Persona 5 The Animation The Day Breakers

Persona 5 The Animation The Day Breakers is a 30-minute single-episode anime adaptation of Persona 5. The anime uses the same characters and settings as inspiration and is part of the Persona 20th anniversary festival project. The anime premiered just before the release of the actual game in Japan on September 3, 2016.
==Characters==
*Protagonist / The Phantom: The game's main character: a delinquent moonlighting as a gentleman thief. He wears a bird mask and uses knives and handguns in combat. His Persona is Arsène, after the literary gentleman thief of the same name. His civilian name is never called in the entire anime, and instead addressed as "leader" or his thief code name, "Joker."
*Morgana: A shape-shifting cat-like creature that meets the protagonist at the start of the game and joins him in his heists; he has some sort of connection to Mementos and will play a key role in the story. He wields cutlasses and slingshots. His Persona is Zorro, after the literary outlaw.
*Ryuji Sakamoto: A boy with dyed blonde hair who attends the protagonist's school, and joins him in his heists. He wears a skull mask and wields bludgeons and shotguns as weapons. His Persona is Captain Kidd, after the notorious privateer-turned-pirate.
*Ann Takamaki: A blonde quarter-American girl in the protagonist's homeroom, who joins him in his heists. She wears a panther mask and uses whips and sub-machine guns. Her Persona is Carmen, after the heroine of the novella of the same name.
*Yusuke Kitagawa: A blue haired art student dressed in a white uniform. He wears a fox mask and uses katanas and rifles. His Persona is Goemon, after the legendary Japanese bandit.
*Igor: The caretaker of the Velvet Room.
*Kazuya Makigami: Also called "Makki" (a contraction of his surname), he is a delinquent who acts as the anime's main antagonist.
==Profile==
===Persona 5 The Animation The Day Breakers===
The anime's opening scenes follow Kazuya Makigami, a delinquent and the reluctant leader of a small-time gang of thieves: the gang use insider jobs at a security firm to find out the security of restaurants and rob them. In the aftermath of a successful heist, he finds the Ask-A-Thief Channel, the means by which the Phantom Thieves of Hearts receive requests from the public. He contemplates asking them to bring down his gang.
The Phantom Thieves receive a message, part of which hints that the sender is in fear of their life. They decide to take up the request: the protagonist follows Kazuya to a meeting with the gang, where the two key members have been made redundant, and must find new equivalent employment. All of this is overhead by Morgana: the Phantom Thieves have resolved that they are the only way of preventing further crimes related to their request. They then set up a sting, leaking the details of an easy hit, tricking the gang into arriving at Sojiro Sakura's Café Leblanc. The protagonist has already installed an alarm system, and the Thieves leave a calling card which causes Kazuya distress. The gang is forced to run, and Kazuya is in a state of panic, as he never actually sent a message to the Ask-A-Thief Channel.
The Phantom Thieves go into action, with Kazuya's Shadow being drawn into Mementos to be confronted by them. It is then revealed that the request was posted by Kazuya's younger brother Naoya. Naoya had become the focus of physical abuse by Kazuya, as the latter vented his stress at leading the gang. Confronted by the Phantom Thieves, Kazuya snaps and transforms into the demon Mithras, ranting that he is the only person that matters, making everyone else subhuman in his eyes. The Phantom Thieves, after a tough battle, manage to subdue Kazuya, as the fight has given him a vent for his frustration and arrogance. The protagonist puts his Shadow form to rest, purging the arrogance from Kazuya's heart and hearing his last request to them: give the key of his drawer to Naoya, and tell him to burn what he finds.
Back in the real world, with his arrogance gone, Kazuya breaks down in tears, shouting out his and the gang's guilt to the people around. The neighborhood gathers to prevent the gang escaping until the police arrive. Just before Kazuya is taken away, he sees the protagonist in the crowd, though he does not consciously recognize him. Also watching is Goro Akechi, who is investigating the Phantom Thieves' activities. Meanwhile, Morgana delivers the key and a written message to Naoya: inside the drawer, Naoya finds a photo of Kazuya and Naoya when they were children, with Naoya having just received a gold medal for kendo. The Phantom Thieves, victorious, then set out on an even bigger heist against a bank-themed Palace.
At the anime's conclusion, the protagonist appears in his cell in the Velvet Room, where Igor reveals that the entire experience was a glimpse of a possible future, then asks him his name before the screen cuts to black.
==Connection to the Game==
The events depicted in the anime are based on the Mementos request in the game, titled "Phantom Thieves vs Burglary Ring." While the corresponding event in the game is not as elaborate as the anime, Kazuya Makigami appears as the heist target of the Phantom Thieves of Hearts. Morgana comments that leaving Kazuya's gang at large will leave a taint in the Phantom Thieves' reputation. Shadow Kazuya Makigami indeed takes Mithras' form and summons Oni and Onmoraki to aid him in battle. The major inconsistency with the anime is that Café Leblanc is never used as a bait to confirm their crime because the Phantom Thieves do not want to cause any trouble to Sojiro Sakura, and conclude that the café is too shabby to be the bait.
== Gallery ==
File:PERSONA5 THE ANIMATION - THE DAY BREAKERS - DVD package visual by Shigenori Soejima.png|Persona 5 The Animation The Day Breakers DVD package visual by Shigenori Soejima
Category:Animation
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Category:Persona 5 The Animation
Category:Persona 5 The Animation The Day Breakers