Anime 21473 Persona 3 The Movie 2 Midsummer Knights Dream Reviews Filter Check 2

Persona 3 the Movie 2: Midsummer Knight's Dream is the sequel to Spring of Rebirth. The problem is that it is not exactly clear when the movie takes place other than that it hints that it is something like the summer. The movie immediately begins in the middle of the Lovers' Shadow on a full moon with no context for how they got there. It immediately cuts to a beach episode before getting serious again. They flash some scenes of minor characters and social links, but unless you played the game, you would have no idea who they are. While there seems to be a ... story between the past relationship of two characters, it is split up so far apart and not emphasized before it reaches the climax and you actually figure out the significance of the event. It felt like there was a lack of direction and they chose to just adapt what they felt would be popular with the fans rather than trying to make a coherent story.

Like its predecessors, the art and the sound are great. The animation is excellent and makes great use of CGI to show how the Persona are foreign. The impressive shadow and lighting effects make their return and continues to contribute to the overall feeling of the story. There are a few scenes where the lighting does seem a little off because one character appears with shadows and then suddenly, another character in the same conversation does not. The sounds and music of the game make their return in high quality.

The poor story ultimately hurts the character development and the overall enjoyment of the movie. While the first movie spent some time to develop the characters, Midsummer Knight's Dream felt like it constantly shifted between action scenes and suspense scenes, skipping large chunks of the story just so it could follow this formula. The few scenes that do not follow this do little to contribute further to the characters. This becomes an even bigger problem in the third movie, Falling Down, where one of the things they kind of glossed over becomes important towards the climax of the that movie. This movie felt like a movie that could only be enjoyed by people who had already played the game because then you could at least do things like fill in the missing information yourself. But if you are experiencing Persona 3 for the first time, all this does is leave you confused.

Just like the first, this wasn't anything exceptional. We get more development in this one, though, which is nice, but I still feel like some parts are too rushed. Ken and Shinjiro's relationship gets a bit more development here, which is nice to see, but it's also at the cost of any development with Makoto. Not a fan of the way they've been doing Makoto, still very stiff and unimportant so far. Aigis is about the same, and I'm hoping they hit the landing in pulling off those characters in the rest of the movies. Despite these concerns, there are promising aspects to the series, ... and I'm eager to see if the subsequent movies can deliver a more balanced and satisfying portrayal of these beloved characters.