Summary:

In a laboratory somewhere, Saki and some other people are encapsulated and hooked up to a large machine. A scientist says that although it is usually impossible to separate the Persona from its owner, they have finally discovered something huge – something that will take the A latency research into the next phase.

Meanwhile, Shin and the rest of his friends are back at school again. One of Takurou’s friends is missing after a concert he was singing in. Apparently, ever since the students have been doing kagenuki, many of them have disappeared without a trace. When Takurou tells Megumi and Kanaru that the missing boy’s name is Okazaki Takashi, Shin recognizes the name from Ryou’s list and asks Takurou about him. Takurou questions Shin if he knew Takashi, so Shin quickly replies that there was another Okazaki at his old school and wanted to know if that was him.

At the police station, the inspector is going over the videotape of the karaoke room from the previous attack. He tells his partner to get a copy of the surveillance video for him and to observe Shin and the rest of his friends for the next few days. The partner then asks if Shin was able to find anything, and though the inspector says no, he feels that unlike Ryou, Shin is bad at lying.

Back at school, Shin and Takurou throw snowballs from the school’s rooftop during their break. Takurou tells Shin that although he didn’t like Takashi, he thought that he was one heck of a singer. He also reveals that even though Takashi had throat cancer, and even though his band members tried to hide their activities from him, somehow he always found out – he was determined to sing, determined to make his own decisions. Later that evening, Shin is staring at Ryou’s computer list with the picture of Okazaki’s sister in it when he hears the door shut and realizes that Jun had gone out again. Shin runs out to look for him, and when he eventually catches up with Jun, he asks why Jun left again. Jun tells him that hears a voice calling out to him – a voice in pain – so Shin decides to go with him in a taxi to find that voice.

They are dropped off at the abandoned building where Takashi and his band had previously performed, and Shin tells Jun to wait outside while he goes into the building to investigate. Inside, he finds Toma and his Persona wrangling in pain. It appears that Toma’s Persona is trying to absorb someone else’s Persona. When Toma is through, he asks Shin how he found him. Toma goes on to tell Shin that the Persona that he just absorbed wouldn’t calm down because it missed something in the building that they were in – it was probably because the owner of the Persona used to be a singer. Shin questions if Tomas was talking about Takashi and asks where Takashi was, but Toma claims that he doesn’t know. He does say that, unlike Shin, he has to kill the person to acquire its Persona. Shin wonders what he means by that comment, but Toma’s Persona then charges at him. Jun enters the building around this time and sees both Shin and Toma’s Personas fighting. As Jun runs over to Shin, his body starts to react to the Personas around him. As if sensing that Jun was present, Takashi’s Persona tried to release itself from Toma’s Persona. Toma senses danger and runs away after Jun’s Persona emerges. When the building begins to collapse, Shin grabs Jun and runs for the exit. The boys make it all the way to the nearby hillside where Jun tells Shin that he feels them inside as well – his Persona.

Ryou later comes home to find Shin waiting for him at the doorway. Shin wants to ask him about the Persona, but Ryou ignores him and tells Shin that he found a school in Tokyo for them. Shin then reveals that they were attacked tonight, that they had seen weird things, and that both he and Jun have had things come out from them. Ryou then tells Shin that is the reason why he wants them to leave immediately.

The next day at school, Kanaru tells Megumi that Shin and Takurou were going behind the school by themselves. Megumi immediately assumes that they were going to do kagenuki and tells Kanaru that they should go and stop them. Kanaru, however, asks Megumi why they should since it feels good. Behind the school, Shin tries to tell Takurou that Takashi was dead. Frustrated, Takurou grabs Shin and tries to punch him, though Megumi then arrives to pull them apart. When Shin tells them that he saw Takashi’s Persona, Takurou responds by saying that if he saw Takashi’s Persona, then Takashi must still be alive. It is at this point though that Toma arrives and confirms Takurou’s fear. Takurou tries to punch Toma, but he’s blasted away by Toma’s Persona. Shin then awakens his Persona to protect Takurou, and he tells everyone to run away, but Takurou continues to fight after Toma tells him of how Takashi was begging at his death. Unable to listen to Toma anymore, Takurou eventually awakens his own Persona in rage and releases a blast that knocks Toma’s Persona off guard. Takurou’s Persona then attacks wildly, and Takurou begins to lose control over him. Shin eventually runs over and pulls Takurou to the ground to awaken him. Later on, when Shin sees his little brother, Jun asks if the Personas came out again, so Shin explains that this time, he made it come out. Jun reveals that he heard the voice in pain once again, but this time the voice seemed to have calmed down.

Preview

Gosh that was a little lengthy wasn’t it? Sorry there was just so much information packed into a 23-minute episode. The momentum has finally picked up, and I’m starting to really dig this show. The animation quality is still subpar, but I am willing to over look that right now with the new developments that have come in play – mainly Toma. God he’s a great villain, wasn’t he dead? Similar to Jun, I believe that we are just scratching the surface with him. He seems to have so much more characteristic depth that is still untapped – I can’t wait to see how he pans out.

However, I still have some complaints about the show – character development. I understand that Megumi, Kanaru, and Takurou are supporting characters; however, we are already in the fifth episode, and I still don’t know much about them. I don’t know much about Jun and Yuki other than the fact that she is dead, and he has a Persona. I don’t know much about Ryou other than the fact that he pretends to be a jerk to his brothers but secretly loves them. There are TOO many I don’t knows – do you kitties know? Also what about the feather girl – where was she this episode? Better yet, who is she? I still don’t know. Next week’s episode seems like a filler, so I don’t think that any of my questions will be answered, so PLEASE if anyone has information – let me know.

Sanada_kikyo

18 Comments

  1. well the most interesting part about persona actually is like the school-life system,
    relationships and stuff which affect how ur persona’s ability are and stuff…oo;
    At least thats what I think…looks like a nice ep too ^^

    Ch0colate
  2. kalamuki, it is probably because the user wants to fight or is in need of being protected. Seeing as how nearly every time Shin’s Persona has come it has been to save him, except for when he had it come out to fight in this episode. Takurou had no control over his so it was ready to fight anything.

    Good episode. It’s funny how both times Shin fought that guy during the episode, a second Persona came out, with Takurou’s helping, and the guy was having problems and yet he and his Persona survived both fights.

    Dialga
  3. @kalamunki: With Takurou not being able to bring it out at will, maybe that means he can’t control it in general. I’m glad Shin has more control over his, though he’s nowhere near his brother’s level.

    One thing I really want to know are the personas’ names (if they have them). I’d also like more school stuff, not to mention the dating sim elements. (“I’d max her S.Link; nudge nudge, wink wink” ^_^ )

    Is this a 13 episode or 26 episode series?

    panda monium
  4. Regarding the last line said by Shin in the episode, when he’s talking to Ryou… What is he saying exactly? Show Spoiler ▼

    Anyone have an idea?

    Stromgarde
  5. My two big questions at this point are:

    A. What are the chances of the people doing the pulling in shadow-pulling being persona users?

    B. If so, is there potential in the show for everyone in town to be persona users? My reasoning is because the word persona essentially means a “mask”, and if we go by the saying that “all people wear masks”, then everyone should have the latent potential to be persona users.

    If the writers manage to being in some of those mythological elements once we find out the names of the personae, maybe it might make better sense. I’m not sure about the third Persona game, but in the second one sometimes you’d encounter scenes where personae automatically pop up in the presence of another because of a shared history with one another. Sometimes they may join up together, other times they may fight each other.

    As non-spoiler examples, I’m just taking names outta hats here, Hercules meeting Zeus, Gilgamesh and Enkidu, Amaterasu and Susano. That sorta thing.

    Otherwise we could possibly generalize it down to “all personae see each other as a threat because consuming one could grant greater power”. Almost like a Highlander scenario in a way. I’m just going by what Toma hinted to Shin.

    kalamunki
  6. That’s funny Kaisis…I would have pegged big bro as the first to die since…well he’s popping the same pills as the other artificial users and he’s been using his stand much longer than the others. “Their deaths were inevitable anyway” and all that. Besides, knowing the story of the game and the meaning behind it…I’d say he and his organization aren’t exactly on the side of the angels.

    Zzz...
  7. Stromgarde – Literally you have the translation right. I’m don’t going to down any sub group (however I am biased towards certain ones and HATE others), but when Shin says,”kimi mou aniki ja nai kara,” what he is saying is that Ryou hasn’t been much of a brother figure to them, and this is a huge event for them all, so they are cutting ties, and making their own choices (Did I just do a run on sentence?).
    kalamunki – I don’t see why not. If they can do kagenuki, then they must have a Persona to do it.

    Sanada Kikyo

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