'Persona 5' Animation Episode 1 Review

Persona 5 Episode 1

What's the Main Idea?

Deep in an underground police facility, the police are brutally beating and drugging a young man believed to be Joker, the leader of the infamous Phantom Thieves, before the prosecutor arrives for interrogation. Months before, the same young man arrived in Tokyo for the first time for shocking reasons. His parents have sent him away for a year after he was arrested for "alleged" assault and was put on probation. Now he is staying with a family friend's attic and is enrolled into a new high school. On his first day, he and a male classmate enter into a world of distortion and are later attacked by an evil force within, thus leading to the young man forming a contract with an unknown force in order to survive.

I. AM. SO. HAPPY!!!

I can't explain how much I just love the Persona franchise, but the animation itself has started off on quite a rocky start. On the other hand, the Persona 5 game has had very stylish and urban designs that have been slandered by lacking cut scenes and clunky translations.

Joker and Panther (Deep down I ship this hard!!!)

This setting where the knowledge of what might happen becomes a little bittersweet. Without going in too many details, it's clear that the game had its depictions on women, but none were shown in the premiere. I know what's going on with the female prosecutor, along with people of a higher authority having the power to lie in the society. I only know from a glimpse of what I think might happen or what has already happened. Some flashbacks don't really explain why Ren is even on probation; in the game, Ren tries to stop a sexual assault which resulted in him getting arrested. Even though he is a criminal, I would say he was wrongfully accused since he was trying to do what was right.

Now despite his honorable intentions, he has been kicked out by his own parents and labeled as a dangerous juvenile at school. All these events have given Ren the motivation to rebel against the unfairness of society.

The Velvet Room

In this setting, it is kind of a bittersweet moment. It is good that the protagonist is the type of guy to stand up to a potential rapist, but the protagonist was motivated by women around him being victimized as the plot intensifies. It turns out the women in the protagonist's life have been victimized which thickens the plot even more. Women are turned into objects to be protected rather than protecting their own, capable of using their own intuition for themselves.

One positive aspect of this comes from the female prosecutor, Sae Nijima. She has a balance of compassion rather than the brutality of her fellow coworkers as well as expresses concern for the well being of Ren. As Nijima walks down the hallway in this episode, one can probably predict that she would be having this whole DON'T KILL MY VIBE stance when going to interrogate Ren. Although she has this vicious "resting b*tch" face, she speaks to Ren with force and being stern in the process.

Sae's Resting B*tch Face

Persona 5 as a whole is going with a type of storyline where the people who engage with both the animation and the game would have very strong opinions. The Persona games, in general, become personal by nature and as I experienced, the whole thesis can really speak to you.

Well, this animation I hope will be very interesting in the long run. If you liked this review, don't worry; I will update these animation reviews every Thursday and Friday.

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