Thursday 5 January 2012

Persona 4: The Animation - Episode 13

After a break for the New Year, Persona 4: The Animation returns just in time for... another break, this time in the form of a summer break for Narukami and company.

Not that our protagonist seems to have any intention of using the summer and the apparent resolution of the town's murders for some rest and relaxation - instead, we see a decidedly tired and listless Yuu leaving the house early every day and returning late at night looking even more exhausted.  Exactly what is he doing - does he have a girlfriend?  Narukami is quick to scotch such rumours, but who knows the real truth.


Frustrated by her surrogate big brother's constant disappearances, young Nanako decides to fashion herself upon a popular TV magical girl detective and do some investigating... and no, that doesn't mean she cosplays as anyone from Tantei Opera Milky Holmes, before you get confused.  With her relevant garb, Nanako sets off to tail Narukami, only to find herself distracted or otherwise unable to keep up with him more often than not.  When she does finally manage to seemingly catch him "in the act", he's being bossed around by a girl, thus confirming the suspicions that he has a girlfriend, although further investigation shows that this isn't the case and throws even more confusion upon the question of what he's up to.  Still, as the summer ends all seems to be well, as Yuu returns to his usual self just in time to celebrate with Nanako and his friends.

With next week set aside to explain Narukami's mysterious whereabouts, it looks like we're all set for a double-header of filler content here exploring these summer travails.  Then again, although I'd rather have started the year with something a little more substantial I can't pretend to have been too dismayed by this episode in general - it had some wonderful moments of comedy that at least helped to pass the time quite nicely in the absence of any other real tension, and it's the show's comedy that still gives me my biggest kick out of watching Persona 4 for the most part.  If part two of this small arc can bring us something a little deeper to offset the relative fluffiness of this episode, I'll be content with it overall.

No comments: