Persona 4 – 03

And then Chie beat her up and took her lunch money

MORE PERSONA, OH MY GOSH, DID YOU MISS US?!?! The girls have been cheated out of most of the screetime so far, only really appearing every now and then to kick people in the gut or turn down creepy stalkers. Now they finally get a chance to step into the spotlight and have their darkest secrets revealed! Yay…?!

The Kara part of Team KaraCool here~! So yeah, 3 weeks later, I’m still raping the Persona 4 soundtrack on a daily basis (…should I be admitting to this?). My song of the week? Your Affection. WHY IS THIS SOUNDTRACK SO AWESOME.

So it looks like starting off in the Velvet Room is going to be an episodic thing as this one starts that way as well. Igor and Margaret explain that Personas become more powerful when the bonds between Yu’s friends and him grows, but still haven’t even gone over what a Persona actually is. Will they ever? Time will tell.

Cool story, Yo(suke).

The next day is rainy in Inaba as well and there’s a flashback of how Chie and Yukiko first met. Yukiko was upset because she found a stray dog but wasn’t allowed to keep it, so Chie said she would keep him instead so he wouldn’t be lonely and that’s how their friendship started. In the present, Chie comes into the classroom asking the guys if they saw the Midnight Channel because she thinks it showed Yukiko. To make matters worse, Yukiko hasn’t answered any phone calls or texts. Yu suggests that Yukiko just might be busy, so Chie ditches class to go check on her. …Or she would have if Yukiko hadn’t called her at that exact moment. Yukiko is fine, but just helping out at the inn.

On the way out of school, Ichijou Kou and Nagase Daisuke almost draft Yu into a sports team, but apparently this anime favours figuring out the mysteries behind the TV more than a 3-way bromance. It’s busy at Junes that day, so Yu sticks his hand into the TV to get Kuma’s attention. (Yeah, I’ll just go with the original Jap names as opposed to the localized one from now on.) For whatever reason, Kuma bites it and Yu has no reaction whatsoever aside from a monotonous “Ow”. They talk with Kuma through the screen and apparently there’s no one inside the TV.

That night on the Midnight Channel, a very…er, charismatic Yukiko appears on the TV screen talking about how she’s going to look for ‘a hot stud muffin’. This is so shocking that Yu actually changes facial expressions. That night, Chie runs to Yukiko’s inn.

The next day is the weekend and Yu goes to Junes to meet Yosuke. In the middle of the food court, Yosuke decides that this is the ideal place to wave around the weaponry he brought with him. They both get arrested despite Yu not doing anything. They both get off without much trouble though since Yu is Dojima’s nephew and they run into Chie on the way out, who tells them that Yukiko has gone missing. Adachi chooses this point to tell them all that the first person that was murdered was staying at the Amagi’s inn and apparently she caused a lot of stress. Long story short, they think that Yukiko might have something to do with the murders and ran away. Chie gets upset and Yosuke and Yu have to hold her back from attacking him before they get arrested again.

Yosuke just wants to cut his pizza and Chie just wants a hug. Is that so wrong?

So they go into the TV and Kuma leads them to the castle-like place they saw on the Midnight Channel where Yukiko is. Chie tags with them this time and runs ahead of the guys despite not having any sexy anti fog glasses with her.  Yosuke and Yu follow her, but Shadows constantly get in their way. Yu summons Izanagi and Yosuke summons (his Persona) Jiraiya. While the two fight, Chie finds herself in a monotone version of Yukiko’s room. Yukiko’s voice comes out of nowhere explaining that she hates her name because she dislikes snow (Yukiko is written with the kanji for ‘snow’ in it). However, Chie said that she looks good in the colour red, so Chie gave her purpose.

Hmm, now where does Yukiko keep her porn…?

It’s around then that the Shadow version of Chie appears. Shadow Chie claims that she is also Chie. She starts going on about how Yukiko is nothing without her and how Chie likes hanging around Yukiko because Yukiko needs her. Chie denies this of course and the guys finally catch up with Chie. However, before they can stop Shadow Chie, Shadows start attacking them and Chie says the magic line: “You’re not me”.

Shadow Chie reveals her true form and starts attacking everyone while Kuma just stands there uselessly. Yu and Yosuke do their best, but the power of the yellow dominatrix is too much for them. Chie is consumed by her inner demons and Shadow Chie starts talking again about how Chie is jealous of how pretty Yukiko is and likes the fact that Yukiko relies on her completely.  Chie just about gives up, but Yu and Yosuke’s voices say that all of this is okay because Chie is still Yukiko’s friend. This snaps Chie out of it and she accepts Shadow Chie as her other self. However, Shadow Chie doesn’t want to be accepted, so she attacks them again.

Yu suddenly hears Margaret’s voice telling him that his bond with Yosuke has given him a new Persona. She says that this is his Wild Card power and calls him the Chosen One. With that, he exchanges Izanagi with a new Persona, Pyro Jack. Yu and Yosuke both attack (complete with the epic crossover screen) and defeat Shadow Chie. Chie accepts who she is and she gets a Persona (who looks at least twice as ridiculous compared to it’s game form) complete with it’s own shiny gold abs.

However, the TV exploring ends there because Chie is too tired to go on. She feels guilty about this and shows Yu a picture of the dog (which is now the size of a small pony) that brought her and Yukiko together.

The Power of FRUNDSHEEEP:

Better get back to polishing balls, Kou. YU IS MINE.

Too many yanderes this season…this needs to stop.

That awkward moment when your persona has more muscles than all of the guys combined

Invisible tears…It’s a serious medical condition, don’t laugh!

End Thoughts:

I really liked this episode. A lot. It shifted scenes very rapidly and the pacing is still breakneck – but that’s still a good thing for someone like me who is impatient when re-watching something. We move right along from having a close call with Yosuke in one episode to Yukiko disappearing and having to be rescued in the next. Non-stop awesome! I did NOT expect them to integrate Yu’s ability to switch persona at any time, but they did it and damnit, it WORKS. In the game you have to specifically go to the Velvet Room and waste time tinkering with fusion charts. This isn’t even during battles either, so I’m glad they changed it something simpler. I was also pleasantly surprised by how they handled Yu this episode. If they’re gonna keep Yu as the deadpan lead, might as well use that for jokes. It’s confirmed now that they’re aware that his personality is literally “personalityless”, and are willing to poke fun at it. It’s not as good as giving him a personality, although I have to admit I was snickering when he said “I’m gonna cry” and “I wish I had taped it.” Do you think I’m weird for having actually picked those answers in the game on my first playthrough? <_<

I’m starting to gain more respect for how the anime is handling the adaptation of the game. The transition from video game to anime is a tough one, and a choice-based game like Persona 4 is especially hard to tackle. Still, they know when to remain faithful from the source and where to diverge. The Velvet Room is kept in tact as sequence at the beginning to explain the plot. The time spent grinding/dungeon-crawling is reduced in the anime, as the whole reward of levelling up isn’t there when watching an anime. Artistic liberties have been taken, such as having Chie step into Yukiko’s red-themed room (I loved that scene), and staying conscious during the entire fight. Why? Because there’s only so much of heads standing and talking that is interesting when you’re not playing a game. Anime needs changes of scenes and angles to keep interest since you’re not holding a controller. The entire team behind this anime realizes the key differences between an anime and a game, and is making appropriate changes accordingly. Sorry if I’m ranting about this a lot, but I have an editorial in the works about this very subject. *hinthintreaditwhenipostit*

Back to game comparisons (I understand if you hate me), they’re slowly introducing some of the minor characters such as the basketball club leader Kou and his buddy Daisuke. I also saw the Music club girl somewhere (I think. I joined the acting club because I couldn’t play an instrument to save my life). Based on this and the lightning-fast pacing, Yu will probably spend a lot of time “deepening his bonds to others” as Margaret said in the beginning of the episode. I don’t know when or how they’ll add these side stories in, but I look forward to them. There’s also the ultimate question…WHICH GIRL WE YU HOOK UP WITH?! Cast your bets now, ladies and gents~

LOLOLOLOL oh man that Persona switching. What is this, Pokemon? I know that’s how it worked in that game, but it seems kind of strange in the anime context. What is even the point? Are we going to have a Persona of the week now? If we do, it’s a shame because the main character’s first Persona (and the ultimate one) are always the best designed… Let’s just HOPE TO GOD that Yu never summons Mara. EVER. The world has more than enough scarring things on television. It can go without one more. I’m surprised that Kuma tagged along with them as well (albeit he didn’t do anything), I was always under the impression that he stayed outside of the area. …Though he was always there during the boss fights, so I guess I was wrong. ………Now I’m a bit pissed off. He was there the whole time but he never did anything?! WHAT ABOUT ALL OF THOSE TIMES I DIED FROM GENERIC SHADOW ATTACKS AFTER HOURS OF DUNGEON EXPLORING WITHOUT SAVING?! WHY DID HE NEVER DO ANYTHING?!

So once again, the scene with Shadow Chie far outshone the game version of it. At least this time Yu and Yosuke had an excuse for not stopping Chie from denying her Shadow (while in the game they all might as well been playing cards or something for all they accomplished standing there yelling “don’t say it!”). The part with the masks was cool, though I like how they used the effects with the TV screens last episode better. Yukiko’s monologue about the red was interestingly animated as well. But was the argument that Yosuke and Yu used really all that effective? I mean, they were basically saying that Chie can look down on Yukiko all she likes and it’s 100% okay because they’re friends. …That just seems like a half assed argument to me. Sigh, well at least it makes Chie feel better about herself.

The battle here seemed extremely long and drawn out. I mean, Chie accepted herself after that thing with the masks and I thought they would have ended it there. Why did the Shadow just suddenly decide “yeah okay, I’ll let you accept me” AFTER getting the crap kicked out of her? Though I guess it allowed for the crossover picture to be used (and DAMN Yosuke looks as hot as ever in it), so I am okay with this. The Persona magic skills were even added in! Though the whole attacking thing would be ten times more effective if the characters fought along with their Persona. Though having the characters weaponless is probably a lot more believable than having them somehow hide their swords and whatnot under their uniforms while in Junes like in game. Overall though, this was another great episode for Persona and they actually kind of explained things this time~!

Preview: Will Yukiko ever find herself a hot stud muffin? Will Kuma ever do anything? Until next time~!

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.