As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.
The doctor will see you now, Mr. Narukami...
Persona 4: The Animation is based on a game that already had its own share of nightmare fuel, so of course, it has its own, and due not being limited to the game's animation models and facial expression, it manages to expand some things that were already terrifying.
- Episode 1: The silhouette of Mayumi Yamano's body hanging on the pole is chilling. Then we get treated to a close-shot of her face, upside-down, eyes rolled back and without pupils.
- Episode 3: Shadow Chie forces Chie to hear her own thoughts in what seems to be a dark void where she is surrounded by mask-like faces without eyes. There is a close-up on one of them and Chie screamed at the horror she experienced.
- The animation manages to take Mitsuo's creepiness and ratchet it up to eleven. Not only does he have a more extreme reaction to Yukiko's rejection (to his request for a date), but we see that his room has (or is covered with) pictures of Rise and Yukiko hanging on the walls, and later a punching bag with a picture of Kanji on it after he chased off Mitsuo; hear his happy laughter when the police notice his murder of Morooka; watch him becoming more unhinged when he fails to pull Yukiko away from her friends in order to have a date with her; and we can feel him completely cracking when people don't believe his claims that he is the killer. Oh and one other scene that shows just how screwed up he is is when he's walking outside and trips on a garbage bag. His response? Stomp heavily and angrily on it as if trying to beat it to death. The implications on the scene where he goes ballistic over Nanako reaching for the same grocery item he's after is more than chilling.
- During the Lotus-Eater Machine sequence in the same episode, the same standard mid-episode Eyecatch plays... Except Narukami's stats are all completely blank. Even the text is gone. If you hadn't figured out something was horribly wrong before, this really hammers it in.
- The sequence appears out of nowhere, the audience is supposed to assume that everything is over as Yu and the gang return to their normal lives. How was Shadow Mitsuo defeated. It doesn't matter anymore but for that scene to be skipped is very wrong... The omelette scene is devoid of conflict, Kanji being tired of acting nice, Rise leaving suddenly cutting all contact, Chie and Yukiko being busy with their exams and Yosuke rejecting Narukami's suggestion of going to the TV World just to meet Teddie. Narukami then become more distant to his friends.
- Yu then decides to watch the Midnight Channel and nothing appears. Then out of nowhere a shadow resembling a floating baby appears out of nowhere, strangles Yu, and tells him that he is "nothing" like itself.
- Some of the close-ups of Shadow Naoto's eyes in the anime are nightmare-inducing.
- Hell, Shadow Naoto in general is much more frightening here than in the game. In the game she's mostly comedic due to her mood swings and Large Ham tendencies. The anime took away both of those aspects, making her genuinely terrifying.
- While Mitsuo was indeed way more unsettling here than in the game, there's Adachi. In the game, Adachi's admittedly chilling lines during and after he's revealed to be the true killer were somewhat ruined by his sprite's goofy facial expressions. Here though? He manages to be legitimately terrifying, his goofy smirk being replaced with an outright Slasher Smile, and whereas in the game his Motive Rant and Breaking Lecture both came off as more of angry whining, here he's completely calm as he tells Yu to just give in while Magatsu-Izanagi is beating the ever-loving fuck out of him.
- Another example stems from his increase in power when compared to the game. When he's confronted by the Investigation Team, Adachi shows how great his control over his part of the TV world is by summoning three Reapers. One would've been bad enough, but it seems Adachi wanted to really, really make sure that they die.
- Episode 22: Nanako flatlining. The total lack of background music makes it even worse.
- Narukami's Heroic Safe Mode moment in Episode 23 is pretty unnerving, particularly his expression
◊ when he nearly kills Namatame in retaliation for Nanako's apparent death.- Speaking of the groups attempt of throwing Namatame into the TV, Naoto, the one who suggested Namatame be thrown in, is perhaps the most frightening person in that entire scene. While the guys are pissed off and look like they will, without hesitation, kill anyone who tries to stop them from doing it, Naoto has a colder more Tranquil Fury mood in that entire scene, calmly watching as Narukami drags Namatame over to the TV and showing little emotion as he does it. The delivery of her words in the dub especially sends chills down the spine.Naoto: Don't beg. It's pathetic.
- Speaking of the groups attempt of throwing Namatame into the TV, Naoto, the one who suggested Namatame be thrown in, is perhaps the most frightening person in that entire scene. While the guys are pissed off and look like they will, without hesitation, kill anyone who tries to stop them from doing it, Naoto has a colder more Tranquil Fury mood in that entire scene, calmly watching as Narukami drags Namatame over to the TV and showing little emotion as he does it. The delivery of her words in the dub especially sends chills down the spine.
- Unlike in the game, in the anime we actually get to see how Yamano and Saki died during Namatame's flashback. Their Shadow selves basically ate them. Or more accurately, being killed by Izanami's Thousand Curses.
- Given that it was on a rainy day, it was likely Izanami who oversaw their deaths, enjoying watching them die while Namatame helplessly watches, similar to how Izanagi saw what his wife had become, a corpse.
- In a similar vein, we see Adachi put Ms. Yamano and Saki into the TV. He makes sexual advances on both of them before throwing them in with much force. After they're thrown in, he taunts them from the other side of the TV to get out.
- The part where Izanami absorbs your other party members with that scripted event in the game is a lot worse in the anime. The episode had started out with Narukami going through a "Groundhog Day" Loop of the day before he left town, and when he gets suspicious about it, he confronts Izanami, who shows him the truth: she had already killed all of his friends, and he locked himself in the loop in order to relive that one happy day. Izanami doesn't just tell him this, she forces him to relive the moment, forcing down every one of his friends into the shadows as he begs for it to stop. What makes it even more terrifying is the moment right before the break: Izanami tells Narukami that happiness can only be found in a world filled with fog. He turns to the camera, his eyes wide, and a smile on his face. Yu Narukami is completely and utterly broken.
- Even worse so, when the loop restarts again, Yu is now taking part in everything that happens during the day, almost as if he's sickly enjoying everything. The music also starts to become eerie, possibly hinting at him losing touch with reality, trapped in his own memories.
