It's no secret that making anime openings is hard. For as much as anime fans clown on the usual "anime opening tropes" I want to believe that they have the self-awareness to know that successfully summarizing a 12/24 episode show in a 90 second sequence is no easy feat.
Now I believe that trying to make a video game anime opening is even harder. The length can vary wildly: you could be working with a 20+ hour game at the minimum or maybe even 100+ hour at the absolute most. That's more material to adapt in such short time, making most of them feel even more overly bloated or aimless in comparison to TV.
Not the case with Persona though.
P3-5 have a generational run of phenomenal openings! All created by brilliant artists and each of them with their own specific perspective to the game's subject matter. Persona 3 has Yukio Takatsu creating the coolest minimalist melancholy imagery with very little animation-- and with barely any time!
Sayo Yamamoto's P5 OP is effortlessly cool and stylish without trying hard to be any of those things. Yamamoto herself is just a very stylish chick by nature-- but her ideas on coolness are more novel. The Phantom Thieves effortlessly skating throughout the city and turning it into their playground as an act of defiance is an idea that could only be born out of her brain.
Persona 4 OPs lacks a definitive throughline compared to the others. Takatsu truly etched his soul into P3, handling nearly all of the animated sequences for them too-- and even after his departure the P3R opening still tries to emulate his groundwork, P5 is similar as well. P4 varies things up from an opening to opening basis. While there are reoccurring themes and symbols: TVs, glasses, powerlines, that bright bold yellow.. But no two openings are alike! Susumu Nishizawa's first opening is great, but then Atsuko Ishizuka's take is so radically different, and still very much a one of a kind.
Bright, poppy, and joyfully surreal! Taking the idea of "the fun will never end" and pushing it to such creative extremes through having everything loop. The most obvious being the opening starting in the same place it ends, but also how the Investigation Team dances in their introductions. The way they neatly loop into each other like gifs, tying into that central idea of never-ending fun.
Persona 4 Dancing All Night's OP is another fav of mine, and one that deserves a ton more love! Storyboarded, directed, and solo animated by Norimitsu Suzuki; he's been soloing EDs for decades now-- and even for shows airing right now! Though he usually likes to go undercover as he's never credited for his work. The only reason why we know he solo'd the DAN op is because a composite director at Studio BONES ratted him out!
He's all about bringing characters to life with an uncanny approach to volume, you wouldn't be wrong for mistaking his animation for CG at times-- the perfect candidate for your game all about your cast busting some moves.
I'll admit the dancing at the start is pretty rough. The cycles are incredibly rough and don't flow well at all, and definitely not in purposeful way. But I still appreciate the variety in each character's style. The opening really starts to ramp up with Kanji's breakdancing, the most complex set of moves and Suzuki nails it flawlessly!
The climax where everyone comes together to get one last move in is the best piece of animation and is more indicative of Suzuki's usual traits. I don't doubt that the animation is referenced to some degree, he's no stranger to that in his works after all.
But an animator of his skill doesn't need to be overly reliant on it, and his three-dimensional style inherently lends well into this approach in the first place. The motion's very solid and precise with just the right amount of exaggeration and looseness-- Love those smears!
The P3D/P5D openings are also a fun time, but they're lacking in the variety and spontaneity Suzuki's opening is overflowing with. A big part part of that being the dancing overly literal with the referencing from CG models. Obviously it's not that referencing is bad thing, but I prefer when there's some level of subjectivity and interpretation rather than a full one-to-one, but we all can't be as cool as Norimitsu Suzuki!
Persona openings are great at capturing the essence of each game rather than trying to summarize it. Many other openings feel like they're going off a check-list: Introducing the characters, trying to cram in as many plotpoints as possible, and forcing in a big clash between random enemies or the main villain... but the franchise's fortunate enough to have artists who can execute that approach elegantly, or throw it out the window entirely to just do their own thing!
Though the cutscenes in the main game themselves still leaves much to be desired. Would kill for a more holistic approach like Takatsu for P3 with P6, but we'll see. I'm still very excited see what names pop up in P4R and in P6.
Not a day goes by where I desperately wish for Tokuyuki Matsutake to return to the franchise as the anime designer for a mainline game again. Though if I had to go for a fresher take I would go with Iori Hisatake instead.
She can flawlessly emulate Matsutake's style..
It's clear that she respects him, but she doesn't chain herself to his style. Her pieces where she's doing more of her own thing are striking and beautiful and expressive... Got that emotional range the Akira Matsushima designs, and Ufotable's design sense in general, lacks these days.
Hell, she even drew a Matsushima design in her own style too! Dope and beautiful:
I just want tales to have some flavor again.
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