Anime: Persona: Trinity Soul

Thinking about it, Persona Trinity Soul probably isn't the show I feel like I'd usually bother reviewing right now. Its not criminally bad, nor is it fantastic, however something is compelling to write my thoughts about the series upon having just finished it. Produced by A-1 pictures, the new animation studio subsidiary of Aniplex, Persona was their 2nd major production after Ookiku Furikabutte. Persona Trinity Soul is also supposedly based on the Atlus video game Persona 3, though upon watching it, there is very little about Trinity Soul that will make you think of the video game aside from a few cameos and the actual Persona nomenclature. On to the actual review now...

Animation: Persona Trinity Soul overall isn't exactly the best animated show. From beginning to end, the actual animation is serviceable. Its never distractingly bad, but never outstanding. It is very much the definition of average. It gets the job done without much extra. Aside from the actual animation however, the art quality of the series is very strong. Very rarely will you see off-model designs. The series maintains a very consistent level in that area. This is a good thing as the characters are designed by Persona 3 designer Shigenori Soejima and they definitely fit the design mold of that game. One regrettable aspect of the animation is the choice to apply a sort of transparency effect to the actual Personas which makes them a bit hard to see at times. I would have much rather seen them done in a solid manner enhanced with effects. Then again, this was perhaps a budget issue.

Sound: Trinity Soul is enhanced with an excellent Soundtrack provided by Taku Iwasaki, well known now for his Gurren Lagann OST. Iwasaki perfectly manages between softer and emotionally charged orchestral pieces, choral and orchestral chants, and even charged up battle themes with rap vocals. Its an eclectic soundtrack and it works very well to amp up the shows atmosphere. The highlight for me is the shows main theme, in both Piano and Strings. Its a rather memorable track and perfectly matches the shows winter time atmosphere.

Characters: Perhaps this was the aspect of the series that made me want to mark down my thoughts. I very much enjoyed the cast of Persona Trinity Soul. The show does a great job in connecting you with the Kanzato family I feel. Both Shin and Jun are very aimable characters and their brother Ryou also goes through some nice development making him more likeable as the show goes on. As it goes on, the show really centers on the family ties and you see just how much they care for each other. The supporting cast of Shins classmates are also all very likeable with their own quirks and sub-stories and they all connect very well to the main Kanzato cast. Overall, the very solid cast for this series is what kept me going through the series, despite the convoluted and ill-conceived plot which I will now go into. However, the opposing villain cast fares much much worse for me. There is perhaps one interesting character who plays opposite the main cast, the rest however are simply...there. Nothing about them stands out, nor do they ever feel dangerous, despite what the show wants us to think. Too bad.

Story: There really isn't two ways about it. Trinity Soul simply falls down flat on its face in terms of its plot. A problem of actual story, and of execution. This is the series greatest fault. By the end of the series, you will still be absolutely lost about many things that just arent properly explained. There was not even an attempt to explain or leave sufficient clues. I am all for a series to not spoonfeed details or plot exposition, but Persona doesn't even attempt to leave the slightest crumb on the trail for various aspects of the plot. Also, the series operates on such a slow pace, that it becomes extremely hard to follow, or even care about the plot. However this was one of the reasons that I came to appreciate the cast, as they were allowed to breathe and get to be known. Definitely a double edged sword. Perhaps the story could have left a better taste in my mouth with a better ending too, but even that was a let down and was relatively flat. A real shame that there was not more thought put into this story, it simply goes nowhere interesting at any point during the show.

Value and Enjoyment: A bit hard to figure out. I definitely somehwat enjoyed following the series for its cast of characters, yet at the same time, it kept me very frustrated with its plotting. The series definitely isn't one that will stay with me, nor will I probably ever revisit it again, but like I said, something compelled me to write a bit down about the show. Perhaps it is the wasted potential. The thought that it is a real shame that such a cast of characters that I came to like were wasted on an extremely underwhelming and poorly thought out story, and that the series didn't make a good enough use of the Persona name. It makes it also very hard to recommend, and I don't feel as I can, despite me liking the characters. Dont expect a riveting story, nor even much in the way of connecting to the Persona 3 video game. Putting aside my subjective opinion on its cast, objectively I can only say that Trinity Soul is a disappointment for anyone looking forward to a Persona anime.

There are no stories which are told well if the people telling the story suck. And man, do they suck.

The cover on AniDB gives an impression of a good show, with good visuals and a decent plot. The fact that is was based on the best selling playstation title Persona should do wonders as well, but there's always the chance that it fails to live up to its expectations.

Persona – Trinity Soul does not live up to any expectations of that kind. It lives only up to the fact that lots of shows based on games are usually badly adapted. Persona – Trinity Soul isn't an exception to that, which is sad, as the plot is certainly promising. The main problem this series suffers from is that there are no realistic characters, or realistic behavior from them.

Animation: Forced character movements and below par CG give the show a bad feeling.

I thought there were some really nice animations throughout the show and honestly spoken, 70% of the show is done extremely well. It emits atmosphere, not matter what kind of atmosphere it is supposed to breathe. A snowy plane with a lone house when everyone is gone missing. A busy road with lots of people when someone is in dire need for a moment of soletary. In all cases it is done flawlessly. Why would I be unsatisfied with such sublime animation then?

The problem here is the lack of understanding of how the human body moves. Every episode there are a few cases of a hand gesture, an arm gesture which simply doesn't suit how a human would move that arm or hand. It detracts from the show and it shows only that the people working on the animation are amateurs who don't even have the most basics down which can be picked up from anywhere around the world. Call me harsh, but if you make such a remarkably animation, you should be able to do such simple things properly as well.

The other problem the show has is the fact that the CG is sometimes admirably bad. Most of the time it is done well, but when it comes to the Persona themselves, several times they simply screw up. I can't possibly point out in every review that CG should be on the same quality level as the rest of the animation, but at times the Persona just as the surroundings simply stand out too much, which makes either the rest of the animation bad – or the CG itself.

Sound: Okay music, nice BGM, but the voices …

I didn't mind most of the voices, but there are times where they are simply crappy. I'm not talking about the times where a scream simply fails to sound scared or angry, which is most of the times in this show, but I'm more talking about the voices not always managing to show the emotion it needs to be showing. Either that, or it is once again a lack of animation quality as the faces seem to expecting a whole different emotion.

Music and BGM were okay, sometimes even good, but never outstanding or lousy. There were a couple of BGM which I felt didn't suit the scene, but those were scarce and generally hardly worth mentioning as they weren't important to the scene.

Story: Good story, but unfortunately there is nothing to connect the key points.

I can hardly comment on the story, as it seems to be done well. I can feel the potential it has and I feel bad about it that it is so badly executed. The main flaw is the lack of reasonable characters which have to connect the key-points of the story. This makes the story show cracks which eventually fail the show entirely. That's not the fault of the story, it is the fault of the people telling the story, as the key points of the story are solid and impressive.

Characters: Laughably bad.

I generally cut characters some slack as they can never be perfect. But in this show most of the characters are simply not realistic - or just downright annoying. Their behavior is odd, their reactions are inexplicable and even the conversations they are having are completely ridiculous at times. Perhaps that is the feat of the ainex fansubbers, but I believe it is a structural problem of the characters in this show.

I don't have any trouble when some characters are trying to be mysterious, but good grief – mysterious and ridiculous are two different things. Especially when the story starts to roll and gets to points where it should be becoming interesting as hell, the characters simply pull the brakes by doing something completely out-of-the-question, or by having a conversation which leads nowhere.

Value & Enjoyment: A mass of frustration.

I was wondering if it was just me, but when I now look at the public rating for this show, it doesn't even reach any acceptable value for even a remote recommendation. Because honestly, it isn't worth recommending. I would recommend to play the game on the PlayStation instead. Much more fun and much less frustration about your protagonist doing or saying something completely irrelevant again.