My thoughts on Persona 3: Spring of Birth

As you may or may not know, the film adaptation of Persona 3 has finally been made available for import. Being a fanatic of the Persona series, I made it a goal to see it as soon as possible. After my second viewing, I've decided to share my opinion on the film, hoping that some might find it useful when making a decision to watch it or not.

How much Persona 3 is actually in this film? Well, not a lot. Actually, the film covers very little in the grand scheme of things, leading me to believe that we'll (hopefully) see more than just 2 films. The plot moves along and chooses the fight with Emperor and Empress as it's climactic endpoint. This means Fuuka has only just been introduced, and 4 other S.E.E.S members haven't played a role in the films yet.

How loyal to the source material does this stand? Surprisingly well, to be honest. The enemies shown throughout the movie had the correct weaknesses(To my memory). Very little was added or replaced in terms of scenes. The tone is very similar to the games, with the only outlier being MC's cold and nonchalant demeanor that is more exaggerated than the attitude that the MC in the game had, having him just come out and say the death isn't a big deal. the fight with Emperor and Empress is a tad bit different, but I'll let that one slide because it made it more dramatic.

How about the animation? The film looks great in it's entirety. Every character looks right and good (Aside from the occasional weird looking face on Mitsuru). The animation team managed to sneak in Philemon any place they could and it fun to catch one every now and again. The effects during fights have been stellar, and really make me excited to see my Waifu Aigis(<3) in action in the 2nd film. I did have one complaint about the action scenes, the physical hits felt lackluster (Akihiko and Polydeuces in particular). When a character was hit by a shadow, or a shadow was hit with blunt force, it didn't have the right weight behind it. They felt weak.

Acting? Well, I wouldn't call myself an expert on acting, but I think it was overall pretty good. MC sounds fine. Although Junpei seemed a little too angry at MC a little too early.

Pacing? I mean, they're doing what they can. I feel that only sticking to the main plot is the correct choice. The S. Links in P3 aren't the greatest and characters develop fairly well in the main tale. Even with the little amount of story the showed, it still felt rushed. Although that is a problem that is near impossible to fix for a 80+ hour JRPG.

Overall I really liked this movie and I'm hungry for more. This is spades better than Persona 4: The Animation, and I'd recommend that anyone watch this. Even if you never played the game, it's good enough for you to watch, and it might even convince you to get it on PSN.

So, please get excite for Midsummer Knight's Dream

If you saw it, I'd love to hear some other opinions on it, as it will take some convincing to get my friends to see it. They have a bias against Persona because I say shit like "Aigis is the best robot waifu". Go figure

MC just gives 0 fucks in this.

Fuuka is best girl fuck yo waifu

Fuuka pissed me off in the fight with Emperor and Empress! It took her way to damn long to figure out she can spot weaknesses in shadows!

I like Fuuka and this movie had me on team Anti-Fuuka for a bit.

A moment from one of my favorite scenes in the movie:

My favorite part about the film is definitely how Makoto Yuki has been characterized. It is how I saw him acting when I first played Persona 3, and it is so much better than just a generic, gifted protagonist. He is one of the most flawed characters in the movie, which is fitting with all of them having their own deep issues, just like in the game. Makoto's apathetic nature and the fact that he just does whatever he's told to creates fiction between certain members of the cast, which is great.

I like how they adapted the movie in general. Introducing Fuuka earlier on than in the game makes for a better understanding of her character and her struggle. The battles in the movie are generally good; much better than the Persona 4 anime, at least.

Japan's lucky that they'll be seeing the sequel to this great movie in approximately two weeks.

Also, it's all but been confirmed that there will be 5 Persona 3 movies in total, which makes sense.:

• P3M #1 (Spring of Birth): April, May, June
• P3M #2 (Midsummer Knight's Dream): July, August, September
• P3M #3 (Fall): October, November, December
• P3M #4 (Winter): January, February, March
• P3M #5: The Answer

jesus five movies, so what 2016 the answer release?

Wow, crazy that these movies are happening. It's amazing that I freakin finished Persona 3 a number of years ago, that game was looooooong!

This movie actually made me like Yukari.

Hmm normally I can't handle anime, but these series of few episodes/movies I quite like, been watching the Gundam Unicorn ones, the animation quality on that really takes it to another level.

I'll problably try watching this, even tough I played Persona 3 Portable as the girl, so I guess I'll relate a bit less to the story...

I originally played 50 hours into Persona 3 (I stopped sometime after Ikutsuki (Chairman guy) betrayed Sees) and just youtubed the ending, because I knew I'd never finish it. The fact these movies are coming out makes me happy that now I can watch the story from beginning to end.

I wanted to like P3P (on my Vita), but the lack of animated cutscenes was really hurting my interest. It may be silly, but I really enjoy video game cutscenes - they're something I look forward to while playing games.

I enjoyed persona 3 like many jrpgs, up until about the 50th hour, then I just wanted it to end, ended up taking 70 hours. Tales of vesperia got it right at around 50 well paced hours. I enjoyed the story and a good portion of the voice acting was actually decent. A well produced recap of the game could be good if it doesnt involve endlessly fighting up a 300 floor tower.

Is it sub or dub?

@nightriff: Sub. No word on a dub yet, to my knowledge.

Sounds good, thanks for mentioning it is available on PSN! I was about to say "as soon as it is available streaming somewhere or region 1 on Amazon I'll totally check it out."

So I'll grab it tonight, it's been *so* long since I played P3 it will at the very least be good for a refresher on the story.

@ike7779: Oh, um, not the Movie! The game is available, not the film!

Sorry for the confusion!!!

Five movies?! God damn!

I am mildly interested in the movie, but not enough to buy it. Hopefully it'll be streamed online somewhere so I can check it out there. I'm also glad to hear it's better than the Persona 4 anime, because that show was freaking garbage.

Edit: Not too thrilled to hear about the MC's personality in the movie though. He sounds like someone I'm REALLY gonna dislike.

Aigis is the best waifu period.

I wonder how they'll roll into The Answer.

I felt like the MC's attitude was REALLY deliberate. He begins to show signs of being less of a monster throughout the film, so I would expect him to become more and more likable as he evolves into a more caring person through the 5 films.

Fuck all y'all Chidori is the best waifu

Maybe I'll watch this when they're all out

It's crazy to think that I'll have finished Persona 5 before I end up seeing these movies. (waiting for them all to be released) I'm looking forward to them nonetheless.