The Animation follows the plot of its source material right down to the finest details. The protagonist, normally silent and lacking a name until the player has named him, is named Yu Narukami in this incarnation. That name is now accepted as his canon name as evidenced by the Arena series. Yu arrives in the sleepy town of Inaba and is staying with his uncle Dojima and his cousin Nanako for a year while his parents are away. He adapts quickly to the town, making friends with Yosuke Hanamura, Chie Satonaka, and Yukiko Amagi almost instantaneously. However, his arrival also coincides with two murders, both of which done in a bizarre style. Yu also discovers that he has the power to enter another world through TV. He and his friends realize that the murders and their newly discovered powers must be linked and resolve to find the killer. Like I said before, the plot follows the game, though of course a game that took me around 70 hours to complete now has to be compressed into 26 episodes that are each around 24 minutes long. As a result, things move rather quickly, at a pace that might be disorienting to anybody who hasn't played the game before. Because of time constraints, the dungeon crawling is also stripped down. The formula is pretty simple for the first ten or so episodes. Person appears on the TV, the team deduces who it is and then goes to save them. What The Animation actually does better than the game at points is blending in character development with the dungeon crawling. For example, when the team goes in to save Yukiko, the episode is interwoven with flashbacks of Yukiko's past that give greater meaning to the events of the episode. Most things shown on the screen follow each character's arc in the game but because its fully animated this time, the characters feel more real than they did in the game.
Covering a dense game like Persona 4 is no easy task, but The Animation is able to incorporate the look and feel of the game. Persona 4 is probably the most light-hearted game about murder that exists and The Animation really nails those feelings. The sections in the TV World certainly can get dark, boss fights are usually epic affairs. However, it is disheartening to see the way combat is done here. The characters just stand around while their Personas do the fighting while in the game each of them were capable of fighting on their own with weapons. That being said, it is still good to see the menagerie of Personas that Yu has at his disposal. Most of P4 is spent grinding through dungeons. Since the actual fighting is saved only for episodes where the team has someone to rescue, more time is spent outside the TV World (Not entirely unlike the game). The Animation then relegates Social Links outside of the main cast to filler episodes. In fact, two episode are spent covering about 5 of them and we are able to see the entire Social Link, albeit at an accelerated pace. While it is nice to see the show try and include more features from the game, sometimes it makes you wonder if maybe these filler episodes could have been spent on the more interesting main cast rather than these side characters that not everyone knows if they didn't spend time on each Social Link. It is also a lot of content to pack into one episode. Even so, The Animation is able to stuff a great deal of the game's content into a series. While it moves at a quick pace, it is still coherent and remains the well put together story that it was in the game. However, its transgressions and cut aways from the main plot will definitely frustrate those who haven't played the game before.
The Social Links with the main cast are done much better and are explored right before they get taken into the TV World. The show tries to capture the beginning and end of each Social Link, however it completely drops the ball on the middle. The characters reach these conclusions about themselves and if someone hasn't played the game they aren't really sure how the characters got there since there isn't enough time to develop the characters onscreen. Sometimes the resolution to their Social Link just gets randomly interjected into the main plot. For example, Yosuke's comes right at the pivotal moment where the characters deduce who the killer is. Then we're quickly whisked away to Yu and Yosuke beating the crap out of each other. Yosuke's Social Link was already the weakest of the main cast and its even worse here, especially since Yosuke is a stronger character in the anime than he is in the game. The rest fit it rather nicely even if their character development isn't as noticeable as it was in the game.As said before, The Animation does capture the look and feel of the game. The anime retains the same calender as the game and there are plenty of familiar imagery and shout-outs to those who have played the game. Aiya Diner, the Timid Teacher series, the Social Links, the trip to Port Island; The Animation retains all of these little call outs and it is great to see them all fully animated. The plot moves along at its hustle and bustle pace and the most emotional moments of the show, like end, still pack their full emotional punch. The pace of the show definitely slows down in the final episodes which make them worth the wait. The confrontation with the killer and the final battle are done really well. However, the anime itself doesn't cover the True Ending over the course of its 25 episode run. There is a special 26th episode that does cover the True Ending, though its a bit too fast paced and tries to do too much. The very end of the show doesn't exactly have the same emotional impact as the game in which leaving the other characters was a real touching experience since you had spent so much time with them.
The real highlight of the show is its normally silent protagonist, Yu Narukami. In the game, Yu's personality and actions were entirely decided by the player through dialogue choices. Here, Yu has a full personality and speaks for himself. However, what makes him so good in The Animation is that he retains his comedically serious and weird persona (no pun intended). His actions in the anime largely reflect the choices that the player has for him in the game. His progression as a character mirrors his progression in the game, the show even cuts away at the mid-point of each episode to show his character traits and each episode they improve. By the end, the entire pentagon is maxed out and Yu is more expressive than ever. The Animation does a great job of also humanzing him whereas in the game he seemed more like a fly on the wall at points. You really feel how much he cares for his friends and their love for him back feels completely genuine. The show gives us a better idea of how much of an impact Yu has on the main cast's lives. At a certain point in the show, Yu has the most lines out of anybody whereas before the other characters were counted on for exposition and the "ra ra go team" part. Despite having a personality of his own, we are still seeing the action onscreen through Yu's viewpoint and many of the actions he takes are similar to how many players play him. Seeing him run right over to the girls side of the Group Date Cafe at the Cultural Festival, his role in the King's Game, his over the top exposition of the Mega Beef Bowl Challenge. All of these are things I remember making Yu do and I laughed just as hard. Yu has a funloving personality but he does everything so seriously that it makes him arguably the funniest character in the game. That is definitely reflected here.
Since Yu has his own personality, more time is spent towards his development instead of his observing the other characters grow. Still, until the very end he is mostly silent while his friends do the talking. The show, despite its limited amount of time, is able to replicate what made P4's characters so good to begin with. Yosuke, who was Mr. Exposition in the game, has a bit of a reduced role and seems to be more of Yu's bro for life here. I was glad to see that they made him less of a jerkass than he was in the game. Chie remains as awesome as ever and entirely unchanged from her role in the game as is Yukiko. Rise, Teddie, Kanji, and Naoto are pretty much exactly the same as they were in the game. However, the show makes a big deal out of pairing each of the characters off and Ship Teases way more than it really needed to. Yu and Yosuke are pretty much heterosexual life partners, same goes for Chie and Yukiko. Kanji and Naoto haves plenty of Ship Tease with each other. Only Teddie and Rise don't feel paired off and the latter character barely qualifies since she hits on Yu nearly every episode. It feels like fanservice more than anything but I still didn't really mind. I think the real crime is that the show moves a bit too fast to truly get to know the characters. For most of the show they feel more like caricatures of themselves. Chie's love of food is taken Up to Eleven as well as her temper with Yosuke. Yosuke himself also suffers from this, since Yu is voiced and can truly lead the group, Yosuke is no longer needed as the de facto team leader and source of exposition. Instead, his bumbling personality is taken Up to Eleven. The rest of the cast also returns and fills the same roles they had before.
In keeping with the theme of retaining the game's feel, The Animation doesn't make any radical changes from the game's formula. The character's designs are all exactly how they looked in the game and it retains the same style from the game's animated cutscenes. Each of the characters look great revamped though the animators seem to have dropped the ball when it came to drawing Yukiko whose face seems to be lazily done as opposed to rest of the cast. The action sequences also have to be given some credit as well. The dungeons look as good as they did in the game and the boss fight sequences are truly gorgeous to behold. The soundtrack is largely unchanged from the game as well. Since the Persona games are known for having amazing soundtracks there was really no need to change anything. It was really great in the first episode hearing "Reach Out to the Truth" when Yu unlocked his Persona. The visuals and soundtrack are elite for any anime.
Persona 4: The Animation is a show that I feel that I'm largely split on. For those who have played the game and love the series, they will really get a kick out it. However, those who haven't played the game will find it hard to overlook the pacing and won't be able to forgive the strange filler episodes based around the Social Links. Despite this, The Animation is probably the best you're going to find when it comes to an adaptation of a video game. Not everyone is going to be entirely satisfied with it but you really feel that the studio made the best attempt possible at including everything they could. Like the game, The Animation is jam-packed with content, the characters are well-drawn, the plot is gripping, and soundtrack is great. It's a fun 26 episode journey that is well worth anyone's time.
My Score: 4/5
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