PERSONA 4 - THE ANIMATION VOLUME 3 (EPISODES 18-25) (12)1 Disc BluRay / 2 Disc DVD (Distributor: Manga Entertainment/Kaze UK) Running time: 204 minutes approx.
If Yu Narukami wasn't already aware of how sinister things were in the case of the Midnight Channel, he was when the ominous fog from the alternate world behind the TV screen infiltrates the real world, followed by the arrival of an anonymous letter warning him to "Stop saving people". Unfortunately for Yu, his junior detective friend Naoto Shirogane is unable to turn up any leads but this is the least of his worries. While left alone at the house, Yu's beloved but ill cousin Nanako is kidnapped. With Nanako's life in the balance Yu more than ever needs to find the culprit behind the Midnight Channel before it's too late.
The layers have being laid on pretty thick over the course of the previous three volumes and now we arrive at the final stretch with the action and raw emotion amped up to levels hitherto seen in this video game adaptation. It's been a bumpy ride getting to this stage, with a mixture of intense supernatural mystery and frivolous comedy filler episodes with some colourful fantasy fight scenes to remind us of the computerised roots of the adventure.
After an opening salvo of light relief filler episodes - including the obligatory onsen fans service episodes - we return to the meat of the action with Yu's poisonous pen pal warning him from playing hero in the alternate world accessed via the supernatural Midnight Channel TV station. For the viewers the culprit will be easy to spot quite early on but apparently no so easy for our intrepid teen heroes who are too engrossed in finding Nanako. This particular development comes after we learn of the fate of Nanako's late mother and how the annual date of her death was to be a special night for the youngster and her police detective father Ryotaro Dojima, whose constant duty calls him away from his daughter. Thankfully he now has Yu to rely upon, who has taken to calling her older cousin "Big brother" instead.
It takes a dangerous trip into the Midnight Channel to rescue Nanako from the clutches of her deranged captor, but while the risks are high the rewards don't prove so fruitful. Already ill when she was captured, Nanako's condition becomes critical and matters are worsened with Dojima is injured in a car accident. However, at the hospital the Yu and Naoto put their heads together and think they have found their culprit. Perhaps they have, but as always with audacious plots involving the death of many innocent people within the grip of a strange phenomenon, there is a more deadly puppet master lurking the shadows with a greater plan in mind.
Anime has taught us many things and for a psychological fantasy drama show like Persona 4, the lesson is to expect a convoluted finale based around existentialist rhetoric and reality bending scenarios to make what is a fairly run of the mill motive for the protagonist into a complex and seemingly ingenious plot of Machiavellian standards. Oh and plenty of explosive battles to. Okay, that is oversimplifying it a little but the absence of any major last minute twists to truly keep the viewer involved in the story and the plight of our teen heroes is forgone for sake of a bombastic blow out. Since the source material is a video game with the purpose is to unlock battling avatars, this ending is of little surprise.
There is a distinctly cynical flavour to the villain's motives, however, that might slip over a few heads, with regard to the distortion between reality and fantasy many of us suffer from, in particular via the old goggle box. Slightly ironic that this sentiment is shared via the medium of television but I digress. Yu might be the nominal hero of the hour, although it is the bond between him and his far more interesting and personable friends that plays the biggest factor in deciding the outcome of this whole affair - not really a spoiler since around eighty percent of anime is about friendship anyway!
If this show has anything going against it, one could argue the point of laying the blame at the episode count which begat an odd narrative in terms of mood and content. It seems that with twenty five episodes allotted to the show, the writers could save themselves from falling into the old trap of the "monster of the week" formula, allowing them to eke out both the story and character developments. However, the reliance on the extraneous comedy chapters, which often come during a particularly dark and pivotal development, suggests this potential idea never crossed their minds, thus the quality of the episodes will peak and trough as is your taste and tolerance towards such diversions.
While the show itself has its flaws, this final release from Manga/Kaze is rather generous, giving us the Director's Cut finale, which runs a good six minutes longer than the regular episodes, and a bonus thirty minute OVA that many might see as the true and more satisfying denouement to the series.
Persona 4 demonstrates both the best and worst facets of adapting a video game into an anime series. It shows how you can expand on certain elements of the game's plot and characters while at the same exposing their weakness of them by having to fill in the gaps with extraneous material that alters the mood and momentum of the story.
For all its faults, this is a decent outing overall, albeit one fans of the game will probably relate to or be more critical towards than novices such as myself.
Extras:
English Language Japanese Language English SubtitlesOVA Episode 26Mister Jikken (Drama 4)Clean Opening - 2nd PeriodClean Ending - Arcane (Complete version)
MAN IN BLACK
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