Seiji Kishi did P4: The Animation a hell of a lot of justice. It may not have had the biggest budget or the highest-quality art, but the slice-of-life episodes were hilarious, and there were several really memorable (and emotional) action scenes. One need only recall the remarkably well-handled summer episodes, which retold several social link arcs in a really entertaining and satisfying manner, to realize the core strengths of the show. The anime ended up capturing the tone of the game perfectly and, for what it's worth, the pacing was alright (the game itself is certainly not much better in that regard).
I could go on - what about Yu Narukami, whose nonchalant and deadpan lines from the game carried over seamlessly into the show, and occasionally ended up being even funnier? He's a prime example of how to go about constructing the personality of an originally silent protagonist. Not to mention he even goes through a little arc of his own that wasn't present in the game.
And here we have P5 the Animation, which starts out at a lightning-fast pace. Not too different from P4. I can certainly forgive that to an extent, as it's standard introductory episodes fare. But in this case the build-up to the Kamoshida conflict (and the aftermath) feels so rushed, that what is considered by many the most poignant act in the game turns out to be the first real low point of the show. The production values are at their worst around this point as well.
Thankfully, the show begins to pick up with Yusuke's arc. The pacing slows down a bit. Goro gets some significant screen time to himself and his encounters with the Phantom Thieves, which makes sense considering the conflict of ideals which the story has to establish before it can move forward. Makoto is no less likable either and her design looks great. The main characters' confidant arcs which have been included thus far get resolved within an episode or two, whereas the other confidants have been shown in a few scenes, occasionally aiding the Phantom Thieves (as is the case with Ohya), and I can only assume they are going to have their stories fleshed out sooner or later. Kawakami's encounter as a maid with Ren was actually funnier than the game and she's somehow even more adorable.
Our protagonist Ren doesn't quite match up to his game self. While he retains the semblances of a lovable dork, he's missing those snide dialogue choices from the game, and actually doesn't speak that much relative to the other characters at all. I can't fault his representation here too much, as keeping the protagonist's blank-slate character was a reasonable decision, if a bit on the safe side.
Before I go any further, what do you think are the P3/4/5 games actually about? The typical response would be a cross between a dating sim and a dungeon crawler with demons. So why haven't the creators of this show sought to adapt both these aspects?
See, the Persona v demon battles are embarrassingly short and poorly animated. This is assuming there is an animated battle taking place on-screen, as they haven't even bothered doing most of them. To the average fan of the games, this feels unfortunately alienating. P5 is even lengthier than P4, yet it's possible the former will end up having fewer episodes than the latter, for which I find there's absolutely no excuse. Of course they'd rather fill the episodes with more story, but this begs the question of why the series was planned like that in the first place. Knowing P5 replaced shadows with classic SMT demons, each with its own quirky personality, it wouldn't hurt to see them in action a little more.
The game is also known and loved for how stylish it is. But the moment the anime tries to emulate some of that style, you know you're getting mixed results at best. There's no need to include the red-black transitions that tell us that a day has gone by or the characters are moving to a new place. And that all-out attack animation has yet to be neatly animated. The art in general is alright, although the show creates an atmosphere that's not nearly as evocative or moody like that of the game.
I do hope the show ultimately gets the treatment it deserves. It's not a terribly boring watch by any means - just really disappointing to big-time fans.
