Persona 5 the Animation: The Day Breakers

There is a new urban legend circulating Tokyo. It claims that if you make a request in the Ask-a-Thief Channel, the Phantom Thieves of Hearts will show up and bring justice by stealing a corrupt person's heart and making them regret all their wrongdoings. As strange and inexplicable events continue to happen all around town, more people submit their requests in hope that the mysterious vigilante group will help.

Kazuya Makigami is a burglar by night, but has started to have second thoughts about his crimes and those who help him commit them. Unable to stand up to his comrades himself, Kazuya submits a request to the Ask-a-Thief Channel.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Amamiya, Ren Main

Fukuyama, Jun Japanese

Sakamoto, Ryuuji Main

Miyano, Mamoru Japanese

Kitagawa, Yuusuke Main

Sugita, Tomokazu Japanese

Takamaki, Ann Main

Mizuki, Nana Japanese

Morgana Main

Ootani, Ikue Japanese

Makigami, Kazuya Main

Oosaka, Ryouta Japanese

Akechi, Gorou Supporting

Hoshi, Souichirou Japanese

Makigami, Naoya Supporting

Saitou, Souma Japanese

Adachi, Kazuki Producer

Mito, Kai Assistant Producer

Ozaki, Takaharu Director, Episode Director, Key Animation

Iida, Satoki Sound Director

Reviews

Sep 3, 2016

metadata

Recommended

As always Shoji Meguro has done a wonderful job composing. With his music playing, during well-directed - yet lacklusterly animated - scenes, I couldn't take my eyes off of the screen. Even if you aren't interested in Persona, I'd suggest to just watch this for that fight scene.
This special doesn't serve as much more than an introduction for a videogame - Persona 5, as you might have guessed - and logically we don't get a deep, nor resolved plot (we only see a short subplot). While the setting and themes are really interesting, the story (of the special) isn't much new. However, within 24 minutes ... it does a good job establishing the characters - again, without too much depth.

It definitely did what it was supposed to do: hype me up for Persona 5, which is coming out on February 14th in the west. The only lover I need, is whatever character the Lovers arcana will be assigned to.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Sep 5, 2016

Kashmius

Recommended

As a person who started with Persona 1 on the Playstation One, I have been a major Shin Megami Tensei fan since. I hold it as a series dear to my heart. The series is a Japanese Role Playing game that follows its themes around demonic entities and mythology. Persona is a sub-series of the Shin Megami Tensei franchise that pretty much is just that but with a high school setting. In recent entries there have been the additions of social links and dating. The series has only recently gained a larger following as it's been very niche for quite some time until Persona 3 ... and Persona 4. It is still pretty niche but now with the advent of Persona 5 many newcomers are flocking to the series to experience the greatness of the Persona series for the first time. The series just keeps growing year by year.

Now the ride to Persona 5 has been a tough and almost excruciating one. The game has been delayed a plethora of times thus giving off many red flags. All you Persona fans were aware of some of the crazy stuff that was going on with the game's release date. That, however, is a completely separate topic. What I want to discuss today is the single episode 24 minute animated short for Persona 5. First things first, I'd like to state that the short is very good. Honestly it's not enough to keep you occupied until the game is released(especially for us who are waiting on the release outside of Japan) but what I love about it is that it gives Persona 5 a more "Shin Megami Tensei" feel. That is, the modern Persona games are generally more lighthearted than the mainline Shin Megami Tensei games. Persona 1 and Persona 2 play very similarly to the early Shin Megami Tensei games on the NES and SNES. Heck, Persona 1 and 2 are related to a game named Shin Megami Tensei: If which is a spin-off of the original Shin Megami Tensei games. The newer Persona games are more cheery and not as dark as the early Persona and Shin Megami Tensei games. So when I see this I get pumped because I did not want another Persona 4 clone. Persona 4 is my least favorite in the series. I love the game but the other entries are just better in my opinion. The mood and tone that the short gave off were the selling point for me. It felt darker and more gloomy. A feeling Persona 3 and 4 did not give me.

Now let's talk about the quality of the actual story and characters. It's very hard to say anything as this is just a 24 minute short and it's a standalone episode. The writing overall was done well. They really did a good job at trying to give fans an idea of what Persona 5 will be about. All perspectives for each character were earned rightfully. Plus Morgana is pretty cute... :D

The art and animation are very good. Very stylish approach and beautiful color palette. Honestly I give a lot of flack on the animation/art in newer anime and I have to say that is just gloriously animated. Everything about the animation is great. The battle scene in the short was also awesome and perhaps the peak of the animation. It was honestly the best looking piece of motion in the short.

This music is just... wonderful! Jazz on crack is what I would describe it as. Persona and SMT games generally have good music but this is just fantastic. Really fits the mood well, even the gloomy portions which is strange to say but they manage to balance it out quite evenly.

Overall, your enjoyment of this anime does not matter if you are a fan of the games or not. The animation, art style, and the music alone is just enough to sit down and watch this. It's just so jazzy and fashionable. And for those of you who are fans I highly recommend checking this out. This won't spoil for the game. If anything, it'll actually give you a glimpse of what the game will be like. September 15 for Japan and Valentine's Day for the Worldwide release. So if you are lonely and don't have a Valentine's you'll have this game to service you. :D

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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May 2, 2018

SebastianM20

Not Recommended

Honestly, i don't know why there are some many 7s or even 8s. This OVA is just one adaptation of one of the sidequest you can do in the game source (and a uninteresting one in my opinion). As a stand alone product it fails because you need to have played to game to understand it and as content for the players it's pretty boring because it focus too much on irrelevant characters and tries too hard to make the heroes looks cool without them doing anything remarkable until the only (and final) battle. By the way, the ending doesn't make any sense at all, ... what was the point of that scene? Nothing, just a crazy reference out of nowhere.
The animation is good (the baton pass is probably the highlight), nothing more than a few fails here and there but it's good overall. The music is hard to tell, it fits but at the same time it's weird to see the music from a game in an animation. The new characteres are boring, nothing more than archetypes and the "villain" is just an edgelord. I still could find enjoyment watching this because I played the game, but that's not an excuse for the product to be so mediocre in content. If you can only make an OVA and it's for fans of the game you can adapt one of the most popular moments of the game or do a quick introduction with an original history.
Actually, i don't know why did I expect something more than mediocre from an anime based on a videogame.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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