Persona 4: The Animation — First Impression

If you’re going to adapt a video game as an animated series, you should actually adapt it. No, taking each event from the game and making the faces twitch doesn’t cut it. This is not an animated series, it’s a non-interactive video game.

The transitions are abrupt, and we don’t have any time to get used to the characters. The creators seemed to believe that a moment spent without someone talking is a moment wasted. The entire thing is rushed. Why? It’s not like there’s much of a story to tell. At this rate they’ll be done in half the time they have.

This show also had about the worst comedic timing imaginable. “This poster…” “AAAAAH! MY BLADDER’S HAD IT!” “Whathat’sall?You’repeeingrighthere?Gimmeabreak!Pleasestophimnarukami!” “Eh? Why?” HAHAHAHA “Ican’tgowithyouwatching!””‘Scuse me?!” “Oh,crud.It’syourfaultifIgetcystis.” “You’reunbelievable.It’snotlikeIwantedtowatchanyway.” “Thengooutside!” “Ok!” “AAAAHAMONSTERS!!!” This is pretty much what the episode sounded like to me. Slow down guys! It’s ok to breathe! There was no sense of mystery or tension from being in the world of the TV, since we barely had time to see it. The monsters weren’t frightening, just odd.  There was not any time to take in what was happening.

And the “tributes” to the game are downright obnoxious. Showing the calendar every time the date changes? The status window as the commercial break screen? Using the exact same lame critical hit animation as the game? This is an anime. If he got a critical hit, SHOW US THE #$^*#$%@ CRITICAL HIT.

I feel like I’m becoming an angry blogger lately. But come on. This was ridiculous. Tamayura was boring, but ok, some people like cute girls, I can see that. Mashiroiro is crap, but it’s easy to make and it sells. But this episode? I can’t think of a single justification for airing it. It was as if I were playing the game but fast forwarded to the point where you can’t read the dialogue, without any choices to make and on auto battle.

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8 thoughts on “Persona 4: The Animation — First Impression

    1. You might found it better than I did— I’m not in the best of the moods at the moment, which may be convoluting the issue.

      I thought Chihayafuru started out ok. Last Exile might turn out well, and I’m holding out hope for Un-Go and Guilty Crown as well. Still, this season is not off to a good start…

  1. I agree that this season doesn’t have much yet, but I enjoyed watching Persona 4. It’s probably because I spend many hours playing the game, but the anime gave me plenty of nostalgic feelings.

    To me, an anime can have any style the creators want, as long as it works. The commercial break transitions are ‘different’ that other shows with still-shots. Also, the story can be quite lengthy (dependin on how much the director wants to go through) so that’s why the pacing is fast.

    1. It could be lengthy, if they decide to go through all of the social links and such. But if they do, it’ll be quite tiresome, unless they take a lot of liberties with the source material. So far, they seem unwilling to do so.

      I don’t think the commercial transitions were bad, per se, just kind of odd. I’ve played the game as well. But rather than nostalgic feelings, it was more like “ok, I think I’ve seen this already?”

    1. Well, yeah. The subject matter was much better at least. Not sure about the production and direction though…

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