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Persona 3 is a manga adaption of the game Persona 3, written and illustrated by Shūji Sogabe.
Overview[]
Happy with the success of Persona 3, Atlus commissioned a manga adaptation to be made the year following the game's release, in 2007, and control of it was handed over to Shūji Sogabe, who went on to also handle the Persona 4 manga which started in 2009. Because of this, the Persona 3 manga took a backseat and was only periodically updated, suffering from a laborious publication. Nevertheless, the series reached its conclusion on January 21st 2017, totaling 11 volumes. The manga was published by Udon Entertainment in the United States. The manga jumps between multiple points in the chronology, in order
Each volume is referred to as a "Chapitre", which is French for Chapter. Each individual chapter is referred to as a "Piece" and given a French name. The protagonist is named Minato Arisato (有里湊). The manga adapts only the story of Persona 3, and doesn't feature any elements from either Persona 3 Portable or the post-game plot of The Answer.
Differences from the game[]
- Certain changes are consistent throughout the entire manga, such as Minato taking his own decisions and being shown talking to the different characters. Dialogue is often shortened to fit the manga format or to help with the pacing.
- Minato does not summon multiple Personas like in the game. The only Personas he summons are Orpheus, Thanatos, and Messiah.
Chapitre 1[]
- The manga starts in November, during the Arcana Hanged Man fight.
- During the fight, Minato loses his sword and borrows Junpei's weapon in order to finish off the Shadow.
- Personas are also never seen during the fight up until the end when Minato summons Thanatos, in order to keep the mystery until Minato's awakening is shown.
- During the fight, Minato loses consciousness, and flashes back to his arrival at Tatsumi Port Island and at the Iwatodai dorm, when he signs the contract Pharos gave him.
- After the fight is over, the manga then skips to the day Ryoji joins Gekkoukan.
- It also briefly follows three female students who are investigating Minato. They ask Junpei to recreate scenarios in which Minato was seen, mostly of the latter eating comically large amounts of food. The three students then interrogate Yukari, upon which the manga jumps back to the day Minato arrived at Port Island.
- Minato is seen listening to the original version of Burn my Dread, instead of the Last Battle arrangement like in the opening cutscene of Persona 3.
- There are no instances shown of Yukari trying to use an Evoker, akin to the first cutscene of the game.
- When a random citizen gets overtaken by a shadow during the Dark Hour on April 7th, his transformation is shown behind a voice-over by Shuji.
- Akihiko is shown killing a shadow.
- Minato is transported to the Velvet Room before awakening his Persona.
- Minato wears pajamas when sleeping, and he is seen changing back to his normal outfit when Yukari barges into his room because of an attacking shadow.
- Yukari gives Minato a knife to defend himself against the Arcana Magician.
- Pharos indirectly shows Minato how to use an Evoker to summon a Persona.
- Much like in the first movie adaptation, Thanatos emerges after Orpheus' own attacks failed to do significant damage on the Arcana Magician where in this case, point-blank sonic wave. The Arcana Magician also manages to stab Orpheus in the shoulder.
Chapitre 2[]
- Bits of Yukari's internal monologue are shown as she struggles to use an Evoker to summon her Persona.
- When Pharos appears to Minato, he directly asks the latter: "Can you do it?"
- After killing the first Full Moon shadow, Pharos appears to him in his room when Minato falls unconscious.
- Minato wakes up on the 17th, whereas he does so on the 19th in the game.
- Minato doesn't answer when asked if he believes a day has more than 24 hours; in the game, he is given a choice to answer.
- During S.E.E.S' first trip to Tartarus, Junpei separates himself from the group by mistake due to not attentive to Mitsuru's warnings about its infrastructure and gets attacked by a shadow, which he defeats on his own despite her orders to retreat.
- Yukari gets attacked by another Shadow, prompting Minato to jump in to protect her. He trips on a small pebble during the attempt, much to his embarrassment, despite the accident saving him from the full brunt of said Shadow's assault and only receiving a tiny scratch on the shoulder which Yukari heals.
- Junpei and Yukari get extended Persona awakenings for their first summon.
- The manga skips to the evening on May 9th for the fight against the Arcana Priestess. Minato is not shown going to school, nor are any of the discussions that he has with his schoolmates.
- Junpei and Minato are shown without their school uniform, wearing more casual clothes before being sent to the station.
- Mitsuru and Akihiko have their argument about Akihiko staying at the dorm before Yukari, Junpei and Minato arrives.
- Junpei has a short internal monologue about his feelings on Minato being the field leader.
- When the monorail door closes, Junpei says they "got his fingers" and that they're all jacked up.
- Junpei is shown dashing to the front of the train, killing the shadows in his path. During this, he has another interior monolgue, before Yukari catches up with him. Minato and her going through the train and battling shadows is not shown.
- Mitsuru gives a short explanation about how using one's Persona too much tires the user out.
- The trio faces the Arcana Priestess with only 1 minute left before collision, whereas in the game they had 5 minutes left.
- There is an intermission jumping to November 10th, where Junpei, Minato and Ryoji play different games at an arcade, including a train simulator, where Minato horribly crashes the train in a very graphic fashion, paralleling the end of the Arcana Priestess fight on the train. Though it is only strongly implied and not actually shown happening. Aigis then catches up with the group, and the 4 of them has lunch at a restaurant, where Minato eats a comically tall burger.
Chapitre 3[]
- There is a cryptic teaser with Fuuka hearing an horrifying voice calling to her at the beginning of Piece 8.
- The manga skips to May 23rd, after the exams, when Shinjiro and Akihiko meet up.
- The manga skips once again to May 30th, when a girl from 2-E was found collapsed in front of the school gates.
- Junpei doesn't call himself an "ace detective", and as such Yukari doesn't call him an "ace defective".
- It skips once more to June 1st, for Junpei's "Believe it Or Don't". Kenji makes a cameo appearance.
- After Shinji punches the thug, he makes a threat, but backpedals after getting a menacing look from Shinji.
- After Mitsuru interrogates Natsuki, the manga cuts to Akihiko being separated from the rest of the group in Tartarus, then jumps back to 6 hours prior.
- Minato is seen killing shadows in their form seen in Tartarus in Persona 3 outside of battles.
- When Pharos re-introduces himself to Minato, Minato briefly sees Pharos' original form as Death.
Chapitre 4[]
- Mitsuru's past from The Answer is shown.
- When Mitsuru awakens her Persona, Penthesilea was shown defeating a Shadow. In the game, her Persona was briefly shown, and a bright light defeated it.
- It also reveals her past took place somewhere in 2001, whereas in the game, the year and date remained unknown.
- The July operation has been cut short and is only shown as a flashback.
- During the shower scene plays it differently in the game:
- Minato had already come back to his senses while Yukari was still under the Arcana Lover's influence. As she was about to wrap her arms around Minato, she regained her senses and slapped Minato in embarrassment.
- Another shower scene is shown where Akihiko and Junpei were paired together. Akihiko was disgusted and shocked to see half-naked Junpei. When brainwashed Junpei was about to jump on Akihiko, he punched him hard.
- The Arcana Hierophant boss fight was cut.
- During the shower scene plays it differently in the game:
- Yukari manages to defeated Arcana Lovers on her own.
- Yukari's past from The Answer is shown to have taken place on March 7, 2009. In the game, the date and year of her past remains unknown.
- Mitsuru does not join the others to have fun at the beach in Yakushima.
- After Minato manages to calm down Yukari after finding out her father is responsible for the Dark Hour, they almost kiss before Junpei interrupts.
- The group photo on November 4 has been changed. It shows Akihiko punching Junpei for annoying him, Yukari getting annoyed by Junpei, and Minato doing a peace sign behind Ken.
- Koromaru does not accompany SEES to Tartarus as Junpei told him to stay and guard the dorm. However, he decides to save SEES from Ikutsuki and brainwashed Aigis. He summons Cerberus to stop Ikutsuki and uses his weapon to free Mitsuru's father.
- The hot spring incident plays it differently. Mitsuru's execution is literally freezing them with her Persona's ice spell, which she used on the guys.
Chapitre 5[]
- Takaya summons his Persona in front of SEES during the July operation.
- Yukari has a hard time summoning Io due to questioning her resolve.
- Shjnjiro rejoins SEES on August 9th instead of September.
- In the game, the protagonist has the option to choose one of the girls to spend time at the summer festival. In the manga, it implies Minato chooses to hang out with Akihiko.
- Junpei meets Chidori during the summer festival.
- During the September operation, Ken faces the Arcana Hermit alone until Shinjiro arrives just in time to save him.
- When Shinjiro summons Castor to finish off Arcana Hermit, Ken recognizes the Persona and realizes the one who kill his mother was Shinjiro.
- When Chidori loses control over her Persona, instead of Shinjiro force-feeding her one of the suppressors, he injects her with a serum that contains a liquid form of the suppressors.
- When Akihiko recalls back ten years ago to when he failed to save his sister, Miki, a flashback is shown to when Akihiko and Shinjiro were kids.
- During a typhoon, Shinjiro gives Minato and Ken towels to dry themselves from the rain, but Ken ejects Shinjiro's offer.
- Phaos visits Minato in his dreams due to having a fever from the rain.
- The October operation plays very differently than the game:
- Junpei and Aigis do not participate in the operation due to Junpei wanting to see Chidori, while Aigis decides to accompany him (mainly to keep an eye on Chidori).
- Akihiko ditches fighting the Arcana Fortune and Arcana Strength halfway through to find Shinjiro and Ken after he realizes it is October 4th, the day Ken's mother died.
- The flashback from two years ago is shown. Shinjiro killed Mrs. Amada's Shadow out of self-defense when Ken's mother's Shadow was about to kill Ken. Mrs. Amada's shadow was a target for the operation, he didn't know about it until it was too late. In the game, Shinjiro lost control of his Persona and accidentally killed Ken's mother.
- Ken slashes Shinjiro on the left side of his face when he warns him about taking a life. In the game, Ken does not harm Shinjiro for angering him.
- Akihiko witnesses Shinjiro sacrifice himself to protect Ken from Takaya. Blinded by rage, Akihiko summons his Persona to attack Takaya.
- The rest of SEES, who are still fighting the two Arcana shadows, aren't present when Shinjiro dies from his fatal injuries. Akihiko and Ken are the only ones to witness Shinjiro's demise.
Chapitre 6[]
- In the flashback to the November operation, it is revealed that after Pharos left Minato's mind, he attained Thanatos which became his main Persona in place of Orpheus from there on (Persona fusion he performed during the fight against Nyx Avatar indicated that he still has Orpheus that required to form Messiah alongside Thanatos).
- Chidori does not temporarily control Fuuka.
- Junpei defeats Chidori on his own when he tries to reason with her. In the game, Junpei is unable to fight Chidori because he doesn't want to hurt her so SEES has to defeat her instead.
- Junpei loses control of Trismegistus and uses his Persona to burn Takaya to death. This results in Yukari being traumatized since it reminds her of how her father died. Minato is forced to stop him.
- Yukari uses her Persona's healing ability to heal Takaya because she doesn't want someone to die in front of her.
- Jin escapes with an unconscious Takaya with his Persona Moros instead of using his smoke bombs to escape.
- Minato buys new headphones due to his old ones being broken during the November operation.
Chapitre 7[]
- On December 2nd, Aigis confronts Ryoji at Moonlight Bridge in her school uniform before she destroys it to enter combat to fight him.
- After Aigis is defeated by Ryoji, she reminisces about the past from five months ago.
- From Aigis's perspective, it is revealed Koromaru summons his Persona to attack Aigis to prevent her from attacking their friends.
- Labrys and Sousei Kurogami makes a cameo appearance when Ikutsuki mentions them.
- While reminiscing about his fight against Aigis 10 years prior, it is shown that Ryoji, as incomplete Death, utilized both his sword and chain against her to no avail. He did however, managed to cut off her left arm before Aigis' Palladion puliverized him, weakening him enough for Aigis to seal Death inside the young Minato with her remaining strength.
- Junpei reveals information about his father after taking his anger out on Minato.
Chapitre 8[]
- Minato chooses Yukari to hang out during their winter date even though they aren't a couple before December 24th.
- SEES has a Christmas Eve party which never occurs in the game.
- Minato attempts to kill Ryoji with a knife (the same knife given by Yukari in April), but has second thoughts.
- Ryoji's death form is completely different that the game, being amalgamation of his Thanatos and Nyx Avatar forms.
- The Nyx cult starts on New Year's Day instead of a few or more days later.
- Most of Aigis's Social Link scenes are shown. Instead of spending time with Minato, it's Yukari.
Chapitre 9[]
- When Chidori mentions the special someone she saw in her dreams, an image of her dreams is shown. The person is Junpei except Chidori can't remember his face.
- Yukari tells Aigis that she will confess her feeling for Minato after the final battle.
- On January 30th, Junpei visits Chidori before the final battle on January 31st.
- Akihiko and Ken face Jin instead of SEES facing him together.
- Strega's past is shown.
Chapitre 10[]
- Junpei and Mitsuru fight against Takaya.
- Junpei fatally injures Takaya with his sword.
- At the beginning of the battle against Nyx Avatar, only Minato, Yukari, Fuuka, and Aigis are present.
- As with in movie adaptation, Nyx Avatar manifests the body parts of previous Arcana Shadows in battle.
- The fight against Nyx Avatar was accompanied by flashbacks featuring Arcana Shadows and individuals who share same Arcana (ex. the moment Nyx Avatar unleashing powers of Arcana Magician came with flashbacks pertaining the namesake Arcana and turning point of Junpei's life through encounter with Chidori).
- When Nyx Avatar's Arcana shifted to Death, he can only be harmed by Minato's Thanatos and later, Messiah due to his Moonless Gown. At that point, the rest of S.E.E.S catch up with Minato and co. and only able to watch Minato unleashing Messiah against Nyx Avatar as their own attacks are ineffective against their powerful adversary.
- On related note, Minato performs fusion to form Messiah under Igor and Elizabeth's encouragement after meditating to contact them for advice.
- Unlike in the games, Messiah doesn't appear behind Minato as with his other Personas; he pilots it from the inside.
- Messiah displays a distinct set of abilities which effectively making him equal to Nyx Avatar with Death Arcana in strength, among which conjuring one or more blades of light and growing in size to the point of standing taller than the suspension towers of Moonlight Bridge itself — latter which shared by the latter. In fact, by the time Nyx Avatar turns the tide of the fight into his favor, he already suffers a catastrophic damage that allows Minato to finish him off with the same knife Yukari gave to him.
Chapitre 11[]
- All the original social links from the game make a cameo appearance when they witness the Fall.
- During the final battle against Nyx, Shinjiro appears as a spirit to encourage Minato.
- Before unleashing the Great Seal, Minato is having one final conversation with Igor and Elizabeth regarding the nature of the power in question instead of prior to confronting Nyx.
- On March 3rd, it is revealed Aigis' memories were erased as well since the last thing she remembers was her time in Yakashima.
- Minato and the others hold a celebration party for Akihiko and Mitsuru's graduation dinner on March 4th. In the game, it wasn't featured since there was no one in the dorm that evening.
- Minato does not lie down on Aigis' lap. Instead, he leans on her shoulder.
- Minato does not die on March 5th as he is able to stand up and greet his friends after they remember their promise and rush to find him. While he still suffers from the effects of the Great Seal and therefore lives without a soul (Minato falls to his knees as soon as Aigis brings up their final battle shortly after they regain their memories), it's implied that he lasted much longer than in the game.
Gallery[]
- Chapitre covers
Chapitre Un
Chapitre Deux
Chapitre Trois
Chapitre Quatre
Chapitre Cinq
Chapitre Six
Chapitre Sept
Chapitre Huit
Chapitre Neuf
Chapitre Dix
- Volume covers
Cover for Volume 1
Cover for Volume 2
Cover for Volume 3
Cover for Volume 4
Cover for Volume 5
Cover for Volume 6
Cover for Volume 7
Cover for Volume 8
Cover for Volume 9
Cover for Volume 10
Cover for Volume 11