Will Persona 5 Royal get an anime adaptation? Explained

With the increasing amount of Persona content being announced, fans are speculating whether a Persona 5 Royal anime is also around the corner or not. The Phantom Thieves of Hearts have already given the fans of the series a calling card in 2018, inviting them to watch Persona 5: Animation. However, according to many fans, the anime adaptation simply didn’t work out for various reasons.

Developed by P-Studio, Atlus, the popular JRPG Persona 5 game was originally released on September 15, 2016, on PS3/PS4, in Japan, and worldwide in April 2017. A definitive edition containing a new semester, new characters, and other quality-of-life enhancements was later released on PS4 on October 31, 2019, titled, Persona 5 Royal.

Since the base Persona 5 anime adaptation was released on April 7, 2018, in Japan, fans still believe that there’s a chance for the Persona 5 Royal anime adaptation as well. This is not the consensus of all fans, though, as some believe there is little likelihood that Persona 5 Royal will be animated.

The Phantom Thieves may have a chance to return in Persona 5 Royal anime

We have:
– Persona 5
– Persona 5 Royal
– Persona 5 Strikers
– Persona 5 Dancing in Starlight
– Persona 5 Animation
– Persona 5 The Phantom X

And right now we are missing P5R Anime and P5 Arena. It would be nice if we got one of them before P6 comes around. 🙏🏼✨ pic.twitter.com/Uo1LEPl0Br

— Edo 🍃 (@EdoNinjaZ) May 17, 2023

Even though Persona 5 JRPG game was one of the pathbreaking installments in the Persona franchise, the same cannot be said about the anime adaptation. The Persona 5: Animation series, under the production of CloverWorks, couldn’t really capture the essence of the game.

Persona 5's anime makes me rethink my life sometimes from how bad the animation is pic.twitter.com/32mmg6yQuQ

— Nitro (@TheMegaNitro_1) April 13, 2023

Persona 5 the animation is so bad 😭 it looks so rushed

— Jas 🌙¹² (@yeojinconverse) January 16, 2023

Directed by Masashi Ishihama and written by Shinichi Inotsume, Persona: 5 Animation lacked several factors that made the game a popular one. For example, many fans didn’t like the animation, calling it even an abomination. Despite the brilliance displayed by the voice actors, the overall anime wasn’t up to the mark.

On this note, it wasn’t the first time that a Persona game had been adapted. Previously, Persona 4 game by Atlus was also produced as an anime by AIC ASTA studio, under the direction of Seiji Kishi, in 2011. Though there are differences in opinion and skepticism over the animation, it managed to do justice to the overall game as much as an anime adaptation could do.

Similarly, Persona 3 was also adapted into four movies titled, Spring of Birth, Midsummer Knight’s Dream, Falling, and Winter of Rebirth. However, the anime adaptation of Persona 5: Animation didn’t do justice to the game, as it had a lackluster animation quality and an overall rushed plot, quite similar to how Persona 4 The Golden animation turned out.

Of course, it’s not possible to completely adapt an over 100-hour game into 26 episodes. However, the series lacked the essence that made Phantom Thieves so popular worldwide. The side characters were barely fleshed out, and the animation of the All-Out-Attack was also flat and unimpressive. That’s why, many fans believe the chances of an anime adaptation of Persona 5 Royal are slim.

Persona 5 Royal may still get an anime adaptation in the near future

Comment by u/SparkNorkx from discussion Would you want to see a Persona 5 Royal animation? Why or why not? in Persona5

The next couple of years will surely bring lots of wonderful events and news for all the Persona fans. Therefore, there’s no reason to completely brush off the possibility of Persona 5 Royal animation. However, if the announcement does come shortly, the devoted fans of the series would definitely want better animation quality.