Snapshots: Persona -trinity soul- January 6
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BREAKING NEWS! Game turned into anime, and it’s not utter crap! PERSONA -trinity soul- does the impossible and surprises us all with a paranormal action series, airing Saturdays at 22:30 JST on MXTV.
Hailed by some as the best Japanese RPG on the Playstation 2, PERSONA 3 was published by Atlus in 2006 and featured high school kids firing guns into their temples in order to summon magical beings known as “personas”. Apparently this was too edgy for television, so they’ve removed that part, but at least the sexy character design remains the same. I’m probably obligated to mention that the PERSONA series is a spin-off of Atlus’ Megami Tensei universe, but it was created way back in 1987, when most of the readers of this blog weren’t even born. Heading the anime is Matsumoto Jun, fresh from his very first directing job with random parts of Blood+ (like, well, the second ending bit). While this may be a bit worrying, I’m sure you’ll breathe a sigh of relief when you hear that the script writer is none other than Mutou Yasuyuki, who made the script for Bible Black.
The setting and plot seemingly take place 10 years after the outbreak of the game’s apathy incidents, but it’s an original story where the protagonists are a trio of orphaned brothers called Kanzato Ryou (age 28), Shin (17) and Jun (14). The eldest is police chief in the city of Ayanagi, and investigating bizarre student deaths referred to as the “Reverse Cases”, due to the corpses being turned inside out. In the midst of this, his two younger brothers decide to pay him a visit, returning to the parental home in which Ryou dwells. Unfortunately he’s switched the locks when they arrive, so they end up having to walk around turn reminiscing about their childhood, and mentioning Jun’s dead twin sister Yuki. On the other side of town, Ryou finally catches up with the killer, who’s about to absorb a girl’s persona into his own. To stop him, Ryou brings out his very own persona, and the two supernatural creatures battle it out on a rooftop. Ryou manages to save the girl, but the perpetrator sneaks away, injured. At the same time, Shin wakes up from a vivid dream, in which he and Jun meet a strange fortune teller, hinting of doom and gloom. Soon Ryou comes back home and lets the two younger boys inside, disappointed that they couldn’t find the hidden door key. As Jun goes to bed, sounding like he’s having a dialogue with himself in dual voices, Shin decides to take a walk. Hearing strange moaning from a building, he wanders inside and comes across the wounded guy his older brother just encountered. And guess what, it turns out Ryou didn’t have a monopoly on persona powers in the family.
This is a solid production, with good animation by A-1 Pictures, and along with the rocking music by Iwasaki Taku it makes for a very slick show to enjoy, although I wish it was made in HD. Perhaps the weakest link is the voice acting; despite the fabulous Koyasu Takehito (Keiki in Juuni Kokki) as Ryou, and the decent Okamoto Nobuhiko (Yorito in sola), my ears simply can’t accept that Jun is male, when he’s played by Sawashiro Miyuki (Shinku in Rozen Maiden), no matter how much I love her voice. I suppose it’s because she needs to manage the multiple personality disorder, but a 14-year-old boy is pushing it, even for her.
I’m always worried when I start watching a game adaptation, because so very many anime have come to suck because they couldn’t make anything decent out of it, but in this case they wisely decided to throw away the game plot and create something new, while still keeping the fresh style that made the game so attractive. Perhaps I should admit that I’ve only spent ten or so hours playing it, but I simply got sick of running through randomly generated floors. Does the combat ever change in the game? Anyway, the PERSONA anime works for me; it’s stylish, dark, has the possibility of an interesting plot, and while the action sequences reminded me a bit too much of Mai-HiME, I remain hopeful that this will become a great show.
Martista at 2:06 pm on January 6th, 2008
hello, a question….. ommi what do you think about this anime….?
PD: me I love it
Omni at 2:13 pm on January 6th, 2008
It wasn’t bad, but if I had to choose between this or any of the other new Saturday shows (which is a decision I have to make), I’d choose Shigofumi.
pach at 2:16 pm on January 6th, 2008
I loved the game, and I hope to also like this anime
Im hoping for some of the game characters to appear in here
Martista at 2:20 pm on January 6th, 2008
dammit….well not all dreams come true…Patrik you can blog this???
Patrik at 2:23 pm on January 6th, 2008
Martista - I just did. And I’m done!
Zaram at 2:48 pm on January 6th, 2008
Im glad to hear that
sealouse at 2:54 pm on January 6th, 2008
Shigofumi has the least amount of votes in your poll though…
Village Idiot at 2:55 pm on January 6th, 2008
@pach
The unknown person Ryo was talking to on the phone was possibily Akihiko (same VA).
Sabas at 3:05 pm on January 6th, 2008
Interested in seeing how this relates to Persona 3.
FlareKnight at 3:14 pm on January 6th, 2008
Sounds like this should be pretty good. Did enjoy the game so any tie ins for the characters would be appreciated in this one. But the current situation is curious so will certainly follow along.
Chiisu at 3:38 pm on January 6th, 2008
What? No shooting yourself in the head to summon Personae? Awww
Tryptomine at 3:45 pm on January 6th, 2008
Sounds interesting, though disappointing to hear you won’t be picking it up regularly (also sad they did away with the Evoker guns, since I always found them amusing). And personally, I don’t think a direct game plot adaption would be bad, since the game plays out very much like an anime already.
hypertoast at 3:47 pm on January 6th, 2008
What? You talk as if all games turned anime are bad! What about clannad and air?
feez at 3:49 pm on January 6th, 2008
yay, finally. I hope you start blogging this (if it turns out to be good at least), cuz I really loved the game.
Patrik at 3:55 pm on January 6th, 2008
hypertoast - I mean games as in proper games, not “click next” slideshows.
feez - No, see, I just blog the first episode. No one will be blogging this show, unless someone new magically appears with Japanese understanding and proper English grammar, who just happens to love anime and writing about it.
Unknown Voice at 4:22 pm on January 6th, 2008
great show was it. actually the only one i did enjoy out of all premieres. Did try Shigofumi but …. there was something…lol i could not even take it seriously… post angel and talking staff…also I did not like the fact that it is gonna be episodic in nature…seriously, thats what ruined Darker than Black for me…
As for great game adaptations - there’s Tales of Symphonia. AS far as I can see its one of these few adaptations that are actually worth to take a look. Seen 7 OVAs so far and it was great quality.
Diabolikul at 4:39 pm on January 6th, 2008
it already aired though
panda monium at 5:42 pm on January 6th, 2008
are the OP or ED anything like the game intro? I really liked it, even though it’s not normally my kind of music. (here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzHpCOPsVbo )
I played the hell out of P3; my clear time was ~95 hours, and that’s without much grinding - though I did abuse the persona fusion system quite a bit. Don’t think I’ll bother with new game+ though - unless the rumoured localisation of FES comes out.
Tartarus can be a bit dull, but I just rushed through it as fast as possible each time until I got as far as you could go that month. The fight do get a lot more challenging - particularly boss fights - and you have to have your wits about you, and be good at managing the other party member’s AI.
Karis at 6:00 pm on January 6th, 2008
HAhaha!! This is so cool! And as an added bonus, you can hear the background music from Persona 3 “Changing Seasons” when Shin and Jun enter a cafe when its playing, I love that music! Its found in Persona 3 Reincarnation soundtrack.
OMG at 6:51 pm on January 6th, 2008
If only it is connected
some said it not connected the only thing is that its 10 years later
T_T pls show Junpie or have Arisato be the boss