Then the sun came out.

The emotially manipulative music blasted over our cast magically getting over their problems through one random deus ex machina event one after another, just in time for the big generic bad guy fight (But not without showing off all the Personas we are contractually obligated to shoehorn in!).

In only 5 minutes, the movie managed to shit the bed so hard with the hollow resolutions to each character arc that had been elaborated on in the movie. For example, Mitsuru knocks a photo over because the sun is in her eyes for the first time in weeks, and finds a key in the frame. She goes to her mansion, and a maid directs her to a locked room where her (dead) father kept wine that was bought on the year of her birth, and he meant to share it with her on her 18th birthday. He died earlier in the series, and for the last couple of movies she has done her best to get over her depression over it. The scene then ends, cutting to another bullshit asspull. Keep in mind this whole scene was 30 seconds, and wasn't even the most insulting (Fuuka's character resolution was literally sending her "friend" Natsuki a text, and eventally feeling happy that it didn't go through.)

In conclusion, unless you like anything Persona or SMT related, don't watch this. I could gp on about how the animation can be stilted and lazy at times, or how the character are mere husks of their in-game counterparts, or how the music and game are placed oddly and awkardly, but this is becoming a wall of text already. I'll end with this. This movie is a more of a promotional movie for Persona 3 than an actual "Film". Don't watch this if you want a deep drama. Watch this for the desu anime friendship squad.