Persona on a Bike. P3 The Movie – #1 Spring of Birth – PV 4

6 more days until the movie launches, so one more PV for the road. We probably won’t see it until it goes to blu-ray/DVD, but this teaser shows us that our protagonist gets to have thrilling persona battles while riding the motorcycle around Tartarus’s crazy architecture. If he doesn’t kick flip off the bike so Orpheus or some other persona can smack it through a shadow causing them both to explode, I will be sorely disappointed. Considering everyone getting beat up by the Emperor/Empress combo, I assume that will happen during the fight to save Fuuka.

While it ultimately would be only a portion of the movie, the action element does actually look all right. I like Shinji headbutting that guy and getting to see Akihiko boxing. The animation direction looks like it has a lot of potential. I was really caught by how much more of a demented look the protagonist has when the evoker goes off on the roof and Pharos looking at the protagonist like he was looking at a dreamy boy. I mean, he is, so it’s just a nice touch. We just decided to replay P3, so I’m excited to see how it’s going to translate.

Persona 3 -Spring of Birth- PV 2 and Release Date

Good to see you, Junpei. Good to see the persona summoning animation too. I like the way it has an outline that the color fleshes out. It gives a sense of something ethereal becoming real. I also appreciate seeing The Fool arcana big shadow actually attacking Yukari and Minato before they get to the roof rather than just menacing the dorm building off screen.

But yes, Persona 3 -Spring of Birth- will be released to theaters November 23rd. For those of us not in a position to see a movie in Japan, that puts us at getting a potential English release sometime early next year from the gap between movie showing and DVD release. On the upside, we should be getting the movie theme, “More than One” by Yumi Kawamura, much sooner. Kawamura is the singer behind all the major P3 songs, so it’s not surprising they’ve brought her back. If it ends up being as enjoyable as “Kimi no Kioku,” I’ll be into it.

Persona 3 The Movie Preview Video and Cast List

Persona is pretty new to us, as I’ve mentioned before. Only just finished P3 and haven’t finished P4 because of this and that. Because of that, I haven’t seen the P4 anime, and this movie will be done by the same team and studio. I’ve heard good things, typically, but the two or so out of context scenes I have seen looked well directed but lacking for money to really make the animation good. Hopefully, with this being a movie instead of a series, they’ll have more overall money to pump in to making Akihiko boxing shadows as pretty as that deserves to be.

Yaraon also managed to get a hold of the cast list.

• (Hero Character) Makoto Yuki – Akira Ishida (Athrun Zala in Gundam SEED and Destiny, Kaworu Nagisa in Evangelion)
• Yukari Takeba – Megumi Toyoguchi (Revy in Black Lagoon, Winry Rockbell in Full Metal Alchemist)
• Junpei Iori – Kosuke Toriumi (Inui in Shinsekai Yori, Kiyotaka Ishimaru in Dangan Ronpa, Yuri Lowell in Tales of Vesperia)
• Mitsuru Kirijo – Rie Tanaka (Lacus Klein in Gundam SEED and Destiny, Yomi in Azumanga Daioh)
• Akihiko Sanada – Hikaru Midorikawa (Heero Yui in Gundam Wing, Masaki Andoh in Super Robot Wars)
• Fuuka Yamagishi – Mamiko Noto (Tsukiko Sagi in Paranoia Agent)
• Igor – Isamu Tanonaka (Mucha in Mazinger Z, Loki in Cyborg 009)
• Elizabeth – Miyuki Sawashiro (Jolyne Kujo in JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle, Fujiko Mine since 2011)

All of these actors and actresses are consistent with their video game appearance, as you probably imagined. To that end, Isamu Tanonaka, who passed on in 2010, will be acting again from archived clips like in the P4 anime.

I’ll actually watch this one since I’ve already experienced the game. Looking forward to giving it a try.