Review: PERSONA 5 Manga: Volume 1
For those who love the Persona games, in particular, Persona 5, we are getting a new set of mangas based on the story of Persona 5 the game. For those who don’t know the Persona 5 story, it follows a young man who had just moved to a new school and area because of some trouble that he got caught up in previously. After a short time being there, he is taken on a wild journey to stop both seen and unseen evils while calling on internal powers he did not know about.
Overall, the first Volume is a great start to the tale. Akira is a more unique protagonist being timider and reserved than most while being very thoughtful and driven. The story is obviously good, but I felt that it was a little slow-moving. Also, for those who have already played the game, this may not be worth your time because it is almost beat for beat exactly like the game but just done on-page. This can be both good and bad, but for now, it is something of which to be aware.
The art is great throughout the manga, although maybe one or two more colored pages would have been greatly appreciated, especially because the game is so vibrant and gorgeously colored. The cover is a beautiful splash of reds and blacks, and it is too bad that is all we have here. Like I said before, the game is extremely stylized and pops with color and personality, and a big part of that is lost in the pages of the manga.
It is hard to say who this manga series is for, on the one hand, it would be for fans, but they already know everything that will happen. And on the other hand, people who have never heard of Persona 5 won’t know how good the story gets and how special the Persona series is as a whole by just this volume. I think it is off to a good start, but the buying audience seems to be a little muddled for now.
