PERSONA 4: THE GOLDEN ANIMATION #1 -- Special Review

We’re sampling the summer season’s selection! Check out our other pilot write-up’s –

• ALDNOAH ZERO ** SWORD ART ONLINE II ** RAIL WARS ** YAMISHIBAI + AI-MAI-MI


• GLASSLIP ** AKAME GA KILL ** SAMURAI JAM

PERSONA is always going to stand out for me because - - back when we were affiliated with a certain sister site - - it was this outlier brand that consistently kept pulling in an odd crossover readership. Users itchy to drop an “ANIME IS FOR JERKS!” meme at every opportunity would somehow get past their aversion to this stuff and float over here to read episode-by-episode write-up’s.

Evidently, the video game had that much cache. I can’t say, for sure. I never bothered to play it.

There’ve been a few iterations of this show, and I’ve unsuccessfully tried to get into the franchise through them on a couple occasions. Yeah, why did I go in if I was expecting not to understand? Well, certain brands are so big, I’d be remiss not to address them at least a little.

== TEASER ==

This one keeps the series’ puzzling tradition of using intro songs that sound more befitting to an 80’s sitcom. I suspect it’s an in-joke with the game. Either way, it’s a weird wire-cross: the theme song seeming to set me up for a missing CHARLES IN CHARGE season, while the show itself depicts a dark and mind-warping tech fantasy landscape. Maybe one of you more learned users could explain that to me?

Anyway, for what it’s worth, this is actually a lot more accessible than the previous #1’s. I’m sure there are plenty of clues to our lead’s troubled back-story which I’m missing out on. And the way his classmates just sort-of casually tag along on this adventure smells like there’s a pre-awareness for this whole ‘Midnight Channel’ gimmick in this world.

Nevertheless, the set-up was simple, clear and easy to get behind. It had a BEETLEJUICE-meets-VIDEODROME vibe that was quite appealing (thanks in no small part to the WAR HEADS style monsters), and more importantly, I could actually follow along (which is in stark contrast to the last pilot, believe me). This time, I’m engaged enough to at least be curious about all the allusions to past adventures. Again, would any of Vicers care to fill me in?

Watch "t he Secret Door " and decide for yourself.

from Anime Vice Site Mashup http://ift.tt/1nVIlSn