It’s time to delve back into the world of Persona! I really didn’t know much about Persona 3 except for the song “It’s Going Down Now” which is absolutely generational. Unfortunately that song isn’t in this film but it still has a lot of fun tunes throughout. The movie is really fast paced so you have to keep up with it but this makes for a good watch from start to finish. It also ends off in a way where you know that the adventure is just starting.

The story starts off by introducing us to Makoto who is one of the most emotionless characters you’ll ever see. He’s walking through town when people start turning into coffins. He doesn’t have time to care about that though as he’s on the way to his dorm. When he gets there, a girl points a gun at him and Makoto just shakes his head as he gets to his room. Unfortunately giant monsters are trying to tear the place down so the ladies ask him to help out. This involves shooting himself with a gun that allows him to summon demonic entities known as Persona to help him fight. Makoto is now on a team known as SEES which fights back against these demons. Makoto will help out…because why not?

Now obviously there is a reason for his lack of emotion and the film gives us a few quick flashbacks to his past. Nothing substantive yet though, we’ll likely be getting that in the sequels. This one is really about having Makoto slowly open up to the characters around him. A part of me is going to miss how emotionless he was though. The fact that he was taking everything in stride was just really funny and I wish more characters were like that. There is a time for panicking after all but most characters abuse it.

I also like to think that the lack of emotion is part of why he is so strong. The other characters tend to get knocked around real quickly and don’t re-summon their monsters too quickly. Makoto just spam summons the Personas over and over again. This drains your soul/willpower so it’s risky but he wasn’t worried about that. Without Makoto the rest of the characters could have been crushed more than once. Which….is a knock against the others.

I’m no stranger to the concept of “The Chosen One” but it’s a bit of a stretch on just how weak the others are. It’s hard to see how they have survived at all without Makoto. They are unable to beat even a single boss without him. It seems like they never had to deal with bosses before Makoto showed up with how surprised they were though. So maybe in a way this loops around to all being Makoto’s fault. This may just be a pacing issue and with more time they could have shown off the other fighters a bit more.

The most unintentionally funny one is when the final member (for now) joins the group. Fuuko is a really shy girl who got picked on a lot and by the end of the film finally gets to fight. The problem is that she loses her first fight and seemingly her Persona’s only ability is to make a barrier which can delay the inevitable. Usually you’d expect the new character to do well in a TV show but I guess those rules don’t apply to a movie. So Makoto still had to save her even if she did help out in a support role.

I also want to see Fuuko standing up for herself more. In this case the bully saw the light and stopped picking on her but we haven’t gotten to see Fuuko confront anyone yet. It’s good that she is a really nice person but it definitely should not come at the expense of defending herself. You always have to continue to fight back and hold some kind of boundaries. Takeba is another character who is rather timid but in a very different way. She is tough around other characters but it’s more of a mask that drops when she is up against the monsters.

Takeba tends to annoy me more than Fuuko because she should be a pro by now. I do get how it would be hard to shoot yourself even if you know that it’s not a real gun though. The others are probably a bit weirder for accepting it so easily. At least Takeba is past all of that now so she should be looking better and better as the films go on. Panicking and nearly shooting Makoto was just not a good look for her.

Kirijo is one of the more disappointing ones when it comes to combat. It’s a bit of a clash in expectations because when she’s first introduced you get the feeling that this character is a bigshot. It turns out that she is another support type fighter so you don’t really see her on the frontlines. I think that was a mistake, we don’t need more support fighters. So she doesn’t really fight at all and loses off screen to her first big opponent. Just not a great showing at all. Yes at this point Makoto is really carrying the team. The others are still fun characters but in a fight they aren’t pulling their weight.

Junpei is at least another fighter on the group although he doesn’t have a ton of experience yet. In fact he is brand new to the game and immediately gets jealous of Makoto for outshining him in all areas. I was worried this would be a big plotline but it seems like the guy has calmed down for now. The stakes are too high for any infighting right now. Junpei’s the classic overconfident kind of guy so until he is able to back up the tough talk, he will be in hot water.

Akihiko is the final main member of the strike force. At least he actually seems to be powerful. The opponent was just a really bad matchup for him with how he could become immune to the elements. Without that then this would have been a very different fight. The electricity looked really sharp and he was also able to re-summon his Persona a lot. Hopefully he’ll continue to be on the front lines for future fights.

The animation is pretty sharp all the way through. I like the way they would do the colors for the characters’ hair and the fights were solid. I wouldn’t call this a high-end production or anything like that but it flows well. The songs are also really good like I mentioned before. They may not have brought out the A tier songs yet but you know that they are around. This film had a lot to cover with the character intros and nonstop action so the next one will hopefully be able to match that. In theory we need the nonstop fighting to continue in order to see more fun battle tracks.

That said, it’ll be hard for the sequel to capture the same intrigue and mystery that this one had. The film hasn’t really been addressing any questions yet so Makoto is just as lost as anyone else. Of course he’s not the kind of guy to ask about the details anyway. All you need to know is that monsters come out during an extra hour of the day that only specific people can see. It’s an interesting premise and that’s really all you need some times. With that I’ve got a good basis for the fights and there are always the classic mystery characters who appear in visions and meanwhiles. The film even had some post credit scenes which was cool.

Overall, I would definitely recommend this film. Whether you are familiar with Persona or not, it makes for a good action title. There is a lot of suspense here and the writing is good. The film’s also not very long so it really breezes right by you. It may not feel like a complete adventure but that’s normal for a part 1. It just means that you have to stick around so this will be an investment. You’ll be able to truly see just how solid it is once you have finished all of the films.

Overall 7/10