A fun adaptation of a well loved video game. I think this book would appeal to fans of the games, but I felt that some character development was lacking a bit for people who may not already be familiar with the characters.

I'm so happy to have this reviewed. I have not read the first 3 volumes of this so this will come from a perspective of someone who finished the game. I like how this was so enjoyable like the game. You can totally see the characters' attitudes here and I was not disappointed. The story can improve a little I still love this. Kudos to the mangaka who drew this also.

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After finding out the truth about the famous painting Sayuri, the Phantom Thieves take on the artist Madarame for all the evil he’s done to his students and victims, especially how much art he has passed off as his own when it was really the hard work of others all along. This high profile change of heart brings more notoriety to the Phantoms, but it’s not all good. Special investigators, the police, the school president, even a mysterious high school student detective have all started to investigate the Thieves. Some believe their intentions to be good, but others wonder what laws they're breaking, and what sort of power they have over their targets to instigate this change of heart in the first place. So far, none suspect there is really another "world" the Phantoms step into to change their targets' hearts.

There are several narrative jumps in this storyline that are usually signaled by a blank white panel with one bubble of dialogue. Even knowing what they look like, the jumps are still confusing at times. There are a couple of characters that may have been flashed to within other volumes that the audience is supposed to remember from one volume to the next, but I am not grasping who they are. I am really glad that there is this other storyline of the investigations going on because I was not seeing the longevity of a storyline hopping from one corrupt adult to another with little storyline happening in the real world. We also get some really good insights in this novel as to Akira's past, so I imagine that will play into things in the future as well.

Sara's Rating; 7/10
Suitability Level: Grades 10-12

Persona 5 Volume 4 from mangaka Hisato Murasaki, published by Viz Media, is an in-depth look at the story of Atlus’s popular Persona 5 video game. The fourth volume, translated into English by Adrienne Beck with touch-up art and lettering from Annaliese “Ace” Christman, picks up in the middle of the Phantom Thieves’ fight with Madarame, the artist who has been plagiarizing works from his students and Yusuke’s former mentor.

Volume 4 includes Chapters 17 through 22, following the end of the group’s conflict with Madarame to their first meeting with Goro Akechi. Yusuke officially joins the Phantom Thieves as a permanent member and Makoto Niijima becomes a key player, investigating the group and their involvement with Kamoshida on behalf of the school’s principal.

Persona 5 Volume 4 nails the characters and their dialogue. Yusuke, especially, shines in the first few chapters of the volume. The conversations between Yusuke and his new friends demonstrate his quirkiness and artistic vision, but also his determination to do the right thing and help those in need.

Similarly, Makoto, who starts to be more important in this volume than she has previously, has key moments of inner dialogue. Readers gain insight into Makoto’s motivations and thought processes, much more than in the original game, as she is essentially forced into helping the principal investigate Joker and his friends. This makes Makoto a much more likeable character off the bat than she is in the video game.

Unlike the dialogue , the art of Vol. 4 starts off weak. Throughout the chapters, as the group navigates high school and the plot centers around character development instead of action, the art is great, highlighting everyone’s quirky personal style and moving the story forward.

In Chapter 17, however, which is the action-heavy Madarame fight, the art is confusing. It’s difficult to tell what’s going on and which character is doing what. Madarame fights using paint, so there are often large, black streaks across the pages to signify his attacks. Unfortunately, the streaks also obscure everything else in the scene. I’m sure this was meant to be the point, since Madarame’s paint weakens the Phantom Thieves. However, when it came to following the battle and what was going on, it made the fight visually unclear, which was frustrating since fighting doesn’t involve much dialogue.

Thematically, Persona 5 Volume 4 emphasizes the goal of the Phantom Thieves – to take down people who abuse their power. The group undergoes quite a bit character development throughout these arcs, enlisting Yusuke as a permanent member in the beginning and deciding to continue their work when threatened by the adults around them. Persona 5 Volume 4 is all about doing the right thing when no one’s looking, even when everyone else is pressuring you to give in.

Overall, Persona 5 Volume 4 is highly dependent on character development and dialogue, managing to nail both of these aspects almost perfectly. While visually the volume can be confusing at times, this set of chapters gives fans much to look forward to as we watch the Phantom Thieves grow in the face of adversity and carry on their mission against the evil, corrupt adults of the world.

Thank you netgalley for providing me an arc of this book.

Persona is a game series that quite famous right now. I've only played Persona 4 and like it greatly. I haven't played Persona 5 but oftenly saw people talk about it on social media. I've been wondering why a lot of people like it and what is this 'pantom thief' about.

This manga summarized the game's plot and I heard it's faithful in following the game's storyline. It is a good starting point to get a glimpse of the story or the atmosphere of the game. It makes me curious about the game and want to try it. I feel that some scenes are rushed, but that's to be expected in adapting 100 hours game into shorter media. Despite that, the artstyle also looking good. I am pretty sure this manga will also be enjoyed as complementary materials by those who had played game.

A wonderful adaptation of the video game with beautiful artwork that stays pretty true to the game. They’ve mainly focused on the main storyline rather than the side characters and quests for the most part so far, but they have some fun little extra short stories about the confidants at the end. Sakura-San and your teacher in this one. I kind of hate the teacher storyline in the game so it’s nice to see it presented differently.

They did change little story points - like they were vague about what caused Yusuke’s mum’s death. In the game is an epileptic fit and in the manga they made it that she had a long term illness.

Otherwise the art is lovely and it’s a nice way to catch up on the game if you didn’t play it or forgot what happened haha. It’s also nice to see the MC talk although not often haha.

I can’t wait for the next manga!

I've never played the Persona video games but they are wildly popular so I decided to give the manga a shot and WOW I can see why it's popular. The story was compelling, but the graphics really drew me in. This is a very well drawn manga because it doesn't focus on patterns or overlays, it's stark contrast in the art and they do a lot of facial close ups so you really feel like you can see the emotions of the characters. I also appreciated that each character is completely different in personality but also looks. I am eager to read the rest but I'll start on this volume's review story-wise. It starts with some action, right off the bat. You see this man who has stolen and changed the last work of an ill artist. Her son is facing him with the Phantoms helping and they eventually defeat him and he repents. This seems to be a pattern where people are overcome with corruption or evil and then the Phantoms are tasked with defeating them in this alternate reality type space (from what I can tell) and then when they defeat the enemy, that person has a change of heart back to their normal selves. The rest of the volume we meet another character the Student Council President who is tasked with investigating this exact scenario happening in her school, the same school our main characters attend. She's definitely on to them but I'm curious what she will do-- will she protect them or turn them in as suspects?

Persona 5, Vol. 4 is a quick, great read for fans of the Persona 5 game. It stayed loyal to the story-line, artwork, and conversation style of the game, which is a huge plus for me. I also personally loved getting to see Carmen in this illustrated version, since she is my favorite Persona/character in the series (though, selfishly, I wish we could have had just a little more of her).

Cons: I believe the message explaining that it "reads from right to left, starting in the upper right corner. Japanese is read from right to left meaning that action, sound effects, and word-balloon order are completely reversed from English order" should be at the beginning - not the very end. While I caught on to the format pretty quickly, it is jarring when you first begin reading if you're used to English comic books/graphic novels. I also believe that compared to the action scenes in the game, the illustrated version's action scenes are a little bit harder to follow, but I think that should be expected to an extent since it is a different medium.

Overall, this was a very good illustrated adaption of the game. I would absolutely suggest this to fans of the series.

Thanks to Netgalley for providing a free ARC. I've been wanting to check out how this worked as a manga.

I started playing Persona 5 earlier this year, beat it, and tore through Royal when that came out as well. Loved the game. So the story is still pretty fresh in my mind and I think this volume did a nice job of faithfully adapting the game. It starts with Madarame's boss battle, then covers the aftermath, the TV station field trip, and Makoto's investigation.

The boss battle was interesting, because that part is the most reliant on the player, but I think the manga did a good job. The attacking party basically stayed with the original four, but Yusuke still got the finishing blow. I'm curious how future volumes will handle the larger party.

The rest of the volume basically followed the game's script. It did a nice job of portraying the pressure Makoto is feeling. Character design is good, though I wish Sae's hair was dark like Makoto's. There's so much screen-tone going on all over that I get why they'd want some characters with empty coloring, but still.

All in all, if you're curious about the Persona 5 story but don't want to play the game, it's looking like the manga is a good substitute so far. I might have to go pick up the earlier volumes now.

Thanks NetGalley for the Arc!

Another good continuation to this series. I especially like the chapter from Makoto's perspective. The big drawback is that the art seems to have taken a step back in this issue. It's not bad, but linework seems to be unfinished or faint, which wasn't an issue I noticed with previous volumes.

(8/14/2020) Thank you to Netgalley for an e-ARC!
I am an avid fan of Persona 5 and this manga was very faithful to the game! My only complaint is that the action is very difficult to translate into a manga so it was hard to follow. Also when the characters would say oh my "gawd" (I get why but it's still odd to see how often it came up). I love the art style though and I love that Akira actually has dialogue. I really like how certain characters look (Goro and Morgana to name a few). A very faithful manga adaptation of a fantastic game. :)