Um… seriously? Was last week really all just building up… to this? Did I really want to see that?
Ah well. Seiji Kishi remains a comedy director, so at least he’d know how to deal with a chapter like this week. This episode was more interesting than the previous ones, because finally it did something unexpected and went away from its formula. This episode was fun in a weird way, and at least I like that the cast of main characters will be increasing with every persona that gets defeated, rather than just never mentioning them again like I first though.
But even then, this episode was strangely underwhelming in its execution. I mean, I know Seiji Kishi. I have seen many of his other works, and his comedy has this very distinctive style that relies on strong comedic timing and hard punchlines. This episode instead was a mess in terms of timing. The events didn’t flow into each other at all, and this episode would have been greatly improved if Seiji Kishi used his experience in actually timing this thing properly. It’s not even about the jerky animation: he directed Tentai Senshi Sunred for god’s sake.
It’s again the fault of this show trying to be too faithful to the original game. That’s not going to work. I know that everyone keeps going on about being faithful and all, but game adaptations NEED to have some freedom if they want to succeed on their own. They’re not like manga where you can just copy and paste a bunch of panels and get things over with.
The one praise that I do have for this series: whoever is in charge of the photographic direction really knows what he’s doing here. This show has some very good looking shots and camera angles and while it’s a pity that this constrains the actual animation a bit too much, it nevertheless looks very good.
Rating: (Enjoyable)]]>
Persona 4 The Animation – 07
Uh, you can’t exactly copy and paste panels for a manga either.
Persona 4 has the problem that it doesn’t know whether to stay faithful or not. It’s like they’re trying to go in a different direction, then abruptly stop and jerk back into the game. There are senseless changes (such as Yosuke and Chie’s scene last episode) and senselessly unchanged things (such as the MC amount of replies, or the inclusion of the Social Links). It’s a mess.
I don’t know if it’s the fault of the studio pressuring the director into pleasing the fans or just Seiji Kishi having a creative downtime.
What are you talking about? I thought that this episode deviated far too much from the original, and those unnecessary extra scenes (like with the Nice Guy and Tough Guy molesting everyone) are what caused the break in flow of the episode.
I do agree that this episode was a mess, and it partially ruined the backstory of Kanji, who game critics praised for portraying a realistic character struggling with his sexuality.
Things I loved in this episode:
– Narukami’s deadpan humor is funny.
– I really like how they tied in parts of Kanji’s social link (the boy and the bunny) into the story. It makes sense that Teddie would be able to track his scent from that too.
– FUSING PERSONAS HECK YEAH!
Things I hated in this episode:
– Yosuke was originally homophobic, but did they really have to make Narukami a bit like that too?
– Sheesh, whats with the unnecessary attempts at comedy? Why don’t they use that time to give more impact to Kanji’s backstory? Shadow Kanji’s desperation for acceptance was so skimmed over here.
Original:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGJgN5LppJw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XT4FwsDC7gA
This episode was a hit/miss for me. Some of the comedy I got a good laugh out of (Yuu asking Yosuke if he wants a copy) but other occurrences suffer from terrible timing as you’ve said.
But I did like how they greatly improved some areas like the bunny phone strap. Instead of asking NPCs for info about Kanji so Kuma/Teddi could stiff him out they made it tie into a story and an object that made more sense in context.
They did skim over Kanji’s sexuality/acceptance issues and struggles, shame because he’s my favorite after Naoto and Kuma/Teddie. And suddenly Yuu can fuse personas in mid battle, something downright impossible in the game and must be done in the velvet room.
I am a bit sad that many people are saying that this episode was funny. Most people seem to be ignoring the fact the this episode could be very offensive to gay people, and the boys’ behavior is frequently excused as “normal teenage” behavior when they were really overreacting. The manga version did not have them whine about going home, the manga version captured the original game’s seriousness by showing a young Kanji being bullied for sewing. The shadow in the manga was also very angry and serious at the end, while the anime one is stupidly happy the entire time.
The next episode will be even more unfortunate, as in the preview: the main character is acting as homophobic as Yosuke towards Kanji (I thought you accepted me/Not at night). This situation will be played for laughs, and I fear that Kanji will be a chew toy. That is to say, he’ll be kicked out of his tent, kicked in the groin by Chie, and then he’ll be pushed into the river for nosebleeding at the girls. He will be abused! If the creators thought viewers are supposed to relate to a homophobe, then that will be pretty sad.