Persona: Trinity Soul is a Japanese anime television series. It is a spin-off of the PlayStation 2 game Persona 3, taking place ten years after the game's events. Produced by Aniplex and animated by its subsidiary A-1 Pictures, the series aired in Japan on Tokyo MX from January 5 to June 28, 2008. It also features music by Taku Iwasaki. In February 2010, NIS America announced it would broadcast the series in North America with the original Japanese dub. According to the official Persona 3 Portable fanbook, Trinity Soul is considered to be an alternative entry in the series.

Story

Persona: Trinity Soul takes place in 2069 approximately ten years after the end of Persona 3. It is set in Ayanagi City, a city located near the Sea of Japan, where the police force is investigating several "Reverse" cases, wherein the victims are turned inside-out. Ten years ago, Ayanagi City had been subjected to a sudden outbreak of Apathy Syndrome, which the city has since recovered from. In the midst of the crisis, two brothers named Shin and Jun Kanzato move back to Ayanagi to see their elder brother Ryō, who is now the Superintendent of the Ayanagi City Police. It has been ten years since the three siblings last met with each other. It was said that the mysterious incidents in Ayanagi City were linked to covert testing conducted under Keisuke Komatsubura's watch, which tried to locate all known Persona users and find the strongest by weeding them out via Persona experiments before it was disbanded.

Characters

Kanzato family

Naginomori Gakuen

Ayanagi Police

Outsiders

A group of Persona-users (possibly a non-natural type, medically induced) who seem to use their special abilities to steal other people's Personas. The group is called "Marebito" in Japanese and carries the meaning of a "foreign stranger" and "outsider."

Returning characters

Unknown characters

Production

A promo video had been on the show's official website, created by A-1 Pictures. Atsushi Matsumoto, known for his involvement in Blood+, was pitched to be director. Shigenori Soejima designed the original characters for Yuriko Ishii. Yasayuki Mutō was responsible for doing the script with Shinsuke Ōnishi, Shōgo Yasukawa and Saya Matsuda. The script was done by Yasayuki Mutō. According to a statement released by Yutaka Omatsu, he said the show is different from the Persona 3 game as the "divergence are the many different aspects that the characters and story share." The first opening theme song to the series is "Breakin' Through", performed by Shūhei Kita, as winner of the Animax Anison Grand Prix, while the first ending theme song was "Suicides Love Story", performed by Nana Kitade. The second opening theme and ending theme songs, from episode 14 onwards, were "Word of the Voice", performed by Flow, and "Found Me", by Yumi Kawamura, respectively. Trinity Soul's soundtrack was composed by Taku Iwasaki. The anime was made available in Japan via streaming services including Amazon Prime Video, Bandai Channel, Hulu, ABEMA, FOD, U-NEXT and d Anime Store.

Media

DVD

Trinity Soul was sold by NIS America via DVD as an entry title with Toradora!, PandoraHearts, and Our Home's Fox Deity.

Novel

A novel adaptation was released on October 10, 2008 and on November 29, 2008. This adaptation centers more on the Marebito and their involvement in Ayanagi City in the Reverse cases.

Visual Book

The show's visual book was released on October 10, 2008. It contains more details on the story, characters and the personas used in the show.

Manga

Two manga adaptations were released. One was released via DNA Media Comics with the other one released via Bros Comix Ex

Reception

In an anime column by Mania.com, it said that the show was good in terms of having excellent animation though it noted the huge contrast of the distrust between the Kanzato brothers and the mysterious supernatural attacks on Ayanagi City. Japanator noted that the atmosphere is very dark, similar to Darker than Black.