The Persona series has become one of the video game industry’s most interesting and fulfilling franchises. Its popularity has led to the anime extension, Persona 5: The Animation. The Persona franchise has found success as an anime, and it’s a good example of an anime adaptation for a popular game series.
Persona 5: The Animation faithfully recreates the events from the high school-set RPG series, and it even has a few OVA installments that dig even deeper into the Persona 5 lore. A Magical Valentine’s Day is a holiday-centric OVA entry for Persona 5: The Animation that doesn’t get enough attention.
10 It Adapts Persona 5's Valentine’s Day Scenario
It’s not unusual for anime series to directly adapt the storylines from popular video game series. The popularity of the Persona titles has resulted in several anime adaptations that closely follow the video game series's storylines.
These games are so huge that it’s impossible to include absolutely everything. Persona 5: The Animation decides to save the game’s Valentine’s Day scenario for A Magical Valentine’s Day rather than the proper anime. It helps give this sweet chapter a healthy focus and highlights the anime’s lighter qualities.
9 It's Divided Into 11 Separate Chapters
Persona 5 offers some limitations with the dates that Ren can go on. Still, A Magical Valentine’s Day plays devil’s advocate and is broken up into eleven separate chapters where Ren gets to spend some time with every character.
In the video game, all of this amounts to a brief dating sim deviation and the ability to earn Ren some special SP chocolate. This OVA benefits from sharing the wealth and not just focusing on one date. A Magical Valentine’s Day even features Ren’s many dates beating him up for his misunderstanding of the holiday’s importance.
8 It Actually Improves Upon Persona 5's Valentine's Day Scenario
Persona 5: The Animation is a faithful adaptation that takes a few liberties but plays it relatively safe. It’s earned a bit of a mixed reputation as a result, and many prefer the video game version as opposed to its anime adaptation. However, A Magical Valentine’s Day is oddly lauded as one of Persona 5: The Animation’s most rewarding segments.
The OVA applies a distinct personality to each date, and Ren takes them to unique locations, whereas the game always brings them to a cafe date. It takes greater advantage of the possibilities behind this scenario,
7 It Was Released Exclusively With Volume 12 Of The Anime
Persona 5: The Animation is a 28-episode anime series that uses its final two episodes as a thrilling special that recontextualizes the anime's events in a big way. A Magical Valentine’s Day is an extra story that follows the conclusion of the anime. Still, it’s not properly aired on television or was included with a version of the video game as a promotion.
Instead, the Magical Valentine’s Day OVA is included on the 12th and final volume of Persona 5: The Animation’s home video release. OVAs are frequently packaged together with anime or manga releases.
6 It's The Second OVA Installment For Persona 5: The Animation
A Magical Valentine’s Day is not Persona 5: The Animation’s first Original Video Animation entry and Proof of Justice was released a month early and included with the 11th volume of the anime’s video release. Proof of Justice is much more of a mystery that revolves around the OVA’s titular phrase.
It’s a serious story for Ren, which is why the lighthearted A Magical Valentine’s functions as a satisfying follow-up. It also becomes Persona 5: The Animation’s swan song and the final story released for it. It ends the series on a positive note.
5 It's Largely Presented In First Person
One of the fun details behind Persona 5: The Animation’s A Magical Valentine’s Day is that the anime embraces the video game’s dating simulation aesthetic and delivers an installment that’s largely in a first-person perspective from Ren’s point of view.
It’d be difficult to maintain this structure for an entire season or series, so a one-off OVA is a perfect time to honor the video games in this way. It helps make each date feel more personal, and the audience can better connect with these characters, just like they’re supposed to in the game series. It’s a clever, useful touch.
4 Ren Hangs Out With Ryuji During One Date
A Magical Valentine’s Day fully indulges in the harem stereotype that both anime and dating sim games frequently feature. The majority of the OVA has Ren occupied with ten different female dates, but the final encounter before the epilogue pairs Ren together with Ryuji Sakamoto, his male friend.
A Magical Valentine’s Day plays against conventions with turns, and Ryuji functions as a valuable sounding board for Ren. It may not technically be a date, but it carries the same rhythm, and they open up in the same way.
3 There's No English Dub
It can sometimes be difficult to predict if an anime series will receive an English dub. This is even a riskier proposition with some anime tied to video game series since there are usually more hoops to jump through.
Persona 5: The Animation does happen to have an English dub, but this courtesy, unfortunately, does not carry over to the Magical Valentine’s Day special. OVAs often get overlooked for the dub treatment, but at least available for fans to enjoy with subtitles.
2 It Teases A Future With Sae In Later Persona 5 Titles
All of Ren's date scenarios in A Magical Valentine's Day are pulled directly from Persona 5. However, the OVA has an epilogue that features one short and final date with Sae Nijima, who is not a possible romantic prospect in the game.
This encounter with Sae hints towards a possible future relationship between them or that there will be more of a focus on Sae in upcoming Persona 5 entries. She doesn’t get much of an upgrade in Persona 5 Royal, but that doesn’t mean that it’s the end to her character.
1 It Emphasizes The Positives Of Every Girl From The Series
Dating sims and harem series are often inherently misogynistic to some degree. They’re genres that put women in competitive situations for a man’s approval, and they’re often designed in a way where only one character can be chosen.
In this sense, it’s impressive how A Magical Valentine’s Day takes this premise and delivers a story that more than anything emphasizes the fantastic nature of all of these female characters. It allows them all to excel, while Ren is turned into the punchline rather than a flawless casanova.