Persona 4 The Animation Collection 1
Released By: Manga Entertainment
Rating: PG
Running Time: 300 Mins
Audio: English & Japanese DD 2.0
Release Date: Out now!

Reviewed By: Sandra Scholes

The Midnight Channel is the heated topic of discussion at school. Yu Narukami has moved to Inaba from Tokyo with his uncle and cousin, and his new friends tell him that the Midnight Channel is when a TV is on during a dark and rainy night, and it is when a person will be shown their soul mate. Yu and his new friends discover this isn't always the case. After an incident, they can go through a TV set and into another dimension. This dimension houses evil creatures called Shadows, and when they get there, they meet a bear called Teddie who helps them combat the creatures. Once the Shadows try to strike Yu, he begins to show an ability to summon a persona to fight in his stead. Yu and his pals can fight these Shadows, but they have to find out more of the murders that have been happening in their area, and the Midnight Channel. They have only so much time to do this before the body count continues to rise.


This anime series is an adaptation of the persona video game where Yu has to go through trying to solve a string of murders anyone else would have a great deal of trouble with, and destroying the Shadows. Yu Narukami moving from the city to a small town where nothing ever happens doesn't exactly rock his world, but he finds a few friends to while away the hours where he would normally be bored. he misses his family and friends back home, but soon adapts to a slower paced lifestyle with his uncle and cousin. The story depicts his new life well, and the problems that a town like theirs would have with the murders. Yu learns the truth of what happens in another world.

He forgets about real-life troubles and learns about others - there are those he needs to learn about. Yosuke Hanamura is the sort of kid who gets into all sorts of trouble. He is the class clown, though when Yu helps him out of a crisis, he's a lifesaver and friend on account of his actions. As a reward, he treats him to a beefsteak - as it's what the new town is famous for, and Yosuke is also known for breaking other people's possessions too, and getting beat up for it. He has a crush on a co-worker at the diner he takes him to, but she doesn't want anything to do with him.

The anime has two very popular genres, horror and fantasy with a sprinkling of real life thrown in, but Yu doesn't let the real life get in the way of his fun time while he takes out the Shadow and attempts to solve who is committing the gruesome murders in his new town. The bad characters are very similar to another popular anime series, D. Gray-Man. Fans of this series will notice the homages to it, and the humor shows through in some episodes as well.

Created by AIC A.S.T.A. and directed by Seiji Kishi who had also directed Angel Beats!, the animation keeps its similarity to the original game and uses the same English voice acting cast as well as the game's character designers, Kazama Kaneko and Shigenori Soejima. Shoji Meguro is its soundtrack composer rounding off the series's well rounded look and feel.

Unlike some adaptations of popular video games, this one stays true to the original, keeping the same story, keeps the cast and intrigues the viewer with subtle plot twists to keep the interest. Persona 4: The Animation is one to watch if you like video games, and murder mysteries. Persona was taken from a demon-summoning series of games, was released in 1996 on the PlayStation, and for fans the latest Persona 4 Golden and Persona 4 Arena is to be released in 2013.

Persona 4: The Animation was made by production house Aniplex. AIC's previous anime series were Amagami SS, Strike Witches 2, and Bamboo Blade. Seiji Kishi has previously worked on Angel Beats!, and Galaxy Angel Rune.

Bonus Material: 4 Episodes {Director's Cut), Jikken-Kun (Drama 1), Trailers - Teaser, Opening - Teaser.

Verdict: Murder, Mystery and fantasy at its finest - There's plenty in this to keep you occupied.