Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. We’re continuing Persona-mas by taking a look at Winter of Rebirth. The final movie in the Persona 3 movie series, this was the movie that fans have been anticipating the most. It came out in 2016 near the end of January and was done once again by A-1 Pictures. Bust out the eggnog and let’s get started. This is Persona 3 the Movie: Winter of Rebirth.
The movie opens up on the faithful night that Minato lost his parents (not the best of memories) and saw two incredible beings fighting each other in the night who happened to be Aigis and Ryoji (they haven’t aged a day). Aigis won and sealed Ryoji’s soul within Minato’s body since she was too weak to finish him off and couldn’t destroy him. This explains why she was so drawn to Minato, she knew that Ryoji was still inside him and was waiting for him to re-emerge. We return to the present where Ryoji reveals himself to be Pharos who has finally regained his memories thanks to everyone defeating the big shadows. He reveals himself to be the Appraiser, the physical representation of the Arcana of Death who has come to bring the Fall of man. Everyone else shows up and tries to fight him but he displays his powers showing just how OP he is (strong enough to make the Reaper look like a mid-level boss). After displaying his power and destroying the bridge (oh this is gonna be hell come rush hour) he tells them that the end of the world is coming as Nyx the mother of all shadows will be drawn to him and she shall bring about the Fall of man destroying us all (well there goes my plans for the weekend). Ryoji says she’ll arrive before spring and says that nothing can defeat her however he does offer them a chance to live a normal life, killing him. By killing him their memories of the Dark hour will all disappear, and they’ll be able to live a normal life until the Fall happens (living in blissful ignorance as the world falls apart around them). However, the only person who can kill him is Minato meaning he gets to decide how everyone dies (blissful ignorance or go down fighting like a boss? Choices). He gives them time to think it over saying he’ll return on December 31st for their answer and disappears on them into the night as everyone stands there scared and unsure of what to do (that, and Aigis has stopped functioning and needs maintenance immediately). A few days go by as everyone is still unsure of what to do and we see the Fall has already begun as people begin falling ill to apathy all around the city and possibly the world (so this was the great despair they were talking about in Danganronpa). Strega takes advantage of this and starts the church of Nyx (it’s down a dark alley next to the building where the Cult of Weeaboos meet to discuss how stupid and pathetic they are. Across from them you’ll find the House of SJWs and PC Office who meet up to discuss what they should pretend to whine about in order to get attention), everyone pretty much loses hope all together (with Yukari being the worst of them all. In fact, in a rather cool and new scene we see Io try to kill her showing us that just like Shinjiro and Strega she’s losing control of her persona), and when Minato goes to pay a visit to Aigis, even she tells Minato to kill Ryoji and live in blissful ignorance until the Fall in order to avoid painful memories.
On December 26th with only 5 days left to decide on what to do and everyone still unsure of what to do Minato receives a visit from the lovely Elizabeth who has snuck out of the Velvet Room in order to see the outside world that she’s been interested in for quite some time (finally! I’ve been waiting for this for like 3 movies). She gets Minato to be her tour guide, so he takes her to a dance club where she dances (hilariously I might add), the school, get a meal in the city, the shrine, and finally his dorm building (take her to your room Minato. If you’re gonna die at least go out knowing you lost your virginity to an all-powerful being). As they stand outside gazing at the dorm Elizabeth talks about how everything she’s done today have become precious gems of memories that she’ll treasure forever which opens Minato’s eyes and he takes her to the bridge where he says that for a long time he never felt alive (yeah, we got that vibe from you throughout the series) however after returning to the city and spending his days laughing and fighting beside his friends he truly began to feel alive for the first time in his life (yeah fighting against the suppress emotions of humanity in Howl’s Moving Castle from Hell has that effect on people). He soon arrives at his answer on what he wants to do as does everyone else, live (than fight. If the outcome is death than change it to life. If the world is full of apathy than fill it with hope. If you have a 0% chance of winning as long as you have a will to challenge and not accept that outcome than the outcome is never zero. Scene here: https://youtu.be/-D8aigsnre4). Finally, December 31st arrives and Ryoji appears before Minato where he urges Minato to kill him but he says no (he’s going for the true ending). Respecting Minato’s wish they head down stairs together much to Aigis’s surprise where he tells them that Nyx will arrive on January 31st at the top of Tartarus. If they truly desire to face Nyx and change the outcome of the world that is the place they must go. Ryoji than takes his leave as the clock strikes Dark hour and Aigis goes after Ryoji trying to kill him (oh and do what, stick him back in Minato’s body? Because that worked out so well last time) but can’t find him and begins talking about how she’s nothing more than a piece of machinery who failed her mission and should destroy herself but Minato says she’s more than that (would you say she’s more than a woman Minato? https://youtu.be/rMpbh3LFf5U?t=4s). In Minato’s eyes and everyone else eyes she’s just as human as they are and an indispensable friend. She decides to fight with everyone but she says that once they defeat Nyx their memories of the Dark hour will disappear meaning they’ll forget everything such as how they met or even how they became friends, but Minato says that won’t happen and they all make a vow to meet up on the school roof on graduation day (alright. But first, we gotta save the world. No pressure).
We fast forward to January 31st (time flies as always in this movie series) where the group enters Tartarus and kicks shadow butts to reach the top. After becoming surrounded by a large hoard of shadows as well as running into Strega, Minato is forced to go up to the top of Tartarus himself where he comes face to face with Ryoji in his true form having forgotten his previous life all together (and after everything you put them through) and the two former friends fight with Ryoji using the powers of the previous arcana shadows to overpower Minato (too bad he didn’t do this in the game. It would have made the fight a lot more interesting). After an intense fight Minato soon takes the blunt of Ryoji’s attacks and everyone else seems to be having trouble with their own fights (obvious shonen cliché is obvious shonen cliché) but they all dig deep and evolve their personas (took them long enough) to overcome their fights and reach the top just as Minato gets done piercing Ryoji in the face with his sword (scene here: https://youtu.be/30R_5SEWBlI, he drove a sword through the face of Death. Fucking metal). But it’s still not enough to stop the Fall (if only more people had the will of Minato) and Nyx finally arrives. As everyone begins getting devoured by shadows, Minato stands up determined to save everyone even if it costs him his life and his strong desire to save his friends allows him to arrive at the Answer to Life which will grant him the power to create a miracle. Using this power, he summons the Messiah to save everyone (yes, he literally just summoned Jesus, the son of God) and then goes to face Nyx where he gains the power of the Universe arcana said to be the strongest arcana in existence. It’s so great that it doesn’t even have a card to contain its overwhelming power. With this power, Minato defeats Nyx and saves the world ending the Dark hour and everyone living happily ever after (scene here: https://youtu.be/-kGLKsLdilo, is what I would like to say but we’re in a SMT game and this series isn’t exactly known for its happy endings). We fast forward again to graduation day where everyone is fine except they’ve forgotten everything about the Dark hour except for Minato and Aigis who go to the meeting spot they promise to meet on graduation day. As the graduation ceremony begins and Mitsuru gives her speech she as well as the others remember what happened this past year (you saved the world. Well one of you did, the rest of you just sat there and watched) and hurry to the roof of the school where Minato is resting in Aigis’s lap slowly fading away. For you see Minato has become the Great Seal (https://youtu.be/2-WPlvZguZ4). Basically, Minato didn’t defeat Nyx he just stopped the Fall from happening, but the Fall can still happen as long as Nyx exist. So in order to keep Nyx and the Fall at bay Minato has become the Great Seal which has sealed the Fall from happening. He’s not dead but he no longer has a physical form anymore and is now beginning to fade away (his desire to keep his promise kept him going all this time). As Aigis thanks Minato for everything she’s done for him (even confessing her love for him) everyone shows up as Minato slowly closes his eyes leading to one of the saddest moments in video game history (scene here: https://youtu.be/uNacmQ7bwdg. Remember, he died for your sins). After the credits, we see Elizabeth leave the Velvet Room abandoning her duties and deciding to protect the Great Seal as there are some people who want the Fall to happen and those desires of man can take physical form and try to break the seal so someone has to keep those desires at bay (and who better than an all-powerful elevator attendant?). So Elizabeth has decided to keep man’s desires at bay as well as search for a way to free Minato from his fate.
Final Thoughts
And that was the end of the Persona 3 movie and it wraps up the series on a good note. It does the final part of the game justice while also adding in new development, interactions, and events all with beautiful animation of a winter landscape which conveys this sense of death and hopelessness of life but also a sense of hope and beauty of life when each character overcomes their trials alone to come back stronger than ever. While some of the resolutions are weaker than others, I feel that each one sort of works for each character in their own way.
The final battle with Ryoji was great and in some ways harder and better than the one we had in the game. Minato’s final battle with Nyx was done beautifully as his story has finally come full circle. When we first saw him he was a lifeless boy who closed himself off from the world in order not to feel pain only to make it to the end where he has learned to treasure the bonds he has made with everyone and wants to protect them even at the cost of his life. The music of course is always great here and once again the animation is really fantastic here. I love how they were able to convey how bleak and hopeless the situation was with just the imagery of the city. We see how the city slowly falls into apathy before eventually becoming a lifeless city where no one can be seen and winter just covers everything signaling the death of the world. Stuff like that was great and shows just how much the animators and everyone working on the series had a love and appreciation for the game. It gives me hope that as much as I bash on this studio, they can actually turn in great anime when they try and give a damn.
Final Score
The final score for Winter of Rebirth is an 8/10. The same score as Falling Down but delivering on what the previous movies were building up to. Combing this score with the previous scores the overall score is a 31/40 and averaging out the score, we get a 7.8 which going by my scale brings the final score for the Persona 3 movie series an 8/10. If you’re a fan of Persona 3 check this movie series out. While they skip out on some stuff here and there you can still enjoy the movies for what they added in. With how well A-1 did Persona 3 I’m curious to see how Cloverworks did with Persona 5.
*After watching Persona 5*
You dun fucked it up!
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