YMMV / Persona 5: The Day Breakers

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • After Morgana delivers the key to Kazuya's drawer to Naoya, Naoya finds a portrait of himself winning the gold during a kendo championship, with Kazuya taking second place. Since the "seed" for Kazuya's treasure, the root of his distorted desires, happened to be that key, that would imply that the event in question led Kazuya down that dark path, but what does it say about Kazuya? Was he always jealous of Naoya, or did he hold some fondness for their time on the same team? And why does he ask Naoya to burn the picture? Is it because he wants Naoya to forget about him?
  • Likewise, why did Naoya post his brother's name on the Phan-Site? Was it to save himself from physical abuse, return Kazuya to his senses, or some combination of the two?
• Franchise Original Sin: Some of the flaws pointed out in Persona 5: The Animation were present here, but not as many people complained about them, since it was more of a promotional episode than an adaptation.
  • The Day Breakers features several Off-Model shots and somewhat poor animation in the fight scene. This was less of a concern than in the anime because in the latter case, the viewers hadn't had as much of a look at the game's striking aesthetics, and thus had less reason to be disappointed.
  • One of the major criticisms of P5A was that Joker didn't have much of a personality, and barely seemed to react to anything, but this also applied to The Day Breakers. The Day Breakers is an introductory episode to the Phantom Thieves(none of whom show much more than their basic personalities), so Joker didn't need a character arc. When Joker's lack of a character persisted into the main anime, people complained that the supporting characters were a lot more interesting than the main character.
  • The "Akechi Quota," or frequently including Akechi in the story outside of his canonical appearances, especially in the spring and summer, got its start in The Day Breakers. Akechi makes two appearances in the OVA despite not playing much of a role in the plot: while doing an interview at the start, and glancing at Joker while watching the burglars' arrest at the end. In the OVA's case, it wasn't much of a problem, since they were mostly cameos to establish the OVA as taking place in June, with the latter serving as a bit of foreshadowing for his and Joker's relationship. It only became divisive when he started playing a bigger role in the anime, such as with Futaba and Yusuke's Confidants.
• Moral Event Horizon: See here.