The red string of destiny acts in mysterious ways…
Creative Staff:
Original Story: Atlus
Story and Art: Mizunomoto
Translation: Alethea Nibley & Athena Nibley
Lettering: James Dashiell
Editing:Ajani Oloye
What They Say:
LOVE IN THE LABYRINTH
The Investigation Team continues to make their way through a series of treacherous mazes, but this time, they have combined forces with Persona 3’s Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad. Together, they may just have enough power and wits to defeat all the F.O.E.s and find their way ack home, but before that, they will have to face their greatest challenge yet: the dreaded group date! As their next adventure comes to a close, the bells of destiny with ring, but will they be wedding bells or death knells…?
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With the introduction of the Persona 3 cast at the end of the last volume, you’d think panels would become obnoxiously claustrophobic as the parties from both Persona games occupy the same living space. Thankfully, awkward introductions aside, author Mizunomoto pulls off juggling such a large cast, keeping track of everyone at all times and keeping no more than a manageable five or so characters per panel.
With their party now doubled as the gang ventures further into the labyrinth, what made the Side: P3 manga begin to drag by this point was the way plot points felt like they were being checked off rather than fully relished in. Characters would take down challenges and move on without a second thought. With Mizunomoto’s Side: P4 manga, however, time is taken to breathe and not only put the action on hold, but to do so while better fleshing out character motivations, making full use of the large crossover cast.
Mysterious newcomer-without-a-past Rei begins to develop a personality outside of snack-crazed cute girl when the gang is on the brink of losing their first major boss fight. Fearing being stuck in this dungeon as well as shame for letting others take care of her, she begins to grow into her own, and in the process gains her own powers—a recurring theme among the Persona games in general. Likewise, with most of the P3 cast having an equivalent P4 member, some time is taken to explore this overlap in the form of Yosuke and Ken—both of whom have lost someone close to them due to Shadow attacks. Even with how short the scene between the two is, the fact that it was even covered shows how Mizunomoto doesn’t take the more dialogue-centric moments for granted, using bits of character-building to better transition between fight scenes, which are equally clever in their resolution.
Even in the case of the second dungeon, which leads to some major downtime in the form of the party actually taking the time to schedule a group date (P3 boys with P4 girls and vice versa), it’s handled in such a way that you know the story is revving up for something more climactic come that dungeon’s boss. In this way, it takes just the right amount of influence from the source material videogame without being too off-putting in terms of the plot flow, bringing the volume to a close at the perfect cliffhanger ending.
In Summary:
For something with such a kawaii exterior, Persona Q Shadow of Labyrinth is completely comfortable in delving into deep character interactions. Seeing the P3 and P4 cast seek comfort in shared tragic backstories and newer cast members developing in their own right as fleshed out characters with aspirations to aim for is surprisingly sweet, but welcome. And even with the challenges of the second dungeon making for a somewhat stagnant story, it is still clear that the stakes are slowly getting raised, with the volume closing out at a moment worthy of a cliffhanger ending.
Content Grade: B
Art Grade: A
Packaging Grade: A
Text/Translation Grade: A
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Kodansha Comics
Release Date: March 22, 2016
MSRP: $10.99
