Persona 3 manga is a poor adaptation from the videogame that focus only on the main story. If you only care for that part then this is the right manga for you. If you however prefer some more MC development and side characters besides the main team then Im sorry to say that this isnt for you and youll be more suited to watch the movies instead. This review is spoilerfree from the main events mentioning only a few names and will expose whats so wrong about this source. 62Played the original game finished a few months after starting the manga. 62Read on retail manga taking both time and money. Without more to say I leave the rest of the review for the thoughts on it. Story: 5 The manga is basically the games story no social links nor Elizabeth events featured. But why is it bad if the game is so appraised? First of the horrible pacing. At least in each volume you are going to find time skips that for the average reader will just confuse them. I started this manga when I barely got into October in the game so seeing Novembers events in volumes 2 and 3 were as Ive said confusing. Second the lack of social links. The most of it you will find is the death arcana one but even still its storyrelated so it wouldnt count as a social link itself. What made this game so great besides its main story are all of the side stories that you can learn from the side characters such as the gamer social link Tanaka which yes he also didnt even appeared here either the old couple etc. Lastly as Ive already mentioned on the beginning of this part there are no Velvet Room events. While for the fusion scenes is justified the fact that it also skipped most of Igors dialogue during the game and all of the Elizabeths events imo the best so far in the game and a shame that she only appears as a background is like a joke. TLDR: straight game story with time skips for the most part. Art: 8 It must be said that the author really catched the Persona artstyle. The grey tones used also makes it good for a better interpretation for example darker tones for the Dark Hour scenes. The chibi style used for some pannels are also good but sometimes feels way too loosed as if theres a need to make it bad on purpose for the scene to be funny. Cover art is also gorgeous so far being 10th and 11st the best imo. This would be the major positive point for the entire manga. Characters: 4 Again this is mostly due to the pacing being horrible most of the time but the cast seems so out place and yes this also include in the game itself not only the adaptation. First of Makoto/Minatos personality doesnt feel good. It seems as the author wanted him to be an edgelord that doesnt give a thing about people but at the same time a timid personality. At times he can be annoying for the reader but towards the end his trait seems to be fixed finally. As for the side characters each of them has their own arc but Yukari and Aigis which for some reason appears the most? While Aigis had their proper character development I cant say the same for Yukari. I cant stand her neither ingame nor this manga. If you are familiar with FESs The Answer part youll know how I feel. Now jumping on to each development arc it has to be said that some of them are fairly short not being more than 2 chapters. Some backstories are so short that you are probably forgetting about it a few chapters later at least 2 characters Ken and Shinji are almost present in this meaning. Even then everyone has the typical backstory: depressive story about how our character lost a loved one be it physically or in terms of being dead. Only exception for this is Fuuka and when I say only shes literally the only one in the entire manga who doesnt have this cliche backstory. Personal enjoyment: 7 As Ive mentioned again again the terrible pacing and characters made it hard to enjoy the reading. Not only that but as someone who bought the whole retail manga 1 by 1 it feels more worth to wait for the game port to come play with emulation/PS2 or just watch the movies instead. 11 volumes are way too much knowing that in the 8th one it enters the final stage basically rushing through the main story and it takes 3 more to ONLY get to The Journey ending. Sogabes extra pannels arent bad but sometimes feels useless with all due respect as I know he might made those for entertainment/commentary purposes I mostly skipped them after volume 5. So overall? A 57/100 roughly 6/10 is the most suited rating for this. Without comparing sources the story is pretty average and its not until the end where things get spiced up. Using the excuse of being an adaptation there could have been parts where it explained more about the personas since thats one of the key parts not only in Persona but in Megaten series as a whole. Seeing the MC who has the ability to make any persona using almost the same ones through the pages it makes the interest fade away and the battles almost predictables in terms of actions. In the end its up to the reader to consider if its worth giving this a shot. With both main game and movies being out there plus some ports that are going to come anytime soon its almost irrelevant to try this. However if you are lazy to finish it or dont like watching anime or if you only want to read main events but as I said youll skip a lot of good moments then you can consider reading it.
57 /100
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