Now, I don't know if any of you remember, but originally--okay, maybe not originally*, but many, many months ago, Atlus USA promised us that Persona 5 would be stealing our hearts on Valentine's Day, 2017. I admit that the symbolism was beautiful, and I hope whoever thought of that was at least given a hearty pat on the shoulder, or maybe a cookie. But alas, it was not meant to be.
* = Originally, Persona 5 was supposed to be released "Winter 2014," but we all know how that turned out.
What's the next best thing? Persona 5 anime!
This little beauty, an "OVA" (basically, a short feature, usually direct-to-video) entitled "The Day Breakers" aired last fall; it's still up on Crunchyroll if you're curious. It's about 25 minutes long, so roughly the same length as a TV show episode. This does not feature an English dub; it is Japanese-language only, although English subtitles are included. The voice actors for the game's characters reprise their roles here, which is a nice touch, especially considering the main character is a silent protagonist. Hearing him with more voiced lines--even though he doesn't speak much--helped to flesh him out as a character.
You don't necessarily need to be familiar with the game to watch it, and you definitely don't need to be familiar with the series as a whole to understand it, though it helps. Context is set up pretty early on in the show to fill you in on the most important facts; that the protagonists are a famous group of "phantom thieves" who live a double life. By day, they're average high school students, and by night they embark on fantastical "heists" in a separate reality that enable them to reform wicked or corrupted individuals. They receive a plaintive, desperate request for help, and set off to investigate...
The story of "The Day Breakers" is an adaptation of one of the optional side missions in the game. It's a pretty good introduction not only to the game's plot, but even gives you an idea of how the battle system works. I loved that the battle scene at the end incorporated the "Baton Pass" mechanic that is an actual gameplay feature. Overall, though, it's a compelling mystery and has some of the best directing/scripting I've seen. I don't want to give too much away, but this is one of the best examples of "Things aren't always as they seem." It's definitely worth a second watch once you know the secret--dialogue takes on a new meaning, scenes gain different context, and characterization is flipped upside down. I'd love to see a Persona 5 anime series adapting these side missions, honestly.
Distributing rights for the OVA are held by Aniplex, so the only way to get it in North America is to get it through one of Aniplex's approved partners. I pre-ordered mine through RightStuf. I will point out that the retail price for the Blu-ray is 4000 yen, which RightStuf "translated" as $39.99. (Usually, 100 yen more or less equals $1.00.) The exchange rate is in favor of the dollar right now, so if you took that into consideration and converted the currency, it would have been $32.00 or so. (My guess is that RightStuf does this to account for currency exchange fluctuations.) So if I'd ordered this from an importing site, I probably would have paid less for the item...but more for shipping and handling.
Here is the whole package, inside the shrink wrap. You can get this as either a DVD or a Blu-ray. As a warning, Japan uses a different region encoding on their DVDs, so the DVD version won't play in a standard North American DVD player. On the other hand, Japan uses the same region encoding as North America for Blu-rays, so I picked that up. The price difference is roughly $10 between the two. ($29.99 for the DVD version)
The back insert has some great artwork from the OVA's opening. Note the official sticker of approval from Atlus in the corner with Jack Frost!
The front label explains what you get in this package. The OVA itself on either Blu-ray or DVD, inside a case with a slip cover, plus a drama CD entitled "The Night Breakers." (A drama CD is basically like a radio play; they're usually side stories--or sometimes epilogues--set within the larger story.) "The Night Breakers" apparently narrates the protagonists' viewpoints during "The Day Breakers." I guess it conveys more of their thoughts and feelings about the events taking place? There is also a "Behind the Scenes" interview with Atlus staff and the voice actors from the game, which is roughly 20 minutes long. (Thankfully, it's subtitled in English!)
This is what the back looks like without the insert. I'm really digging the art here, which looks inspired by the various trailers for the game. I really love the star designs!
It took me way too many attempts to photograph this for you guys, but here is the side of the box.
The slipcover and the case, side by side.
This insert is themed after the calling cards that the Phantom Thieves use to alert their targets.
The right side of the picture ended up getting cut off (oops!), but inside are the two discs. The one on the right is the OVA disc, and the one on the left is the drama CD. The major difference between the two is the color of each disc--the drama CD is a deep ruby red, and the OVA disc is a lighter, warmer red. Although, there is a small silver circle on the drama CD that tells you what it is--but it's not hugely obvious.
Unfortunately, as of the time of writing this, there is no English translation for the text of "The Night Breakers." Unless you have at least a passing familiarity with Japanese, you will not understand it.
Aniplex's philosophy regarding their anime properties seems to be "Let them stream it for free and buy it at a premium." Their prices skew higher than average, and in this case, for a smaller amount of content. Whether or not this is acceptable tends to depend on your personal thoughts, but I will concede that this is a far more niche type of offering. The market for this is going to be a lot smaller than some of their other properties (Blue Exorcist, Fate/Stay Night, etc.), so I think that a higher price for this isn't as injurious as it is for their mainstream titles. But this definitely isn't something that you buy if you're not a huuuuge Persona fan who is also okay with having no English dub.
I think ultimately this falls into a really weird category. Persona fans who enjoy anime will probably want to stream this, but maybe not own it, unless you're the type who enjoys re-watching shows to derive new meaning out of it. The price and localization--or lack thereof--also lock this down to the fan who is more interested in consuming their media in a manner as close to the original as possible. If this sounds like you, then this is probably up your alley! It's still available from RightStuf, although in "limited supply" and only to the Americas (North, Central, South) due to licensing restrictions. If you're elsewhere, you might want to look at places like CDJapan, which offer more worldwide availability.
Miss Scarlett, signing out!
