Persona 5 the Animation - Episode 1 (Review)

By: ThunderheavyarmBased on the amazingly successful game, Persona 5 the Animation has finally arrived. For those that haven’t played the game, the story follows a second year high schooler named Ren Amamiya (in the game you can put another name in) blamed wrongly for a crime he’s forced to move to a new school for a year long probation. But his year is anything but normal. The story is told during an interrogation session between the main character and a special investigator.I was curious to see how they would portray the game as an animated series. Even more so given that the animations from the game could easily be translated to an anime like the two previous entries into the series. At the same time, wondering if anyone would take a creative license with something and go to far with it. The only change I saw, and that’s only because it’s been awhile since I played the game, is when Ren gets to Shibuya and Arsene makes an appearance before him. Other than that, the episode seems very faithful tot he first twenty minutes of the game. In fact, I think I caught myself saying some of the lines before they were spoken. They even managed to get the map system from the game into the anime, which immediately got my sense for nostalgia going.The music from the game is here as well. Not at all surprising, but it’s spread out enough that if you’re paying too much attention to the dialogue it could slip your notice. Again, it’s incredibly faithful to the game and you can easily recognize which of the soundtracks will be playing given any scene. The only one that felt odd was the prison sequence, the music came a little later than expected.Overall, I’m excited about this show. The complaints I have are minor and there mostly because they are the only deviations from the show. I played the game with the English VAs so I’m not able to comment on the acting and how well the Japanese VAs stayed to their characters or if they deviated as well. I highly doubt it, but I thought it worth pointing out. I can’t wait for next week, as the episode will be heavily showing the first palace infiltration.GG everyone!