You know, I’ve seen a lot of people badmouth the first Persona anime (Trinity Soul), but when comparing the first six episodes of both that show and this series, I really have to say that I prefer Trinity Soul over Persona 4. And considering how that series really took its time to get going, compared this show’s rush to skip those boring parts, that’s not a very good sign.
I mean, series like No.6 and C may have been rushed, but that’s nothing compared to the utter speed at which this show is rushing through its stories. This episode blasted through eighteen days at once. That’s more than half a month’s worth of content. My biggest gripe with it however was that it didn’t really make use of its time. This episode was supposed to be about this typical tough guy with a heart of gold, but by the end of the episode we hardly saw anything of him, and most of the airtime here was spent on random hijinks and characters goofing off. It’s a bad sign that the thing that caught my attention the most was a “s bad it’s good”-scene. The chase scene was funny, but part of it was because how badly it was animated and acted.
Also, did the creators just skip a scene in the TV-world completely, only to pull a Tsubasa Chronicle and talk about that moment in flashbacks? Someone, please tell me that I have not been paying attention in the first four episodes. Pulling such a twist makes this just a show to please the fans. As someone who is trying to get into the story without having played the games, I feel more and more left out.
I can only imagine the games, in which that fighting dude probably did not come off as just another carbon copy of the tough character who actually likes cute stuff. I can only imagine how fun the games can be, where you’re just running around town and try to meet all of the characters at your own freedom. This isn’t a compilation of a game though. This needs to be a standalone story. Compressing a large story into a much smaller anime format has of course been done many times before, but it’s been a while since I’ve seen such a jarring cut-and-paste job.
Rating: – (Disappointing)]]>
Persona 4 The Animation – 06
“Also, did the creators just skip a scene in the TV-world completely, only to pull a Tsubasa Chronicle and talk about that moment in flashbacks?”
I’m going to assume you’re talking about when they flashbacked to the textile shop thing being a noose in which case, yes, that was from episode 1
I hear you on this episode. On top of being rushed, this episode was edited pretty badly. I don’t get how even the fans like this episode.
Ugh I can’t stand it anymore, I can’t watch any more episodes of this crap. They really are destroying the game with this series. Even with Trinity Soul’s somewhat odd plot, the execution made it work you know. While the Persona 4 game as a whole is not really that dark, but there was a somewhat somber feel to it (which I guess is what the creators was aiming for when they chose the setting), but this adaptation just throw it out of the window. sigh.
As a fan, I imagined the show would have a pacing similar to maybe Ghost Hound(but less mind screwy), or maybe Kamichu(with less cutesy) or maybe even Umi Monogatari(ok maybe this is a longshot since the moe is strong in this one, but still I like the slow parts in this). You know, emphasize on the slow feel of the countryside and making friends the slow and healthy way instead of the one episode per friend treatment.
Some of the animation in this episode was…off.
psgels, you ought the play the game, at least the beginning. It wont make you like the anime better, but it will put everything in perspective.
But it IS a hard adaption, because every square inch/pixel of the game is LOADED with content, it would be impossible to have everything.
I mean, the first episode covered the first 2-3 hours of the game. And thats not 3 hours of running around killing monsters, no that is 3 hours of actual plot. Plot they boiled down to 20 minutes.
So yeah, its a hard adaption, anyone would have had trouble doing it, so its incredible what they have come up with so far, even considering the trouble thats going on behind the scenes.
They’re halfway through the story on episode 6 already! WTF are they rushing this much for?!
@Anca lolwut? We’re still only in the first two months of the game, the halfway point is around early September. Eighteen days is nothing when the game takes place over a period of eight months.
And they have to rush through things, go ahead and try to compress a game with 40+ hours of pure story content/social link stuff into less then ten hours for a two cour anime. Really wish this could have been three cour, so the pacing wouldn’t be as bad.
Seconding again for you to play the game Psgels, you’ll sympathize for how much the staff is trying to do for how little time they have. Or at least watch a walkthrough.
Trinity Soul, most of the reason why it gets hate is because it disregards the rules of the Persona franchise (adults can’t have Personas) and it has nothing to do with any of the previous Personas. I can’t speak for the plot since I never watched it, but I’ve heard it just doesn’t live up to Persona fans expectations.
I agree with Rex, it is good that they manage to cut 18 days into 6 episode, because the whole game is as long as 6 months…and if the director slow down, it would be, I don’t know, 50 episodes? at least…The anime, I think, is made with the intention that everyone has played the game 🙂
@Anca and Psgels: Do not go by how many days pass. The main story events are not evenly distributed in the game, and there are long periods of time between dungeons where nothing of note happens. The final third of the game is especially plot heavy.
@c160: The tone of P4 is nowhere near somber until past the halfway point of the main story and social links. There’s tons of comedy before that even with the murder mystery plot.
If there are any flaws in how the show tells the story, it is that it is too faithful, and the writers did not have the imagination to rearrange the order of events to introduce characters before their time in the spotlight.
0.o what’s all this gripe about, events in the game do not occur everyday which is why many days are skipped, heck I was even surprised they even showed the studying and examination scene.
Yes it is quite rushed but still it doesn’t seem like the animation has missed THAT much in the game. What I can point out they missed was probably Yosuke’s scene asking them out to study (which resulted in him being slapped but that’s minor yet regrettably skipped) and the other was that the chase scene was shortened (they were chased by Kanji twice in that day and not just a one off)
These things are MINOR and there’s little that you can actually complain about since it stuck to the game closely (from a fan point of view)
And yes, they showed VERY LITTLE of Kanji Tatsumi even in the game UNTIL they went to save him.
Conclusion, either you’re worrying about too much stuff that’s being left out or you’re just a little impatient because things would probably fall into place soon.
I feel like whoever is doing the series composition is the one who is most at fault. Instead of planning ahead and simply introducing Ai and Kou last week while focusing a little on Kanji maybe, they completely when through the whole S.links. Honestly if characters will only be in one episode why even put them in the show?!
They could have been introduced last week and maybe over the course of 3 episodes the MC could have hung out with them. This not only makes it more accurate with the game, but makes the episodes more varied.
@justsomeguy
Well yeah okay the game never went that somber but still, the feel that I got from the game definitely is different then what I got from this adaptation.The pacing, even if this not a game adaptation and a whole new series, is just too off :/
But I agree wholeheartedly with what you and psgels said; its an adaptation and not suppose to be a compilation of the game events. They should have taken some initiative in portraying the game events and realize that not everything needs to be in.
BTW now that I’m reflecting back on the games,I have a feeling that the none school mate social links will turn out really bad and unnatural in the anime.I can just imagine how they try to shove everyone in..