Persona 5 the Animation -THE DAY BREAKERS-

This will be coming from someone who is overwhelmingly hyped for Persona 5, and a large fan of Shin Megami Tensei in general. As a standalone OVA the story is a bit less than you'd expect. It has its interesting points and a decent, if a predictable, twist. It certainly sets up a good atmosphere that never fully breaks, but that's about it. There's no real pay off in the end as it sets us back to the Velvet Room at the end, making it a "possible" path rather than one that we should just assume happens in the future game. The characters are alright, if you'vebeen keeping up with the trailers. As a half hour OVA should, it wastes no time on introductions and goes right into the plot. There's certainly potential for the characters in the game, but they're rather one note in this OVA, to the point I'd argue the trailers had more character to them. The sound and music, as expected of an Atlus product, is fantastic however. Most of the music is from the game (I'm assuming, as it's in the trailers), and it fits well with the fast paced action they try to form. It's also just very nice to listen to in general. The animation however is extremely poor at times. Never to the point that I couldn't look at it, but definitely to the point that the impact of scenes was lessened. The best example of this is the Persona summoning scene. While the scene itself is very cool, showing the Phantom Thieves working as a team and showing off their powers, the animation is just too poor to leave the impact it was supposed to. Designs over all, also expected of an Atlus production, are amazing though. Characters look fantastic, powered or not, and the Personas look much better than Persona 3s and a bit better than Persona 2 and 4s in my opinion, especially Arsene and Goemon and Kidd. The world they enter into seems much more interesting than the Midnight Channel, and possibly more than Tartarus, making me think more of that in SMTIII and IV, which is a very good thing. I'm a bit disappointed that the enemies fought end up being generic demons instead of something unique. At the very least, while the grunts were immediately recognizable, I can't immediately place what the boss Demon is even though I know I've seen it a few times, so it's less used at least. Overall, it was a decent OVA that did its job, it got me more excited for Persona 5. It gets a 7. Also, shoutout to the Devil Survivor/Persona 1 reference in the Kazuya/Naoya brothers.

This is a not necessary but still pleasant anime to watch. This comes before the game so watch this before playing P5 if you want to be a perfectionist. This is the first Persona 5 entity to experience. Most of this episode is focused on one character but it does all give you the basics of how the story will work for Persona 5 while not giving too much away that you can guess from promotional material. The art and and animation is rather varied is this. It goes from decent/good and has certain moments that absolutely stunning but these are few and far between. The storyisn't astounding but it isn't bad it's for the most part throwaway but it isn't boring. Visit Limienerd/James Limie on youtube to see my Full Video Review

This anime is basically an advertisement/preview for Persona 5 and as such it does its job well. We get to see the characters in action along with how they access their new shadow realm (it's an app!) all with the beautiful art style and character designs developed for the game. The animation's not quite as good as that in the game, but it's still well above average. The plot is pretty basic and takes place within the game without ruining any of the plot for us. Apparently people can put in requests for help to the Phantom Thieves online. One guy, a lockpick and thiefwho's unhappy with his life, goes onto this site and the team decides to investigate his case. They follow him around and do various investigatory things before deciding to take action. It's basically like one of the regular bosses in the game except abbreviated to the point of a subplot. In other words, the anime is rather narrow in scope. It works fine, especially when viewed as an extended trailer, and there are one or two twists to keep things interesting. And it reveals next to nothing about the main story. Characterwise it's also very much a teaser. We don't really get to know anything about the characters except that they seem to slavishly follow the lead's lead. They seem rather more sinister or angsty than in previous Personas but they're rarely given time to develop outside of plot exposition. And there's no time for such development either. The anime is pared to the bone. As a trailer this anime works very well. As a standalone episode it's less strong but still admirably clear for an introduction to the series. There's a lot we're not told but it's never allowed to come between us and our understanding of the plot. I'm very excited to play this game and the anime merely whet that excitement. It's limited in scope by necessity, but displays enough cleverness in telling a fairly simple story that the potential for greater stories is easy to imagine.