First Impressions / Series Introduction

Summary:

After Shin’s Persona annihilated his attacker’s Persona, the man is left sitting dazed and confused at what just happened. He mumbles, “It left,” and starts to cry and laugh. He acts as though whatever was haunting him for so long has finally been lifted off his shoulders. Then all of the sudden, a man and woman arrive at the scene. The woman is ordered to take care of Shin. Shin realizes that he is in even more danger and runs. He does not get too far when the woman and her Persona appear in the sky and start to attack him with their laser spears. Shin’s Persona is awakened once more and counter attacks the female before taking Shin by the collar and retreating into the sky. Meanwhile, the man is on the phone saying that they failed to capture Tasaka Yumi’s Persona because she ran into a cop who has innate abilities. The woman comes back and tells the man that Shin got away and that not only does he have the natural abilities, but he also has a special Persona. The man says that they cannot let Shin get away since he has already seen their faces and that later he would take care of the cop that saved Yumi.

The next morning, Ryo and Jun share an awkwardly silent breakfast. Jun is obviously uncomfortable being with his older brother and volunteers to wake Shin up to eat. Finding Shin sleeping on the bare floor, Jun wakes him up. Jun tells him that it’s time to get up for school and asks him if he had another one of his dreams. Shin elaborately tries to gesture with his hands to describe the events from the night before, but when he finishes his story, he is not even sure if what took place was real or just another nightmare. Ryo then puts on shoes to go to work, and as he gets into his car, he tells Shin that he and Jun should hurry and find another city to live in. He drives off, leaving Shin wondering what the hell his older brother is thinking.

At school, Shin spends the morning apparently asleep until Kayano Megumi wakes him up for lunch. He recognizes her from somewhere and asks if they have met before. Megumi nervously laughs at him and diffuses the situation by asking for his email address. Sakakiba Takuro comes to join in on the conversation before Morimoto Kanaru interrupts and tells Takuro that the two third year students appearing at the doorway were here for him. Megumi suspects that they were going to do “kagenuki” (shadow pulling) and warns Takuro that kagenuki shouldn’t be done anymore because of what happened to the other students.

Meanwhile, one of Ryo’s detectives questions him about the mysterious events that have occurred lately. The detective is obviously distraught seeing that four of his colleagues, who were protecting the people on Ryo’s list, were now in the hospital suffering from “Apathy Syndrome.” Ryo, emotionless as usual, tells the detective that he cannot help him and that there is nothing that the detective can do. The detective, unsatisfied with Ryo’s answer, threatens that if his questions remain unanswered, then he will soon break off and have his own agenda. Things take a turn for the worse when Ryo receives an update on Tasaka Yumi – she has regained her consciousness, but will most likely never fully recover because of the shock from having her Persona physically ripped out of her body.

Later on, Ryo and the coroner drive to see the next set of victims that have had their bodies turned inside out. She asks him whether he had any more information regarding the Toyama submarine incident. She knew that all three crewmembers disappeared from under the water, with absolutely no traces of their whereabouts. This surprises Ryo since only a few people were privy to this information, and tells her that he has no information to give. She mentions how these events reminded her of what happened ten years ago. Ryo agrees as memories of a young girl that looks much like Megumi appears to him.

At school, Shin walks in on Takuro hovering over the pair of third year students, both of whom are now passed out on the floor. The boys are taken to the nurse’s office while Takuro explains to Shin that they were just doing kagenuki. Takuro tells him that it’s the latest fad at school and asks Shin if he wants to do it too. Shin agrees and finds out that kagenuki really means to pull your Persona out from your body. After school, Megumi, Takuro, Shin, and Kanaru decide to get together for a night of fun. As they walk past a group of boys that Megumi apparently knows, it dawns on Shin that he had indeed seen Megumi before – she was at the restaurant arguing with the leader of this group of boys back on the first night Shin was here with Jun.

After a night of singing and dancing, Megumi and Kanaru go to the bathroom where Megumi says that she is sleepy. Megumi looks as though she has been drugged and is barely conscious when Kanaru carries her out of the restroom. The girls are stopped by the group of boys they saw earlier. The boys grab Kanaru and cover her screams of help. Megumi is unconscious at this point, lying on the floor when the boys attempt to violate her.

Preview

~Hello kitties! Before we go into the actual blog, I believe some introductions are necessary. I’m rather new to the blogging scene, so please forgive me if you don’t agree with my opinions or writing style – from the bottom of my frozen heart, I mean it when I say that I care. Now I’ve been a part of the subbing community for about three years. I’ve subbed with various groups and have also founded two. I’ve been fond of anime ever since I saw Ninja Scroll back in the early 90’s, but now I really watch anime for the artistic aspects, i.e. Samurai X OVA. For the one or two people that may recognize me from my group, you should know that I love seinen type anime and hate the cutesy type romance crap. So kitties – you know me now, and I know you – let’s move on. ~

Wow, that was a rather long summary, and the only explanation that I can come up with is that there were only two fight sequences – both lasting less than 30 seconds each, but we’ll get to that later. I was not quite sold on Persona Trinity Soul after I watched episode one and I can’t say that episode two did it for me either. The pace of this show was relatively fast, since there was a lot of information thrown in all at once. Before we go into the meat of my thoughts, here’s a little disclaimer: I haven’t played the game before, and I have no idea what a Persona is.

First, let’s start out with character development. So far – NONE. The previous episode did whet my appetite with Jun’s multiple twin personality complexes. The whole talking in Yuki’s voice made up for the lack of a solid story. Saying that, I was quite disappointed in episode two when Jun appeared for all of 1 minute, and that there was no continuation of his “I must talk like Yuki to continue on” story. What’s the point of throwing a dog a bone that turns out to be a piece of crap? Shin makes some new friends, but again, I just got a superficial introduction of them before they are thrown into some type of danger. I could care less about them right now; I want to know more about Shin and the meaning behind their Persona. I understand that there are only 13 episodes, so the pace has to be quick. That makes character development all the more vital within the first few episodes – wouldn’t you agree?

Second, the animation in episode two wasn’t quite as good as episode one. I guess there wasn’t anything that they could CG. The animation in this episode reminds me of a high volume show like Bleach where cost has to be low, rather than that of a 13 episode, highly anticipated, seinen show. I understand that the director Matsumoto Jun has a lot of pressures to make this a smash hit like his predecessor, Blood+, but with a talented team of heavy hitters such as, Muto Yasuyuki (Basilisk and Bible Black) and Tamura Seiki (Grave of the Fireflies), this is just weak.

Finally, did I miss the fighting sequence? Other than the opening sequence of 30 seconds, I swear I didn’t see any more – how is this allowed? Episode two was very heavy on the dialogue, and I found myself losing concentration about half way through. This episode started out very strong, but lost its luster within 10 minutes of the start. I’m not going to lie, I am a Gonzo fan, having subbed two of their shows, but I am quickly starting to see why Gonzo receives so much heat from the anime community. Having said all of that, all is not lost. I am still left with wondering what happens in the next episode and am still left wondering how the whole idea of a Persona works. Let’s just pray that episode three will have less talk and more fight.

Sanada_kikyo

Note from Omni: Please give a warm welcome to Random Curiosity’s newest blogger, Sanada kikyo. She’s signed on to blog all of Persona and hopefully will be contributing here for many seasons to come. If you’re wondering about the first episode, Patrik already blogged that back when it aired, and Sanada kikyo will be taking over for the rest of the series. Regular blogging of Persona will start with episode three this weekend.

38 Comments

  3. Me thinks you need to do character introductions before you can worry about character development. Pacing feels pretty standard for any form of written media to me, complete with a touching on a couple of plot points they’ll flesh out.

    Personal opinion, complaining about no character development was baseless and false. Episode introduced new characters as well as began to setup the relationships between them.

    weasl
    Reply

  5. Saw this ep last night. I was quite into the ep, andbefore i knew it, the middle frame thingy that pops up for the commerial came up, indicating half way or w/e.
    i don’t mind the pacing atm, it’s alright. but i wanna know more about jun/yuki multiple personality =]

    Furuba
    Reply

  8. I wonder how long it will take before Ryo discovers that Shin has a special Persona (or does he already know)? Will there be a “hero’s conflict” on Shin’s part on whether he will join the fight against the enemies?

    This show is rather good; I was quite upset at the cliffhanger at the end when the hooligans were about attack the female.

    Joe Stan
    Reply

  9. I think the game was an RPG/Dating Sim type of game.. so I guess the school-life/dialogue bits are sorta needed? @_@; I’ve only played a bit of Persona 3 though, so I don’t know what the first two were like.
    Anyway, I’m looking forward to the series~

    Reika
    Reply

  12. @weasl
    *nods2x* and also Ep 3 seems to be an intoduction as to what Persona’s are, its better to give the audience a better understanding of their world so that Character-Devs bite, so to speak…

    Gravmech
    Reply

  15. I suspect that the amount of fighting will slowly increase over the course of the series as the characters get more au-fait with their powers. There’s been a lot of plot development in these two episodes, so there’s not that much time for anything else.

    Personally, I thought the cliffhanger smacked of lazy storytelling: “let’s get the girls in trouble so the shounen lead can wig out and beat up the bad guys”

    panda monium
    Reply

  16. First of all…this episode was interesting I guess…Near the end, it kinda got disturbing but let’s not make that a big deal. Other than that, looking forward to the development of this story.

    p.s. )@$%&@*(%^Y*&@ 13? IS THAT IT?

    Yonsil
    Reply

  17. okay, i’m such a big fan of persona 3, i’m probably deluded enough to counter some of your arguments.

    shadow extraction reminds most of us fans about the shadows that we had to fight against in the games. normally they’re supposed to be blob looking stuffs. but in the case of the anime, it seems to give reference to the personas (yeah, the creature that appeared from those people). maybe there might be more explaination later.

    other than that, i’m quite surprised that some of the characters personalities resembles the characters from the game. jun reminds me of the little kid in persona 3.

    anyway, it being slow paced, is alright considering the game went around like that… the climax would probably appear sometime around episode 7 or 10… if i were to guess it based on the game.

    p.s. check out the persona 3 communities for more info. i’m really not good at writing it out and all, but the people there can give you more information on how persona goes about.

    p.p.s. BRING BACK MY EGOR, ELIZABETH AND AEGIS~!!!!! xD

    core
    Reply

  18. Ill pass on the Aegis personally. Robots are overrated except for the machine gun fingers, that was cool.

    Hi to the new blogger and I hope to read your summaries on many action series in the future, I mean whats the point of romance without a few teeth getting knocked out to keep things interesting?

    ABPsycho
    Reply

  22. The pace is fast cuz it’s only 13eps, and it’s not just a simple story either. They have to introduce everyone (eps 1 and 2), and also set the environment/world where things take place and what’s going on basically. Ep2 does that mostly with showing that almost everyone in school does pulling and it’s the “big thing” going on right now.

    Yeah, this ep didn’t have much action, but it was busy doing other things for the sake of the story.

    Ep3 should be along the same lines. Giving you detailed information about what’s going on, unlike ep2s basic introduction. We now more or less have all the characters in place as well. So after ep3 gives you all the info you need the action will pickup until the end.

    It’s not easy to take something from an RPG with a story that spans upwords of 20-25hrs of playing to fully get into a 13ep, 20min show that’s got all of 6-7hr’s total to explain everything. So the pace, which is fast, is expected.

    GP
    Reply

  24. I’m glad that most of you all disagreed with my blog – it gives me a warm fuzzy feeling inside.
    Weasel – you’re absolutely right, I should have given a character intro, which I did for my ep1 blog that wasn’t put up. As for the pace, if it’s a 13 eps show, which I think it is, it’s whizzing past all of the necessary details to make it a solid show.
    Core – As I stated already, I haven’t played the game ever, but my arguments are on technical aspects of the show not the story itself. Are the anime characters not the same from the game?
    setsuke – Yes, this is the first and only series that I am blogging.
    panda monium – If I am allowed to say what I really feel, I am sure Omni would be very disturbed =).
    ABPsycho – Thanks for the encouragement. Rather than teeth, wouldn’t some nice decapitation be interesting instead – just a thought.
    kaisis and kindaichi – thank you!
    Nekki – yes you all are…better that than p~ssies. -_^

    Sanada Kikyo
    Reply

  26. My prayers have been answered. I really needed to read a summary because the pace of the episode was so fast that it was difficult to digest all the information that was thrown at you. Thanks for blogging this.

    sealouse
    Reply

  27. Kitty here says welcome and all that stuff. Thanks for the summary and please, could you ellaborate a bit more on this?

    “I’m not going to lie, I am a Gonzo fan, having subbed two of their shows, but I am quickly starting to see why Gonzo receives so much heat from the anime community.”

    I really didn’t get what you were trying to say.

    Blue
    Reply

  28. some aren’t. as random dude pointed out, we have mitsuru in the opening scene and back in episode 1, egor made an appearance. shin’s classmates personality, (the gang with him) resembles the other characters from the game. i can only say the only thing considered original are the protoganist, the brothers and the antagonist.

    given the aspect and how slow-paced the game was in introducing the characters and story-plot, i believe it’d be the same way with the anime.

    oh yeah, another thing i spotted as i rewatched this episode again, did anyone noticed the apathy syndrom’s differs vastly with the game’s version of it. and ‘shadow extraction’…. is still bugging me…

    core
    Reply

  30. knowing persona as I do….alot of main characters are going to die on this anime….and probably even the main character´s brothers too!!!
    persona = most no mercy story wise plots from games!!!
    But I like it and the animation is nice!!!

    Tensai Otaku
    Reply

  31. I think Trinity Soul is doing nearly everything right. This episode was an information dump – there will be more action and more character development later.

    I know the show is going to be short, but there’s still time. You just have to wait and see; and so far, it’s been darn good.

    I hope for the best.

    Heiae
    Reply

  32. Rwaggie…dude what’s up? I absolutely remember you – you did our blogs for bakaz! Msg me on aim sometime, we’ll catch up.

    Tensai- thanks for your input, but please remember – NO spoiling. It sucks for me and the other people that haven’t played the game. Thanks!

    Blue – It means that not a lot of people like Gonzo animation, but I do.

    Sanada Kikyo
    Reply

  33. I guess I understand what the blogger feels a bit though. But since I am a fan of Persona game series, which always turns out to be epicness, I hope the anime will eventually make it in that direction in the meantime. Coz after watching two episodes, I still think Persona 3 game is much better in terms of the mysterious feeling it gives to us, not to mention the game protagonist who I think is way a lot cooler than Shin. Maybe because he is darker than Shin who is just like a normal high school boy. And I hope to see the cameos of the main characters in the game….although what we have right now that is kind of assuring is Sanada Akihiko’s voice XD. Well, I still see the potential in this anime and hope it will turn out as I expected, I still feel sad how there are not any shoot-in-the-head to call persona in trinity soul too coz that makes it less exciting for me a bit TWT.

    saris
    Reply

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