Anime 36023 Persona 5 The Animation Reviews Filter Check 3

So far, this adaptation has been a massive disappointment.

A-1 pictures are known for their generic character designs and cutting corners when it comes to animation, so when adapting a game as stylistically brilliant Persona 5 it was obvious they wouldn't live up to the game’s highs. I never expected it to surpass or even match the game’s quality, but with a director as talented as Masashi Ishihama (Shinsekai Yori) expectations were raised and this adaptation’s first six episodes have flown far below them.

Story: 5/10
A 100+ hour game stuffed into 24 episodes will inevitably have pacing issues, and this has its fair share. The ... story is rushed as hell, but so far it has given us the most important information to give us a surface level understanding of the world and plot. Any depth the game's story offered is for the most part missing. The themes of adults in positions of power abusing their roles have been boiled down to “grown-ups bad, kids good”. Like most of this adaptation, any half-hearted attempts at storytelling feel like a low effort recap to advertise the much better video game.

Character: 3/10
We have only met Ryuji, Ann, Morgana, Yusuke, and the quiet main character called Ren in this adaptation. They all feel like cardboard cutouts with a fraction of the personalities of the game's counterparts. Trying to stay as faithful as possible to the game has hamstrung the character arcs, story beats are trimmed down or skipped entirely so we can't get a sense of who the main cast are from this show. The game itself was not perfect with characterization either, which is expectedly not fixed in this adaptation due to the insistence on staying as faithful as possible rather than letting the anime stand on its own merits.

There’s plenty of inconsistencies in their arcs and annoying quirks that made some of them hard to like before they received development. These annoying quirks, like Ryuji’s obnoxious attitude and lack of self-awareness, become almost all there is to the characters. There just isn't enough time for each cast member to be developed beyond a surface level.

Even those inconsistencies in development are already appearing. In episode 4 Ann announces she’s finally free of the twisted pervert Kamoshida who was sexually objectifying her, but because this is a lovely A-1 Pictures anime, the camera is constantly shoved uncomfortably close to her butt. You could argue plenty of fanservice is necessary for the studio to secure a budget, but it is so opposite to the message the game was trying to convey. Effectively undoing any development that came from what should have been the most monumental battle in the first quarter of the show.

Art: 3/10
Action scenes are where the series looks the worst. It constantly uses this laughable shortcut of zooming in and out on unanimated shots to reuse them at a different resolution in a later scene. There’s somehow less animation than the game, and what we see tends to be worse. Look no further than the ‘epic’ boss battle in episode 5, what should have been amazing was stilted by hideous CGI that looked even worse than what was used in the game. The action is so boring to watch too because there are next to no stakes, usually, the Phantom Thieves are fighting random mobs but even the boss goes down so quickly.

The fight choreography is even worse, the whole battle scene where Ryuji awakens his persona is the worst case of it. There is next to no fight choreography at all, hits don't even feel like hits, it's more like colors flying around with sound effects added over it. And somehow the all all-out-attack is so much worse than the game’s even though it was practically ripped straight from it.

Character designs are the best part of the visuals because they’re lifted straight from the game, but they only look good when they’re totally motionless or on an animation loop (very often). When there's not much movement and/or character close-ups look really good but by that logic, you should just play the game.

There’s also plenty of ugly CGI random people walking in the background. In episode 2 Ren and his teacher are talking in a hallway, and there’s a giant CGI student trying desperately to walk without looking like a robot but its so obvious he was stuck on there last minute with zero quality control to fix him. He looks ridiculously unpolished and the perspective is all messed up, he goes past two girls standing near a door and he looks twice as large as them.

Sound: 6/10
Persona 5's OST is amazing, but here it's lifted straight out of the game and overused with not care for if it fits the scene or not (usually it doesn’t). You can easily tell when they use stock sound effects, deafening the punchy effects of the game’s combat for the sake of something easier on the ears but infinitely more forgettable. Yes, they fixed the OP and it is decent now, but the ED is still just a still image with limbs and hair being animated to look like the main cast is walking. It looks so uncanny, a completely still image would have at least not distracted from the pretty good song.

Overall: 4/10
I honestly can’t see this getting any better, but I love the game and respect the director enough to see if it can repair the story/character issues. I’m not expecting the art to get better because it seems as though they’re stretching the budget out to meet 24 episodes.

If they try to simplify the character designs to be more fitting to a TV anime budget rather than solely faithful to the game, it may become more manageable for A-1 to animate. Also, I've referred to CloverWorks as A-1 a few times, there's no difference. It's a subsidiary of A-1 so they're the same.

Persona 5 is the newest addition to the Shin Megami Tensei franchise. Its source material had around 5 hours worth of actual content like is implied in its name, yet playing the whole thing takes around 140 hours because it's a classic J-RPG game that relies on repeating the same thing 18500 times.

Unfortunate for the fans of the game, the anime end up being 26 episodes long when it should have been 500, and unfortunate for anime fans, the anime end up being 26 episodes long when it should have been 13.

As far as fillers go, filler is canon content I mean, Persona 5 ... is full of slice of life nonsense that has nothing to do with anything. People fighting over pieces of bread and talking about their dreams just to make sure the pacing will become harder to comprehend than the popularity of the franchise itself.

What is directorship? is what I found myself often asking when seeing how Persona 5 is build to be nothing but a collection of random scenes that were edited together without any consistency or flow that makes the next scene related to the former one. Screen transitions seem to be some sort of "worst animated cabbage" meme when the focus goes from pan fights in the middle of the day to a scene where we drink coffee in the evening to a bully scene and finally returns to a scene where the actual pan is being eaten in a time that seems to be the very next day. The shots mainly remind me of Resident Evil The Final Chapter (movie) where the camera angle could change 45 times a minute over the same scene except here it changes from scene to another in ludicrous tempo. Visual storytelling at its finest. Bravo.

Our main characters are incredibly random. They mainly remind me of Suicide Squad. By Suicide Squad, I mean every superhero movie ever because that thing was exactly as good as they all are. The real mc is some sort of mixture of Robin Hood and Jesus. The female lead appears very mysterious, but the real mystery is why would anyone care. She is pretty hot, tho. The blonde dude is like spiderman but sassy. All the other girls were just swag, but gladfully there was like 7 beach episodes so they really had time showing off their naked bodies as it's not like they had anything else to show. None of the side characters feel like genuine persons, they are more like NPC's who only exist for the main characters... oh wait.

What is this series all about even, you ask. And that's what I am still wondering. Teenagers with stand powers are participating inside some sort of fighting tournament shonen storyline that mainly reminds me of Katekyou Hitman Reborn (we even have the same mascot here) except the comedy was replaced with some type of combination of angst and edgy, the villains are evil adults, the actual events are Robin Hood with superpowers and most of it is slice of life. As epic as it might sound, what it really sounded like was a wet fart.

The only good thing about the game itself was the OST. Unfortunately, voice acting is always at louder volume than the OST, and SFX above all else. Boy don't we love it when explosions cover the music. It really fits the definition of a background music because instead of trying to make the series better by using the songs to their full potential, they are just there hanging in the background. It's pretty much a stupid decision.

Our art is at least pretty fun if not otherwise impressive. Villains wearing strings and cloaks made of fur offer the most original content in the entire series. Some of the leather suits were also pretty sexy. Especially the art room looked cool as fudge. Too bad its overall screen time totaled 3 seconds. Like literally. Not that even these things would be worth of praising in a series that had some other merits. Pretty much all side characters follow the "spot the main character" tier filler/design.

LOOK HOW FAR WE'VE COMMMMMEEEEEEEEEEEE

Hoy lads, I was quite excited to see my first review make it front page so thanks for that but now that the anime is done I guess I have to write this again. Most of my opinions haven't really changed so bits and pieces will remain the same. No amount of additional content helped to save this anime and it only slightly picked itself up towards later episodes. Sega/Atlus should not be tolerating this kind of quality and I do sincerely hope they get out of whatever sort of contract they're in, if there is one, before they decide to ... ruin another property in anime form.

Let's begin, no spoilers unless I explicitly say they're about to come.

P5 is a good game with a lot of good things to take away from it. Its overall story however, is a bit of a rollercoaster going from great to average. Lots of things they could work on, but nevertheless it's a solid entry with a solid cast, art, music, etc.. If you're wondering whether or not the *game* is worth your time, then sure. It probably is. Please don't go looking at this anime for your answers because chances are that you won't find them here.


-- ANIMATION:

Let's start with the big one. The animation is hilariously poor and is a stark contrast to the game's visual presentation. Persona 3, 4 (not Golden) and to an extent Devil Survivor 2 properties have been treated quite nicely with solid animation, and I certainly never cringed at any 1 frame. P5A however is so laughably bad to the point where it's sometimes even unbelievable.

From the awkward running cycles shown in the first couple of minutes of the first episode to the new, overly lazy All-Out Attack meme scene of the second episode and out of place CGI characters that roam the corridors and street to episode 12's (~9:30) scene where they tried to zoom out on a character but the character layer and the background layer were done to two different levels of zoom so basically the kind of nonsense you might accidentally do in your 2011 YouTube videos. This is NOT stuff that you just accidentally miss. My favourite part was when they brought out a low quality P5 model of Makoto in episode 11.

To say that this is an attempt to capitalise on P5's success would be an understatement. Ironic considering the story's themes.


-- SOUND:

Shoji Meguro is still amazing with music. Whatever he creates makes me the very happy. The first opening song is brilliant, the second opening song is brilliant, the ending song is brilliant; Lyn's voice is great and Shoji knows how to create music. Actually using his music at the right moments however is a different story. I'm primarily thinking of the Ryuji awakening scene at the moment, the song choice and awkward sync was noticeable and took away from what should have been a very powerful moment for the character, like it was in game. This is frequent.

Episode 12 (I believe it was) had begun using P5D music, in particular the Jazztronik remix of game's main theme and Konishi's Blooming Villain. Considering P5D was released like a week ago from this episode's release, their inclusions here all of a sudden made me think that this episode had only been completed fairly recently. Had they gotten the rights to such music beforehand, would they not have used more remixes in earlier episodes? And even if this idea of it being rushed was false, that sort of thought process shouldn't have existed in the first place.

The sound design in terms of effects and ambiance is quite poor as well. I made a note of episode 16 having used stock sound effects, or what sounded as such, but either way it sounded very unprofessional and cheap.


-- STORY:

The pacing feels awfully fast and unnatural, with them cutting out a bunch of stuff that ultimately added to the game's story and development of its characters. They cut out the part where Kamoshida asks Ren if he wants a ride where he says "Nah" and that... man I was sitting there, anticipating the "nah" but they didn't do it and I was just blue balled. I may have cried a little even. With 24 episodes just like Persona 4 the Animation (which structurally was similar), you would assume they wouldn't need to rush but alas we got a 2 longer episode extension. Tips for next time: focus on filtering out the long and drawn out shots of the rain. I personally do not believe they added to the plot!

Also as a quick note, watched the show on Crunchyroll where they awkwardly linked Kamoshida to being in a train accident in the first episode or something and then relate that accident indirectly to the phantom thieves... which never happened in the game nor really happens in the anime. It was just worded really poorly. Someone with more time can tell you if the show was poorly translated.

A positive though, I do like how they ended the show with an ambiguous ending, did we get the "good ending" or the "bad ending" thing; obviously leading to their OVA but it was nifty none-the-less. However, always with the howevers, they did say they were going to sway away from the original ending with the OVA so when I they left on a note of ambiguity I got very excited...

The ending was not different.


-- CHARACTERS:

In my personal opinion, Persona typically does its characters really well -- formulating them in such a way that makes them more human than just characters playing their part in a story. However in P5A, they're... well gee, they not done very well lads.

The protagonist (Ren) comes off initially as this angsty, edgy and depressed teen, and with such dialogue options from the game as "Please look after me" and "Hell yeah I'm into older women", I was expecting a lot more of that silly aspect of the character. Of course, Ren as a character is up to interpretation so I can't really say it's "wrong". The other characters though, well yes I can.

Sojiro feels so monotone and boring. The first couple of moments in the actual game set him up as a character who doesn't want to bother with you, effectively helping to establish one of the best character development arcs in the story where he starts to take on a more open and fatherly personality. He just sort of feels 'there' in the anime, to progress the story when we need him to. Ryuji was fine until his rushed awakening and overreaction to Ren's story. There's something about him but I cannot put my finger on it just yet. Morgana is there, Igor looks dumb, Mishima didn't get hit by a ball, and I can finally understand why Shiho wanted to jump.

Ann is definitely the worst change though. Ann's whole arc was supposed to be about her feelings towards objectification and slowly acknowledging herself as an attractive individual, using that fact for good. But what happens the episode after she goes on her whole "don't objectify me" spiel? They simply objectify her. Constant fanservicey shots, close ups of the icky unmentionables, you name it, they did it.


-- OVERALL:

This show has been making me very sad and I'm not entirely hopeful for Dark Sun. There's nothing much more to say except that I hope Sega/Atlus start giving their properties back to competent studios. Tune in next time for when I show you how to hack into the Pentagon using only Futaba's social link.

I'm not going to waste my time with the introduction piece of the review so I'm just going to start with the review.

The story follows Ren Amamiya who is sent to Tokyo to stay with family associate Sojiro Sakura and attend Shujin Academy during his year-long probation. After his arrival, he is drawn into the Velvet Room, where Igor warns him that he must "rehabilitate" to avoid forthcoming ruin, and grants him access to a supernatural mobile app that leads the protagonist into the Metaverse and from there him along with his group of friends that he recruits must now steal corruption from the hearts of adults ... in an attempt to reform the city under a group called the Phantom Thieves.

Persona 5 the Animation is a 26 episode anime and yep alarm bells should be ringing. We haven't got a great record of Video Game Adaptations especially as of late with the lacklustre Danganronpa animes. However, I went into Persona 5 The  Animation with an open mind because I thought that maybe this video game adaptation would work. It had director Masashi Ishihama who previously directed the critically acclaimed Shinsekai Yori. Plus the daybreak's OVA for Persona 5 was pretty good. I was actually excited.

However, my excitement was immediately thrown out the window when I saw A1 Pictures. For those who haven't caught on, I hate A1 Pictures. I hate the studio with passion. I honestly believe that A1 Pictures is the most incompetent studio I have ever seen. Yes A1 did make some good shows that I really liked like The Idolm@sters, Magi, Shinekai Yori, Your Lie in April and Wotaku but the problem with A1 is that they made a truckload of mediocre, forgettable and terrible shows to a point where a lot of these bad shows seemed to represent A1 as a whole leaving a lot of good shows in the dust.

I also don't want to speak about video games adaptations done by A1 Pictures because I heard nothing but awful things about them.

I know that A1 Pictures did the Daybreak's ova back in 2016 and it was pretty solid but I never expected A1 Pictures to pass the TV series to Cloverworks aka A1's sub-studio until the studio split they own ways in October 2018.

However, this show was released before A1 and Cloverworks went they own meaning this series despite being done by Cloverworks it still had that nasty A1 stench that I hated.

Am not going to pull any punches with this one the story was awful and here's why.

To start off with the elephant of the room is the pacing. Good god the pacing. Not going to lie this has got to be some of the worst pacings I have ever seen in anime because not only the show is ridiculously inconstant with it's pacing as it either way too slow or way too fast but it also screws up the overall narrative as well the emotional story elements.

For example, in the game, Shino attempts suicide being raped by Kamoshida. It was an emotional moment in the early game of Persona 5 that was meant to showcase how screwed up the adults in the universe of Persona 5. It also gave Ann, Ryuji and Akira the motivation to act against Kamoshida.
In the anime, it just happens in fin air. No tension, no proper build up whatsoever, nothing.
This doesn't end where the show also outright skip various story elements that were meant to develop the characters. Even if you haven't played the games you can easily tell that the show is skipping and rushing many story aspects and as a result of that many of the story elements just feel awkward disjointed and forced.

As a fan of the games, I felt insulted of how the show completely butchers and ruins everything that made the game so great in the first. Let's not talk about the social life aspects of the series because they do not exist. The biggest mistake of Persona 5 the Animation was how it adapted to a story that needed at least 51 episodes compared to 26 episodes that it actually got

The final nail of the coffin was the ending. That ending alone was a big middle finger to the viewer as the show just ends in a very crappy way that feels unsatisfying as hell. I am aware that the series is getting an ova sometime soon but this is no excuse especially when we watched 26 of this rushed, awkward and poorly animated shit show that barely respects its source material.
By the way, the Dark Sun OVA is not much better.

The characters in Persona 5 are just lifeless husks of the game counterparts. Not only the character development is rushed beyond belief but they somehow made theses once interesting, well written and likeable characters and turned them into bland stereotypes. To save myself the misery and pain I will be ending the character selection of the review because if the show can even respect its characters than why should I.

Now if thought the story and characters in Persona 5 The Animation were bad enough you ain't seen nothing yet because this is where the show officially hits rock bottom.
Where the hell does I begin with this dumpster fire.
First up the art style compared to the game looks like it was fished out of the toilet. Not only the show looks unappealing as well with its shitty background scenery, horrible lightning and uninspired character designs that look like the came out in early 2000 of anime but the art inconstantly is busted beyond belief where throughout the 26 episodes characters would constantly go off the model.

The animation is even worse. I have never seen animation this lazy and lifeless since Black Clover and The Kings Game.
Almost every single scene and fights in this show are all horrendously animated to the absolute core.
Also, we don't speak about the shows horrendous attempt of using CGI. Good God was it awful to look at.
The final nail of the coffin of this shit show was the all-out attacks which are frankly some of the worst pieces of animation I have ever seen in any anime. Every single all-out attack in this show feels like it was animated by college drop out who barely know anything about style when making this sequence in Adobe After Effects.
Not even the beautiful fan-service scenes can save this shitty production.

If there was anything good to come out of Persona 5 The Animation it would be the soundtrack. Despite the soundtrack being straight up taken from the game, it was still a great listen.
The first opening theme BREAK IN TO BREAK OUT" by Lyn is a fantastic opening theme for the show. While it was nowhere near as awesome as Wake Up, Get Up, Get Out its still a great song that perfectly captures the style of the series.
The second opening theme Dark Sun by Lyn is a pretty solid opening theme in its own right however until the final episode I didn't like the fact that they reused footage from previous episodes into the opening visuals. However, the opening visuals for the last episode were awesome as it really showed off what the show could have been production values-wise.
The ending themes were good but not that memorable.

The voice acting was pretty okay as well however I feel like the Seiyuus didn't put much effort compared to the game counterpart. There is no English Dub for this show from the time of this review so if you're a fan of the Persona 5 dub well you're out of luck.

Persona 5 The Animation is a total waste of time and effort. I honestly don't know what the hell was the director and Cloverworks were thinking during the production because they took everything that made Persona 5 so awesome and manages it screw it all up. The story is a rushed and poorly directed mess that is filled with horrific pacing that barely tells of what is going on. The characters are nothing but empty shells of the game counterparts and the visuals were horrendous beyond belief. The only good thing to come out from this scrapheap of a show was the music and the openings.

If you haven't played Persona 5 and have a PS3/PS4 do your self a favour. Go buy it right now. If you don't have a PS4 or PS3 you can either save up for one or watch other anime with the same episode length like Neon Genesis Evangelion, Cowboy Bebop, Nichijou Rainbow: Nisha Rokubou no Shichinin, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex and the list goes on.

Honestly out of all the game anime adaptations why is it Inazuma Eleven and Gungrave were the only one to get it right while others like Persona and Ace Attorney have to suffer. Such a shame.
Cloverworks you may now be separated by the EA of anime studios A1 Pictures but you better redeem yourselves in future anime projects because you now have a lot of potential to be a competent studio. Don't let me down Cloverworks.

Persona 5 was one of the best RPGS I've ever played in my life, sensational gameplay the story is very good, have very few holes and plot twists sensational.
The characters are great super well developed, as long as the player has an interest in socializing with a certain character.
Already in the adaptation made by CloverWorks was different, first of all in the adaptation they decided to adapt 26 episodes until near the end of the game, which would be about 80 hours of history inside the game, of course it was very rushado, the problem is that Person 5 is a slow game that has ... the essence of making your own lifestyle within Tokyo with your own choices in the course of the game, taking that essence and accelerating the pace ends up leaving the feeling of everything being very superficial, whether in the relationship of the characters , at work, at school, in dungeons when he has fights, even in striking moments he can not deepen the scene in which the original had, was much worse. They did not know to take advantage of the characters of the game that can make you more curious about the history of each one and wanting to sympathize more and more, already in the adaptation they left very superficial the characters even more in their interaction with the protagonist, you simply do not care about they. The dramatic scenes and even the comedy scenes did not look good on the adaptation, without any impact, totally superficial, they just happen without a good break.


The production was a fiasco, mainly in the fights, they could not pass the style of the fights that have in the game, outside that they tried to recreate the style of "All out Attack" that is one of the most stylish things of the game and was ridiculous,
they failed to get a sense of epic battles against the bosses, they used almost no perk within the battles, and they changed certain
ost of certain battles that got horrible. In the quieter parts he had many times that unnecessarily bent the design of the characters, besides the color palettes that did not use well. The dubbing is the same as it is very good. The ost used the same of the game that is sensational, and some new ones that were very good, but they were not always able to combine certain osts with the storyboard, in general it was mediocre.

He had some cool things, like a better situation in the game that got a little superficial, usually in moments with minor characters in certain scenes, but in general it lacked a lot of character to stand out or receive a better polish inside the story, it was only played for say that there is that character inside that world that is something that the game does not do and has every reason for the character is present in that world.

Conclusion:
Sometimes it is very cool to follow without commitment and without worrying about the details, after all I like a lot when it involves anything of persona 5, but Persona 5 is much more than that.
If you are looking for a good experience with the story and the characters and especially the fights, play the game, that anime is just a small attempt to do marketing with the game that fails miserably.

EDIT: My written review scores didn't match what I rated them with the website.

Persona 5 The Animation, just like many other anime adaptations of popular video games, is incredibly mediocre. This anime is what turns from a 100+ Hour long JRPG into a low-effort, low budget 7-8 hours of a cartoon.

As someone who has personally spent 400+ hours on Persona 5 and Persona 5 Royal combined and about 100 hours on Persona 5 Strikers, the anime leaves a lot to be desired if you have not played the game.

Let's just call it as it is; There's no way you are compressing a 100+ hour journey ... into the span of 7-8 hours without having to cut some major story elements out. The Social Links feel like NPC's rather than actual characters with relatable themes, Haru feels as bland as ever, and the downfall and mediocrity of this anime was pretty much inevitable.

Story 5/10: The story is pretty much the same as Persona 5's. Not much to say.

Art 1/10: I don't believe the art does this game justice. ESPECIALLY the boss battles and fight scenes. The fight scenes are absolutely abysmal. Take a look at HeartSwitch! (the SFW fight scenes, not the other thing...) A SINGLE PERSON has made much more action-packed and well-drawn fight scenes than a FULL studio. I swear I could watch those 2-3 minutes of fighting as much as I wanted. There was SO much potential with the fight scenes, but the studio decided to take the easy way out and make the Persona 5 Animation battles nothing more than glorified pokemon battles, where a ball of magic essence is released when for example Carmen uses "Agi". The battle scenes are SUPER short, unengaging, and I'd rather playthrough the entire game one more time than witness such horrible and lazy animation.

Sound 7/10: Well, they use the OST from Persona 5, but at the same time add some fucking BANGERS. Infinity is a VERY good ED, but it's a shame it's not the only ED and isn't played for the entire series. Lyn Inaizumi is a great vocalist, not much else to say. The soundtrack definitely carries this anime and it has some very underrated tracks that are swept under the rug because they are only heard on this shitty anime.

Character 3/10: In terms of character, Persona 5, the game itself, is probably the weakest here. The party members don't really develop over the course of the entire main story after the arc they are directly involved in (see Kamoshida vs. Ryuji/Ann) and as I said before the side Social Links feel like NPC's rather than actual characters that target themes and tropes that I can relate or see the perspective of.

Haru didn't get screentime in P5, she doesn't get it here. Go look at the Valentine's OVA if you wanted some Haru Screentime. (or play P5 Strikers!)

Enjoyment 5/10: It was pretty meh. I wasn't on my toes waiting for the next episode, but my love for Persona made me watch through the whole thing. Thankfully, not all in one sitting.

Overall 4/10: Like every other anime adaptation of a video game out there, the main purpose of this anime was to promote the original game. Did it succeed in doing that? No clue. All I can say is that you would be better off playing the game itself or watching a playthrough on YouTube instead of watching whatever the fuck this is.

(btw, steam/pc ports for P5R come out October 21, 2022! It's also available on gamepass on that day!)

just play persona 5 its a 10/10 game
they somehow managed to ruin everything good about p5
story 4/10: the story fells rushed wierd pacing and they somehow ruined the main storyline of the game cause off course a 100+ hours game wont fit in a 24 ep show so they cut alot of corners
character 4/10: well they decided to cut almost all of the characters personality and development so they are all deep like the dead sea
sound 7/10: the game sound truck is good but used incorrectly in a way that makes the scene fell weird and the new trucks ... are bad
Art: 3/10
Action scenes are where the series looks the worst. It constantly uses this laughable shortcut of zooming in and out on unanimated shots to reuse them at a different resolution in a later scene. There’s somehow less animation than the game, and what we see tends to be worse. Look no further than the ‘epic’ boss battle in episode 5, what should have been amazing was stilted by hideous CGI that looked even worse than what was used in the game. The action is so boring to watch too because there are next to no stakes, usually, the Phantom Thieves are fighting random mobs but even the boss goes down so quickly.

The fight choreography is even worse, the whole battle scene where Ryuji awakens his persona is the worst case of it. There is next to no fight choreography at all, hits don't even feel like hits, it's more like colors flying around with sound effects added over it. And somehow the all all-out-attack is so much worse than the game’s even though it was practically ripped straight from it.

Character designs are the best part of the visuals because they’re lifted straight from the game, but they only look good when they’re totally motionless or on an animation loop (very often). When there's not much movement and/or character close-ups look really good but by that logic, you should just play the game.

There’s also plenty of ugly CGI random people walking in the background. In episode 2 Ren and his teacher are talking in a hallway, and there’s a giant CGI student trying desperately to walk without looking like a robot but its so obvious he was stuck on there last minute with zero quality control to fix him. He looks ridiculously unpolished and the perspective is all messed up, he goes past two girls standing near a door and he looks twice as large as them.
enjoyment 1/10: how can u enjoy one of seeing one of the best games in the last 8 years getting gutted
over all 3/10

This adaptation is riddled with issues, ranging from fairly minor to really irksome, but my biggest problem with it is the direction.

Seiji Kishi did P4: The Animation a hell of a lot of justice. It may not have had the biggest budget or the highest-quality art, but the slice-of-life episodes were hilarious, and there were several really memorable (and emotional) action scenes. One need only recall the remarkably well-handled summer episodes, which retold several social link arcs in a really entertaining and satisfying manner, to realize the core strengths of the show. The anime ended up capturing the tone of the game perfectly and, for ... what it's worth, the pacing was alright (the game itself is certainly not much better in that regard).

I could go on - what about Yu Narukami, whose nonchalant and deadpan lines from the game carried over seamlessly into the show, and occasionally ended up being even funnier? He's a prime example of how to go about constructing the personality of an originally silent protagonist. Not to mention he even goes through a little arc of his own that wasn't present in the game.

And here we have P5 the Animation, which starts out at a lightning-fast pace. Not too different from P4. I can certainly forgive that to an extent, as it's standard introductory episodes fare. But in this case the build-up to the Kamoshida conflict (and the aftermath) feels so rushed, that what is considered by many the most poignant act in the game turns out to be the first real low point of the show. The production values are at their worst around this point as well.

Thankfully, the show begins to pick up with Yusuke's arc. The pacing slows down a bit. Goro gets some significant screen time to himself and his encounters with the Phantom Thieves, which makes sense considering the conflict of ideals which the story has to establish before it can move forward. Makoto is no less likable either and her design looks great. The main characters' confidant arcs which have been included thus far get resolved within an episode or two, whereas the other confidants have been shown in a few scenes, occasionally aiding the Phantom Thieves (as is the case with Ohya), and I can only assume they are going to have their stories fleshed out sooner or later. Kawakami's encounter as a maid with Ren was actually funnier than the game and she's somehow even more adorable.

Our protagonist Ren doesn't quite match up to his game self. While he retains the semblances of a lovable dork, he's missing those snide dialogue choices from the game, and actually doesn't speak that much relative to the other characters at all. I can't fault his representation here too much, as keeping the protagonist's blank-slate character was a reasonable decision, if a bit on the safe side.

Before I go any further, what do you think are the P3/4/5 games actually about? The typical response would be a cross between a dating sim and a dungeon crawler with demons. So why haven't the creators of this show sought to adapt both these aspects?

See, the Persona v demon battles are embarrassingly short and poorly animated. This is assuming there is an animated battle taking place on-screen, as they haven't even bothered doing most of them. To the average fan of the games, this feels unfortunately alienating. P5 is even lengthier than P4, yet it's possible the former will end up having fewer episodes than the latter, for which I find there's absolutely no excuse. Of course they'd rather fill the episodes with more story, but this begs the question of why the series was planned like that in the first place. Knowing P5 replaced shadows with classic SMT demons, each with its own quirky personality, it wouldn't hurt to see them in action a little more.

The game is also known and loved for how stylish it is. But the moment the anime tries to emulate some of that style, you know you're getting mixed results at best. There's no need to include the red-black transitions that tell us that a day has gone by or the characters are moving to a new place. And that all-out attack animation has yet to be neatly animated. The art in general is alright, although the show creates an atmosphere that's not nearly as evocative or moody like that of the game.

I do hope the show ultimately gets the treatment it deserves. It's not a terribly boring watch by any means - just really disappointing to big-time fans.

You cannot condense 95 hours worth of content and story into a 26 episode anime.

The anime adaptation of Persona 5 was so boring I couldn't finish it.

The show was trying to be like the game and because of that it was terrible.
- The pacing was off because arcs that take in game hours to pan out happen in at most an hour in this show.
- The few fight scenes were just boring to watch.
- Characters had no development what-so-ever in the short amount of time that I watched this show.

The only good thing about this show is that Dark Sun was a good song. ... I didn't get that far in the anime to hear it "live," but I did hear it on YouTube.

It's not like a Persona adaptation into an anime can be bad. The original Persona 4 The Animation was fantastic in my opinion because it wanted to focus on the humor and the general fun time that was at the core of Persona 4, yet it didn't try to be exactly like the game. With the P5A that can't be said, and it just falls flat.

Persona 5 was one of the best games that I have ever played, and was a hit both in Japan and in the West upon its release, and continues to gather attention with spin offs and possible sequels based upon the loveable characters the game presents you with, along with the fantastic music crafted by Shoji Meguro (which luckily makes its way into this animated adaption).

It was a hard job to handle, cramming a 90-100 hour game into only 26 episodes, but as we have seen with Persona 4 the Animation (also handled by A1 Pictures), it can be done well.

But wherever the previous ... animated series succeeded, this series failed. Miserably.

The pacing of the entire anime is laughable, with exposition being either crammed into a few short sentences or not even brought up at all until it is only just relevant. The fight scenes are animated very poorly, with the pace of the fights all over the place and the art itself mediocre at best.

Due to the poor pacing, many story moments are rushed over, and some of the truly important moments for character development and plot are give to few time for us to sink in the information or even care about the story it is presenting.

This anime left a bad taste in my mouth, and when i reached the end of it's 26 episode run (along with two OVA episodes to complete the story in a rushed manner), i felt as though another trip through the PS4 title was needed to experience the story the way it was meant to be done.

Persona 5 is probably my favourite game of all time. Over 100 hours it tells a story about rebellion, corruption, suicide and a talking cat magically turning into a bus. It truly is a one of a kind experience. And that’s the entire problem with this anime. It truly has no purpose for existence. Besides people who are too lazy to spend 100 hours on a game.

The story follows main character Ren Amamiya, a teenager forced to move to Tokyo after he was wrongfully convicted of assault. Who discovers the cognitive world, where distorted desires materialise. And must team up with fellow outcasts to ... become the Phantom Thieves. A group dedicated to stealing those desires, causing a change of heart in even the most callous of criminals.

The original managed to steal my heart within the first few hours, before we even started with the first palace. After the first three hours of this anime, we were already past the second palace. And that is the main problem here. The game took its time with the story. Taking the time to properly explore who these people are. The anime though has a lighting fast pace to it. Often skipping past entire palaces to get to the boss fight. Causing each palace to feel small compared to their in game counterpart.

Characters pale compared to the game’s version. Great characters like Takemi, Kawakami and Chiya have their roles greatly reduced. All with the exception of Goro Akechi who is surprisingly, actually portrayed better here than in the game.

The animation is terrible. When people prefer the cutscenes from a game that was released on the ps3. You know you have a problem.

Overall Persona 5 The Animation is not only bad. It is shows that even the best stories can be told poorly.

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This anime is just disappointing, the only redeeming features are its dub and the score. Aside from that do not waste your time with it. Anything good you could possibly take from this is probably on a p5a funny moments complimation on youtube.

The portrayal of the story is rushed in many ways and the ending is just disgusting, setting everything up of the for the true ending and it just ends with ketchup walking away.

Character writing is sometimes amazing but mostly just bad. The best being Ryuji saying yeet while throwing morgana.

The sound track is good but like, its persona how bad can it be?

Overall, ... this a 3. Save yourself some time and don't watch this.

Now to start this off, Persona 5 is a video game and everyone should know this. A 100+ hour video game. Persona 5 is actually my third favorite video game of all time and I have over 200+ hours in it. Anyway, a game like this CAN'T be condensed into anime that is a total of 8.6 hours. It's impossible to even try to do that. This will probably be one of the first and only reviews I ever do but I think it just needs to be said that this anime isn't good, but the game is amazing so definitely go play that. Ok ... time to start the actual review now haha...

STORY:
Now Persona 5's story is pretty good on its own. I think you can see a bunch of things leading up to the big twists but that's beside the point. Now that was the game now let's talk about the anime. The anime misses a bunch of stuff, like almost everything except the main details and sometimes they even miss thoughts. A clear example is episode 3 where Suzui jumps off the school roof, this is lead up by nothing. They just threw it at us with no building up to it. Again the story can't be condensed into 8.6 hours.

ART:
The art is just comical at this point. A bunch of frames is just so bad and in general its just really bad. I think the biggest example is the all-out attack in episode 2. It's just abnormally bad and people say that it would have been better to just copy and paste the all-out attack from the game then use the anime style version. I will give it the benefit of the doubt that for 70% of the anime, it's drawn pretty ok, but for the rest of its garbage. Even the cutscenes in the game are drawn better than the anime.

SOUND:
I think this might actually be the best thing in this entire anime. Again it's still not good. The Persona 5 OST is a masterpiece, almost every single song from the game track is amazing and it's great to listen too. The anime again is very short, they don't even play every single song from the game. There's not much to say about it though.

CHARACTERS:
The cast for Persona 5 is great and I find it the worst thing in the anime. The entire point(or one of them at least) in the Persona series is to build up and grow your confidants, in other words, your friends, deepen the bond with them. Now when you take that aspect away from you only have the story and gameplay, AND take the gameplay away and you have a mediocre story. Anyway, Persona 5 takes away any type of character development any of the characters could have because it takes time for all of them to grow. My favorite character is Goro Akechi and even he is extremely lacking in this anime. Again they take all of the things away that make the characters likable, their development. All that time is taken away with you hanging out with them. I can't blame them because even though they did make the anime, they can't show everything in such little time. Definitely the worse thing about the anime though by far.

ENJOYMENT:
I can enjoy this very little from everything that I just stated. I cringed at some of the bad art. Again it's just a poor anime and it really shows how some games just can't be animes unless its extremely long.

ok just go please play Persona 5 on ps4 thanks

I know that when video games get an anime adaption, usually sucks since the video game's plot has more in depth of the story than what the anime shows or that they changed a bit so that the viewers can understand it better.

But back to this review, Persona games turned into an anime series are usually good and funny. The first Persona anime which was Persona 4 Golden and I love it so freaking much. I even played the game after I watched it. Same goes to Persona 3 and other ones. I know that it MIGHT BE A LITTLE BIT BIASED SINCE I ... PLAYED THE GAME BEFORE BUUUUT I was a bit disappointed about the anime. Sure that I played it before and I loved it so fucking much. One of the best games ever!! Honestly, I just wished that they can do it a little bit better and have a bit of the same humour, just like on the game. The soundtrack and the art are awesome! But I still prefer the art style from the videogame.

The characters from the anime makes them like they are bad and have no personality whatsoever. Like... there are no work on to it whatsoever. Like they just made an anime of it because it was getting popular. It feels rushed and there was no time or effort on to it. I know that they make it a summary of the video game but at least, do it better.

(First of all, I'm brazillian then sorry about any grammar mistakes)Persona 5 the animation is a anime series based on a game with the same name, first released in 2018 and finishing airing in 2019. I've got to say with all my sincerity that Persona 5 is one of the worst and most disappointing anime shows that I ever witnessed with my bare eyes. I had some friends who enjoyed this... thing and I couldn't understand why. On this review I'll be mostly talking about why this series is so disappointing in my eyes.

Story(7/10):The story is the major quality of the animation. Not gonna lie, ... the whole concept of breaking into pallaces and steal souls is very unique and interesting, but this is not a compliment. Try to compact about 100+ hours of gameplay in 26 episodes is a very bad idea, because there was a lot of misused concepts(especially Personas) and lots of very rushed scenes. Now you may be thinking:"they needed to adapt a story in just 26 episodes, of course it would be dificult and have some mistakes", well if that's the case SHOULDN'T YOU JUST LIKE NOT MAKE AN ANIME ADAPTATION? Persona 5 story is interesting, but if you want to enjoy the best of it, please buy the game. it's more worth of your time.

Art(2/10) and sound(7/10):Where should I start? If you just saw the art style or some promotional art, you probably thought:"wow the art is just like the game! This can't be bad right?", and I'm really sorry for you. The art style is very good actually and pretty faithful to the game, but on the other hand the animation... For starters, Persona 5 has the POOREST animation that I've ever seen, the characters moved like some kind of cheap animatronics, and the animators didn't even care to at least make facial expressions that actually expressed something. Someone is angry? Is he sad? We can only know with the voice acting, otherwise they would be just a group of Bellas from "Twilight". One of the coolest things in the game were the fights, that are garbage in the anime. being basically pokemon fights, where they just keep shooting each other until someone dies.There was also the "in-all attacks", that looked like complete trash. I'm also not in the mood to talk about their horrible CGI. Now about the sound, it would be total shame if it wasn't their voice actors. Besides the cast's robotic movements and blank faces, what gave them life was the voice, the dubbing was just too good and they matched perfectly with each character. The musics used on the anime were made by the game's lead composer:Shoji Meguro, and they were pretty damn good, but sometimes they didn't fit on the action scenes. On the other hand the sound effects were disgusting. They didn't match on what actions were happening, or they were just very poor. Some examples are the gunfire noises, they were ridiculous, mostly because they didn't resemble the sound of gunpowder exploding, somehow they resembled an airsoft gun shooting.

Characters(1/10):The Persona characters were very cool, they were empathetic and interesting... sorry I'm talking about the game. While our protagonist Amamiya Ren is stoic, he is not like Giorno from Jojo for example, he doesn't seem to have a deeper personality, he is just expressionless and nothing more. I dare to say that Ryuji is the only one that overall has a personality. The rest of the cast is just like Sword Art Online's cast, they are just there to keep the story going. I'm giving a few positive points because they managed to make their designs faithful to the games(and overall because their designs are very good), but the main reason to my deception is how the anime cast are basically cardboard figures compared to their games counterpart. While Ryuji in the games is a stupid, but very kind,funny and sometimes a little perverted school delinquent, in the series he's just the dumb protagonist best friend. While Ann in the game showed how she felt guilt for not helping her best friend Shiho, eventually evolving and defeating her insecurity, in the anime she felt sad for her friend... yeah nothing more happens. While Yusuke in the game is a very passionate person for art,always wanting to illustrate what he sees, and a very dense person, being unable to read the mood, which creates very funny scenes, in the anime he simply doesn't have a personality.
-PERSONAS-
Now let's talk about the main mechanic in the games:Personas. Even if in the game the Personas were only used in attacking purposes, like in the anime, was it really clever to make things like this way? When someone summons their Persona, they just shoot a beam of light and disappear, eventually there were some different and more interesting powers, but they were always used in the same way (except in one scene where Yusuke's Persona uses a ice beam to freeze an enemy to the ground). What I wanted to see then? Let's use as an example another anime with a similar mechanic:Jojo's Bizarre Adventure and their Stands. Each stand is used in a smart and surpring way, just like Giorno's Gold Experience and it's ability of life-giver. If Gold Experience was used in Persona, his user would probably just create some animals, like wolves, and send them to attack the enemy. In Jojo, Giorno uses his Stand to overload an enemy with life energy, making his senses go berserk, transform an object(like a shoe or a teeth) into a fly to track its owner,heal injuries, create trees to reach higher levels, etc. See the difference? Jojo's Stands are used in creative ways, they aren't just weapons, while the Personas are used in a plain way, wasting their potential. Also, one thing that the anime do not explain, is why Ren always show up with different Personas. And I don't know why. Now if you don't know, the reason why is a basic mechanic in the game:executing Personas to create a new one, and the capturing shadows to get a new Persona, but if someone don't know about that, it gets pretty confusing.

Enjoyment(1/10) and overall(2/10):I needed to watch this anime after making a tract with a friend... I kind of regret that decision. The series have an interesting plot, but it is really wasted in the anime. The poor animation mixed with bad sound effects, a story that doesn't flow naturally and misused characters just make the experience of watching more and more painful. If you want a anime with a good plot, great characters, good looking visuals and animation,great sound in general and has "Personas" in it, just watch Jojo's Bizarre Adventure:Diamond is Unbreakable, this is worth of your time. But if you do really want to know how Persona 5 is, play the game. Seriously, I've started playing the game recently, but it is very obvious the difference beteween anime and game. Why would anyone watch 26 episodes of a poor version from a let's play, if playing the game itself you get to know the story better, the characters are really good, the gameplay is very fun and the animation is limited to cutscenes.

Even without playing the game, i got really disappointed with the show, and after watching a few let's plays, I just couldn't believe that this game gave birth to the monstruocity that is this anime. I know that I said that a lot of times, but don't waste your time with this, it's not worth your time. People cried watching Anohana? Clannad after story? Your Lie In April? I cried watching this piece of ****.

I normally don't write reviews of things mainly because I feel as though my thoughts are the same as others who write the reviews. However, Persona 5 is just so special to me that I have to share my thoughts.

Persona 5 is a phenomenal game. It's probably one of the best I've ever played. It had everything anyone could ever ask for; an intriguing story, fun characters, amazing gameplay, and one of the best soundtracks to date. The anime, on the other hand, is probably one of the worst things I have ever had the displeasure of viewing. I don't mean this as a joke. ... I actually was in pain as I watched one of my favorite franchises get the A1 treatment.

Before I start this review, let me just say that I don't hate A1. They did a good enough job on the Persona 4 anime and an excellent job on the Persona 3 movies. I'm also a casual fan of SAO and Darling in the Franxx. Just judging from the last two, you can tell I have a pretty high tolerance of what an anime can show me. I had really high hopes for Persona 5 after seeing The Daybreakers and the teaser, but I was let down really bad.

Story - 3:

Just. No. A1 had this problem with Persona 4, and it's even worse here. Pacing. For some reason, A1 just can't properly pace these stories. I think that's in part due to their attempts to try and cram almost everything Persona 5 had to offer into this anime, even though the game is 100+ hours in length. Their goals are contradictory. They want to tell this epic and include everything, while also keeping everything within a 26 episode season so it fits into fall anime. This alone shows that they really just didn't have enough appreciation for the source material. I think the best analogy I have for this would be to imagine trying to fit a steak onto a really small plate. You can go the route of trimming off all the fat and cutting the steak in a very slow and appetizing way as to not lose the flavors or randomly mincing the meat and throwing it on the plate like its dog food. Persona 5 is the steak, and A1 is the chef who went the route of the latter. Rather than choose plot points that make sense to be together in the story, or even cut parts that are time wasters, A1 made the decision to randomly grab select events from the various confidants of the game and randomly insert them into the story. The result is some horrible flow and pacing that had me confused at lots of points, and I even played the game to completion.

What I wanted from this story was one similar to that of Persona 3's. It took the story we all know and love, added some extra events and fun character bonding moments, and overall just expanded on it. It offered something to people who have even played Persona 3, and each of these new things was totally worth watching hours of movies for. They did something like this with The Daybreakers. They offered a story no one had seen before. It was a new experience and it gave us some insight into the world of Persona 5 as well as give us character. The anime does none of this. It just tells the same story again, while cutting out some vital points. Even if you came to see the anime because you couldn't play Persona 5 and you wanted to know the story, you are better off just googling a let's play or even reading a plot synopsis of the actual game. It would save you time and sanity. Not to mention they don't even finish the story in the anime, so you don't even get the full experience if that's what you're looking for.

Art - 4:

Oh boy, this is the category that everyone likes to roast. In comparison to Persona 3, this is both a major downgrade and a major upgrade at certain points. I think the general rule with this anime is that if the camera is within a 2-meter radius of the characters, they turn out fine, otherwise they look like they just came out of MS Paint. Before you come out and say that it's hard to draw characters that are at a distance, consider two things; they have already done these kinds of long-distance shots for years and no one complained and there is no need to even put their characters in positions where the camera is far away. There isn't much to say on that point other what has already been shown by various people online.

What else is worse is that there are just some points where the artists must have gone under some acid trip and forgotten just what the characters looked like. I explicitly remember an episode near the end where Ann has silver hair for most of the episode when she is in fact blonde. It could be attributed to lighting, but she was in both pure sunlight, half light, and pure darkness, so it's hard to name that as the cause.

Sound - 7:

This category is kind of short since most of the music and sounds come straight from the game. I only just wish it was more apparent since the game's soundtrack is absolutely amazing.

Character - 1:

In terms of character, they absolutely failed. I honestly can't find one thing I liked about how the characters were presented in this anime, and that's something that's difficult for me to say since these characters are some of my personal favorites. Look at the Persona 3 or 4 anime. Each character in both of those had something called personality. Even when they're not the ones in the spotlight, it's easy to tell who is talking just from the dialogue alone. If you gave me a script of either one, I wouldn't have much trouble naming the characters speaking because of how well they're presented. Persona 5 takes a complete 180 on this. I couldn't even find that much good character in the segments in which one character had the spotlight. They all speak about the same thing for the entirety of the anime; their justice. I think every single character in this anime has said "my justice" at least once. It gets really annoying when the characters all feel like carbon copies of each other, except for their origins. As someone who has seen the characters and their personalities exemplified in the game, I really don't know how A1 managed to screw up just letting each character have their own conscience and point of view.

Don't even get me started on Ren. Ren is the worst mainly because he is nothing. I mean this literally. He has no character. I think even the silent protagonist of the actual Persona 5 game has more personality than the Ren we're shown here. The main reason I loved both Persona 3 and 4's anime is because they threw a name on our protagonist and gave them personality. Makoto is molded into the person he is because of a tragic incident he witnessed as a child, and Yu is given a deep fear of losing the friends he loves. Those character traits even extend from the anime into various other Persona properties. Ren, on the other hand, is just passive. He never has his own thoughts or actions. It kind of just feels that if someone says he should do something it's an automatic yes just because of derp. Even the Joker version of Ren, who is supposed to be a polar opposite to the silent Ren Amamiya, lacks anything. Joker is literally the definition of charm and snarkiness, but in this anime, I can't find a single good and original line from Joker. Ren starts to get some character at the last episode when he talks about "his justice" once more, but by that point, it's already too late.

Enjoyment - 3:

I think my enjoyment of this is already clear, but if it isn't I'll say it again. I really felt in pain while watching this anime. At the beginning of the first episode, I was excited to see these character's I've admired come to the small screen. I felt if this was successful, Persona 5 would get more attention and become more popular than it already has and we'd maybe have these characters expanded upon even more. By the end of the first episode, I just remember utter disappointment. Nothing, and I mean nothing, met up to my expectations. It was just a rehash of what we already had but presented in a way that just made me ache. I think after the second episode, the only reason I stuck with this anime was just to see how badly they'd ruin Persona 5 and hope it would get better. Spoiler. It didn't get better.

Overall - 3:

This is the epitome of milking a franchise. Somehow, in their first attempt to make a spin-off of a fantastic franchise, they ruined it with terrible direction, art worse than that of MS painters, a story that could be made by a toddler holding a crayon, and character development that's just a horizontal line starting at 0. I personally don't know who at A1 greenlit this, but I feel they should have gone back to the drawing board after the first episode and rethought the entire strategy. 26 episodes, 13 hours of animation, and not one good half hour to be seen. If you want my thoughts on how to fix it, here's what I would do.

Don't end on a cliffhanger. This is Persona 5. Not Avengers Infinity War. You don't get to do that.

Fix the pacing. Don't tell me it's hard to cram all of this story into 13 hours. You did Persona 3 in 4 movies, AKA less screen time, and it was exactly what I was looking for with the story even though it was a similar length to Persona 5.

Take your time with the art. Don't give me that All-Out Attack ever again. Make your own style and make us believe in it.

Actually, give your characters some character. Every single phantom thief here had there own and complex reasons for becoming a Phantom Thief. Don't sum them up to "I"m fighting for my own justice." That's boring.

For the love of god, make your Protagonist likable. He's the MAIN character, not the side character for everyone else to use as a stepping stool for the spotlight. You did it right 2 times, so why mess up now?

Finally, actually have some respect for the source material. Persona 5 is a franchise loved by millions across the world. People took its themes about how to view the world, it's story, and its characters to heart. Give them something they can look at and feel happy to watch.

P.S. Sorry if this sounds like a rant. It's not my intention.

To preface this, I had played Persona 5 before watching this, as such my opinion of it is based on that. I watched about 7 episodes straight and then started skimming through the rest of the way, I noticed issues that consistently plagued the show throughout its entire duration so I think my opinions are well-founded save for some bias against it for being a bad adaptation.

The game is fantastic; it has a thought-provoking and exciting plot; the artstyle is full of personality; the sound design and ost are fantastic; characters feel fleshed out for the most part. Over the 100+ hours it takes to ... beat it, the experience was consistently enjoyable with very few shortcomings, I felt genuinely sad and empty when the credits rolled because of how much I loved the whole experience.

Now compare this to the anime.

The amazing plot is condensed into 26 episodes and feels really rushed as a result, things that usually have a major impact in the game are swept to the side in the anime and as such some of the more significant events from the game lose their weight.

The artstyle is poor and the expressive style of the game is lost, P5A has no personality and it looks rushed. This is even more dumbfounding considering that Persona 5 has animated cutscenes that look gorgeous. I understand that it would take more time and money to make a whole anime of that quality, but releasing a bad anime adaptation is a terrible alternative and discourages people who would enjoy the series from getting into it.

Sound-wise, the anime reuses music from the game. Persona 5 has one of the best soundtracks out of any form of media so this is not an issue. P5A also has a fair selection of original tracks though, and they're great. SFX aren't bad either, they're just average and not worth commenting on.

Characters suffer the same issues as the story for the most part, they get no time to develop and feel like cardboard cutouts of their game counterparts. One thing I do like is the emphasis on the relationship between the protagonist and another character that I won't spoil, this is actually an improvement on the game and the only reason someone who has played it should watch this.

Here are some better ways to enjoy Persona 5 if you have yet to experience it in any form:

Persona 5, the original game which is available on PS3 and PS4.

Persona 5 Royal, a remake of the original game with a stellar bonus story arc and quality-of-life enhancements which is available on PS4 and PS5.

If games aren't your thing, you can also read the 'Persona 5: Mementos Mission' manga which is great from what I hear.

Honestly, watch a lets play of the game on Youtube if you really must, I don't reccommend it but if it stops you from wasting time on this dumpster fire then do what you must.

So I might be a little bias because well, Persona is literally my favorite video game series of all time. So take this from my prospective. Well, where do I start.

The Persona 5 Story is Phenomenal and the characters are some of the best written characters probably ever. So, wheres the problem. Well, it goes by wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyy to fast. The pacing is way to fast. I want you to think about this. Persona 5, was 120 hours on my first play through. You can't fit that much playtime into what, like 26 episodes or something. You just can't. Your gonna be rushing, and Persona ... 5 can't be rushed.

But, thats fine Jojo Part 1 had bad pacing but the artwork was still great, is there at least good artwork?? No, absolutely not. It's horrible. Like, the worst looking anime I've seen in awhile. Yeah SAO is bad but it had some beautiful shots. If you want to know what I mean look up FilthyRamenKings "Persona 5 The A-1 Animation opening." It's, so gross.

The music is the only good thing about this show. But, Persona 5 already had good music so........... well, at least the tracks that play for the openings are good. And notice I said tracks, not openings. The actual visual of the openings are generic and lifeless.

If you can't afford to play Peronsa 5 because you don't own a PS4 or PS3 heres my recommendations. 1 wait for the PS5 to come out because thats going to be backwards compatible with all PS4 games and will have better load times. Or, watch a YouTube lets play. Also keep in mind Persona 5 Royal is coming to the west sometime next year.

Writing a long review for this show is pointless, we all knew it was gonna be another excuse for milking the franchise until the eventual Persona 6.
Plot - 3/10
Same plot as the game but more rushed, while the game it's fun by it's own the plot was always flawed, having posser characters and teenagers outmarsting light novel villains is not a good point. The traitor twist is even more evident because the show decided to put Akechi in almost every episode doing worthless things, Adachi never suffered from this (although he was a weak character too).
Art 3/10
Many characters change sizes, do stupid faces in ... serious situations and the animation as whole is slow and boring.
Characters - 3/10
Same as the game again, your allies just exist to suck your dick after you solve their problems. In the game the only good one was an old politician that never requests your help, he was skipped here so whatever. The villains are evil rapists that torture innocent people just because, one dimensional trash, the last one that comes out of nowhere is more of a concept than a character, it's based on the world of the game and that world has no meaning so... you know.
Sound - 5/10
Re-uses many tracks from the game, it's lazy as hell but at least the original OST was good. The first OP and ED were decent too.
Enjoyment 6/10
This part of the review is also pointless but that's how MAL works. I watched this with friends and we laugh at how awful the show was. So yeah, I enjoyed it.
Overall, don't waste your time on this garbage and if you wanna know the plot just play the game, It has writing problems too but it's damn fun.