Persona 4: The Animation – Even Better Than I Had Hoped It Would Be

Aired in Japan last night and available as a simulcast for both North American and UK fans (Unfortunately neither Siren Visual or Madman Entertainment have commented about a simulcast for Australia) – Persona 4: The Animation has overdone itself and in my opinion, could be one of the best anime series this season – if not the year. Starting exactly where the game started off, you begin with the normal blurb from Igor, hinting at possible changes to the protagonists Personae throughout the series. The first episode takes you up pretty much to the middle of Yu, Yosuke and Chie’s first trip into the Television, which did mean that they did have to cut some things out of the first episode (It seems like they were under the impression most people watching it would either have played the PS2 game or could easily catch up on the few missing pieces – which I suppose were not that important). The story remains faithful to the source until the ending where Yu’s Persona awakens in a battle trying to escape the television – giving him a little bit of personal attention and showcasing the Television World, which is never really given a close look outside of the dungeons.

The series retains some of the little bits and pieces from the game that most anime adaptations would leave out. For example, they have kept the weather report appearing as the day switches and seemingly left the personality system that in the game – had you performing tasks in order to further your personality in traits such as “Courage”, “Knowledge” etc. However, the core story was well put forth and provided they keep up the motivation, it should be a hit for both fans of the series and those new to it. I will admit, I was not sold on the designs initially and thought they were a bit too ambitious…. but that thought lasted all of a few minutes then I grew to appreciate just how well the designs were done – kudos to AIC A.S.T.A who were responsible for the animation and Aniplex who were responsible for Production.

In terms of music quality – the series seems to have retained most if not all of the songs from the original game series – including the J-Pop music track “Reach Out To The Truth” which was used in the battle, which whilst maybe not suiting the serious nature of the battle, always adds that extra something to it. There was no Opening or Ending sequence for this episode, which I assume will be starting next week. Voice acting retains most of the original Japanese voice-acting cast from the game, and personally – I prefer and am used to the English dub cast, but hopefully Sentai Filmworks will be able to get the old cast back for their release next year.

Overall, out of all the series being released this season – I would recommend this one the highest unless something really spectacular comes out over the next week or two. Persona 4: The Animation is not a series to be missed.