Hello and welcome to my liveblog for Persona 5: The Animation. In it, I will do an episode by episode analysis of the Persona 5 anime and how it compares to the game. The short answer is \"not well,\" but as for the long answer, this will cover the things the anime does well and the things it doesn\'t.
Be warned that the liveblog is written for those who are familiar with the game, so it will contain spoilers and references to things that haven\'t happened yet. I\'m also covering the anime on an episode by episode basis, so some of my observations in one episode may be contradicted by what I see in a later one.
The anime begins with Igor talking about the \"ruin\" the world faces, skipping his This Is a Work of Fiction speech entirely (which works in the game, since he makes you agree to it). Justine and Caroline then talks about the role \"tricksters\" play.
The scene cuts to the Casino heist. Akechi\'s shown prominently (unlike in the game, in which he only had one line, \"This is our only chance!\" and his voice wasn\'t easily recognizable for a first-time player), and he fires a shot past Joker to cause a chandelier to drop before wishing Joker good luck. Joker makes his way across the upper levels before crashing through the window, skipping the combat and stealth tutorials entirely. The latter\'s understandable, but the former would have been a good way to demonstrate the Persona ability and inject a little action into the opening.
Of course, you know how this ends, even if it doesn\'t end quite the same way as in the game. The riot police fire several canisters of tear gas(?) at Joker, and it then cuts to Joker\'s mugshot. In the game, Joker\'s valiant efforts to escape, then going limp after learning he\'d been sold out were some impressive acting that helped sell the ruse. The anime also points out that the leader of the Phantom Thieves was arrested in November, whereas in the game, you don\'t find out the exact date for some time.
The anime cuts to Ren\'s interrogation, in which he\'s doused with water to wake him up, kicked to the ground and beaten up. The cop then asks if Joker really thinks the cameras can be used as evidence of the officers\' misconduct, then apparently takes Joker\'s grunt as a no, remarking that he isn\'t that stupid. He then lists all the charges against Joker, and says he\'ll make Ren take responsibility.
Outside the interrogation room, Sae gets stopped, since no one\'s allowed in there, at which point her boss calls the men outside. Since you can see her at a fair distance and from the time, the rather poor quality of the anime\'s artwork rears its ugly head for the first time, since characters in the background are often poorly drawn, among other things. Considering that Persona 5 had a highly distinctive art style, this is quite unfortunate.
The interrogation continues, at which point the cop demands Joker\'s name and threatens his friends if he continues giving the \"silent treatment.\" Joker then speaks his first words and gives his name- Ren Amamiya. Those of you familiar with the fandom may recall that until the game came out, the protagonist\'s commonly accepted name was Akira Kurusu, the name he was given in the manga adaptation. Some are unhappy with the change, but I personally don\'t mind.
Of course, there\'s a larger issue with Ren that\'s already apparent- he barely talks. In the game, his dialogue was entirely player-chosen prompts, but unlike previous installments, his thoughts provided things that the narration otherwise did (most of the rest came from Morgana). As for the dialogue options themselves, they have a great deal of variety, from polite to standoffish to snarky, and give the option to play your character in many different ways.
Outside, Sae\'s boss reluctantly grants her permission to interrogate Ren, and she\'s informed that she won\'t have long to talk with him, since they don\'t know how he steals hearts. After mentioning that she recognizes Ren, Ren asks where the others are, only for Sae to reassure him that they weren\'t caught. It\'s nice to see Ren showing concern for his comrades, but it\'s difficult to mesh with how in the game, he consistently refuses to admit to anyone working with him, and avoiding the bad ending requires you to refuse to sell out the other Phantom Thieves or your Confidants.
Ren lets out a sigh of relief before suffering side-effects from the drugs. Sae, after expressing annoyance with the cops for using Truth Serum, tells Ren what she wants to learn from him. Ren stammers out \"I...\" before Lavenza then tells Ren that remembering what happened will be the key to victory.
A few flashes of the incident in which Shido assaulted the woman are shown, and surprisingly enough, they look better than the stills from the cutscene (but not the cutscene itself). It then cuts to Ren on the train in Tokyo, on April 9. Ren briefly sees a flashback from his time in juvenile court, presumably being sentenced.
Two girls in uniforms see a special on Akechi, and Fangirl over him, as the news brings up his status as the second Detective Prince, referring to his predecessor, Naoto Shirogane, by name. I\'m one of those who actually like Akechi, but I think this added focus on him is a bit excessive. When Ren looks up, the girls give him an uncomfortable look, even though it\'s unclear whether they heard about his criminal record.
Ren walks through Shibuya and sees the ad for Rise\'s \"Sapphire\" single- in the game, it was a nice detail to suggest that she still was an Idol Singer even after all these years (it\'s implied P5 is set in 2017, judging by the dates, and Rise is at least 20), but it worked a little better as a background image.
Ren gets the Nav App, which, when activated, turns everything around him a reddish-orange tint and causes Arsene to appear in a flash of blue flames. Without even hesitating, Ren deletes the app.
Ren then travels from Shibuya to Yongenjaya, passing by some locals, including Tae Takemi, before getting directions to the Sakura residence. Once there, he talks to the deliveryman and gets shown the way to Leblanc. The anime actually helps Yongenjaya seem a bit more lively, which is a good touch.
Ren walks in on the news story about the bus accident, the elderly couple with the cup of coffee, and Sojiro doing his crossword puzzle. Immediately upon seeing Ren, Sojiro remarks about how he almost forgot Ren was coming over, and on his own tendency to forget men\'s faces (although he does remember Youji\'s face quite well). Ren\'s about to say something, at which point the elderly couple interrupts to pay for their drink and leave, remarking about how cars won\'t crash into Leblanc.
After complaining about the couple staying so long for only a single cup of coffee, Sojiro notices Ren, who seems a little distracted, but then politely introduces himself and bows to Sojiro. Sojiro\'s a bit impressed, then gives his full name, as well as the fact that one of his regulars knows Ren\'s parents.
Sojiro shows Ren to his room upstairs, giving a more close-up view of the pigsty that is the attic than in the game, and tells him that he\'ll give him sheets, but keeping the room clean is up to Ren. When Sojiro mentions Ren \"inflicting bodily injury,\" Ren briefly protests, but Sojiro cuts him off, albeit saying he won\'t judge Ren and asking him not to talk about his criminal record \"up front,\" lest he interfere with Sojiro\'s business. Sojiro then says that Ren got expelled from his old school and ordered to attend school in Tokyo for the year that he\'s on probation, (which, in one of the stranger pieces of dialogue in both versions, Ren apparently doesn\'t know what \"probation\" is). Sojiro mentions that they\'re going to \"Shujin\"- elaborating that it\'s \"Shujin Academy\" when Ren gives a blank stare- and adds that they don\'t get many transfer students. Sojiro warns Ren that he\'ll throw him out at the first sign of trouble, then leaves.
Ren spends the evening in the attic, eating ramen noodles, gets the answer to the clue that Sojiro had trouble with, before noticing the app again. He blandly notes that he deleted it that afternoon, then suddenly finds himself in the Velvet Room.
Igor gives his speech introducing himself and explaining the nature of the room, and Ren is alarmed to hear about ruin, getting up and walking to the cell door. Igor reassures him that he can fight against the ruin, and lets him go.
Ren wakes up, wondering if it was a dream, then the scene cuts to outside the high school division of Shujin Academy.
They then meet with the principal (whose desk plaque has the english word \"Principal\" on it) and Kawakami. The former threatens to expel Ren if he causes any trouble. Kawakami introduces herself, then drops a flyer for her maid service, with no one present appearing to notice. Considering how careful Kawakami had to be about keeping her maid job under wraps (she made the deal with Ren because he could have reported her), it\'s highly Out of Character for her to be so careless, and a poor attempt at Foreshadowing. The principal then warns Sojiro to keep Ren out of trouble.
The anime skips over the scene in which Sojiro, despite having been fairly cold to Ren for the past day or so, grouses about how the school\'s treating Ren like a criminal, showing that he does in fact care for him.
The anime then shows the subway accident, but not Sae and Akechi\'s first (chronological) appearance. The latter\'s fairly surprising, considering how much focus Akechi gets in this adaptation.
After the accident, Sojiro hears about it on the radio, and his complaining about the difficulties he\'ll have to go through is cut out. Ren asks why Sojiro took him in, and Sojiro explains that he did what he was asked and that he\'s getting paid (which isn\'t the entire truth, but Ren doesn\'t know that right now), and then tells Ren to stay out of trouble.
The scene flashes forward to Sae mentioning the subway accident and asking about Kamoshida.
On the first day of school, Ren finds himself in the rain, with the Nav App still on his phone. He then spots Ann next to him, before Kamoshida picks her up. Ryuji happens by, and accidentally says the keywords necessary to start up the Nav App. He doesn\'t display the momentary hostility towards Ren that he does in the game, which is a bit disappointing. Not only is Ryuji understandably on edge, since Shujin students are more likely to take Kamoshida\'s side, but it also fits with how Ren starts off on somewhat bad terms with most of the Phantom Thieves. Let\'s review each of them.
- Things are initially fairly tense between Morgana and Ryuji, who don\'t fully trust each other.
- Ann is initially somewhat suspicious of Ren for his investigating Kamoshida, presumably thinking of him as a troublemaker.
- Yusuke threatens to report Ryuji and Ren to the police if they keep badmouthing Madarame, his teacher and foster father.
- Makoto is initially investigating the Phantom Thieves and blackmails them in order to obtain their cooperation in taking down Kaneshiro.
- Futaba is less overtly hostile, but is still introduced as a mysterious hacker who refuses to meet with the Phantom Thieves in person.
- Haru joins up with Morgana after he breaks off from the group, and doesn\'t initially trust the Phantom Thieves to deal with her father.
- Akechi, like Makoto, blackmails the Thieves to obtain their cooperation, and this isn\'t even getting into the fact that he\'s the traitor.
Back to Ryuji. He asks and finds out that Ren\'s a transfer student, who thus doesn\'t know anything about Kamoshida. They then hurry off to school, only to find themselves in Kamoshida\'s Palace, which has the \"Shujin Academy: High School D Ivision\" sign out front.
After examining their surroundings for a while, Ren and Ryuji then get surrounded and captured by the guards. Ren wakes up in a cell, at which point Shadow Kamoshida comes down to see Ryuji, recognizing him. He then orders their executions, and beats up Ryuji first, using some of his volleyball spiking moves rather than punching Ryuji in the gut, a nice change.
Arsene then asks Ren if he\'ll just abandon Ryuji to die, and whether his choice was a mistake. Ren says \"It wasn\'t\" without any hesitation, and accepts the contract. Kamoshida realizes the threat, and has the soldiers hold him down with their gauntlets, rather than with crossed spears. He then summons Arsene, in a sequence that isn\'t half as impressive as in the game.
The ending credits play, with \"Break In To Break Down,\" a song that effectively fits the game\'s themes, but isn\'t nearly as catchy as \"Wake Up, Get Up, Get Out There.\" The preview shows the next episode\'s title card, along with Morgana\'s shadow (lowercase).
While this episode had somewhat questionable production values and a fair amount of relatively important details cut out, it wasn\'t all that bad. It was a bit rushed, but it sped up the Slow-Paced Beginning a bit, and helped get to the Persona summoning action by the end of it, which helps keep new viewers engaged.
