Tentacle-Free Anime: "Persona 5" (2016) Review

- by Kazekun, 30 November 2016

I don't really get to play a lot of games these days - I used to when I was younger, but that mostly ended when I started working back when I turned 16. Ever since then, to sit down and play a full game has been a rarity and a treat, but that doesn't mean I don't still love games or the multimedia opportunities some of them provide. Such as anime tie-ins, of which there are many. And we're here to discuss one such tie-in today.

Persona 5 the Animation -THE DAY BREAKERS- (2016) 

Episodes: 1;
Director: Takaharu Ozaki;
Studio: A-1 Pictures;
Rating: PG-13
 
Summary: The story focuses on the 16-year-old Protagonist after he is transferred to Shujin High School in Tokyo. Staying with friends of his parents, he meets up with two fellow students, problem child Ryuuji Sakamoto and withdrawn An Takamaki, and a talking, shape-shifting cat-like creature known as Morgana. During his time there, feeling suppressed by their environment, the four form a group known as the "Phantom Thieves," working together to carry out heists and encountering mysterious phenomena along the way. [MyAnimeList.net]

[SPOILERS!!]

Brought to you by the studio that created Shelter, Persona 5 the Animation acts as a sort of prologue to the upcoming game that has already been released in Japan but will be released in the west next April. I know very little about the Persona gaming franchise except that I have friends who are madly in love with it. However I do know enough to get the general gist of the concept: a game series about different high school students banding together to battle monsters and use their Personas, physical manifestations of their personalities, to ultimately save the day from evil.

Persona 5 anime promo image. Click to enlarge.

There's so much more to it than that, but ultimately the games aren't what we're here to discuss.
 
The Day Breakers is only 30-minutes and tells a complete story in its short run time, though to fully understand it you at least have to know a little before going in. Some of its explained, a lot of it is not. Thankfully, I didn't feel totally lost, but I did have questions. In that regard this isn't a great short, simply based on how easy it is for newcomers to get into it. If you're not already a fan, this probably isn't for you.

​That all being said, I enjoyed this short. The action scenes were great, and the story it told was complete with a twist I didn't see coming, but made perfect sense. The story focuses on a group of bandits who run around and rob local shops, one of the members of the gang is a red haired boy named Kazuya Makigami, who seems to be dealing with quite a bit of stress over his actions.

On the other side of the story is a group of teenagers – and a cat – who call themselves the Phantom Thieves of Hearts, and their whole shtick is to hunt down people who are doing wrong and defeat the evil inside their heart in order to change the way they look on the world. From what I gathered in the short, these guys seem to be well known to the media and general public, but more as a local legend than a bonafide fact. I found that to be very interesting.

The Phantom, leader of the Thieves of Hearts.

As the tale progresses, Kazuya tries to rat his group of bandits out to the Phantom Thieves of Hearts in hopes they'll take care of them for him and for a good portion of the episode you think he really did. The Thieves try to catch the bandits in the act of stealing so they have proof of the tip-off they were given, but by the end it's revealed that the tip-off didn't come from Kazuya, but his brother. And we learn that our protagonist has been the bad guy all along, that the group of bandits was being led by him – again, mental stress was causing him to act out against them – as well as he was beating up his little brother in order to get out his frustrations.
 
A battle then ensues between Kazuya and the Phantom Thieves of Hearts, as they fight within another realm where their Personas can come to life. The different Persona were very interesting and definitely creative in their looks and how they operated alongside our main characters. It took a little bit for them to grow on me but by the end of the scene I was able to accept what I was seeing.
 
The action scenes in the episode are great, the animation very fluid. It's also very colorful, which I enjoyed. I would say the structure of the episode needed work though as we see events from the middle of the episode at the beginning before we get to the proper beginning of the narrative, only to see those same events play out again later – this time more organically within the story. The music was also fantastic. I've heard some of the music from the upcoming Persona 5 game and this definitely borrows from that.

The dangerous world of the heart.

Persona 5 the Animation – THE DAY BREAKERS – isn't, like I mentioned earlier, for newcomers. However for veterans or those who can at least understand the bare basics will definitely get something out of this. I enjoyed it for what it was, I also watched this with a friend who has played parts of the series and he loved it. If you have any excitement for the upcoming game then definitely check this out, it's only 30 minutes and easy to find online for legal streaming.
 
Final Score: 4 Phantom Thieves of Hearts members out of 5


Have you seen the Persona 5 anime yet? Played the games? Let us know down below!

Tagged: Tentacle-Free Anime, movies & TV.

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