PERSONA 5 the Animation – Special Event “The Attic Meeting Of Cafe Le Blanc”

Persona, is a video game franchise developed and primarily published by Atlus. Focusing around a series of role-playing video games, Persona is a spin-off from Atlus’ Megami Tensei franchise, and was originally based on the high school setting of Shin Megami Tensei If…. The first entry in the series, Revelations: Persona, was released in 1996. There have since been five further main titles, with the most recent, Persona 5, being released in 2016. Numerous spin-offs have also been developed. The series takes its title from beings summoned by characters in battle, manifesting from their personality. Since the release of Persona 3 in 2006, the main series has used a social simulation function called Social Links, which is directly linked to how Personas evolve. Its overall theme is exploration of the human psyche and how the characters find their true selves. The series’ recurring concepts and design elements draw on Jungian psychology and archetypes, along with religion, mythology, and popular literature.

Persona 5 is a role-playing video game developed by Atlus for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4. Persona 5 is chronologically the sixth installment in the Persona series, which is part of the larger Megami Tensei franchise. It was released in Japan in September 2016, and worldwide in April 2017, where it was published by Atlus in Japan and North America and by Deep Silver in Europe and Australia. Persona 5 takes place in modern-day Tokyo, and follows a player-named protagonist after his transfer to the fictional Shujin Academy after being put on probation for an assault of which he was falsely accused. During the course of a school year, he and other students awaken to their Persona powers, becoming a group of secret vigilantes known as the Phantom Thieves of Hearts who explore the Metaverse, a supernatural realm consisting of the physical manifestation of humanity’s subconscious desires, to change malevolent intent from the hearts of adults. As with previous titles in the series, the party does battle with enemies known as Shadows using physical manifestations of their psyche, called Personas. The game incorporates role-playing and dungeon crawling elements alongside social simulation scenarios.

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 part of the Persona 20th anniversary festival project. The anime premiered just before the release of the actual game in Japan in September 3, 2016. In commemorate of 1 year anniversary of this OVA, Atlus made a special event on July 30, 2017 with guest appearances from Persona5 seiyuu. Kojacon team is very happy to attend this event and share the report to all of you!

The special event is titled “The Attic Meeting of Cafe Leblanc” which held at Tokyo University of Technology Kamata Campus. So let’s move forward and welcome our guests today!

Jun Fukuyama as Shujinkou
Mamoru Miyano as Ryuji Sakamoto
Tomokazu Sugita as Yuusuke Kitagawa
Ikue Ootani as Morgana
Rina Satou as Makoto Niijima
Haruka Tomatsu as Haru Okumura
Aoi Yuuki as Futaba Sakura
Souichirou Hoshi as Gorou Akechi

Anisong Artist : Lyn

Unfortunately today Nana Mizuki (cast of Anne Takamaki) is absence. But the event still, very exciting with other cast appearance and also opening & ending song performance by Lyn. As usual, this kind of event will contain story talk, oroginal afureko, and also game corner! Story talk and original afureko is made by Anne’s absence, how smart! LOL. First corner “Surprise for Anne” is about Mementos suggested Anne to have a swimsuit for an audition. Original afureko is started with 8 persona member wanted to give birthday surprise for Anne, which is her most-wanted item “swimsuit”. But the swimsuit was stolen and the thief had to be found. During the opening, in preparation for the grand present plan, everyone was talking over each other but Shujinkou barely spoke and was too silent so he was teased a lot by Ryuuji. The event had begun with this silent shouting, ‘It’s show time!’ The venue instantly got more fired up. Then Lyn gave a concert with her dynamic singing voice. This time, she performed the three songs, ‘Last Surprise’, ‘Life will change’, and ‘Wake up, Get up, Get out There’ twice. The stand-up concert was exciting from start to finish. First song was “Last Surprise”

After the first song finished, all cast returned to the stage. Shujinkou waved his hand, Ryuji blew kisses, Morgana elegantly came onstage, Yuusuke wore a fox mask, Makoto beautifully made her entrance, Futaba resembled a model as she returned, Haru joked around with sexy gestures, and Gorou Akechi struck a mysterious pose. Each cast member showed their individuality as they lined up onstage. Many fans must be realized that it was impossible not to have a good time with these cast members. They talking about how fast time flies it’s been a year from first time Persona5 is released and also 2 years passed after they finished recording. Then our Shujinkou (which not given name yet) said that he is the only cast who takes recording with a few lines on script. While Haru and Makoto were blabbering a lot in respond to Shujinkou LOL.

By the way, the dress code of the event was semi-formal. Yuusuke was in joke-mode from the beginning saying that the Phantom Thieves’s (semi) formal means masks drawing laughter from the audience. He also the one who made the most ad-lib improvement along the story talk LOL. Partway through, original afureko continued to the part where Anne’s birthday present is stolen! Then Akechi came and said “everyone here might be the culprit”. All cast members were subjected to a psychology test centered on ‘suggestive swimsuits’. So, all cast should guess which swimsuit is suitable for Anne from the available 4 model of swimsuits. Then there will be an explanation from the chosen model related to their depth psychology. It could be their motive to steal the present LOL. The result is separated into 3 patterns. First explanation “quick to make an acceptable decision when needed” is chosen by Ryuuji, Morgana, and Yuusuke. Second explanation “looks like need attention in the silent situation” is chosen by Futaba, Makoto, and Akechi. Last explanation “more sensitive than normal human sensitivity, better to take self-advantage and avoid scary thoughts” is answered by Shujinkou and Haru.

Regarding the options, some of casts are agreeing the explanation when it applies into the real life. They’re keep saying “I see” or “that’s correct!” LOL. But then the conversations about the stolen swimsuit were going to nowhere until time-out bell was ringing. Then story talk in original afureko is continued. Everyone tried to find the culprit. Akechi started telling his hypothesis and informed any possible motives which might be happened. But since there were not enough evidence, their discussion couldn’t meet the conclusion. So the culprit must be decided by playing the next game! Eight cast members again, should participated in game corner, which is mini janken tournament, with “acchi muite hoi!” rules inside. The character played by the cast member who lost the tournament was the thief. Since no one knows who will be the winner on  this game, there’s so much excitement from the audience and also from all cast.

First round winner are Ryuuji, Makoto, Futaba, and Morgana. The most interesting facial express from Shujinkou and Ryuuji VS Haru when they were doing janken just made the laugh exploded from the venue hall. Then continued to the next round battle are Shujinkou, Yuusuke, Haru, and Akechi. Fortunately, Shujinkou and Haru won the janken battle. So last round is only for Yuusuke VS Akechi. Last battle was very intense, some draws and rebattle since both side didn’t want to lose as a culprit for sure.

Finally at the end of mini janken tournament, Akechi who didn’t win even one round, was defeated by narrow margin, So “Akechi” route is open automatically. From the available 8 routes, Akechi took his own route script while everyone were runaway to backstage quickly and left Akechi by himself on stage. To think that the person who suggested searching for the thief would end up being the thief himself.  Then he finally admit it “Yes! I’m the culprit. The high school detective, Goro Akechi is the one who did it! Laugh!! Everyone laugh!!” His marvelous acting also got the fans pumped up.

Following Lyn was coming out again for closing performance. She brought up 2 songs “Life Will Change” and “Wake Up, Get Up, Get Out There” energetically. As soon as the hall turned into red, audience waving out their penlight to the air and sing along together.Lyn were having a small chitchat on stage, explained about the idea of Persona5’s soundtrack. For the last part story talk and original afureko, all cast returned to stage to finished the birthday party. While they were gathered and ready to celebrate it, actually Ryuuji was wrong about Anne’s birthday! So they just watched the DVD which they received from Anne.

At the end of the event, the words ‘New Project’ were displayed onscreen. The familiar phrase, ‘They will steal the world’, was played and the 2018 TV anime adaptation was announced. Shouts of excitement and thunderous applause enveloped the venue. The main cast will be the same as the original game and the studio with be A-1 Pictures, who have worked on various Persona series works. The cast also seemed very happy and sent messages to the fans, ‘As you will understand from watching today’s event, this is just a taste of how exciting the TV series will be.’ ‘I want to meet everyone at the next event.’ ‘Friends are a great thing~.’ ‘In any case, we’ll talk again.’‘It is hard to receive hearts so please treat us well’.

Persona 5 is a game popular worldwide, having sold more than 1.5 million copies. When the anime special Persona 5 the Animation -The Day Breakers- was released in September 2016, expectations for a TV anime adaptation piled up. The work depicts a magnificent story set in the metropolis of Tokyo and features the main characters who are regular high school students by day and members of the Phantom Thieves by night. We can’t wait for 2018. We are looking forward to the TV anime and the future ‘too exciting’ events. Don’t forget to watch Persona5 Anime next summer! See you in the next event!

PHOTO CREDIT TO:
Animate Times