Persona 5 the Animation TV Specials

For me the game is a masterpiece. This one was just "good". The pacing was rushed which I was expecting and the animations were not consistent during the episode. Some segments felt like they had very good quality and some felt like average. Glad they are sticking with the same scenarios as the game too and that they kept the finale for another special ep coming in march. I recommend it for all persona 5 fans that already played the game, yea it won't be as iconic as the game but you will relive the memories that the game left in you. OH AND THEY HAD A CLOSE UP SHOT OF MAKOTO'S BUTT SO ARIGATO!

Well, well, I've never played any personas, so I'll only evaluate them as an anime. Overall it was quite disappointing, I had really enjoyed the first special, but the second/conclusion, left a lot to be desired, simply the final battle is decided with a cry of support, an invocation of a very strong "persona" who decided everything with a blow, besides those classic phrases of effect that have no effect at all, because we agree, are very bland, honestly, it seemed like generic anime that has no idea for a battle or for the construction of a dialogue, another negative point were the characters that had a prominence in the scene as if they had in fact some relevánica in the anime, and they did not have. In the end, I was really sad at this conclusion. (sorry for the spelling mistakes)

I decided to watch this series after seeing a letsplay by Lost Pause for Persona5 and was curious at how well it would do compared to Persona4: the Animation. I have not played any of the Persona games, full disclaimer, so I can not compare whether this was a good adaptation of the game. Overall, this is a decent anime, and this review assumes you'll be watching the actual series prior to the specials. The story and characters have to be summarized for a project of this nature, so there is a sense that a lot of the minor characters are sort of shoved into the narrative. This is a bit sad considering that the Persona4: the Animation and Persona5 (from what I've seen), plays heavily on the idea of forming relationships with characters. The animation seems to get a little spotty at points, but that is more the exception to rule. The music is catchy and I can see why the original game got a lot of praise for the soundtrack. Overall, this show has a decent story with decent pacing, though a cliffhanger ending to the first special made me angry after the series proper ended on a brutal cliffhanger. I would recommend this series to either a fan or a novice who wants a summary of the game rather than playing. It also works as a very long advertisement for the game, and perhaps I will edit my review once I play the game. Until then, I hope you enjoy.

DARK SUN GOING FULL SPEED AHEAD!!! At least that's what i feel when i watch this OVA, yes it feels like you're in a passenger seat and the driver steps on the acceleration pedal like the world's end is behind you and go as fast as they can to reach the destination, and you can't enjoy the trip. Even though i was quite surprised with the earlier part which are quite decent, but my expectation soon betrayed. It feels like a summary of the most important arc in Persona 5 rather than proper episode. Nothing is explained properly, every confidant characters were forcefully appear despite the short duration, they don't even try to shake the audience emotion when it should be in certain scenes, everything feels abrupt. And if everything feels abrupt, of course it affects the overall sound department too. Everyone's favorite "River in the Desert" doesn't pack a punch like how it supposed to be, because it doesn't have enough time, same with everything else in this OVA. It is really bad. But Kawakami is really cute when teasing Joker, hence the saving grace.

The original season's ending was a copout, Persona 5 the Animation: Dark Sun... was rushed to all hell. LA will give some positives at the very least before tearing this one down. Well we find out who the mastermind is and how he orchestrated EVERYTHING from all the previous mental shutdown incidents all the way back to Madarame!. LA will say this but the animation by CloverWorks did get.."slightly" better and LA says "slightly" loosely but still and though the plot does almost a half the runtime to be exposition in how the Phantom Thieves as well as the mastermind and his dragon to exposition everything about their plans and how they executed it, in GREAT detail. Finally trying to give sympathy to the major villains of the game and in turn finally gives Joker a chance to face his demons because of this and becomes something like his character development and lastly the voice cast obviously reprised their roles and LA is happy for that at the very least. Ok, soooo...Persona 5 the Animation: Dark Sun...has some problems, some that LA forgave in the original season but Persona 5 the Animation: Dark Sun... only presents these flaws front and center. The biggest flaw and the one LA forgave one in the original season being it's rushed pace, but where the original season could truncate events if it wasn't linked to the major plot, but here where Phantom Thieves face off against what is essentially the Penultimate and Final Boss of the game, only to be rushed to hell. Everything mostly using quick time skips, like speeding through the Final Boss' dungeon, to facing the Dragon of the game then quickly shift to the Phantom Thieves leaving their call cards and then quickly move onto the Final fight in the next transition, like really?. LA did say the animation was slightly better but the animation still has CloverWork's occasional derps aka. wide angle shots where their facial features is diminished and not only that but some of the fight scenes had some blurs to appear, it's was only because so many effects occurred within the same frame it became too much at once thus the cause of the blur at times and yeah because the first half of Persona 5 the Animation: Dark Sun... is pretty much exposition for 25 minutes then yeah it becomes a slog with all the characters trying to explain EVERYTHING to us, when we got the gist of it by the first 10 minutes. Finally as good as we see Joker get to face his demons and FINALLY gives us some character development to him as well as the dragon and mastermind of the game. LA didn't see why we needed to see at least the mastermind's sympathy, especially when is in essence a corrupted politician stereotype, LA found the mastermind's sympathy to be cliched to say the least. Ohh and we have even more what with Stars and Ours Special, to that LA says, CloverWorks, you rushed your way to the final boss and tied up the majority of the loose plotlines, what more is there???????. So yeah, Persona 5 the Animation: Dark Sun... was a rushed unexplained mess at times, yes the actual climax to Joker's demons and showing off who the traitor and final boss is was actually fine especially for someone who's never played the game but it was really outweighed by CloverWork's animation and how rushed this special did itself in. "You never saw it coming"...ohh how right this is...for CloverWorks.

Ok guys, I really tried to be positive, I went open minded to see the episode but... Is P5A what are we talking about. This is my first review and I never feel the need to write one but... Let's start with the positives: they made it 50 minutes long and Rivers in the Desert. That's it, now with the negatives... *inhales* The direction and the pace were as bad as always. The animation wasn't that bad but it's still nothing remarkable and impressing and has the same problems that the original series had. Then we have the clip collection of the group exploring the palace. I hate this parts, every palace in the anime had it and it feels so stupid, it feels like I'm watching a trailer more than an episode of anime. Why did they put this? The writters probably wanted to put EVERYTHING that happens in the palace, but they don't have the time to do it. That's when the word "adaptation" comes to play. You don't have to put all of that, if you make changes that make sense with the plot it works perfectly. That is why I liked so much P4A, they make some changes here and there (mostly with the confidants), but in order to make everything work to the overall plot of the series. CloverWorks words of "wanting to make something different" where just a bait after all? And now, let's go with the most importants parts of this arc: Akechi's death and the battle with Shadow Shido. Akechi's battle was boring, and his death was emotionless. Akechi wasn't one of my favorite characters at all, but his death in the game make me feel sorry for the poor guy. Here, the direction completely killed any attempt of make me feel something about his death. Shadow Shido's battle was as boring as always, and now let me say something. Most of the battles in P5A are so boring and lifeless, they aren't dynamic, they aren't like what you would expect from an anime. I know that this is the adaptation of an RPG, but for the love of god that doesn't mean that the battles in the anime has to be like an RPG too! The first phase of Shadow Shido was just him standing still waiting to be attacked literally doing NOTHING! And then when he transformed in his second phase the battle was so short that it just falls flat. In fact, that part makes Shadow Shido look very weak. Gaining a power-up and finally start to fight back... just to end up defeated almost immediately. Wow, maybe they couldn't make me feel sorry for Akechi but they did it with Shadow Shido because of how weak he was! At the end, this special wasn't anything remarkable at all, something that doesn't impress me at this point. When I watch P5A, I don´t feel like I'm watching an adaptation of a game, I feel like I'm watching a resume of the game made for the Wikipedia. The only reason that I have to wait for march is to know what the hell is P5R. 4/10. And for the next special... SPOILERS I don't know how the plot-twist of the fake Igor being Yaldabaoth will make sense for anime-only viewers considering the low importance that the velvet room have in this "adaptation".