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Apr 16, 2016
I liked it.
10/10 even, based on personal enjoyment.
That said, objectively it was terrible. I can see why someone who's never played the game that jumped onto The Golden Animation as their first exposure to the franchise would be thoroughly confused (and indeed turned off).
Let me try to explain this in a way that people who have never played Persona 4 might understand.
Persona 4 is a unique game in that it has elements of your classic RPG, a slice of life anime, and a dating sim, all neatly packaged into one. The game's main motif is "Power of Bonds", that is to say,
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your connections are your source of power. So in-between saving the world and killing monsters, you still have to attend school every day and have a social life. That said, the RPG-element is still the primary plot of the game, everything else is only secondary.
What The Golden Animation does is essentially ignore the RPG-element of the game and focuses entirely on the secondary aspect, specifically the social link (what bonds are called) of Marie.
Now this is bad. The series is already assuming you have some knowledge of the overarching plot and therefore doesn't go into detail about events that are directly tied to the RPG-element, which is why the series makes no coherent sense. New characters are introduced every episode with no development, the calendar transitions jump back and forth between months with no explanation, and the first episode gives false impressions that it's an action genre when in reality it's a slice of life.
It was understandably done this way because the studio's goal wasn't to retell the original plot or rehash the original anime. Its goal was to fill in the gaps the game left with the introduction of Marie and flesh out her character. See, Marie wasn't in the original game, she's actually a new Golden-exclusive character, and the problem is that in terms of plot significance she's actually quite an important character, and that's what this series tries to highlight.
In that regards, this anime did an excellent job. To be honest (and I speak as a Persona 4 fan), Marie felt shoehorned into the game. Because the original plot (without Marie) was so nicely wrapped up, fitting Marie into it ended up feeling jarring at times because her social link makes it seem like she's super tight with the main group, but then she's not mentioned anywhere else.
This series suffers from the unfortunate drawback of only appealing to a very select audience. It's not enough to have played the original Persona 4 or have watched the original anime, you NEED to have played Golden. As a whole, and rated objectively, I have to give it a low score. If this was part of an OVA package, it'd be another story, but this is marketed as its own independent series which just doesn't work due to how much they cut out.
That said, I love that it brought some of the most memorable scenes from the game to life. Kanji's beach scene was fucking hilarious and makes me love the characters and the series even more. I thought it was hilariously well done in-game, to see it animated made it that much better! Chie fan-service? Who needs that junk when you got Kanji the man in all his glory? I also thought Adachi was very well written in The Golden Animation. The game does scratch the surface of what they were trying to make Adachi to be, but this series really highlights how Adachi is Yu's foil.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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May 24, 2013
Loved the characters.
Hated the direction the director took in making the series.
It's like they tried too hard to mix rom-com and action-adventure, and they ended up with a bland concoction that appeals to neither fans of either genre. They should have just picked one and used the other as a supplement.
Including season 1, we're currently 25 episodes into the series. So far, there are far too many crucial questions that have been left unanswered, such as: What is a Void mage? Why is it important? Why was Saito chosen as the reincarnation of Gandalfr? Why is Louise the only Void mage to appear in
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centuries? Why now, as opposed to 10 years ago or 10 years into the future?
Back story aside, let's look at current questions: Has Louise made any progress as a Void mage? Has Saito learned to harness his inner power?
Important development questions like these are left unanswered, nor are they shown. We don't see either characters making progress. In an anime like Zatch Bell, we see definitive progress being made -- When Zatch improves through battle, we know he improved because we SEE him learning a new skill that are later actively used. Louise has a book of Void Magic. We see her use it once, and that's it. Has she learned any new skills or progressed further into the book? We dont know, because it's not shown.
Other characters who are seemingly important actually end up having little to no relevance at all. When Julio was introduced as the 3rd member of Team Zero, I thought, "Awesome, another character to finally add some dynamic". Instead, he's been useful exactly twice, had maybe 1/10th the amount of lines even Siesta had, and hardly played a relevant role. No development with him is made, or shown on screen.
Instead, silly scenes with Siesta are shoved on screen on practically every episode, despite it not furthering the series in any productive ways, and the plot dealing with the war is just dashed in as a side story.
As stated at the start, I love the characters. Louise is like a magical version of Taiga from Toradora, and I love that. Saito is a perverted high schooler, who acts the part very nicely, though, it does get old once you see him doing the same thing (and getting beat for the same thing) an over abundant amount of times because the directors just can't seem to decide on what they want.
That said, I still did enjoy the series, but these criticisms just keep me from giving it a high score. The series had so much potential and it really makes me sad that it's been squandered away.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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