[Anime Review] Episode 15: September 1-10
Synopsis
The time has come. The long awaited class trip. Surely nothing could go wrong... right? But why are we going to another school?
Art/Animation
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Voices
• Chihiro - I really like her voice. I'm curious if it's the same person who voiced her in P3 or not (I'm pretty sure that she had a couple voiced lines).
• The Nurse/Mythology teacher - Yup, just as boring as I'd expect.
• Teddie's creepy voice is creepy.
Music
• BURN MY DREAD~! This is all that really needs to be said.
• P3's music is completely restored, pretty much exactly as it was in P4's game for these scenes.
• I do like the new ending, but not as much as the first ending.
Extras
• DUDE! There is no way the school was that huge in P3!
• Unfortunately, the word puns don't make as much sense in the subs as they do in Japanese.
• Actually getting to pay attention to the ending video finally, I really like the animation, much better than the first ending's video.
Changes from the game
• Yu never nicknamed Naoto in the game.
• Not exactly a change, but... I think I was happier not seeing the inside of the love hotel again. Also, I really dislike the way they're portraying Yosuke and Kanji again.
• The "wandering around town shopping" portion of the school trip wasn't in the game (well, naratively it was, but you never got to play it), but I like how they combined that with Chie's social link.
• The characters were much drunker in the anime than the game, and, honestly, I really dislike this scene.
• Not a change from the game, so much as an error on the part of the anime. In both the game and the anime, the club didn't sell alcohol anymore. However, while Naoto is at the bar, there are shelves upon shelves of alcohol sitting on display there, leading me to question the accuracy of that. While in the game, the "drunk off the atmosphere" excuse may have been valid, the anime seems to imply that they may still be serving alcohol under the table, or that perhaps the glasses weren't properly cleaned after having had alcohol in them. Especially since at least Yukiko was hung over the next day.
• Once again, Aika shows up. I can see where the reasoning for her being there is at least sound, except... This is her class trip as well! I can't see how someone would be required to basically do an internship during a class function. Not that this stopped them from having her do it during the camping trip as well...
• The scene at the end with Naoto was added.
Final Thoughts
I have no way of knowing if this was changed from the Japanese to US versions of the game, but the anime very much is bothering me with the "Yosuke constantly afraid that Kanji will rape him" scenes and hints. Between this, the very weak episodes, and Aika, I've pretty much decided not to buy the series, which disappoints me. Also, while there were some obvious sexual overtones in the game, it's a lot different when it's poorly animated 3D models, vs full animation, especially when they're drastically upping the level of sexuality in the scene, with Yu's shirt being open and all.
I saw about 5 minutes of episode 16 already, but the preview clearly showed that it's the build up to Naoto's dungeon, and at least into it and meeting with her Shadow (you can hear the voice in the preview). Not sure I want it that quickly, especially since we're so close to the end of the game now, and still have around 8-10 more episodes to go. Even with taking the True End, that's only 3 more dungeons, and they've been doing an episode per dungeon. The next dungeon should be 2 episodes, but the one after that could probably only be one. The school festival, of course, will be an episode, as will the events after the next dungeon, which leaves us with 3-5 more episodes. There's a good chance for a "fallout" episode after Naoto's dungeon, so that's 2-4 episodes for the True End.
So here's my predictions:
16 - Naoto's dungeon
17 - End of dungeon/fallout from 16
18 - School Festival
19-20 - 2nd to last dungeon
21 - Events after the 2nd to last dungeon*
*This is where the bad ends come in. Because of how they did Mitsuo's dungeon, I have a feeling they'll be skipping over that.
From here, I see two alternatives:
22-23 - Final Dungeon
24-end - True End
Or:
22 - Final Dungeon
23-end - True End
I'm not sure if it's 25 or 26 episodes, but I guess the timing does work, so they're not moving too quickly. Looking back, though, I'd rather they have gone through the earlier dungeons quicker, rather than the later ones. Kanji's dungeon, especially, they could have shown less of.