Persona 5: The Animation - Available now on All 4

Persona 5, released in 2016 as part of the long-running series of role-playing video games developed by Atlus and published by Sega, was a phenomenal critical and commercial success, a multi-million seller and the fastest-selling title in the series which also won a raft of prestigious awards, including Game Of The Year itself at the 2017 Game Awards. For those of us who unfortunately missed out on buzz the first time around though we now have a unique opportunity to join in with the excitement. 

Persona 5: The Animation is an anime retelling the colourful mind-hopping story of the game, where a group of high-schoolers live a double-nightlife as "The Phantom Thieves", saving the day by psychically entering villains' brains and stealing their dark thoughts. It was produced by CloverWorks and A1 Pictures and originally broadcast in 2018. Prior to now we in the UK have only been able to see the prologue adventure "The Day Breakers" released on Blu-Ray from our good friends at Anime Ltd., but now they have teamed up with the Channel 4 streaming service All 4 to make the full television series available for our enjoyment, and it is available to view right now by searching for "animation" on the All 4 search engine. You can find Persona 5: The Animation as part of the anime sub-category under "Animation". Better yet, a whole series of exciting anime action is available to you without costing a penny - unlike the other terrestrial television streaming service of the BBC iPlayer, All 4 does not need a TV License provided you're not watching live shows (which is not a problem for their anime selection) and so is completely free to view in the UK, so there's no reason not to jump right in! 

This release of Persona 5: The Animation is a partial one, including a total of twenty-seven episodes - the original twenty-six serial broadcast episodes plus the special prologue "The Day Breakers". It does not include the two additional "SP" episodes 27 and 28 which form an epilogue to the story, or two extra OVA side-stories "Proof of Justice" and "A Special Valentine's Day" which were made to accompany the original home video release in Japan. Nonetheless, with twenty-seven full episodes available there's still lots to enjoy.

Persona 5: The Animation has an age guidance rating of 16+ from Channel 4 for scenes of violence. It has not yet been reviewed here at the UK Anime Network, so why not tell us what you thought about it on the forums?