Persona 4 – 15

Kanji…will you share the alcoholic soft drink of fate with me?

You know we’re impatient fangirls when we just watch the raws and go from that. It’s not like this episode was filled with exposition or anything. It’s the long-awaited field trip episode so who could resist?!

…Since Persona hasn’t been subbed quite yet (or at least while I write this), I’ve decided just to summary based on the raws. …Which was difficult since between the P3 music in this and the bishies in Inu x Boku, I think my fangirling short circuited something. I’m finding it exceedingly difficult to concentrate. Ahahaha….ha…

Velvet room. With summer vacation over, Yu and friends head to school, only to find Naoto at the school. Apparently he’s transferring. Anyways, the students are on a school trip to Tatsumi Port Island… aka the place where the game Persona 3 took place. However, this is all made insignificant by the fact that THERE IS THE PERSONA 3 SOUNDTRACK PLAYING IN THE BACKGROUND. Rise’s grade is there as well and everyone notices what a loner Naoto is since he’s the famous prodigy detective and Kanji acts awkward because of how he thought Naoto was interested in him back in his arc.

As part of the trip, the students go to Gekkoukan High, where they meet Chihiro, the current student council president. They then take a tour around the school and have a special class which lets Edogawa have a cameo. He rambles on about Izanagi and Izanami, but apparently this isn’t plot important enough for Yosuke to pay attention.

P3 character nostalgia

…Which leads to the students staying in a love hotel because someone thought putting Noriko (King Moron’s replacement, remember?) in charge was a good idea. …The girls have no idea what it is. Also, a wild Kuma appears. He stalked them because he was SO RONERY tired of work. In their room, the girls have a yuri-ish scene while examining the bed (I HOPE TO GOD someone washed those sheets before they frolicked on them). Meanwhile, the guys are extremely awkward until Kuma comes in and forces them into a yaoi-ish scene. …Yu just calmly watches this from the sidelines.

So many new wallpapers to choose from…

The next day, the girls go shopping and while the guys are distracted by the news talking about the murders still, they lose the girls. Yosuke, Kanji and Yu split up to find them and Yu stumbles upon Chie defending a kid from a gang of thugs. They take off and Chie notices Yu (who had his phone out with the police number dialed just in case). Chie apologises for making him worry and explains that she felt the need to defend the kid. Chie goes on about how she feels like she needs to become stronger to find her purpose, but Yu advises her not to push herself too hard because he’ll worry. This results in blushing Chie, but they’re soon interrupted by Yukiko telling Chie to meet her at some club that Rise knows. (If you’re wondering about how a bunch of high school students are able to walk into a club without being kicked out, it’s because it’s somewhat minor friendly. You can wander about it freely in P3.)

There, they find Naoto drinking (a non alcoholic beverage) alone and Yu asks him to join them. Rise grabs them a VIP room (she has connects due to her performing there once). There, the team learns that the non alcoholic drinks they ordered were actually alcoholic. Oops. Yu then strips and Rise demands that they play the King Game. Kuma gets it first and demands that #3 kiss him. It’s Kanji. LOL.  Next, it’s Yu and his shirt somehow becomes even more unbuttoned in his fabulousness. His order is for #2 to sit on his lap. It’s Chie, but somehow this triggers ALL of the girls wanting to sit on his lap. Yu you pimp, you.

After that, Yukiko asks Naoto about himself and the team learns that Naoto is actually from a family of detectives. In turn, he asks about the team’s own investigation into the murders and Yukiko is so drunk, she tells the truth about the TV world and shadows. However, Naoto obviously doesn’t believe her. …He also points out that they’ve actually been drinking Cola the entire time, not alcohol. …Everyone just got drunk on atmosphere. The next day, the team goes to eat at a ramen place and Naoto seems to hang with them voluntarily now. With that, the team finally heads home. Afterwards, Naoto is on the phone asking someone about more info about the team like a stalker.

So many Persona doujins, so little time.

VIP Screenshot Section:

Yosuke is just doing a thorough check to make sure his butt is better than Kanji’s

These aren’t bishie sparkles – your vision is actually fading to white because you’re about to faint from his hotness.

“I hear if you rub my crotch, it’s good luck ;D”

“Foursome?”

End Thoughts:

Welcome to the second coming of the Kanji episode. It was just as ridiculous and hilarious as Kanji’s episode, and it retained all of the toplessness and gay jokes as well. There’s even a bit of shoujo-ai with Yukiko and Chie rolling around on top of each other for a moment. Before you ask – yes, this was in the game. It was slightly less crazy, but the whole getting drunk off of nothing and making fools of themselves was still part of it. I have to praise the anime for exaggerating things like crazy  (do country bumpkins really lose their mind if they go to a club for the first time?) and making Yu strip for no reason. Now I can’t even joke that he’s a stripper because he literally has become one. The club scene will always be one of those moments in Persona I will forever remember. My only complaint is the lack of Yosuke and Yu interaction. Come on, if you’re gonna gay it up, let the two men who call each other “partners” on a regular basis do something. T.T I’m in a bit of Yosuke fan-mode after I heard his seiyuu singing and was blown away, so now I want him to be in the spotlight more.

The whole episode was great, although the club scene is hands-down my favourite portion from this week’s episode. It’s nice to see the world of Persona 3 again and hear all the old music from the game. I think it’s about time for a public service announcement: PLAY PERSONA. Not just so the references in the anime will be relevant to you, but for the simple reason that the game series is easily one of my favourites and is worth the time to play. I’m going to have to join Karakuri in being a bit sad that there were no additional P3 characters involved aside from Chihiro. I know it’s hard given that they’re all older now, but it would have been nice…*sigh* Oh well, I’ll be reunited with Akihiko-senpai if I get a Vita and buy Persona 4: The Ultimate u_u

Naoto has now joined the group! Sort of. He genuinely seemed happy to be invited with the group, but then he must have realized he could also use it as a chance to get some information out of them. Even with Yu’s ever-increasing intelligence stat, he’s still not quite a match for the boy genius Naoto. If anyone was to uncover the truth, it would be him. I have to admit that his level of..um..thorough investigation of the group is a bit weird. Does a wall full of photos you took while no one was looking really help you think? Can’t he just put their names on a post-it instead of taking photos? Anyways, Naoto is one of my favourite main cast members, so I’ll be interested to see how they handle him in the following episodes. You can tell by the preview that thing’s aren’t over, right? Kekekeke…

Oh my god. Translating while watching was a headache and a half. Why can’t there be a Persona 3: the animation?! I had forgotten how much I love that game. Hell, after watching this, I decided to start on my 5^th playthrough of it. It just never gets old for me. Simply seeing how the settings from the game transfer to animation was pure magic. PURE. MAGIC. And that background music!!! Sure stuff like Burn My Dread didn’t quite fit in since P3 is an extremely angst ridden game and P4 is… less angsty (…In my opinion), but it was a great nostalgia trip. Hell, I should be angry since they didn’t include ANY of the main cast of P3, but the setting and music alone was more than enough to distract me from that. Damn them. They’re good.

Overall, this episode was hilarious. I was half distracted by the lack of subs and I STILL found myself laughing. The love hotel was hilarious for the wrong(?) reasons since Chie and Yukiko seem to have been raised in a box. …And then there was the yaoi-ish scene with the guys. Yosuke’s head (no, not that one) was totally in Kanji’s ass in one scene. …yeah. Of course, Yu in the King Game scenario was hilarious as well. That guy is just too fabulous and can’t keep his swag down. I have no words.

So on a more serious topic, they included a bit from Chie’s Social Link here. …So does this mean that her Persona is going to evolve now…? I mean, they got to the serious stuff to her Link (aka with her wanting to become stronger for her own sake as opposed to Yukiko and Yu telling her not to do everything by herself). Judging by how far they’ve gone with the other Links, they seem to have finished it off. That being said, deredere Chie was pretty moe. I’m not all that fond of her character, but even I have to admit that her blushing was cute. However, I don’t think that the harem rule of “first girl wins” will work here since we have yet to reveal Yu’s final harem member. …Though that should be coming up soon.

Preview: Well, Naoto is up to something. The only question is what that something is.