Persona 4 – 02
Kero kero ke~~
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Team Karacool, reporting for duty! Episode 2 of Persona presents some nice surprises, such as a new OP and ED song. They’re dripping style out of every orifice, like a toad covered in slime….I am getting worse at metaphors these days. Hm. It’s best we move on then. |
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IT’S BAAAAAAAACK~!!!!! So if you couldn’t tell, my enthusiasm from last episode still hasn’t worn off and I’ve been extremely excited all week. You don’t even want to know how many times I’ve listened to Backside of the TV waiting for this. Excitement aside, on to the episode. |
So once again, Persona starts off in a blue limo with Igor and Margaret talking about destiny. They tell Yu that his ability ‘Wild Card’ has been awakened and they give him a key to the Velvet Room so that he can enter on his own now. However, none of this is important when compared to the SEXY NEW OPENING.
This is a key that has no use to you, because you are not playing a video game
It’s a new day in Inaba, and there’s another dead body hanging from the telephone lines. However, Persona rewinds to the previous day to the conclusion of Yu and company’s adventure in the television. So after Yu saves everyone, they all go to the bear demanding answers. The bear blames them for agitating the shadows though and summons a bunch of TVs, pushes the three into them and sends them back. Lord knows how they even managed to fit through those tiny screens. Anyways, Yu recognises a poster of Hiiragi Misuzu as the same poster from the noose room. The rest of the characters just decide to ignore this and pretend the whole day never happened. Productive!
So back (or forward I guess) to the 15th, a creepy guy asks Yukiko if she wants to hang out. She says no though (not even realising that he was asking her on a date) and so he stalks away. Talking about this later somehow gets Yosuke on the subject of his crush on Saki and how she’s been missing for the past couple days. Later on, they learn that she died mysteriously and was the corpse shown hanging earlier.
Urrgahh…I think I got an eyelash in my eye, do you see it? Do you see it?
Yosuke is depressed and then tells Chie and Yu that he thought he saw her on the Midnight Channel the night before. He concludes with a theory that the TV world has something to do with the murders that have been happening lately, so he wants to explore it again.
Yosuke has the brilliant idea to tie a lifeline to himself this time (I don’t even want to know how he got that rope) so he doesn’t get lost in the fog (since he doesn’t have the same sexy fog resistant glasses that Yu has). Yu decides to join him, so Chie gets to hold the rope while the two explore. However, the idea isn’t that well thought out and when the two enter the TV, the rope cuts off.
So Yosuke and Yu are thrown into the same place they were before and they meet with (screw it, I’m just going to use his name even though he hasn’t been formally introduced) Teddie again. Long story short, Teddie blames them for throwing the people into the TV before the fog lifts. This is significant because the fog lifts in the TV world the same time the real world gets foggy and Yamano and Saki both died on foggy days. Also, when Yosuke pulls off Teddie’s face to see who’s inside, it’s empty. Yu helps Teddie put his head back on and this somehow makes Teddie trust the two. He also makes them promise to help him solve the mystery.
So Yosuke gets sexy glasses as well and they explore what looks like Inaba on a drug trip. Teddie says that he last saw a girl around there and confirms it was Saki when Yosuke shows him a photo he probably took while stalking her on his phone. As they approach the liquor store that Saki’s parents run, they start to hear voices complaining about how Saki is working at Junes, which is running her family’s store out of business. Inside, they find the movie ticket Yosuke gave her ripped up and Saki’s voice is heard. However, she says that she was only nice to Yosuke since he was the manager’s son and he took it the wrong way. Yosuke gets upset saying that it has to be a lie and there’s suddenly evil laughter.
Another Yosuke (with glowing yellow eyes) appears from the shadows saying that everything is a pain in the ass. Yosuke (glowing eyes) says that he’s Yosuke’s true self and that he only came into the TV because he hates living in the country where there’s nothing to do. Yosuke (non glowing eyes) yells that the glowing eye’s Yosuke isn’t him.
Yosuke, hey, hey Yosuke. You’re a butthead. EHEHEHEHE.
Shadow Yosuke then turns into… well, a shadow and Yu saves all of their asses with Izanagi. While the fight goes on, Shadow Yosuke taunts himself (…. That sounds weird) by saying that his cheerful personality is a lie. Yosuke gets even more upset, causing more shadows to gather. Yu then bitchslaps punches Yosuke by ‘mistake’, causing him to instantly calm down. He tells Yosuke that if his feelings for Saki were real, then that’s good enough. Yosuke admits that the things his Shadow said were true and he accepts the Shadow as part of himself. The Shadow turns into a Persona and so Yosuke has the almighty power of the animated cut-ins as well. And it’s all thanks to bromance.
Back in the real world, Chie is still in Junes holding onto the rope and she starts crying when they get back unharmed. She makes them owe her steak and other meat related foods and forgives them. Later, Yosuke and Yu walk home and Yosuke says that he thinks they can find the murderer if he’s with Yu. Even later, Yu and Nanako watch Yukiko get interviewed on the TV about her mother’s inn. Even more later, someone is shown to be running on the Midnight Channel.
Chie feels neglected
Extra Tarot Cards:
“Everyone hates you and your hair looks like a fuzzy llama!” “NOO NO, ANYTHING BUT LLAMA COMPARISONS!!!”
“Please, please, please Yosuke, can I keep him, please?!?!”
Uh..you can let go now.
End Thoughts:
…This post is late because of THINGS. Loading times to be exact. The writing took us no time at all, but the bloody screencaps…oh God, I’d rather wrestle a gator or two than go through that again. Anyways, now were finally getting into a good groove of mixing in TV-spelunking and mystery solving. I found the first episode kind of tossed the mystery element out of the window in favour of racing towards more action, so it’s good that it’s actually explaining things for the non-Persona players this episode. In the game, they have meetings where they simply discuss everything they’ve found out until that point, and I think the anime would benefit from that. At first I was hoping they’d cut it out, but I don’t think the events are being told coherently enough for the story to go well without those little meetings to clear everything up.
People are seen on Midnight Television, they disappear into the TV realm, and then their shadow kills them in that order specifically. That’s all the facts for now, I’m not going to slip in hints. But the main focus of this episode was really Yosuke confronting his shadow and gaining his Persona. I really like when they have to confront their shadows, and you end up learning a lot about that character that you never thought would be true. As Karakuri will mention, they did a good job making the showdown emphasize Yosuke accepting his darker side and becoming stronger because of it. In the game, you just want more of your stupid friends to get Personas so they can finally pull their weight and fight. You have no control over anyone in an anime, so you just cheer on their development for the sake of their development as opposed to getting a shiny new ability.
While the pacing and even the animation improved a bit (there’s still some derp screenshots, but way less), Yu hasn’t really shown any inclination towards getting a soul. He’s a lifeless doll going through the emotions and helping friends he doesn’t even seem to really care for. But he’s got nothing else to do, so he might as well stay on everyone’s good side, right? He just comes across as horribly insincere and devoid of emotion given the circumstances. If trying to play the “oh, he’s just the character that isn’t phased by anything!” card is their major attempt to give him an ounce of oomph, then they clearly need to rethink what makes a good anime character. Also, was Kuma ALWAYS this annoying? I never liked him much, but his whining and futile attempts to be cute are sickening. Give him less lines and give Yu more lines, and I’ll be a happy woman.
This episode had a disturbing lack of Nanako. But anyways, Yu has a bit of courage now! …How the hell did he get that? He’s been folding cranes. He should have diligence instead. ANYWAYS, I must say that the whole Yosuke’s shadow scenario was much more interesting here than in the game. They way they used the entire area for the battle was pretty neat and from the TV screens and Yosuke’s reaction, you really got the sense that he was fighting his inner demons. Waaay more interesting than just having him faint or whatever he did in the game. Also, they seem to have moved away from making the Persona battles less game-like/turn based and more fluid.
….Has Yosuke always had eyelashes? Or are those just lines under his eyes? Either way, they’re distracting as hell. Anyways, they kind of gave Yu a personality this episode, so that was nice. They made him kind of …how do I put it…. oblivious? He has pretty much zero reaction to everything strange and accepts things pretty fast in the game, so they kind of made a point of that in the anime through the other character’s reactions. Plus he had more lines. I also realised this episode how stupid Yosuke’s plan with the rope was (well I thought it was stupid in the first place, but this made it even more so). Just how the hell would Chie explain why she was holding a rope that led into the TV? And how did no one notice her just sitting there while she waited for the guys to come back?
I didn’t mention this last episode, but I absolutely love what they did with the Midnight Channel here. I think they only showed it once or twice through an anime cut scene in the game, but I can really understand here how they have a hard time figuring out who it is. In the game, they would have the character’s silhouette there, but from the body posture it was totally obvious who it was. Er, what I’m trying to say is that the anime is doing good at keeping things a mystery. The only thing I’m still a bit iffy about is pacing. Sure, someone who’s played the game before would find the pacing okay (if not slow), but for someone who’s never even played Persona, it’s probably pretty confusing. At least I wish they would explain a bit more so that new people aren’t left in the dark (…and dislike the Persona series as a whole because of it).
Preview: Tired of all the bromance? Next is some sismance! …Assuming they get that far.
About Tag Team
We live, laugh, enjoy and strictly believe on "more the merrier". When together, we usually come up with very chatty, conversation-based episodics and interesting posts.
POWUH: Beginner (20-35) with 27 comments
“He’s been folding cranes. He should have diligence instead.”
I’ve seen this mistake been made way too many times. Cranes are for understanding, folding envelopes are for diligence. And if you think about it, it makes sense. The crane folding job is volunteer work for sick children in a hospital. Envelope folding is a boring job you simply do for the money. Anyhow, I’d say he got the courage from fighting the shadows in Episode 1.
I disagree with Overcooled on Yu’s personality. I’m not getting the insincerity you’re talking about. Yes, he’s the straight man to Chie and Yosuke’s silliness, but the way he handled Yosuke during the shadow fight showed a level of, wait for it…, understanding that’s beyond someone that ‘doesn’t care.’ It’s clear that the end of the episode is the moment you can really say that Yu and Yosuke became friends.
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
Yes, I’ll agree that in that one scene where he helps Yosuke that he finally shows a spark of kindness. I’m still not convinced that they’ve given him a good personality overall though, since for the most part he acts like a background character who just follows the main group for no good reason.
Okay, here’s my beef with Yu. He’s not just the calm guy to balance all the crazies, like what Kyon is. He simply has no reaction, and that’s supposed to be your balance. When bad things happen, such as MURDER, he has a vaguely shocked expression and comments only on the given facts. No “Oh, that’s horrible” or anything revealing what he might feel. He’s usually so stoic and logical about it all, that I start to doubt he feels any shock or negative feelings from anything that’s going on. I know some characters are introverted but Yu takes it to a whole different level.
I’ll be monitoring his personality progress as the show progresses and I’m hoping he divulges more emotions… (I want him to be a good character, I really do). Yu’s gonna need to fold a LOT more cranes.
POWUH: Beginner (20-35) with 27 comments
If you go about this logically, the reason his personality isn’t very strong right now is…his stats are too low, haha! Keep in mind that expression is one of those stats, and it’s currently at the minimum. If they are going based on the game, then he will grow as a character as the story progresses.
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
I REALLY hope that’s the case. If the stats eye catch isn’t just for show I will be mightily impressed. XD
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
…Well that explains why he sings when he gets bored of folding them. My bad~. Ahaha if only courage was that easy to obtain.
While I hope you’re right about the stats raising=Yu getting a personality, it also means that Yu was pretty much soulless before he moved to the country… Overall though, I would say this is when they became friends too. The anime is doing a pretty good job with the character relationships rather than the game version of one adventure with Yosuke where he has a emotional crisis and you do next to nothing=BEST FRIENDS FOREVER.
POWUH: Meta Resident and Yōko Fanboy with 1246 comments
Translating is the way to go folks ;D
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
LOLOLOL @ Teddy seriously most “unique” character! I took a look a few video game clips so I know what eventually happens with that character….AND NO YOU CAN’T KEEP HIM…please no….
Great episode! Soooo I take it from here on out the “main” cast will each get their persona! Maybe they will combine episodes to speed this process up? Even thou I know they have a story to work on first.
Chie! You are my favorite girl so far <3 And like always great screen cap comments btw! I loled at the You can let go now...and you might be onto something about the "Bromance"
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
Teddie is adorable until he talks. At least the Jap voice is less annoying than the English dub (in my opinion anyways).
If my memory serves correctly, the story moves in between the rescuing people from the TV. Or at least thats how the game did it. I’m thinking next episode is another Persona and maybe they’ll stop right before the 3rd boss battle… Or at least I hope they get that far.
POWUH: 800-899 and Flying Sage with 856 comments
I do find it a little confusing. I understood the major idea, I think. I don’t really understand why tv sets in this town are connected to another dimension, or what exactly the deal is with those glasses. I guess inside the tv sets there is a world that is based on the town they live in. Oh well, it is early yet.
POWUH: Beginner (20-35) with 27 comments
All the glasses do is let you see as if there was no fog. There’s really nothing more to it than that.
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
Plus they look good. XD
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
I’ve noticed that everyone who crosses worlds are gonna come complete with a battle partner, a card and glasses. Something bad must be hidden in the fog if they need the glasses to see through it.
POWUH: Meta Resident and Yōko Fanboy with 1246 comments
Ey OC just to ask, did your Persona 4 come with a soundtrack selection? :3
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
Yep, the soundtrack came with the game when I bought it! Are you buying it/did you buy it?
POWUH: Meta Resident and Yōko Fanboy with 1246 comments
I’ve bought it already and yeah it came with the soundtrack too and I totally didn’t know so I was so happy XD
The game is soooo complicated but it’s because of that, that it’s so awesome ^^ The bad thing is I’m nearing my end of year examination for school and I’m addicted to this game… OTL
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
I didn’t know either. It was a nice surprise, right? :3
It’s a little bit on the complicated side at first, but you’ll get into the swing of things, I’m sure. Good luck trying to balance that with exams…I blitzed through P4 during the summer without having to worry about tests ahaha
POWUH: Meta Resident and Yōko Fanboy with 1246 comments
my long summer holidays are coming up real soon (after exams) so I’ll have heaps of time to play Persona 4 ;D
I have gotten a hang of it but there’s still so much to it that I haven’t explored in yet ^^
btw, why do you register personas and when you go into that compendium book thingy, how come there’s prices next to the personas? I know they’ve explained it but I didn’t quite understand :\
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
Good luck with that, Tofu!
You can fuse Personas together to make stronger ones. The compendium is so that you can just buy a Persona you’ve already made without having to go and fuse it again. It’s pretty useful.
POWUH: Meta Resident and Yōko Fanboy with 1246 comments
well the thing is Izanagi is useless later on so I fused him but considering his in the compendium that means I can buy him and use him again if I ever need to yeah? (do I need to free some space in my persona list? can I use then in fusions again?)
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
Everything is just as Karakuri says. The compendium lets you summon and re-summon a persona as many times as you want. It encourages you to experiment with fusing as much as you want. That’s how you get the BADASS persona. You will need room on your roster though, since you can only have so many personas with you at once. You can always release or fuse the useless ones.
AND THAT HAS BEEN KARA AND COOL’S GAME ADVICE CORNER *THEME MUSIC PLAYS*
POWUH: Meta Resident and Yōko Fanboy with 1246 comments
Just a curious question of mine~ ^^
Are you two going to post a Persona 4 game review? >:3
(or has that already been done… if so I didn’t see it in the Persona 4 tag) :\
POWUH: 400-499 with 428 comments
Having watched this episode, I’m stoked and afraid; stoked with the new ED (WHICH IS SO BOSS!!!!! The animation and the music in my opinion went really well with each other. Too bad the full version won’t be out for a while…:(), adding on the different points such as courage…Rainy Day challenge anyone?, batsu of ten steaks and bowls, each!!! and the other nuances that makes me happy of their faithfulness to the game ;P. The same faithfulness is worrying me though, since the story (the TRUE story anyway) is so long, I wonder how they’re going to cram so much material in without losing some of the characterisation from the original game…Show ▼
Now, all we need to finish this is a Galactic Punt on a certain stalker boy…XD
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
I really loved the ED and OP. SO. DAMN. GOOD.
I love a lot of the nods to the game too. Makes me happy. My guess is they’ll cut out a lot of social links to make room for the main story. Yu might only end up maxing social links with his party members, Nanako, and Dojima. :/ It kinda sucks, but some of the social links, no one really cares about. Like that nurse. <_< Ohhhh, I really want ittt~~~ Both the remake AND the fighting game coming out. It just depends on how much money I have at the time. You should totally get it though if you buy a Vita, it looks great!
POWUH: Lovely-pyon~ and Vocaloid Fangirl with 363 comments
I’ve never played the game before, though I’d like to try 8D (my ps3 is seriously rotting) but the setting of the show seems interesting and creepy enough.
About
the main character with the cute Justin Bieber bowl-cut hairYu, I actually think they’ll eventually allow him to develop as a character as those uh, stats change. (the social-relations thingum that they show during intermissions)I also find the art style interesting. It’s weird at first but then it grows on you xD
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
Lucky, you have a ps3 that plays ps2 games D: Pretty sure mine can’t do that….Trust me, it’s an awesome game and if you find yourself in a game store with money – YOU SHOULD BUY IT.
Urggg, I really hope he does. It only made a few more dialogue options open when you maxed your personality stats, so the anime is going to have to be more clever about it. :B
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
So Yosuke has his own partner created from his own negativity. I wonder if that is really a benefit, it did try to kill him after all.
Bodies pilling up always make a good suspense start-up. It’s creepy that someone’s fate could be written just by watching a late night show. That feels a little like Death Note. I so want to know who’s bringing people across the next world.
What made them think going through that big screen TV would send them to the other world again? That place is probably connected to so many things, the doorway could have been in random places other than the store.
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
Well, his persona is actually different from his shadow. The whole persona vs shadow thing is derived from Carl Jung’s theories (hooray for being a psych/neurosci double major student!). So he confronted the dark aspects of his personality in order to unlock the powerful “mask” of the persona he can use to face the world. tl;dr persona and shadow are two different entities, no worries about it turning on him :B
It is a little death note-y. Whoever shows up on the TV dies, so if you can decipher who it is on the static, you know beforehand. Knowing you’re gonna die if you happen to watch must…suck. D:
The first time they just fell in since they were so freaked out lol. Oh, and ALL TVs link to the other world, just not all of them are big enough to climb through. The anime isn’t really as big as explaining things like the game was.
POWUH: 1100-1199 and Meta's Evil rice-flour Product with 1137 comments
arwejawlkefjlkawefj spoilers.
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
Errr, none of that should be spoilers.
POWUH: Metanorn Regular with 99 comments
I liked the Yosuke/Shadow segment. Even though I’ve never played Persona 4, I agree it’s a scene that would have more impact in anime than it would in a game.
Already, I’ve given up on Yu, and if he does develop a personality, that will just be a welcome bonus. Otherwise, I like the style and story here so far. 🙂
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
It had more impact this way and they even made sure to emphasize Yosuke suffering from his shadow’s words. It was good.
It seems like Yu’s personality is going to be “personalityless” for a while at least…XD
POWUH: Metanorn Regular with 99 comments
Yeah, that’s spot on. I noticed they’ve even made jokes about his lack of personality, especially in the third episode. Although a real personality is preferable, I’m okay with that. Still, taking that route proves this anime is catering to fans of the game.
POWUH: Metanorn Regular with 107 comments
I’m surprised you didn’t make a save the sceen where Protag is on top of Yosuke after saving him.
Nothing fits a bromance more than having one on top of the other.
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
The funny thing is, I actually did but didn’t put it in the post. I figured this episode had enough bromance as is XD (Also, was struggling hardcore to put in screencaps) I will admit, that scene really made me happy~
POWUH: 1000-1099 and Pirate King with 1048 comments
I love this show beary much! That’s all…
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
Ahaha I can bearly bare these bear puns.
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
I have no words
POWUH: 1000-1099 and Pirate King with 1048 comments
Grin and bear it, cause I might be doing this each week.
POWUH: iLurker with 3 comments
I’m gonna borrow one of these pictures.Can I please?
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
One of the screencaps? Go ahead :3