All the series that I've reviewed up until now have been short series or movies, so they've been easy to review in an all-in-one format, but I'm now stepping up my game (unintentional pun), and reviewing a series double the length of those I've reviewed before.
Personally I feel the longer the series, the harder it is to review in an all-in-one format, as there's more content to review, but as this series was set in 2019, I thought it was a must to review it... in 2019, and with one day to go, we're getting down to the wire.
Was also planning to post reviews for the penultimate and ultimate movies of Digimon Adventure -tri- before we entered 2020, but since losing my review of the final movie, I've not re-watched, thus re-reviewed that movie.
Well, with that pre-amble over, onto the review:
Synopsis:
Two brothers, Kanzato Shin and Jun return to their childhood home, after staying with a relative for nearly ten years; during the flight home, Shin has a dream where something emerges from him; the two brothers find themselves locked out, as their elder brother, Ryou did not meet them at the airport, so they go to restaurant; returning from the restaurant, they encounter a fortune teller with a long nose.
Story:
A sequel to Persona 3 before the thought of Persona 4 had ever come to the minds of the staff at ATLUS; it's set ten years after Persona 3, and could be described as a spirit sequel more than anything else.
There are a number of similarities between this, and the game it spins off from: in both, the theme is Memento Mori; both are driven by an event ten years ago; unexplanable things are happening, however whilst in the game it is mass apathy, here the main event is disappearances.
With the development of Persona 4, this series has now been retconned, however there are similarities between this series, and later game entries, such as chief for a day, where Kanami Mashita was supposed to come to Inaba in Persona 4.
Additionally, in this series, we see that a person can be affected when something happens to their other self, which is something that plays heavily in Persona 5; it also plays into Persona 4: Dancing All Night... and Persona 3, if the explanation in P4D is anything to go by.
Score: 9/10 - the series has a deep story to it, with ups and downs, but the series does seem to be tracing the same template as the game it spins off from, rather than forging its own path.
Animation:
For A-1 Pictures, the animation is surprisingly good, that said, reviewing the list of A-1's animation work, I can't remember faulting any of the series I've watched, except for Fate/Apocrypha, which I felt had an inconsistent art style, and I'm not the only one that thought so, going by the image by xin yu hua yin.
https://safebooru.donmai.us/posts/2976333
Persona 4, which retcons this series, is also animated by A-1, which may be why the characters in this series have similar designs to those in that game, or at least, in my opinion.
Other A-1/Persona contributions include Persona 4 Golden the Animation and all but one of the Persona 3 movies, but regarding the movies, they are animated in the style of AIC, who animated the first movie.
Score: 9/10 - the only instances I can fault the animation is when the character designs don't look quite right, and this is simply due to when the characters are not quite in the forefront.
Sound:
Most music that features in the series is original music, rather than music from Persona 3; the soundtrack has a similar sound to that of Read or Die (OVA) and R.O.D the TV, which makes sense, as it's the same composer, Iwasaki Taku.
The series does, on occasion, feature music from Persona 3, such as one instance in the first episode, two instances in the second episode, and other instances in episodes later on; in addition to familiar music, the series does feature familiar seiyuu from the game, such as Mamiko Noto, but in a different role to the game.
Just past halfway through the series, there's a change in the opening and ending department; both openings are good, but the endings are kind of, a bit, boring, or rather, the series is that good, that I can't handle waiting one minute thirty seconds for the ending to finsh, and move onto the (preview and) next episode.
Score: 9/10 - the only thing I'll fault it on is the endings, but as I've said, it could be just because I want to continue the story as soon as possible.
Characters:
The series is pretty much made up of new characters, however there are two characters that return from the original game, as well as another character, that's possibly a character from Persona 3; in addition, some characters do feel similar to ones from Persona 3.
From near the start of the series, the main character, Shin is part of a love triangle that includes his elder brother, Ryou, and their childhood friend, Eiko; Shin loves Eiko, but Eiko loves Ryou.
One of the main character's school friends, Kanaru has an addiction to Shadow Extractions, whilst another of school friend, Megumi is staunchly against this activity; they work together, with a number of other characters to help Kanaru beat her addiction.
Another of the main character's school friends, Sakiba, sees his father return after being missing for ten years, however his father's conciousness is now in the body of a woman; I feel the direction for the character is somewhat wrong, as the character's actions seem to feminine, to me.
The characters are well developed, and developments continue throughout the series; in addition to Kanaru's addicition to Shadow Extraction, the series indicates that she has a concious self, and an unconcious self, which is explored further as the series goes on.
That said, I do have to wonder why Kanaru is never part of the Persona sortie that is developed in the series; was it thought that Kanaru's Persona, Astarte was weak, or not a fighting type Persona, or was there another meaning to it?
Score: 9/10 - whilst there is quite a lot of development, I do feel the series re-uses some of the character types from the game, although even the games do, what with Persona 4 Arena featuring a new Anti-Shadow Suppression Unit.
Final Thoughts:
Since the introduction of Persona 4, the series is no longer canon, however that's not to say that it couldn't still exist within one universe within the Shin Megami Tensei multiverse.
The female protagonist from Persona 3 Portable is often referred to as non-canon, due to the fact that she does not appear anywhere other than in Person 3 Portable.
As of Persona Q2, this has been addressed, in that she exists within the multiverse, which means anything is possible; there could be a universe where Persona 3 does lead onto this series.
The Persona 3 movies even feature characters that were exclusive to the female route, hinting at the possibility that they could have existed in the male route, they were just unseen.
Whilst it appears that the majority of people consider this series nothing more than a bad dream... I actually like this series, I've even considered how this series could work as a game, and if it was to fit in with the introduction of the later games in the series.
Images come from my cubeupload account only (the sun is setting on reviews with images linked from my Photobucket account), but were originally from (in reverse order); Persona Central, fightersgeneration, minitokyo and Shin Megami Tensei wikia.
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