Persona 5: The Animation

I'm one of the people who actually had fun with the anime, but even I can recognize it has some flaws. For one, it's length. They are trying to squeeze over 100 hours of story intensive gameplay into a show a tenth of the size, however, they try to remain faithful to the story, which means leaving most everything in. This leads to some episodes, like the first, feeling kind of like a rushed mess. Something I know other people may complain about, and I admit to feeling some frustration with myself, is the fight scenes in the anime: unlike the intensive boss fights characteristic of the game, everything had to be over and done with in 15 minutes or less. And the regular encounters are even worse, ending in two minutes. Again, sometimes thus makes things seem kinda rushed. Overall, it was a good watch, but I would recommend playing the game over this.

This is a solid series despite setting itself up to fail in a couple of ways.

The first is the flash-back intro. It begins with a character who, without context, appears as a cocky punk you couldn't care less about who gets caught doing crimes. Then, as he is questioned, you get obnoxiously vague exposition that finally leads to the flashback where the actual story is.

I personally benched the show for months because of this intro. I only finally finished the first episode because it is my personal rule to give any show one full episode to prove itself. This being my introduction to the game, which I later played, it also made for a very slow, weak un-engaging start to the game. Clearly, the developers were banking on the built up good will from previous iterations.

Flashbacks/forwards are only ever a cheap, detrimental story device or essential enhancing element with no middle ground. It's obvious which category this falls into and very unfortunate that it continues to punctuate the series.

The second way the anime shoots itself in the foot is content packaging/episode release. The packaged 26 episode anime doesn't actually finish the story. Without the final episodes, which you must know about and then hunt down separately, the putative ending from the first 26 is just a pointless slap in the face.

I never quite know who anime adaptations of games are for.

For those who played the game they are usually judged against game negatively as an update of the olde timey complaint wherein the book was better than the movie instead of judging each according to the genre of which it is actually a part.

If one is taking this apples/oranges approach wouldn't the anime, unsurprisingly and necessarily, be lesser since you are passively watching a truncated version of the game with no new story elements?

Yet, conversely, for anyone who hasn't played the game such adaptations are usually unwatchable exactly because they 1. Are set up such that they depend on you already being familiar with the game and 2. Are too much like a game, making for awkward and clumsy anime.

This adaptation also occasionally trips up from being too much like a game, e.g. Distracting bits of dead-end plot that only exist because they are translations of game elements, the main protagonist being unnaturally mute and un-reactive because that is the de facto for first-person RPGs, etc. But these are comparatively minor and might go unnoticed by many viewers.

So I am marking this pretty high because it actually stands up pretty well on its own with serious and relevant plot elements, flushed out characters, good world building and intriguing neo-noir type mystery.

This series is made exclusively for fans of the game. The pacing is inconsistent and jumpy, and the core ideas were spread out in a messy way. For someone who hasn't played Persona 5, I can't recommend the anime at all.

Characters aren't given enough time do develop the emotional connection you would have in the game - and perhaps it's hard, given in the game, you'd be spending a few dozen battles with these friends, and getting to hear about the banters and fun they have with each other. As a result, there are some situations that were significant in the game to the development and motivations for the characters simply don't land in the show - in fact, it seems ridiculous and over-exaggerated. The time to explore your friends and pals really help develop them and understand why these are such important moments to them.

In order to keep this in 25 (26?) episodes, they had to really cut some stuff, and unfortunately, that means a lot of the explanation as well. Having played the games multiple times myself, I already knew and understood all the concepts, but I can imagine a lot of new comers would be confused. These skips also reduces the significance of palace crawling - in the game, these are gruelling, difficult tasks. While it isn't uncommon to finish the first part of the palace in a single run, it's very obviously taxing on the characters, and this isn't something that is conveyed well in the show. The first part is often skipped with just a few scenes.

The little Easter eggs in terms of animation seems really out of place without the context of the game. All out attacks, travel menus, etc don't really match the style of the rest of the animation. Without that context, it can seem like the animators were lazy, but it's actually just the animators paying homage to the show.

On the other hand, for those who played and love Persona 5, this was the perfect tribute. We already know and love all of these characters, and seeing the story come through again was a treat. The music from the game(s) plays at the time you would expect it to, they even added in the transit screen, all out attack, and executions. The humour of the banters are kept great, and there's a little bit of each character in the show.

The story isn't altered much, other than parts that need to speed up the story to help it get through it in a much shorter package. There's a few extra scenes here and there that are just great to see, and Joker has a LOT of voice lines.

If you loved the games, this is the perfect tribute to top it off, but don't expect anything out of the ordinary. If you haven't played Persona 5, I don't recommend you watch this show at all.

The show is a little lack-luster, but has a lot of lovable characters, an amazing story and is just overall a fun anime

While it doesn't quite reach the heights of the game, it is still a great watch in its own right. First of all, the good stuff, the cast performances and respect to the source material make it amazing. Each actor suites their character well and they genuinely make you fall in love with their character. The themes stay intact as well and the story holds surprisingly well. Some of the animation is so-so but not terrible. I think its weakest links are the pacing and Jokers character. It makes sense to have a semi-silent protagonist in the game but in the animation he's just kind of there and feels a bit out of place. Also the character development was a bit more fleshed out in the games but the pacing moves things very fast so if you didn't play the game first, it might be confusing to watch. Overall, it's rough around the edges but an enjoyable and engaging series.