Thanks to its relatable themes and addictive turn-based combat, Persona has amassed itself a strong following and, due to its striking visuals, gamers are always wondering what film and television adaptations of the franchise would look like. While the series does have an anime counterpart, it has yet to receive a live-action film or television adaption, though its source material would provide television producers and movie-makers with plenty to work with.
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Why Persona Is So Suitable for an Adaptation
On the surface, Persona may not seem like a particularly interesting series. Much of the gameplay consists of living out the life of a teenager in Japan, which involves going to school, studying for exams, handling a part-time job, making friends, and even tending to a garden. However, the Persona series manages to make it engaging by weaving the slice-of-life elements with supernatural mysteries, which encourages players to keep coming back so that they can finally find the answers they seek. Furthermore, the cast of characters is usually well-crafted, and it is hard to not fall in love with at least one of the protagonist’s friends.
The Persona series is practically begging for an adaptation, in part thanks to its heavy embrace of Jungian themes involving archetypes and psychoanalysis. A prominent theme in the games, as the title may suggest, is personas. Within Jungian psychology, this concept refers to the mask which people wear for the outside world in an attempt to conceal their true inner selves. Along with personas, there are plenty of archetypes in Persona, which Jung defines as primitive images. Humans inherit these much like instincts, and they represent recurring patterns within human life.
An example of personas and archetypes manifesting within the series can be seen, for instance, with Persona 4, which takes place in the Japanese town of Inaba. The protagonist discovers that people are being sucked into an alternate television dimension, and to save them requires battling with their monstrous Shadows. This occurs with Kanji, who portrays himself as a bad boy, but players discover that this is just his false persona and his true self is quite feminine. Hence, to overcome his Shadow, Kanji has to come to terms with his Anima which, in Jungian terms, is the archetypally feminine aspect of the male personality.
Since Jung shared his theories with the world, they have featured prominently in the art scene due to the way they help to shape narratives and the way that people so easily click with archetypes and other psychoanalytical concepts. Consequently, adapting Persona 4 to film or television is not too difficult, as all the elements are there already. However, some medium-specific considerations should be taken into account.
Persona as a Film
To tie in with Persona 3, there were a series of Persona anime movies released. However, this already reveals some of the difficulties that come with adapting Persona to film - the length of the games. For Persona 3 to be adapted, it had to be stretched across four anime films. This is understandable, as one can expect to spend over 60 hours to finish Persona 3’s story, and even more hours if one hopes to achieve 100% completion. Persona 3 is far from an outlier, as the other games are equally long, if not longer.
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For a Persona film adaptation, it would probably be wise to start with a brand-new cast and to keep the gang of friends as small as possible, because there simply would not be enough time to deeply explore all the characters within the limits of a movie. Furthermore, it would likely have to do away with the slice-of-life elements, as while they may work for gaming, movie-goers would not be entertained watching a bunch of teens visiting the library to study for exams or holding down a part-time job at a coffee shop.
Persona as a Live-Action Television Series
A live-action television series would be a better-suited format for Persona, as it would allow for a more authentic adaptation of the games. The creators would not need to bring in a new cast, as there would be enough time within a series to adapt any of the lengthy games. A live-action series could go so far as to focus on one character per season, allowing the supernatural mysteries to unfold as slowly as they need to, and giving viewers enough time to grow familiar with each of the characters so that the reveal of their Shadows and their Personas are that much more meaningful.
For the television series to be as authentic as possible, it would also have to integrate the anime aesthetic that characterizes the series. Even within a live-action context, this can be done by including stylized graphics and scene transitions, as well as anime-style opening sequences. Additionally, the series would have to pack a soundtrack that is just as good as the Persona games’ soundtracks, and it would be an extra treat if Japanese soundtracks were used.
The Persona series, although it began as a spin-off, has endured, and its growth is only showing a positive trajectory. While fans are speculating about Persona 6, they can look forward to upcoming ports of Persona 3, Persona 4 Golden, and Persona 5 Arena to many platforms, including Xbox. The franchise can continue to expand through live-action films and television series, and there is certainly a lot of Persona material to work with.
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