Persona 4 – 04

Trick or tre-OH GOD IT BURRRNSSS!!!

Do you like the spooky Halloween colours on the site right now? It’s the perfect opportunity to dress up and party! …Or just huddle under a blanket and fuse Pyro Jack in a Persona game. As long as it’s vaguely Halloween-themed, anything goes!

Finally the sismance comes into play! I’ve always liked Yukiko as a character(and the anime versions of Persona 4 characters are don’t seem to be near as annoying as their game counterparts), so this episode promises to be good.

Another episode, another trip to the Velvet Room. They keep it rather short this time though, just commenting on how Yu now has a bond with Chie.

Back at the castle, Chie is kicking ass with her new Persona while the guys have to tell her to slow down before she hurts herself. Chie doesn’t listen though and eventually the team makes it to a room with a staircase. The lights suddenly go out and a spotlight focuses on Yukiko’s Shadow. She calls them uninvited guests and continues talking like she’s performing on TV (complete with title segments). Chie says that Shadow Yukiko isn’t Yukiko (really Chie? You should know better by now) and Shadow Yukiko runs off. Shadows get in the way before the others can follow.

Suddenly, flashbacks. Yukiko was being pestered by guys asking her out on a date and Chie came to her rescue. Yukiko thanks Chie for everything she’s done since she always helps Yukiko like that. Back to the present, Yukiko wakes up to Shadow Yukiko talking about how great Chie is. Suddenly, a CGI birdcage rolls down the stairs and Yukiko has another flashback of finding a baby bird while walking home alone one day. She raised it in her room while working at the inn.

As Yukiko’s friends run to find her, Yukiko has continuous flashbacks of working at the inn, apologizing to Chie for not being able to hang out and taking care of her bird. Yukiko comments that the bird is just like her since it’s trapped in a cage, but sometime after that, Yukiko comes to her room to find the cage open and the bird gone. After that, Yukiko has a conversation with Chie that makes her realise that even Chie won’t help her escape her metaphorical cage. Yukiko’s Shadow finally reveals itself to her.

On the same day Chie took in a baby bird, someone else took in a very hungry kitten…

The team finally find Yukiko and Shadow Yukiko comments that 3 princes have arrived. Shadow Yukiko goes on to say that Chie USED to be a good prince, but Yukiko is done with her. A chandelier comes from the ceiling right where Chie is and Yu starts running in slow motion to try to save her. Scene change to the Velvet Room and Margaret telling Yu that his bond with Chie has given him a new Persona. Yu summons Ara Mitama, which protects Chie from harm.

Shadow Yukiko goes on more about how she hates that every moment of her life has been planned just because she happened to be born in a certain place while Yukiko keeps denying this. Meanwhile, everyone else is too busy being attacked by household décor to do much about the situation. Finally, Yukiko tells the Shadow that it’s not her and the Shadow turns into a giant bird/cage/chandelier hybrid.

DO YOU GET THE SYMBOLISM? DO YOU GET IT YET?!

Yukiko gets trapped in a cage and everyone tries to save her/defeat the Shadow. After battling for a bit, Shadow Yukiko says that she thought Chie would be her prince, but Chie didn’t even try to save her. She charges up a powerful fire attack and Yu summons Pyro Jack to save them all. Afterwards, he tells Yukiko that even if Chie isn’t her prince, she came all of this way just to save her.

Shadow Yukiko doesn’t want to accept this quite yet though and continues attacking. Yukiko tells Chie to run, but Chie says that she won’t. She finally admits to Yukiko that she was jealous of the fact that she had everything and liked that Yukiko relied on her so heavily. She continues saying that Yukiko is strong enough to break free of her cage by herself. Yukiko admits that she was not heartbroken by the bird escaping because it had the courage to escape all by itself while she is just waiting for someone to help her.

With the power of sismance, Chie encourages Yukiko and Yukiko breaks the cage on her own. With the Shadow weakened, all of the Persona’s attack at once and Shadow Yukiko explodes into feathers. Chie and Yukiko both apologise for ignoring each other’s problems for their own and Yukiko accepts her Shadow, which turns into a Persona.

With that over with, Yukiko collapses from exhaustion and so the four head to leave the TV world, thus ditching Kuma. Yukiko apologises for leaving so early though, so Kuma gives her ‘special’ glasses. Yukiko forces Chie to try them on and then has a laughing fit in front of all of them (which is she has only ever shown Chie before).

Ending on a high note

Amagi Inn Special Service:

Oh my…a baby bird. OH, WAIT, A QUARTER! LUCKY!

Waiting for her prince..ss?

I miss the times when Yosuke’s ass was always in the centre of all the shots

So much unwanted tongue action…

End Thoughts:

Wow, this episode really took a turn away from the game and dug up some really insightful information about Yukiko’s past. The game just had Yukiko’s shadow give a quick run-down of how she wanted to be free and how Chie couldn’t save her, but we saw the whole backstory to everything. It was the perfect touch to what would have otherwise been another lightning fast battle without much depth. We haven’t seen a lot of Yukiko up until now, so these extra scenes of her in the inn and caring for the baby bird were much needed. It made the battle so much more intense, and having Chie be the one to ultimately snap her out of her stupor was the right move.

As Karakuri said, the use of all the persona’s resistances was great. Pyro Jack reflects fire and Ara Mitama resists physical attacks (I would count dropping a chandelier on someone as a physical attack..right?). I kind of hope he doesn’t use Ara Mitama again though because JESUS CHRIST IT’S UGLY. If that’s his only chariot persona then..ew. With Yukiko and Chie safe and sound, Yu will probably go on a mini persona collecting spree by getting close to some of the students in his school.  That way he’ll have some new tricks up his sleeve when some other poor soul is pushed into a TV and they need to go save them. Powering up aside, they need to do some more sleuthing back in the real world before they dive back into the TV again anyways. It will be interesting to see how the story unfolds from here, as this is the part of the game where you can do WHATEVER THE HELL YOU WANT, WHENEVER.

All in all, a great episode with a nice mix of action and drama. I love how Yu and Yosuke work so closely together and strategize what to do with their persona. I have NO CLUE how they simultaneously could have come up with a plan to distract shadow Yukiko with Pyro Jack and have Jiraiya assault her from behind. I guess that’s the power of partners. Not that I’m complaining, I love those two. Preferably when they’re both thrashing about in bed with one another, but I’ll refrain from forcing fujoshi delusions on you (Crap, I already did…). I hope when they get more members that Yosuke keeps working with Yu. I know the 4 member party limit might not make sense, but having ALL THOSE PEOPLE fighting is gonna get messy later on. Anyways, I’m getting ahead of myself. For now we’ve got a solid team of 4 members ready to rock and roll the next time someone is shoved into a TV set! Can’t wait for episode 5~

This is probably the most Persona has ever gone off the game script. However, I also think that this is one of the most brilliant episodes yet. Not only did they develop Yukiko’s character further, but the stuff they added in actually fit in with the script and nothing felt out of place. The added symbolism with the cage was a nice touch as well. Where the other character’s problems were more about dealing with their inner problems/selves, Yukiko’s was more about  breaking free of the cage she built around herself, so the scene with her literally breaking out of a cage adds to that. Once again, Yu’s advice wasn’t really that great, but at least it gives him a purpose. He’s like the official person for making the characters feel better about themselves. Though I had to laugh at his expression still being at the lowest level.

The Persona switching didn’t feel out of place this episode either. In fact, I’d say that Yu used them cleverly. For those of you who don’t know, Pyro Jack actually does have the ability to block fire attacks in the game, so seeing that carry over here and having Yu KNOW that it does that is kind of neat. I have to say that the magic attacks have been pretty well animated as well. The fire attacks in this episode (or other things like when the candles suddenly flared up) looked pretty good. Also, has anyone else noticed that in the ending that the Arcana Yu has collected thus far appear on the cards that spin around him while the rest stay blank? I assume the rest will appear as Yu collects them, but overall I think that’s a nice touch to the ending. It makes it feel like the anime is actually progressing towards something.

Overall, these whole Persona/Shadows of the week episodes seem to take a really long time since the last two have gone on the entire episode. Though, I guess it allows the writers to get creative with the script like this episode. I hope they do that more in the future since it really adds to the characters. Next week will be interesting since it looks like the show will finally focus on Yu’s relationships outside of the TV exploring team.

Preview: BALLS. That is all.

Balls and whores!