persona 4

Picking up from the big realization from last week, Yu heads to the hospital. Yu and Yosuke then go to confront Adachi, the true culprit. Naoto and the rest of the gang soon arrive, and together they all get him to admit his guilt. Kuma reappears to see Nanako, resolving to fight with everyone despite realizing he is a Shadow.

Everyone then chases Adachi into the TV World. As they go, Adachi starts to split the group up by summoning Shadows while showing them all of the missing parts of their investigation. Eventually, Yu faces off against Adachi alone, who summons his own Persona, a copy of Izanagi, to face him.

Everything’s coming to a close. With the current pacing, it looks like they might be able to cover everything, but it may be close. I’ll be really upset next week if they don’t. The rest of the episode this week was pretty good (everyone loves Naoto going into detective mode). Also, it seems like I was right last week…guess they’ve decided to go with the Yosuke ending for Yu, so he won’t be getting any of the girls. It’s a little sad, but pretty expected. I hope everything turns out well next week. I wonder if all of the people who played the game are as worried as I am?

This week’s episode starts off with everyone arriving at Heaven, Nanako’s dungeon. Namatame reveals that he has been trying to “save” people, and draws Shadows to attack. He takes control of Yu and forces him to attack everyone else, but Yu is able to break the control mechanism and save Nanako. Namatame then controls everyone else, but Yu is able to free them all and defeat finish him off.

Namatame is arrested and Nanako is hospitalized afterwards, but she soon recovers. Strangely, though, there’s a heavy fog in Inaba following the incident, similar to the fog in the TV World. Nonetheless, things seem to be doing okay, but then Nanako’s condition suddenly worsens and she dies.

NANAKO!!!!!! Yeah…I actually have no idea what’s up with that. All I can do is wait for next week for some sort of explanation. The battle at the start of the episode plays into that scene from earlier where everyone looked at Yu with a sort of fear when he summoned his many Persona. Their fear is kinda justified when he’s turned against them. Stupid controlling business…made that battle more annoying than it should have been. Still, the battle was cool as usual.

With that little conversation with Naoto, I guess Yu has revisited every main character. I would have hoped for a bit more, but I understand with the pacing. The ending is becoming a bit murky for me. I’m not sure how faithful they’re trying to make it to the game. I really don’t want them to skip the true ending. Especially since something happened in this episode that is linked to it (I won’t give it away because spoilers are lame).

The plot has returned! Everyone gathers to discuss the mysterious letter from last week, but can draw no conclusions. That night, Yu sees an silhouette on the Midnight Channel, but it isn’t clear enough to distinguish. Another threatening letter arrives from the mystery sender, but this time Dojima sees it. Dojima interrogates Yu at the station, but refuses to believe Yu’s story and locks him in the station for the night.

The Midnight Channel appears again, and Yu recognizes the target as…Nanako! Naoto tries to save her, but arrives too late. Together, everyone realizes that the culprit must be a delivery man named Namatame Taro and rush to pursue. Dojima finds the truck first and manages to stop it, but Nanako has already been thrown in the TV and Dojima is hospitalized.

The show is entering the final chapter. This week’s episode was Naoto’s time to shine, as she calmly analyzes the situation for Yu and the others. Still, it’s not quite her social link, so there should be more focus for her later. Random CG for the chase scene was random, but I guess it was alright. Yu’s character in the anime is definitely nice. I don’t remember him showing this much concern and emotion in the game and it definitely makes things more effective. This was a bit of a weird moment in the game for me. When I reached this point, I was confused how a completely random person like Taro just suddenly comes into the picture. I don’t mind it now because I know the ending, but I wonder others feel about this sort of thing. Next week, it’s time to save Nanako!

The school festival has arrived! Chie, Yukiko, Rise, and Naoto all find themselves signed up for the beauty pageant by Yosuke (well played, sir). Yu ends up practicing with the soccer club and accidentally hits Ayane Matsunaga with the ball. The boys then find themselves signed up for the crossdressing pageant by Chie.

The day of the festival, Yu ends up spending a lot of the time with Ayane before Ebihara grabs him. The pageants start, with Kuma winning the crossdressing one. As for the actual beauty pageant, Naoto ends up taking the victory with her shyness. Yu ends up comforting Rise, who is more disturbed at her loss than she expected.

Another goofy episode. It was pretty entertaining. There was a lot of focus on Rise this week, going along with their pattern of looking closer at the main characters. If I remember correctly, the girls didn’t wear swimsuits in the game, so it was pretty funny to watch them, especially Naoto’s feminine side. Also, Kuma takes a more active role with the girls’ pageant than he does in this anime rendition.

Margaret makes an appearance as a fortuneteller. Not quite social link material, but still amusing. Next week’s episode looks to once again be a filler/social link episode, but I think it should be either the last one or very close to it. Once it’s over, it’s gonna be nonstop conflict to the end, I think. So much plot left to cover.

This week’s episode starts off with a bit of background on Dojima and Nanako. A hit-and-run incident brings back memories of the death of Nanako’s mother. Nanako starts to wonder about Dojima as he seems to care about his work more than her. Yu talks to Dojima about Chisato (his wife), and asks Naoto to look into her death.

Dojima ends up telling Nanako that he doesn’t have the time to go to her school’s parent observation event, which leads her to finally tell him how she feels. She then rejects him as her real father and runs away. Yu and Dojima go to search for her, finally finding her at the place where her mother died. Dojima talks with Nanako and the two make up.

So the preview last week made it sound like this week’s episode was something different (with the reference to Heaven and a certain line). Still, this week’s was pretty good, finishing up Nanako and Dojima’s social links. The episode I was referencing looks to be a few episodes down the line. It’s starting to look like time is running short for the true ending, but I’m confident they will include it. The opening scene this week with Margaret was kinda weird…is her social link developing with just those little 2 minute-sessions each week? Next week looks to be the school festival, with a certain contest that Yu will have to enter. Should be fun.

While the girls make a tactical retreat against the weird beam of Naoto’s Shadow, Kanji and Yu stay behind to fight. However, Yu and Kuma both get hit by the aging beam. Naoto starts to accept her fate at the hands of the Shadow, but Kanji continues to fight. Kuma summons his Persona and uses it to return the three of them back to their normal age.

Yu then performs a hexagon spread fusion and creates Beelzebub, who finishes off the Shadow with Megidolaon. Naoto then finally accepts her Shadow and gains her Persona. Back at school, Naoto discusses the case with everyone, as she remembered the detail of her capture unlike everyone else. She also concludes that Kubo was only a copycat killer.

Margaret tells the story of Jack Frost before randomly mispronouncing the name. What’s up with that? Also, Naoto’s voice gets higher after she is saved. I didn’t remember her Persona being so big either…Anyway, I wasn’t expecting Megidolaon being so flashy >.> I know it’s Almighty damage and everything, but holy crap was that serious. I guess this week’s battle was meant to showcase Rise’s analysis ability (I wish it did that in the game) and Kuma’s Persona. It really looks like they’ll be exploring Kanji’s relationship with Naoto, which I definitely like. Next week, tragedy will strike, but we will be one step closer to the culprit. I hope you’re ready for it.

So despite the case being closed, Naoto confronts the gang with her theory, having noticed that some of them had disappeared similarly to the dead victims. Her conclusion is that they may be the only ones with the means to pursue the culprit. However, Naoto appears on the Midnight Channel that night. When Naoto is abducted, everyone realizes that Naoto went on TV on purpose to make herself the next victim. Unable to find Naoto, everyone leaves to find more information about her.

They are interrupted for a second when Yu witnesses a pretty touching moment between Kanji and his mother. Anyways, Yu and Kanji find out that Naoto was having disagreements with the local police, which gives Rise enough information to find her. After everyone reaches Naoto’s dungeon, Naoto gets in the normal argument with her Shadow, which leads to the Shadow revealing that Naoto is actually a girl. Naoto rejects her Shadow and it turns to face everyone. After hitting Yosuke’s Persona, Yosuke is aged.

So that whole aging thing was a little weird. I don’t remember that being in the game. Kanji takes the spotlight this week, acting pretty darn macho. He also has a scene with Yu akin to the ones with Chie and Yosuke. However, the three of them still have the same Persona, so no visible results yet. Hopefully that comes into play later…maybe even in this battle.

Finally the big reveal that Naoto is actually a girl. In the game, I know this was a huge “wtf” moment for me. Next week, everyone will battle it out with the Shadow Naoto, and I’m sure new Persona will be revealed…if not Yu, then someone else will evolve their Persona. So far, the studio has been doing a great job of adding in new things in every battle. And since it’s been so long, hopefully next week’s will be a big one.