Summary:

As Kanaru carries Megumi out of the restroom, they are stopped by the group of boys they saw earlier. The boys ask Kanaru if they wanted to play “kagenuki” with them, and soon after the group wind up in a private karaoke room. Kanaru nervously asks the boys which one wanted to do the kagenuki, and they just snicker at her. Megumi is unconscious at this point, lying on the floor when the boys attempt to undress her. Back in the karaoke room, Shin talks to Takurou about the Personas and how he feels as though he has known about it for a long time. Takurou says that he knows about the Personas as well, since a long-nosed man told him about it a couple of years ago. All of the sudden, a blast occurs in the direction of the restroom. Shin and Takurou run and find the room where the girls were kept. Takurou is horrified at what he sees – blood stained walls.

Meanwhile, at home, Jun is visited by Eiko, the coroner. She hugs him, saying that he has grown up in the past ten years and that for a second, she almost thought that he was Yuki. Eiko goes on to make dinner for the two of them and complains that even though they work together every day, Ryou didn’t tell her that the brothers had come home. As they are having dinner, Jun gets a call from Shin telling him that he would be late coming home, and he immediately guesses that Shin is at the police station.

Shin is indeed there, and the kids are being asked questions about kagenuki and how it related to the night’s event. The police tell them that both Kanaru and Megumi were slipped sleeping pills by one of the workers there, but apparently Kanaru is immune to them. The kids are then asked to keep the karaoke situation a secret, as per the Chief’s order. A few moments later, Ryou catches up to Shin and asks him why he was at the scene of the crime. Ryou wants Shin and Jun to immediately leave the city, but this leaves Shin both upset and frustrated. Afterwards, Ryou is on his cell phone explaining to an unknown caller that the Reverse happened again, but this time not to the people on the list, but to a group of young people. Ryou is shocked and didn’t expect that Shin would be apart of this mess – things are getting out of control. He then arrives at his office and receives another call from a person with information asking to meet. Elsewhere in the city, the callers discuss amongst themselves about the event that took place at the karaoke bar. They know that it was a Persona, since no human could have caused that and that it was probably Shin’s Persona that caused it. Tension is caused when Soutarou questions why Yuuji is on the assignment when he has been unsuccessful at capturing the A latent, but Toma explains that the decision has been given by their boss. Annoyed at Yuuji’s stupidity, Soutarou can’t wait to get his hands on Shin, the “special A.”

The next day, the three friends go and visit a fully recovered Megumi at the hospital. Megumi apologizes for causing so much trouble for her friends, causing Kanaru to feel even guiltier about her actions. Later on, when Shin goes home, the detective that questioned him yesterday at the precinct approaches him. The detective asks him about Ryou and informs him that Ryou is hiding a big secret.

That night, Ryou meets with Toma and Yuuji on a snow covered bridge. Ryou and Toma exchange questions about each other’s existence, leading to Toma trying to convince Ryou to join forces with them. When Ryou refuses Toma’s offer, fighting erupts. Toma screams for Yuuji to back him up, but Yuuji just cowers and cries that his Persona has already been destroyed. Meanwhile, as Shin is walking home, he sees Saki (the woman who attacked him before) and Soutarou standing in his pathway. Shin’s Persona awakens in time to deflect the blow from Saki’s Persona, however Soutarou’s Persona then shoots out laser cords and starts to extract Shin’s soul from his body. Like Yumi, Shin looks as though his life is literally being sucked out of him. Shin’s Persona manages to defeat Saki’s Persona and cuts the laser cords that were attached to Shin’s body. Soutarou’s and Saki’s Persona then infuse together and enter into Soutarou. Just as that happens, Soutarou lets out a horrific scream and falls to the ground in extreme pain. As for the other fight, Ryou’s Persona defeats Toma’s, and a red haired girl watches Ryou as he stands before Toma’s dead body. Ryou senses something and turns around – only to see a couple of white feathers in the girl’s place. Meanwhile, Shin runs home wondering what the hell is going on. The conversation with the detective runs through his head because the detective had told him about the “A” list. The detective had said that he wanted Shin to find it and bring it to him for the sake of the kids and their families. Shin tries a couple of times to gain access to Ryou’s computer, and he finally cracks the password on computer to reveal the list.

Preview

Thank goodness the momentum is finally starting to gain speed. Kitties, you were right, this episode was the turn around. Like the previous two episodes, “Marebito” gives the viewers a lot of information, with little time to digest it all, and the character development in this episode is still pretty much as shallow. However, “Marebito” does start to tie together the relationships of all of the characters and their Personas. Once again, there still isn’t any development with Jun’s story, which is very disappointing, but we do get a little taste in the next previews.

As for content, it had more substance this time than the previous two. There was enough information given that I am finally able to piece together the story – somewhat anyway.

I’m not going to talk about graphics because nothing has changed from the previous weeks – it’s still B grade material in my opinion. The big thing however is the story line. Things are coming together for me as they explain about the dangers of the Persona. I still don’t really know what a Persona is, or how it operates – that’s rather frustrating, since we’re already three episodes in. They should have explained that by now. Soutarou appears in this episode, but who is he? What is his significance? And what about Saki? I mean, why do I have to repeat this over and over – get my point?

Finally, the fighting sequence it was great considering the last two episodes. It is still very weak compared to, say, Blood+, but I did find myself glued to my computer screen for two minutes – yes, that’s how long it was! I know a lot of you guys keep telling me that it’ll get better or that it is totally different from the game – remember I don’t know the game. Help me help you, comment on what the difference are, maybe this way I’ll appreciate this more.

Sanada_kikyo

29 Comments

  1. still no visual of the Persona 3 game cast huh? I expect to AT LEAST see Aigis or Mitsuru, if anybody. If they dont, i dont plan on watching this as it doesnt sound too exciting :

    frubam
  2. I don’t think Aegis will show up in this one. And the girl with red hair doesn’t look like Mitsuru to me. So I won’t hope for both of them to show up.

    But Akihiko, maybe. Coz he talks with Ryou through phone for 3 episodes now. But maybe we will just have ONLY his voice till the anime ends. I do hope to have a glimpse of him in later episodes anyway.

    saris
  3. @Stalker

    Well…considering the fact on how they are unnaturally summoning the personas now…I bet at least the older brother will have to use the gun later on, since the pills….well…we all know what pills do to their user >.>

    @frubam

    We had Igor in first one. And I guess we will for sure see at least one Velvet Room sequence, so Elizabeth should be there too. Akihiko – i guess we will see him for sure.

    Unknown Voice
  4. I still wish they would name the Personas. Half the fun of the SMT/Persona series is figuring out what mythology each demon or Persona represents and how that relates to the character.

    Eirias
  5. we need the names of the personas all right, and yeah, thanks for mentioning about the phone. it does sound like akihiko senpai. xDDDDDD

    i’m sure one of the cast will be a teacher in the school.
    *crosses fingers and hopes yukari will be there as well*

    core
  6. This should be the last “information” episode, 4 and up should get right down to the plot. Now that they’ve introduced everyone (more or less) and have given you the info you need, even if it feels rushed, we should get mostly eps with action now.

    GP
  7. Yeah, this anime needs: names of the Personae, P3 characters, more than 13 episodes.
    After these three eps I still don’t really like any of the characters except for Megumi. What happened in the submarine and what’s going on with Ryou/his group and the Marebito. Man I’m confued right now!

    seamus ignoramus
  8. Pfft.. Blood+ had its fair share of crappy fights. There were a few great ones, don’t get me wrong, but the bulk weren’t that great at all. They usually rocked in episodes with, on overage, high animation quality.

    Anyway, another great episode. I’m sure now that the preliminary stuff is out of the way, more explanation and character development can come in. No use getting impatient yet.

    Heiae
  9. So out of the four marebitos one is dead, two seem to have had their persona defeated by Shin, and only that new guy remains (who is voiced by Raki/Renji-kun which makes taking him seriously as a villain nearly impossible) methinks we are in need of some more antagonists here.

    Lana
  10. P3 Game: Personas were summoned by using an Evoker, which is shaped like a gun, and used to shoot your head with. Its sorta like killing your outer self to release the inner/other half. The strengths and weaknesses of a Persona are inherited by the user (if this persona’s weak against Ice, then the user will also be the same). In the game, the characters only had one Persona each (that “evolve” throughout the story line), with the exception of the main character, who could go change and stock more personas in the velvet room, which is where the long-nosed fellow Igor works.

    Anime: It seems that they can just bring it out at will. Also, the anime depicts that Personas itself can be damaged and attacked directly, which have dire consequences on the user. And it seems Personas can be extracted from people, rendering them inside-out.

    kaisis
  11. frubam at 3:22 am on January 21st, 2008

    am I the only one who dislikes the char design? It just looks downright ugly.

    you’re not alone there friend. Coupled with cliched and annoying protagonist, I just may quit watching this series if drastic improvements do not occur soon. Cannot be compared to DtB at all.

    StealthFire

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