What are some of the best ways to procrastinate on your AP American essay? "Video games." "Reading comics."
Well, a comic based on Persona 4, a game with which I procrastinated so contently for hours upon hours over the last few days, combines those two methods into one extremely funny one."What's Persona 4 about?" you ask as you chew on your disgusting pencil, laden with bite marks, its point surprisingly sharp as the pencil waves up and down in the air while you bite. I suppose I should humor you and tell you. The Persona series is an off-shoot of the Shin Megami Tensei series.
"Um, that doesn't help," you say in a mocking way, exploding into laughter so obnoxious that it takes every ounce of self-restraint in my wee body to keep myself from punching you (lightly) in your face. Fine then. The SMT series is, as a whole, a dungeon-crawling RPG where you play as teenage characters (usually) and try and convince demons to work with you so that you can destroy other demons. The Persona series is only marginally like that. The first one was, but no one likes it.
The 3rd and 4th ones are probably the most popular; they're at least the most accessible. Both are for the PS2, which means that millions of people have access to playing them. So Persona 3 started the new trend where you play as a silent high school protagonist who has the unique ability to awaken several different Personas (as a Latin student, or as I call us, Latineer, I'm trying not to correct this and write "Personae" but I digress). Then you meet other people who also can awaken a Persona (but not more than one like you can! Losers) and you can become friends with them. Befriending people, in your party or otherwise, helps you advance your social links, which in turn helps you make better Personas.
Get it now? Good.
The comic is by someone named Peachi, who posts it on her livejournal, which is called hiimdaisy. Most people refer to her as hiimdaisy, as such, because most people thought that other most people named their LJ accounts after what they like to be called on the Internet, but apparently not! Click the link now, please, for Part 1. And make sure you open it in a new tab because I'm not done talking yet!
Basically Peachi is a huge fan of Persona and other games that I love, because who isn't? She makes fun of the game while also celebrating its sheer hilarity. While the game is mostly serious, it does have a ton of really funny moments that she sends up so well. The characters are really well-defined in the Persona games, and so it makes it really easy for her to completely parody them.
Because Peachi's work is so well-done -- well-written, well-drawn -- it's made its way around the Internet to people who have played and loved the game as well as people who haven't played it, but have played their fair share of RPGs to get the humor.
The comic is pretty spoilerific, so I must admit that I've only read as far as I've gotten to in the game, which admittedly is only up to the summer vacation part. (That's about 15 hours into the game, heh.) Some of the foreshadowing is really hilarious though, like in the part to your left, after the guy goes away, Chie (the obligatory tomboyish character and possible love interest; best friend of the much lusted after Yuki, seen trying not to freak here) just says something like, "Good thing we'll never see him again!" Of course, that means we will see him again. I'm really dreading that part. Look at him. LOOK AT HIM. He's so creepy.
Yeah. Well, in a very awkward transition, this comic has gotten so big that there are even very funny dubs of it on Youtube. The voice acting is unbelievably good, as is the editing. Check it out, it really conveys the comics well:
And that's just Part 1, kiddies!
I hope you enjoy the comic/dubs of the comic, because if you do, you get a really shiny gold star. And you can continue to be my friend. Because you're ALL my friends! Even you, obnoxious laughing one. Your obnoxious laughing is an endearing character trait. (Haha, that's a reference, guys! You totally get it, right? ...Guys?)
You know, on a side note, it's very hard for me to eloquently and humorously gush about the things I enjoy. It's a problem. If anyone can help me through this troubling issue that I must live with every day, it would be much appreciated. TEACH ME HOW TO BE FUNNY WHILE ALSO POSITIVE. D:
