Persona (anime franchise)

Other Anime
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Persona -trinity soul-

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Genres: action, drama, mystery, psychological, supernatural
Objectionable content: Significant
Plot Summary: The stage is Ayanagi City, a city near the Japan Sea. It is a futuristic city that was built to carry out the recovery from the calamity caused by the “Apathy Syndrome” ten years previous. High school student Shin Kanzato with his little brother Jun, meet with their elder brother Ryō, who is the chief of the Ayanagi City Police, again after ten years. At that time, a series of strange incidents happen in Ayanagi City such as the crew of a submarine that suddenly disappears while in their submarine, or a spiritless symptom which disturbs the world after ten years, or the case of the inside out corpse where a student took on a cruel appearance. Ryō tracks down the organization behind the string of incidents, and having become involved in the incidents, Shin awakens the “Persona”.
Number of episodes: 26
Vintage: 2008-01-05 to 2008-06-28

ANN Info Page

Persona 4: The Animation

Genres: comedy, drama, fantasy, mystery
Themes: parallel world, Split Persona
Objectionable content: Significant
Number of episodes: 26
Vintage: 2011-10-06 to 2012-03-29

Plot Summary: Yu Narukami has moved from Tokyo to Inaba to stay with his uncle and cousin, while his parents are away on business. However, after a murder shakes up the sleepy town, things get even more crazy when he discovers the mysterious “Midnight Channel,” and that he has the even more mysterious ability to enter TVs. Accompanied by his disbelieving friends, Yu discovers another world inside the TVs, that seems to be connected with the murder. They also discover the ability to summon ‘Persona’, their ‘other selves’, whose power they can use to fight the shadows that inhabit the TV world. The murders, the Midnight Channel, the world inside the TV, and Persona. Yu and his friends fight to figure out how they’re connected, and to solve the case before it’s too late.

ANN Info Page

Persona 4 the Animation Press Release

Per PR:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SENTAI FILMWORKS “PERSONA 4 THE ANIMATION”

HOUSTON, September 27, 2011— Sentai Filmworks proudly brings the hit PERSONA game franchise to anime with the acquisition of the red-hot new series PERSONA 4 the Animation. Based on the megahit game-within-a-game from ATLUS, in which extraordinary humans take on even more extraordinary “Personas,” the 25 episode series is being helmed under the direction of Seiji Kishi (Angel Beats!, Magikano, Raagnorok the Animation,) with script supervision by Yuuko Kakihara (Special A, Stitch!, Heaven’s Lost Property,) while the signature original character designs by Shigenori Soejima are being adapted by Kazuaki Morita (Nyan Koi!, My Bride Is a Mermaid, Kamisama Dolls.)

When Yu Narukami’s family moves to the rural country town of Inaba, he’s expecting a lot more peace and quiet than he’s been used to in the big city. Instead, the peace has been shattered and the only quiet is the quiet of the grave, as a rash of mysterious murders and kidnappings sweep the countryside. With the police stymied, Yu finds himself joining with a group of eight other teenagers in a desperate bid to solve the mystery. A mystery that is somehow connected to both the local weather patterns and a strange video game world which Yu, his friends and the enigmatic killer can all enter. And where each must wield a unique weapon and learn to use amazing powers if they wish to survive. Journey beyond the Velvet Room as the hit PlayStation 2™ game becomes a spectacular anime in PERSONA 4 the Animation!

Digital distribution of PERSONA 4 the Animation will begin soon through many outlets, with a home video release on DVD & Blu-Ray in 2012.

Persona 4 release configuration change

Per PR:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SENTAI FILMWORKS “PERSONA 4 THE ANIMATION”

HOUSTON, July 31, 2012 - Sentai Filmworks announces a release configuration change. The September 18, 2012 release of “Persona 4 The Animation” Collection 1 on Blu-Ray will contain English language dub but not the original Japanese language. This change has been required by the Japanese licensor.

The revised Blu-Ray configuration of “Persona 4 The Animation” Collection 1 will be priced at $59.98 reflecting a shift from the former $69.98 price point.

“Persona 4 The Animation” Collection 1 on DVD will contain both English and Japanese audio, as well as the Japanese episode commentaries. Pricing for the DVD release is unchanged.

Sentai Filmworks’ release of “Persona 4 The Animation” is licensed for sale and use in the USA and Canada only. Export is prohibited.

About Sentai Filmworks:
Sentai Filmworks is one of the fastest-growing anime companies in North America, producing hit series like High School of the Dead, Towanoquon, Samurai Girls, Guin Saga, Needless and Angel Beats as well as high profile theatrical films such as Grave of the Fireflies and Appleseed. Sentai Filmworks’ programs can be found on home video distributed by Ingram Entertainment, Baker & Taylor, Section23Films, The Right Stuf and other good and fine distributors. Digital product offerings may be found at iTunes, Hulu, Netflix, Amazon, Zune Marketplace, Anime Network, Playstation Network, Android Market and YouTube.

Persona 4 the Golden Animation

Genres: adventure, mystery, science fiction, supernatural
Themes: parallel world, school life, superpowers
Number of Episode: 13
Vintage: 2014-07-10

Plot Summary: In the spring when the cherry blossom petals fall, Yū Narukami moves to Yaso Inaba to live with his uncle and cousin due to his family’s circumstances. He transfers to Yasogami High School, where his event-filled school life begins. However, when serial murders begin occurring in the peaceful town, Yū is awakened to the power of his heart turned to physical form: A Persona. Within these new mysteries is Marie, a resident of the alternate world, the Velvet Room, who has no memories of her past. Together with his friends, Yū must solve all the riddles set in front of him and save Yaso Inaba from further violence.

ANN Info Page

PERSONA 5 the Animation

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Genres: mystery
Plot Summary: In April, Ren Amamiya transfers schools for mysterious reasons—something to do with him getting a criminal record for committing grave bodily harm, with the conditions of his probation being to attend a new school far away. A friend of his parents named Sojiro Sakura agrees to take the boy in for reasons of his own, so a reluctant Ren begins his new life. He deletes a mysterious red app from his phone before arriving at Sojiro’s house, but the app reappears as he’s going to bed for the night. He dreams of a strange place known as the Velvet Room where a man named Igor tells him that there’s a way to break free of the chains binding him. The next day, when another red screen on a new classmate’s phone leads them into a trap, a persona know as Arsène appears to help Ren. Somehow, all of this will lead to Ren falling back into police custody by November.
Number of Episodes: 26
Vintage: 2018-04-07

ANN Info Page

Persona 4 The Animation -The Factor of Hope- (movie) - Vintage: 2012-06-09
Persona 3 the Movie #1 Spring of Birth - Vintage: 2013-11-23
Persona 3 the Movie #2 Midsummer Knight’s Dream - Vintage: 2014-06-07
Persona 3 the Movie #3 Falling Down - Vintage: 2015-04-04
Persona 3 the Movie #4 Winter of Rebirth - Vintage: 2016-01-23
Persona 5 the Animation -The Day Breakers- (special) - Vintage: 2016-09-03

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News on the digital front should be soon according to the PR from Sentai Filmworks site.

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Added this part to the first post:

So it will be free here and then up on Hulu 24 hours after it’s on The Anime Network Online Player.

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This description doesn’t give me much faith in how accurately the game’s story was translated to the anime. :frowning:

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Really? That sounds pretty accurate to me.

Protagonist moves to new town. Mysterious murders occur. Police have no idea what’s going on. Protagonist teams up with friends, enters tv world and fights off monsters with weapons and persona.

That’s pretty much how the game starts out, and it was all covered in that description. Though the description does sound a bit overdramatic.

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You need to look closer… In the game, it’s just the Protagonist who moves to Inaba and lives with his uncle. This description says his family moves to Inaba. The description also says that it’s a “strange video game world”, where in the game it’s more Television themed, rather than video game themed… well, most of the time anyway. Either way, they’re just little tiny details, that if prove to actually be different could mean the rest could be different too :frowning: I’m expecting the worse here though, so if it turns out to not be so bad, I’ll be doubly excited. :slight_smile:

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Don’t forget that this is only the American description of the show. It may not be 100% accurate, especially since the show has not aired yet. It was likely translated from Japanese materials, and may not be exact.

Give it a few episodes before you worry. :wink:

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I’m actually very curious how this anime will turn out. There’s a lot of choices in the game that aren’t really important to the story, but I’m still curious what choices they decide are right for the anime. Because like it or not, it’ll likely become the canon story line for the game in the eyes of the fans.

Sort of like how in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic you could choose to play the game as Sith or Jedi, but the actual canon ending was that you became a Jedi and did the good stuff. :X I hate Jedi

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Maybe they are choosing to distance the TV series a little from the game so they don’t repeat some of the mistakes of video game based anime of the past.

Course they’ve done both ways before and it’s gone both ways to.

They may also be changing it up a little so people that have not played the games have a chance to enjoy the series and it’s not a direct ripoff of the game. After all if your going to make the same thing you get in the game why bother making an Anime?

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So it will be free here and then up on Hulu 24 hours after it’s on The Anime Network Online Player.[/quote]

I approve of this 1000% by the way.

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Okay, here’s a copy of the post I made over in the announcement section of the forums for the show this morning:

After reading the series description either they’re changing it significantly from the game itself, or it’s another one of those bad description instances. Either way I can’t wait for 06OCT to find out, and I’m especially excited that they’re keeping the same VA’s. I hope they do that when it gets the English dubs as the English VA’s were good.

Now for the problems with the series description (remember, I have the game myself, even if I haven’t gotten around to playing past the 3rd month, and I saw several errors). Yu Narukami isn’t moving with his family, his uncle already lives in a rural community and he’s moving out there to live with him. Although there seems to be a series of mysterious murders, and eventually kidnappings, that have the police stymied, including Yu’s uncle, most of the teens who join the team as Persona Users don’t know that they have the power until after they get kidnapped and Yu, Yosuke Hanamura, and the others that have been rescued so far rescue them. I should point out that this makes roughly a month between new members joining the group. Lastly, it isn’t a ‘video game’ world that they go to to save the others. For some reason Persona Users are able to enter into an alternate world through TV’s (watching how Yu discovers this in the game is absolutely hilarious), a world controlled by beings called shadows. The shadows feed on human emotions and thoughts, and only Persona Users are able to fight them. The reason the group (as it is at first) gets involved with entering the shadow world to save them is that before the second murder Yu happened to be up at midnight and saw the person who dies appear on the TV in his room, on a channel that was nothing but static.

Now that I’ve covered everything that was wrong with the series description, and added in a few extra details to make things a tad easier to follow at first, I guess I’ll disappear from the forums for a while. This should make a very interesting TV-MA series to watch, especially with MM! running right now as well.

I’ve left off the bit to Rai (silly admin thought that midnight approaching meant something, but P4 doesn’t have anything to do with Gekkoukan High). The show will have some differences from the game, unless they’re planning to do multiple seasons (the game does occur over the course of several months) or mini-series sized time slots (the first ep of Heaven’s Memo Pad would be shorter than every ep if they did that) just because of the number of hours needed to cover the dialog for the Social Link events for all 21 Social Links. Especially since technically you can ignore doing all of the non-automatic ones and still fight the final boss (you just won’t have jack for powerful Personas, since all of the strongest ones are restricted, sometimes special, fusions that require maxing the corresponding S.Link to unlock).

Okay, now I’ll go back to just keeping an eye on this topic for a while.

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Uh, what are you talking about? Midnight has everything to do with the MIDNIGHT Channel. The “myth” of the midnight channel is that you’re supposed to look into a turned off TV screen on a rainy night at midnight and you see your soul-mate. (or at least that’s whats supposed to happen). So midnight does have everything to do with Persona 4. Sorry!

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No, the Midnight Channel is used to find out who the next victim is. After that they always go to the department store either After School or during the Daytime to use one of the big screen TV’s there as their entry portal. The only time someone enters a TV during midnight (as far as I’ve played into it anyhow, I have far too many games I’m interested in playing and not nearly enough time to play through all of them) was when the main character discovers he can do that with the TV in his room early in the game.

In P3 the Dark Hour, which takes place between 2400 hours of one day and 0000 hours of the next, is when the heroes either go to Tartarus to fight shadows and get stronger (by the way, Gekkoukan High transforms into Tartarus at the start of the Dark Hour and reverts back at the end) so that when the next full moon hits they’re ready to go out and hunt the shadows down in the city during the Dark Hour.

Midnight has a LOT more meaning in P3 than in P4, and in comparison it’s only got 03.333333333% to 03.571428571% (sorry, that’s all the more deicmal places my desktops calculator is set to go to) as much meaning to the story, because trying to watch the Midnight Channel on a daily basis guarantees you can’t max out all of your social stats on your first play through, and most likely prevents you from starting and/or finishing all of the Social Links. Not that it’s a good idea to attempt to go to Tartarus every night in P3 (you sacrifice your Evening time slot which is when you make the lion’s share of the progress on developing your social stats, although if you’re on your second play through and already have maxed out social stats it wouldn’t matter).

And what I was getting at in the bit to Rai was that he’d had “Get your Tarot cards ready, Anime Network. Midnight approaches!” In P4 the heroes use what appear to be tarot cards to manifest, or summon, their personas, and in P4 if you ever do fight any shadows at midnight it’s late (read extremely late, and I’m not going to check the strategy guide to verify if it even happens as it doesn’t mesh with the feel of the game), very late, in the game. As such midnight doesn’t have the meaning that he was attempting to assign to it. If this was a P3 anime (And why isn’t there one? I saw snippets of one based on the original Shin Megami Tensei for the SNES over on Niconico a while ago.) then his midnight comment would be more meaningful.

I guess I’m going to be more active on this thread for a while, at least until we can come to an agreement as to how meaningful the Midnight Channel is (meaningful, just only every 28 to 30 days in my opinion), and by extension how meaningful the approach of midnight is. I say that an approaching string of days with heavy rain is far more meaningful, since if you don’t have the current victim rescued (admittedly you need to watch the Midnight Channel to learn who it is, although if memory serves that was mostly automatic anyhow) before the heavy fog after the several days of heavy rain it’s game over as they’ve just become the latest mangled corpse (once they figure out how to prevent the murders you aren’t allowed to fail, but you have to make it through increasingly larger dungeon areas within the ‘time limit’ to succeed, and it’s all up to you as to when you make the effort(s) to save them).

Now to sit back and let the re-cussing commence now that the first round of dis-cussing has finished.

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Don’t really know what more can be said. You covered everything thoroughly and said everything I was going to and then some. The midnight channel is insignificant except for a few times a month, at most. Found it annoying to be honest. The way it was done is that you pretty much had to waste not just one time slot (evening) but two (night). Seemed silly how watching TV for a few minutes would eat up such a big chunk of the day but it was what it was. Part of the reason I like the way time was handled in P3 more but that’s a whole different conversation and since it’s just game related probably out of place.

On a side note, it’s anyone’s guess why P4 got an anime and P3 didn’t. Always thought P3 was more popular and the story was considered better so it’s an odd choice. My guess would be just because P4 is more current and/or that P3 would be thought to be too over the top. P3 was a darker game, if nothing else.

P3 did pretty well and P4 did too but I still thought they were rather niche games. Never expected a SMT title to ever get an anime. I really think P3 would have made a better show or maybe better yet Nocturne. The end of a world, a so-so murder mystery, or a post apocalyptic world with all the bells an whistles. which would be better? P4 was probably the safe choice but don’t know about best.

Anyway, don’t really have very high hopes for the anime. More worried then ever after seeing the description.

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[quote=psychopuppet]
Maybe they are choosing to distance the TV series a little from the game so they don’t repeat some of the mistakes of video game based anime of the past.

Course they’ve done both ways before and it’s gone both ways to.

They may also be changing it up a little so people that have not played the games have a chance to enjoy the series and it’s not a direct ripoff of the game. After all if your going to make the same thing you get in the game why bother making an Anime?[/quote]
Right here people, this up there makes all the sense in the world.

Couldn’t agree with you more. I for one hope it’s not a direct/literal/word-for-word translation of the game.
There would be no surprises, no “wow” moments, and it’d be predictable: you’d know exactly what will happen, to whom, how it ends, etc. And it would be too long and might come out awkward and clunky. Every medium has their own way to tell a story and they’re not always compatible with each other.

Instead, what I hope they’ll do is give us a faithful adaptation, one that captures the look and spirit of the game’s story and characters. Changes will be made, of course, but it’s no different than the changes made from novel to film in live action films.

Changing the “TV world” into a “video game world” might be wink/nod to the fact the anime is based on a video game and might incorporate some of the actual game footage. And the Midnight Hour might play a more prominent role in the show to help streamline and keep the story moving forward.

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@Tanrim: Have you played P3P (Persona 3 Portable) yet? It’s on the PSP and is basically the P3FES story on the P4 combat engine, with a few extra personas, a near total elimination of exhaustion, and the option to play as a female lead instead (it has a huge impact on the optional Social Links, and she uses a naginata as her sole weapon type, which is possibly the best weapon type in the game). Arguably P3 is ‘newer’, if you use the P3P female leads story. As for P3 being darker…in P3 the characters don’t have to overcome the darkness within themselves to awaken the power of persona, also no-one dies if you don’t get the bosses defeated by a deadline (and thus you don’t have as many auto ‘Game Over’ opportunities).

I remember when I first started to play P3 (P3FES actually, never played the original P3), I also started playing The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess the same week (I tend to bounce between games, and frequently work through multiple games in an alternating pattern). It threw me off as Twilight Princess is for the most part darker than P3, and Twilight Princess has a T rating while P3 has an M rating. In P4 they slap you in the face more forcefully with just how dark the story is (it’s a Shin Megami Tensei, they’re all dark), instead of gradually dragging you into it like P3 does.

Finally, I have to disagree with you about the best Shin Megami Tensei title to translate into an anime. Nocturne could be great, but it is multi-ended and you run into the whole canon vs. non-canon ending thing (especially since it doesn’t have a canon ending). Digital Devil Saga would be excellent. I straight forward story with a singular ending, that takes the transition into an alternate media much better. DDS also has my favorite quote from any dark themed game “Rend, slaughter, devour your enemies. Their is no other way to survive, warriors of purgatory.” That quote also does an excellent job of setting the tone for the game, and arguably DDS is also a post-apocalyptic type setting, and the struggle the characters go through to find balance with their inner demons (well, not so inner when they transform) and the fact that they need to feed on other demons (major cannibalism reference for those who didn’t catch it) to survive after the ‘change’ that was introduced to the world really just adds to the setting. Personally I’d say that DDS is the most heavily story driven of all of the Shin Megami Tensei games, not that others haven’t been strongly story driven, but not like DDS is.

@tonka: I’m not sure about you, but I’ve seen more than 1 or 2 series descriptions here for recent translations that needed to be taken with a grain of salt. And on other sites I’ve watched most of a series before seeing a series description, only to see it be a bunch of BS that’s only loosely connected to what is actually going on in the series. Since the series description only has two major flaws from a description of the game, and those are both aspects that altering them more than slightly would have drastic effects on the entire storyline of the game I’m inclined to believe that it’s a defective translation rather than a 100% accurate translation.

In addition, are you referring to the changes made in the Lord of the Rings trilogy when making the movies or the changes in Harry Potter for “changes made from novel to film in live action films.” The Lord of the Rings trilogy contained the heart of the story and for someone who’d greatly enjoyed the books like myself they were an excellent translation. However, I read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone before I saw the movie, and they truncated out several small, yet significant, plot points just to make it more movie-going friendly (especially for a younger audience) and significantly distorted the story by the end. If I hadn’t read the book the fact the Neville got House Gryffindor 50 points for “standing up to his friends” wouldn’t have many any sense at all, as he only got three scenes in the movie before that. They completely glossed over the fact that Neville was a part of Harry’s study group, even if he wasn’t a part of Harry’s inner circle of friends, and they didn’t just share a dormitory. There’s faithful adaptations (which Hollywood has always had problems with) and then there’s Hollywood adaptations, which are restricted to what they can get the budget to do and they believe they can get away with altering (and they usually believe they can get away with a heck of a lot). I suspect that the only reason The Lord of the Rings trilogy was so faithfully done is because they’d have the entire Dungeons & Dragons community out for their blood if it wasn’t (J.R.R. Tolkien sued TSR over 1st Edition Dungeons & Dragons because they effectively ripped of his Middle Earth setting. Heck, the Halflings were even called Hobbits back then.), so I have problems giving them more than moderate credit for faithfulness, it was mostly just self-preservation.

Ok, I would like to see the Midnight Channel better adapted into the story. Not that it was all that poorly adapted in in the first place, other than the fact that you lost an entire time slot to checking it (then again, exactly how long is it supposed to take him to check the Midnight Channel vs. the other activity choices available anyhow?), but it could’ve been done better. Maybe make it that as you go along the ‘scene’ that is occurring gradually changes as the time limit runs out, but that’s still a mostly superfluous alteration unless they allow you to at least perform another activity (maybe get half gains/effects from the second activity to show that you didn’t devote the entire time slot to it). And yes, there are a lot of changes that will need to be made, but the core of the story being told should still be the same, otherwise I probably won’t give it more than a couple of eps before I stop watching. I don’t know if any of you have ever seen Star Ocean EX, but it’s an anime based on Star Ocean: The Second Story and it faithfully follows the first half of the game, and personally I think it’s a great anime, even if they didn’t go all the way to the conclusion. Then there’s the Xenosaga anime, which changes the majority of the story, to the point that it doesn’t even seem like the same story anymore, just something someone threw together in what seemed like the same setting with the same characters. I should point out that neither series had a terribly accurate description in regards to it’s own content.

Well, I think I’ll leave off there for now, and maybe give someone else a chance to put their 2 cents (or maybe 2*10^5 cents) in.

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Haven’t played P3P but know all about it. Don’t really have the money for a PSP and don’t see much point in getting a slightly different version of a game I already put 200 hours into. P3 is a lot darker then P4 in general. The game over chances aside a large part of P4 is nothing more than a simple murder mystery through most of it while P3 has a lot more hanging over it’s head. Can’t say more than that without spoiling it, though. Regardless, the way Persona is summoned in P3 probably killed the chance of a P3 anime itself. Like I said, P4 was a much safer choice.

Think Nocturne does have a canon ending although for the life of me I can’t remember which one it might be. Been a long time since I played it, let alone talked about it. Even if not I don’t see why it would matter much. There are plenty of ways it could be handled. The Persona games have just as many choices as Nocturne so endings aside if they could make P4 work don’t see why Nocturne would be out of the question. Have to see how the P4 anime plays out, though. A lot of the choices you make in P4, save a few, don’t do much except affect social links a little while as with Nocturne they affect the story itself. Of course Nocturne is probably the darkest game out of them all, think about the endings, so if my idea that something to dark wouldn’t be made into an anime holds it doesn’t stand a chance.

Interested to see how the anime handles social links, though. You’re given several choices with everything, there is usually a best way to handle it but not always. Of course There’s the chance that S.links get largely ignored in the anime but that would be really boring. Also, not sure there would be enough actual content for 25 episode then. The bulk of the game is spent on S.links, battle, and probably even more on fusion. Can’t see battles playing a huge part in an anime, they usually don’t, and don’t see a lot of time being spent on fusion. So, apart from story that only leaves S.links.

Anyway, can’t really comment much on DDS since I’ve yet to play the second game. It’s a bit dark itself, though, and the whole demon eating other demons thing might be enough for an anime not to be made. Of course I actually loved the first DDS game so I wouldn’t mind an anime being made of it. Sadly I’m not sure it was popular enough for that to be an option.

Thought you wasted two time slots with the Midnight Channel but might have confused it with P3. P4 doesn’t have a night time slot, I think. Regardless, as I said before, even though you didn’t have to do it much I really hated that. I almost didn’t finish a couple S.links because of it. Valuable time wasted when people were there but couldn’t be interacted with because the game forced you not to do anything. See no reason you couldn’t have done a S.link in the evening then went to your room to watch after. S.links aside don’t see why you couldn’t even do something simple like study. Exactly what does watching TV at midnight have to do with the evening anyway? The poor way time was handled in general was a major gripe of mine, though. Didn’t feel like you were going through a normal day to day life like P3 did and more like a forced series of events.

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Actually the Evening time slot in P4 was when you first went back home and was in the downstairs. Once you went upstairs it changed to the Late Night time slot. The Evening time slot is basically just to check the weather and work on the Social Links with your uncle and cousin. If memory serves (my memory’s a bit vague on this one) you can go back outside to do other activities in the Evening, but there are only 1 or 2 other Social Links that can be worked then and they’re also available during the After School/Daytime time slot.

Personally I find P4 to be darker than P3, but that’s because P3 just has small installments of the darkness within the bright and cheerful daily life until late in the game. In P4 you have to deal with it on a daily basis as you decide whether to work Social Links/Stats or work on rescuing the current victim. Basically, in P4 you get inured to how dark it is because you’re constantly having to deal with it, but in P3 you only see it periodically so it has a greater impact. I notice the difference because I don’t sit down and play a single game completely through before starting another one.

At first I wasn’t all that interested in P3P (all anyone talked about was being a female lead, and the never mentioned that she used naginata’s or that they were effectively broken weapons, over-stat broken that is), but I’d gotten myself a PSP as a Christmas Present in 2009, so I rented it from Gamefly this summer. I liked the fact that they used the P4 combat engine. I think you remember how the Ma- spells were nearly useless in P3? They were a waste of a turn if you were working on doing All-Out Attacks unless all of the enemies had the same weakness, and even then you had to pray you didn’t get a miss or that you’d have someone else who had the same element act before one of the enemies did. In P3P you only need one weakness hit to get the 1 More Time!, and you can even have a Strong, Null, Drain, Reflect, or Miss and still get it so long as you got a Weak. There are several other little enhancements, so for anyone who has a PSP and likes the Shin Megami Tensei titles it is a good game to pick up (they also fixed a couple of the Social Link bugs from P3FES).

As for including the Fusion, they could easily add that a couple of times (think transformation sequences from shows like Tokyo Meow Meow or Sailor Moon) and then just hint that its happened when he’s needing to do a Fusion to get a powerful Persona for handling a boss fight. As for the Social Links, focus on the best (or as close as applies) options, but the problem is that would make so much content they could easily run 52 or even 78 eps.

As for something being to dark for an anime to be made from it…it doesn’t exist. They just won’t be able to air it. Sorry, but I have seen such animes before. They’re few and far between, but the have been made.

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Ok, guys, this is the anime forum. If you want to discuss the game, please make a thread in Everything Else and continue there. Otherwise, wait until the anime BEGINS before you start a comparison between the two.

And then, after the anime begins, please enclose any speculations you have in a spoiler tag just in case. A few of us have not played the game and we don’t want to be spoiled by anything you may or may not know.

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[url=http://www.theanimenetwork.com/Anime/Persona-4/You-re-Myself-I-m-Yourself/Watch]![](upload://6M3UHU5l5I6GFlskL5i3BdHRDG.jpg)[/url] [b]Episode 01 is now LIVE![/b]