Anime Reviews: Persona 4 The Animation Episode 4 - Somewhere Not Here

Watch the Show Here!

Introduction
Sometimes action isn't necessarily a good thing. While it may be more interesting to watch, it does tend to create episodes that are difficult to recap. This episode we get a lot of action as well as several shifts from present to flashbacks. In other words, my kind of recapping nightmare.

Plot Summary
Chie and the other three fight their way through the shades in Yukiko's castle. They run into the shadow Yukiko, who taunts them, before disappearing.

After a flashback to Chie chasing off two guys who were getting too pushy around Yukiko, the real Yukiko wakes up to find herself in a strane room. A cage rolls up next to her, and she remembers back to when she found an abandoned baby bird by the side of the road.

She takes the baby bird home, and raises it, despite having to work hard every day. Yukiko took care of the bird, and loved it, until one day she forgot to lock the cage door, and the bird escaped.

Once Chie and group make their way to where Yukiko is, Chie tries to talk to Yukiko, but is almost crushed by a falling chandelier. Yu protects her, and he and Yosuke are stuck to the floor by wax from the candles.

Ahem...CANDLE LOCK!

Yukiko rejects her shadow self, who then transforms into a giant harpy in a cage. She fills the room with a sea of flames. The others try to fight back, but can't break through the shadow's birdcage. Chie calls out to Yukiko, trying to get to her. Yukiko finally admits how jealous she was of Chie, how free she was.

After Yukiko's confession, her shadow loses power, and the guys are able to defeat her. Yukiko accepts her inner self as a part of her, and the two of them fuse back into one. After the fight she joins the investigation team, and Teddy gives her a brand new pair of glasses.

My Opinion
Yukiko's backstory was fleshed out from the game. While in the game you learn about what life was like for her, it is much more effective to see it rather than to hear the characters talk about it. I consider this one of the advantages of anime over games, and a place where this series really has a chance to stand firm alongside the game. Yukiko's story is a bit more in-depth than the previous two, and out of the group so far she has the most interesting character flaw. While she is not my favorite character, her personality and behavior make sense, and her backstory emphasizes that.

Overall the episode is well put together and adds a solid backstory for Yukiko. However, the viewer's enjoyment will depend greatly upon whether they like Yukiko as a character. Also, by this point the basic episode format has been used two times in a row, and it's starting to wear thin. The writers tried to make it more interesting, and mostly succeeded, but that doesn't change the fact that we're starting to get tired of the basic, "find other self, reject, other self turns into a monster, fight other self, accept as part of self" format.

If you liked my review, Watch the Episode Here!