On July 4, 2020, Aniplex broke the news that Persona 5: The Animation, the 2018 anime series based upon Atlus’ JRPG hit Persona 5, would finally receive a proper English dub. The news was made official on Twitter, along with a brand new trailer for the anime, confirming that all the voice actors from the original game would reprise their roles in the series.
While many fans were happy to hear that the anime would finally receive a dub, that happiness and excitement soon turned to anger and frustration when Aniplex also announced that the dub would only be available by purchasing a $300 Blu-Ray set.
Yes. $300. For a twenty-six episode anime. Let that sink in.
Needless to say, fans were…not pleased with that particular part of the announcement.
The $300 Blu-Ray set, which is currently available for pre-order now on Right Stuf Anime, comes with six blu-ray discs containing all twenty-six episodes from the original anime, as well as two bonus episodes. In addition to the complete anime series, the set comes with a set of illustrated cards. It sounds like a nice set and collector’s item to add to one’s Persona collection but despite that, it doesn’t feel completely deserving of such an insanely high price tag.
To compare, Persona 5 Royal, the recently released enhanced version of Persona 5, featured over 150 hours of content. The most expensive version of that game, the “Phantom Thieves Edition”, came with a steel book case of the game, an art book, soundtrack, dynamic PS4 theme, collector’s box, and a replica of Joker’s signature mask. At the time of release, the Phantom Thieves edition sold for $90.
And then there’s the Persona 5 anime, which costs over three times that amount.
Twitter users have also pointed out a number of other ways fans could spend their $300 that are still related to Persona 5:
So does one really need to drop $300 in order to enjoy this anime?
At this time, the Blu-Ray set is the only known way to watch the English dub. Hopefully, the dub will be available on other streaming platforms, such as Crunchyroll or Hulu. However, all we can do is wait and see.
Source: Twitter (@ScruffyTurtles, @LuckySlime_, @TheTasteOfALiar, @ItsEdmar)
