Well now Persona is moving right back into the plot after an intense episode of Narukami having to get a ton of arcanas at once. Now we’re moving forward though it’s not like this episode was lacking silliness as we went right into the school trip. The location of course should be familiar to Persona fans since it’s the city that was the focus of Persona 3. Of course there wasn’t a ton of cameos besides the student council president and one of the teachers, but it was fun. Plus I’m sure most gamers recognized some of the music from Persona 3. It’s just another example of how the series is taking material from the games and using it. Nothing wrong with doing that either since there is great material with the games.

Now of course it doesn’t seem very plot related to have a school trip, but it did help create some connection between the group and Naoto. Naoto has been around for a while now, but now is getting more interaction with the group. It’s a surprise to see Naoto going to the school and it seems like Naoto’s interest in the case hasn’t been satisfied yet. Sure, it sounds simple enough to join the school because of family reasons, but it can’t just be that. At the same time the world seems to have moved on from the case with more interviews and talk shows discussion Mitsuo and what he did.

Surprising that they started those extra classes for the students, but didn’t really delve into them. It does suck that a school trip involves visiting another school. King Moron really his haunting them from the grave XD. I wouldn’t care about the lectures, but any time that the main character’s persona (Izanagi) is mentioned it’s something to be curious about.

The big part of the episode was that trip to the club though. Everyone did just go nuts for a while getting drunk off the atmosphere. The worst hit by this was definitely Narukami, Yukiko, and Rise. They were all just nuts. Narukami for sure went beyond belief with the whole semi-undressing and just continually asking for more to drink. The Kings Game was pretty fun and would make one hate Narukami since he gets to go through with all the orders with all the girls. I wouldn’t be surprised if Yosuke is plotting Narukami’s death about now…. It was a small scare when Yukiko just blurted everything about what they had been doing, but luckily it was so crazy that Naoto couldn’t actually buy it. Plus it was just nice to use that to find out more about Naoto and the family history that Naoto is carrying.

The whole trip was one crazy disaster after the next. Their hotel was a love hotel, Kuma caused all sorts of chaos, and really what happened with the guys and that bed…never to be spoken of again. At least the girls had fun with their room not letting the situation get to them. Of course there is a limit and when Kuma ate Yukiko’s meal then it was all over. We can only wonder if/how Kuma will make it back with no money. Well I suppose if Kuma gets out of the suit he can charm enough people to give him money….or something.

Of course we can’t talk about the episode without going into the Chie development. Now this can really mean a couple things for the series. Either they are going to go for a Chie route or they are simply carrying on in diving into the arcanas of the main characters. After all dealing with bullies was definitely part of Chie’s arcana so that would make sense. We’ll just have to wait and see if Yukiko and Rise get those kinds of scenes. I still think they will take the cheap route of not really picking anyone, but who knows. It was nice to see that Chie is really thinking inwardly about herself. She doesn’t just want to base her life around being the person who protects Yukiko so she’s really pushing herself to figure things out. It wasn’t a bad move by Narukami to have the police ready to dial if things got violent. Chie is pretty tough, but help is never a bad thing to have. That player also did a good job of getting some points in with Chie. Don’t think he’ll have to try hard if he does want to go for her.

The preview did enough to show that things are going to get serious. We’ve had enough fun getting Narukami some arcanas and going on trips. Looking forward to next week since it should be a busy one.
Score: A-