I love Persona 5. It's one of my all time favorites. And an anime adaptation was bound to be heading towards us as a substitute for people who couldn't play the game. However even judging it without playing the game and just viewing it as an anime, Persona 5 The Animation feels so rushed. Only clocking in at around 26 episodes (28 if you want to count the 1 hour specials), it's a difficult task to accompany that length to a game that took me 100+ hours to finish. But I might as well. I didn't finish it the first time I watched it in 2018, but now I did and let's say I wish I hadn't.
Story + Characters: 6/10 (Story) | 5/10 (Characters)
Ren Amamiya is a transfer student who got arrested for defending the honor of a woman who was about to be sexually assaulted. He is then under probation and put under the hands of Sojiro Sakura and is sent over to Shujin Academy. He meets his newly found friends Ryuji, Ann, Makoto, Haru, and even others such as, Yusuke from Kosei High School, and Futaba Sakura, Sojiro's adopted daughter. He even meets friends with a talking cat named Morgana. All of them are part of a group called The Phantom Thieves and their main goal is to put an end to the corrupted people in Shibuya by stealing their distorted hearts and making them confess their sins.
I'm lumping both the story and characters together this time because they both easily share the same flaw this anime has. There's no room for development at all for both of them due to how rushed the anime is. Characters don't get their time to shine all that much with Ren and when they do it's pretty brief. What usually takes growing connections and relatable and heartwarming moments, alongside with unlocking new abilities through skill links, ends up being nothing more than a bunch of filler. I understand cutting down in order to make the anime flow better, but it doesn't even do that right. Some scenes just show up and end out of nowhere for a brief second not adding amount to anything. It feels so awkward and ruins the moments. With that said, the story remains the same as it was before. It's still entertaining but not by much with the problems addressed before. And the character which ended up being some of the most relatable characters, ended up just being one noted and with no special bonds with the characters during Ren's off time, they really don't play an important factor all that much. They still stay true to themselves so I guess that's a redeeming quality I guess.
I think Ren got the worst of it. During his time in the anime he's mostly silent, only spewing out generic lines such as "We're the Phantom Thieves" and "We'll stop you!" It almost feels like the writers just saw the dialogue options in the game, found the best one, and just put them in the script.
Art: 5/10
And while we're on the topic of rushed. Jeez this animation. The game's anime cutscenes were by Production I.G. and Domerica. This time, however, the animation was done by CloverWorks. And it was here I questioned why exactly they couldn't get Production I.G. to do the anime. Even if the cutscenes weren't great, they were miles better than how CloverWorks ended up doing it. While it stays true to the style of the games, the actions scenes are so painful to watch due to how lifeless it is. Even the all out attacks look uninspiring. I assume CloverWorks and Atlus have a strong relationship since they've done the Persona 4 anime plus the Persona 3 movies as well. But if this anime's animation didn't convince me, I'm not looking forward to those either in terms of art style.
Sound: 7/10
I think the sound design might be the best thing about this anime. Though that's because all of the music is from the games themselves. Don't get me wrong, the soundtrack is excellent in game and the dubbing is too. I personally find the english cast to do a great job as their respective characters. With that said, I feel sad for Xander Mobus who plays as Joker and only has to read 2 or 3 lines every 3 minutes. He deserves much better.
Enjoyment and Verdict:
Coming from someone who loved the game, this isn't a good adaptation. I can only recommend this anime to anyone who doesn't feel like playing the game for so long. But even then it has a lasting appeal. Up until the end, the anime just ends up being nothing more than a shadow of the game it was adapted from. And it's better off just playing the game instead. Heck, watching a let's play of the game is a better option to be honest.
5/10
