♩"Some people think I'm bonkers, but I just think I'm free"♩
Ann: "What is wrong with you? Do you need like, therapy, or something?"
Ren: "This is my therapy"
— Episode 5
Persona 5 Abridged is an Abridged Series of Persona 5: The Animation by the abridging team Botch Brigade. Takes the base story of Persona 5 and does pretty much whatever it wants with it; changing around character personalities and motivations for the sake of dry absurdism and general silliness. Currently has 9 episodes thus far plus two shorts. Can be found here
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Tropes
- Absurdism: Much of the humor relies on the overt silliness of the character’s personalities and their clash with the dead serious story being told.
- Bilingual Bonus: During episode 6, Ren casually shifts language to French in a attempt to confuse Makoto, succeeding.
- Black Comedy: Most things that comes out of Ren’s mouth. When he isn’t insulting the people around him, he’s actively wishing death upon them.
- Brick Joke: In episode 5, Morgana finds Madarame's streaming room in his palace and remarks that he now knows "20 new slurs" from watching him stream. He later uses one of them, "schlergen", in episode 9.
- Characterization Marches On: Ann’s personality in the first three episodes being that of a annoyingly Genre Savvy conspiracy theorist who believes she’s on television. Following episode 4, those aspects of her character have been dropped entirely in favor of her being the Only Sane Man.
- In the glimpse of him we see in episode 1, Akechi appears to be just as snarky and violent as Ren. When we see him fully in Episode 4, however, he’s extremely scatterbrained, but also approachable and friendly, if a tad bit bizarre.
- Chekhov's Gag: Ren's inner demons escape from his psyche upon seeing Loss in episode 5, only for them to inhabit Ryuji at the start of episode 6.
- Chekhov's Gun: Episode 7 sees Makoto reacting about an advertisement towards bikes and ATVs, which she reacts by calling out the quite obvious Subliminal Seduction. By the time the team arrives at Kaneshiro's palace, her rebellious speech results in her Persona, Johanna, to become a bike.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Akechi very much resides in his own little world; he believes that Leblanc having walls is “delightful”, is obsessed with Ren for no reason at all, and walks away from the camera during an interview nonchalantly.
- Deadpan Snarker: Ren, in spades. Ann also has shades of this, but mostly at Ren’s expense.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: Madarame, who is merely sent to prison in the original, is unceremoniously given the electric chair following his prosecution in episode 6.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Most of the Phantom Thieves refer to Morgana as simply "cat".
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: In episode 5, Ryuji remarking that calling a friend a confidant “sounds stupid”
- Mythology Gag: The calling card Futaba sends addressed to Ren in episode 8 has many of his canon names that originate from the stage play adaptation Persona 5 The Stage
- Two popular meme lines from the community like Akechi "Delicious Pancakes" and Yusuke "that was truly cringeworthy" are utilized.
- Reality Warper: Sojiro, for some reason, has this ability as demonstrated in episode 4 when he puts Ren in work clothes.Sojiro: "Boom! You're in an apron now. I am a master of reality manipulation.
- Remember the New Guy?: Episode 8 introduces Daquarius, a friend of the Phantom Thieves who is sent to prison, whom is treated like he had been a key character up until that point.
- Running Gag: The word "hooligan" being used and treated as an offensive slur.
- Self-Deprecation: During the news section of episode 8, one of the news headlines talks about Abridgers getting arrested for piracy charges, likely a Played for Laughs harsh reality on how copyright tends to be in regards of dubbing parodies.
- Spoof Aesop: In episode 6.5, Ryuji tries to explain how he's learned an important lesson about friendship that Ren refutes.Ren: You know what, Ryuji? Just abstain entirely. Never reproduce, ever. That's what we learned.
- Stylistic Suck: Ren's rant/description of Makoto gaining her persona in episode 7 is accompanied by poorly-animated visuals.
- Unexplained Recovery: After seeing Loss gives Ryuji a heart attack, he appears alive and well in the next scene. Lampshaded by Ren.Ren: "Didn't you die?"Ryuji: "Yeah! ...Anyway, let's bounce."
- Vocal Dissonance: Ryuji sounds nothing like his canon counterpart nor even a teenager, having a deep & gruff voice suiting his Macho Man inspired personality.
- Vocal Evolution: Mishima’s voice gradually becomes deeper and more nasally.
