Persona 3 Movie #1: Spring of Birth

I don't know how many people keep up with the Persona franchise, but those that are fans of the games or the Persona 4 anime, you're going to love this. In lieu of its own animated series, Persona 3 is getting a series of movies (the first being called called Spring of Birth).



Based off the information of the game, the setting is a Japanese city called Iwatodai in the year 2009 (two years before the events of Persona 4). It basically follows the same basic principal of Persona 4 (and the other games) in that the world is plagued by "Shadows" and must be purged by "Persona", but this version (as per usual) is slightly different. There is a time of day (starting just after midnight) called "The Dark Hour" in which all "normal" humans in the city are reverted to coffins in which they sleep. However some people are awake during the Dark Hour and can move about freely. These people have been known to posses the power of a Persona (a "true self") that acts as a guardian against the Shadows that also lurk around during the Dark Hour. The story takes place as a group of Persona-users band together to explore the Dark Hour in hopes to uncover the "truth" as the Shadows grow increasingly more malevolent.

You do not need to have any prior knowledge to understand the plot or characters (since they change from game to game, or in this case, animation to animation). This game, in fact, is arguably the first and true explanation of the others.

Japanese Staff
Director: Noriaki Akitaya
Script: Jun Kumagai
Music: Shoji Meguro
Character Design: Keisuke Watabe
Animation Director: Keisuke Watabe
Supervision: Seiji Kishi
Theme Song Performance: Yumi Kawamura

Japanese Cast
Akira Ishida as Makoto Yuki
Hikaru Midorikawa as Akihiko Sanada
Kousuke Toriumi as Junpei Iori
Mamiko Noto as Fuka Yamagishi
Megumi Toyoguchi as Yukari Takeba
Rie Tanaka as Mitsuru Kirijō
Isamu Tanonaka as Igor (special performance)
Miyuki Sawashiro as Elizabeth

Japanese companies
Animation Production: AIC A.S.T.A.
Original Creator: Atlus
Production:
Aniplex
Persona 3 Movie Committee

Sources: ANN and the original site