ANIME MONDAY: Persona 4 The Animation – “Although the Case Was Closed” Review


Previously on Persona 4:

Yu & company went on the annual school trip and had a bit more fun than they expected, but they also got a closer look at the illusive Naoto Shirogane. Spoilers Ahead.

Naoto (Mary Elizabeth McGlynn) appears on T.V. in order to share his thoughts on the supposed “closed” serial murder case. Encountering Yu (Johnny Yong Bosch) & his friends outside of school the next day, he takes the group to a secluded are so they can go over the case once again. Naoto shares his theories with the group and goes on his way, that same night Naoto appears on the Midnight Channel and the investigation team goes in to save him.

As evident by the summary this episode is all about Naoto. He still has hang ups about the case and as to be expected his worries are very real. He first tells the group that he first suspected them of being the killers since there was a huge gap in time between the second and third murders which was when Yukiko, Kanji, & Rise were targeted. He then throws out the idea when he realized that with each person saved a new ally was added to the cause of solveing the case. He finally shares that while Saki & Ms. Yamano showed no cause of death, Mr. Morooka’s cause of death was clearly severe blunt force trauma to the head. This raises a lot of questions to whether the case is solved and prompted Naoto to test the groups TV theory.

Now here is a major spoiler (for those who haven’t played the game or watched the anime) Naoto…IS  A GIRL! I’m going to let that sink in for minute before I continue…ok that’s enough. It is revealed by Naoto’s shadow inside the TV that he is indeed a she. Her shadow prods at the fact that Naoto wishes to become a man so people would take her seriously as a detective and not cast her aside like a child (which is why her shadow wears a surgeons coat and her dungeon looks like a secret hideout). She just wants to be acknowledged because she’s good at what she does, not because of her gender or age.

Kanji (Matthew Mercer) gets some mild development when the episode takes a small detour. After getting a call from the hospital telling him his mother was seen, Kanji & Yu race to see her. When it is revealed that she took someone else there, Kanji get’s mad a storms off. In the show it is used as a parallel to Naoto’s reckless behavior (Kanji has a crush on her) but in the game this scnes is used to tell that Kanji’s father died when he wasn’t around and he feared the same thing would happen to his mom. Yukiko (Amanda Winn-Lee) also gives a look inside the town when she comments that the people act like they are afraid of something (this will be important later).

“Although the Case Was Closed” was a pretty decent episode that gives more character development as well as some surprising revelations. It re-introduces the fact that the case s far from either and the team needs to hurry and solve it. The investigation continues next week as Yu & the others try to save Naoto.

4/5