First Impressions: Persona 4: The Animation

So we're two episodes into Persona 4: The Animation, and I think I've got enough to really give a rough first impression. First off, anyone who has played the game (me included of course, it's my favorite game of all time FYI) will most likely take note of the rushed pacing of these first few episodes. That being said, any reasonable fan of the game is going to be able to sit down and think to themselves, "Well shit, this is an anime adaptation of a video game that could take anywhere from 60-70+ hours to beat, and they're attempting to cram it down into a 26 episode show. So, by common sense, if the pacing wasn't spurred a little bit, then they'd probably only be able to get up to about the point when the team meets Kanji. In addition, fans of the game will remember how much of a shit ton of exposition is in the beginning of the game, trying to cram it all into the first few episodes is not only crucial, but nearly essential. The game is packed to the brim with content, therefor they need to get as much exposition out of the way as they can so that they can actually get to that content later. And even with them cramming all of it into the first 4 episodes or so it's simply impossible for them to get ALL of the content from the game into the show. The anime is going to be a very slimmed down, condensed package of the game and many things that many of you guys may really want to see are most likely just not going to be there. The camping trip for example; one of my favorite scenarios in the game, but is it absolutely necessary to the advancement of the plot? No. Therefor it will most likely not being appearing in the anime. A shame really, but it has to be done.


Now, the one person who has actually come forward to voice their opinion to me about the show has had several complaints about the show, just from the first episode alone. They say the animation is low quality, and to that I say: Umm no. The animation is just about as good as the in-game cutscenes (I just beat the game again for about the 10th time recently. I know what I'm talking about). It's tight and slick, especially during the action scenes. The colors are pretty vibrant, which is surprising considering the relatively washed out color pallet of the game, and the lines are sharp and crisp. Another complaint they had was how the characters had too much "bronzer" on the lower part of their face and too much "talc" on the upper part. Most likely the animators are looking at the official character portraits by Shigenori Soejima, which do have heavier shading towards the lower halves of their faces. The characters in the cutscenes were deathly pale, something that always subconsciously bugged me; now they actually have some color in their faces, and I'm just fine with that. The character models as well are pretty attractive in my opinion; honestly I find Chie to be a lot cuter in the anime than she was in the game haha..ha. Lastly this person states that the show is mostly aimed at people who haven't yet played the game who won't be able to see all the differences and point them out. Honestly, due to the quickened pace and the crap loads of exposition being thrown at us (not all that well in the second episode, might I add) it would probably be better to have played the game first. The handling of the exposition can be incredibly clumsy at times and I fear that many people will simply be lost because of it. Anyway there's plenty for the game fans to love; from the summoning banners to the calender to music, I'm loving all of it. I also especially love the Protagonist's status chart during the intermission. It'll be like we'll literally be able to watch him as he grows as a character. Right now he's pretty much just a walking  heap of flesh (which appears to be a common complaint among the critics) but that will no doubt change as the series progresses. Already in the second episode his stats are already starting to change, so it'll be cool to watch as his chart changes and be able to compare it to what's happening on screen.


As far as characterization goes with the others, I'd say so far so good. Nobody was really developed at all during the point in the game that the anime has gotten to yet. Yosuke should start developing soon hopefully. So far he's been labeled as the slapstick sidekick by most, and while he definitely is to an extent, he's also very intelligent. In the game he appears almost as much as the leader of the Team as the Protagonist, so hopefully we'll be seeing some of that Yosuke soon. I'm curious however about how they will handle any romances that may happen. Yu (I'll just swallow the pill already) has the potential to end up with any of the girls in the entire show, so it could be any of them. Then again, they may just have him not end up with anyone at all. That would probably be best as I'm sure every girl has her own fanbase that will go apeshit should their leading lady not get her man (NAOTO!!!!). Anyway, that's about all I can think to say right now. At this point, all I'm hoping for is for the pacing to even itself out and for the characters to act and develop the way they ought to be acting and developing (and lots of Naoto~). Other than that, I think I'm game for just about anything. Damn that was a long post....