(L) Persona - Trinity Soul

[duckroll]

Persona - Trinity Soul

Set in another furturistic city 10 years after the events of Persona 3, the anime revolves around the undead that disguise themselves as humans known as "reverse". It'll be a supernatural story like the Persona series and involve 3 brothers.

Director: Atsushi Matsumoto (Blood+ and GitS:SAC episode director)
Writer: Yasuyuki Muto (Chevalier chief writer)
Original Character Design: Shigenori Soejima (Persona games)
Animation Character Design: Yuriko Ishii (DtB and Ouran episode animation director)
Persona Design: Nobuhiko Genma (???)
Music: Taku Iwasaki (WHR, ROD)
Animation: A-1 Pictures (some studio started up by Aniplex)

Starts airing Jan 2008 on Animax, and selected Tokyo MX, MBS, CBC channels.

The official site is http://www.persona-ts.net/ but I don't think it'll be up until this weekend.

[Katapan]

Great timing. I was looking forward to the European release of Persona 3 in the beginning of 2008, but now that's two things at the same time.

Iwasaki Taku's last 2 works have been incredible (Kekkaishi, Gurren-Lagann), another OST of that quality would be more than welcome. We also finally get to see A-1 Pictures' second serious production, after their good adaptation of Oofuri (I'm not counting their shows aimed at children like Robby & Kerobby...). They sure have picked some interesting adaptations so far (though this can't really be called an adaptation, it seems).

The japanese wiki seems to mention a possible timeslot? which would be 22:30. That sure is an original one.

[SonicX_Zero]

Wow set 10 years after the game. O.O;; I wish they did the same thing with Persona 2, but Persona 3 is great as well. ^_^

[Jesus Christnekoff]

You know, they've had a lot of problems in the past adapting their games and such into cartoons/live action shows, so I'm not really looking forward to this. I'd warn y'all to be cautiously optimistic about it.

I hope they don't have to use Evokers though. Or at least, if they do, go the way of Soul Hackers and give people different types. Because really? The gun to the head thing was pretty lame.

Haha, the eldest brother is a Katsuya-wannabe.

[Shouta]

Well, looks like I'll have something to do in January! Is it an OAV or a short TV series?

[saphyre]

Originally Posted by Jesus Christnekoff

I hope they don't have to use Evokers though. Or at least, if they do, go the way of Soul Hackers and give people different types. Because really? The gun to the head thing was pretty lame.

I don't know about anyone else, but personally I found the gun to the head thing pretty cool. It was unique.

10 years after the events of Persona 3 huh... Sounds interesting.
Can't wait.

[Jesus Christnekoff]

Well, I mean, they've been using Guns as a means of summoning demons since, 1997 or so, with Devil Summoner on the Sega Saturn. Even if that were the case, should something be awarded simply for being unique? In other words, does unique automatically make something good?

I personally don't feel that way, I thought the whole gun thing was pretty cheesy. No one ever answers why it has to be a gun. Making it shaped like a gun doesn't provide any tactical benefits (they wouldn't be able to carry them in public, because, "HEY LOOK THOSE TEENAGERS HAVE HAND GUNS CALL THE POLICE!!!"; as Yukari demonstrates before the first battle, guns can easily be knocked out of your hands, and when you lose your Evoker you become pretty much worthless in battle. Seriously, the gun is like, the worst possible design choice)...

[DragoonKain3]

Wow, this is awesome. Being a huge persona fan, I've been yearning for an anime for the longest time, be it good or not.

And while they have used guns in the past to summon personae, I believe this is the first where they actually point it to their heads and 'shoot' themselves with it in order to summon the persona. And while it being unique doesn't necessarily means its good, the impact it had on me and my friends who have played the game would show that it is done well. IMO, it's the execution that counts, and me going 'wow' defintiely meant it had a positive effect on me. After all, you don't see many other games where kids commit pseudo-suicide battle in and battle out.

As for your other points.
1) Considering in P3 they only need to use evokers during the dark hour, when the police like other normal people don't move, they have no fear of them

2) I don't think they'll get in too much trouble in the first place considering the police is where you buy other forms of lethal weapons. If anything, they'll be caught because say, I dunno, Junpei was carrying that big ass sword rather than an evoker in which they can conceal more easily.

3) What other design choice do you propose that would still have the same imagery of blowing away your current self in order to summon your other self? Because IIRC from one of the interviews, that's exactly what the designers were trying to portray through the evokers

[S_K]

unfortunately i havent played the game, but im looking forward to this series, it sparked some interest in me

[Jesus Christnekoff]

And while they have used guns in the past to summon personae, I believe this is the first where they actually point it to their heads and 'shoot' themselves with it in order to summon the persona.

Well, in other SMT games, they've used Guns to summon demons to fight by their side (Devil Summoner and Soul Hackers's Gun-type Computer, and the Devil Children used a similar device). None of the Persona characters before P3 needed an sort of toy to help them summon. In that respect, they were not unlike Stands from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (and by that, I kinda mean they were the exact same thing as Stands from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, except the Persona kids glow blue when they summon their Persona).

After all, you don't see many other games where kids commit pseudo-suicide battle in and battle out.

Yeah, and there's reason: Its kinda lame. D:

2) I don't think they'll get in too much trouble in the first place considering the police is where you buy other forms of lethal weapons. If anything, they'll be caught because say, I dunno, Junpei was carrying that big ass sword rather than an evoker in which they can conceal more easily.

Well, the difference I think is that the other available weapons* tend to have legitimate purposes outside of actual combat. Fencing and other forms of swordsmanship are apparently really popular (if cartoons are to be believed), and so forth.

*Ok, Shinjiro's weapons aren't, but he's not on the up and up anyway.

3) What other design choice do you propose that would still have the same imagery of blowing away your current self in order to summon your other self? Because IIRC from one of the interviews, that's exactly what the designers were trying to portray through the evokers

Ideally, none. The whole image is absurd. Shooting yourself in the head results in death. When you die, your "other self" does not pop out, you die. You cease to be. You blow your brain up, which is where all that id, ego and superego crap exists. When your brain becomes tiny bits, your id doesn't take over, your super ego doesn't take over, and your ego doesn't take over, because they're all gone.

I would actually buy the whole "its meant to be symbolic!" argument if Aegis wasn't exempt from it. Just the very fact that her Evoker doesn't look like everyone else's destroys any sort of symbolism they tried to create.

Alright, I'm going to stop talking now, because this is not what this thread is for!

[rg4619]

Because IIRC from one of the interviews, that's exactly what the designers were trying to portray through the evokers

Developers can work in many secondary/symbolic explanations for a design decision (as they do all the time). However, the main purpose for the idea would undoubtedly be marketing.

The P3 producers were targeting junior high schoolboys, so they probably wanted a really hip and edgy image to reel in younger teens. With youth suicide being such a hot topic now, it makes sense to ride the media wave.

Yeah, and there's reason: Its kinda lame. D:

Yeah, it's lame.

[ZODDGUTS]

I for one didn't think it was lame.

Anyways hope the anime turns out though the only guy working on the anime who also work on the game is the character designer, I'm hoping Atlus would've overlook the project making sure it doesn't stray away from P3 feel to it.

BTW Just gotta say that Shinbo (Soultaker/Petite Cossette/Moonphase etc) would have been perfect for this anime.

[u43368]

Of all the megaten games, why did it have to be Persona 3?

[ZODDGUTS]

Maybe because it's their most recent game and it's also quite popular in Japan there's a crapload of Doujins on it as well...

[Xcomp]

Great news. You don't happen to be the Duckroll from that games forum, are you?

There was actually quite a lot of talk about the Anime on 2ch a few weeks ago but, looking at the sort of shows A1 Pictures produced, I dismissed the topic.

http://www.a1p.jp/works/

Hope this doesn't turn out bad

Edit: Ah wait... They're just the animators.

Originally Posted by Jesus Christnekoff

You know, they've had a lot of problems in the past adapting their games and such into cartoons/live action shows, so I'm not really looking forward to this. I'd warn y'all to be cautiously optimistic about it.

Well since the story's taking place 10 years later, they're not exactly adapting the game itself so never mind about the show being like the game. If you really want to enjoy the original P3 game as an Anime, just go check out those fan animated drama CDs in the games section here

[ZODDGUTS]

Originally Posted by Xcomp

Great news. You don't happen to be the Duckroll from that games forum, are you?

There was actually quite a lot of talk about the Anime on 2ch a few weeks ago but, looking at the sort of shows A1 Pictures produced, I dismissed the topic.

http://www.a1p.jp/works/

Hope this doesn't turn out bad

Edit: Ah wait... They're just the animators.

I've seen a few episodes of Ookiku Furikabutte which is done by A1, the animation for that series was pretty good not great but good, if Persona has animation quality wise like Ookuku Furikabutte had then I would have no problems with it.

[MeganeShounen]

Well, if it has been 10 years after the events of Persona 3, that would mean the story is set somewhere in 2020. From the looks of the magazine scan, two of the brothers are highschoolers, while the other one is a police official of some sort...

The term "Reverse" in P3 referred to Social Links that were currently set into bad terms with the protagonists... quite fitting name for the new antagonists(?).

I'm looking forward to this, though I'm not placing my hopes on this one too high. I've almost had it with game-to-anime renditions...

EDIT: Hmm... is that the middle guy's Persona in the background/shadows? Kinda looks like Griffon from Project ARMS...

yetanotherEDIT: Argh. Seems like it won't be set in Gekkoukan this time around. In a futuristic city called Ayanagi...?

[Mithos Y]

I wonder how Yukari would look 10 years older...

I think this could be a good thing, though as per Jesus Christnekoff's advice I'm going to be cautiously optimistic. I wonder how the battles will be handled. Nothing like Pokemon, I hope.

I liked the evoker idea. It demonstrated the intrinistic nature of the persona and the host human, served to support the recurring motif of death, and furthered the game's dark nature that juxtaposes so nicely with its light side. A bunch of kids just spontaneously summoning magical spirits out of nowhere wouldn't have worked.

[DragoonKain3]

@Jesus
You might miss the way P1 and P2 did things (particularly in regards with personae), but hey, P3 did away with almost everything its predecessor had. There might be around 5 things that you can find in P3 that was in P1/P2, but really, its whole different game. As such, I wouldn't expect most things to be the same despite it sharing the same name, Final Fantasy series just to name one example.

And while I can understand why some people find psuedo-suicide idea lame, well, they're the minority at least in my area. I've got a lot of friends intrigued just by the very mention of how these kids use spells, since its so much different from the charging, handwaving and/or chanting of the typical RPG. Now THAT, most people I know find lame because its just used so much, but hey, if you want to go back to the standard RPG fare, all I can say is whatever floats your boat.

I'd buy your comment about fencing and what not, but they're still real weapons. Vast majority of sports don't use the real shebang but instead use non-lethal varieties. Even those into archery unstring their bows outside of the target range. As such, my point still stands... these guys are going to be caught not because they're holding evokers, but because they're holding their other weapons. Heck, if they got caught with the evokers alone, they're not gonna get in trouble in the first place because they'll just think its just a toy considering it shoots nothing!

Aigis was special because well, she's a robot for crying out loud. I'd be more surprised if her way was the same as everyone else's, lol. Even the dog has a different way of summoning his persona.

[Mithos Y]

The dog was such a random character. He doesn't do anything, he was just there.

Swords *are* real weapons, but difference is they're weapons you can buy, use, collect and transport legally (at least over here). I myself have transported everything from sharp swords for exercise cutting to fencing swords walking outside in broad daylight. But I'm smart enough to put them in proper bags or to use discrete transportation methods. Swords and similar weaponry aren't going to get you in trouble with the law. Guns on the other hand are, and even replica firearms can get confiscated by the police.