__[DISCLAIMER! THIS MANGA SERVES AN IN-BETWEEN FOR PERSONA 2: INNOCENT SIN AND PERSONA 2: ETERNAL PUNISHMENT! I WILL BE GOING INTO SPOILER TERRITORY FOR THE GAMES AND THIS MANGA IN THIS REVIEW!]
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The Story/Narrative:

As a story that takes place between Innocent Sin (IS) and Eternal Punishment (EP), specifically taking six to twelve months before the events of EP, it does an excellent job of staying in its lane and not really doing too much outside of modifying the SEBEC scandal from the first game with the Nymphéa Scandal that happens in this story, though the Nanjo group is still name dropped and are still involved. It's more of a self-contained story that compliments the themes the series (especially the earlier Persona games) are known for. It's fairly well-paced, doesn't waste the reader's time and while it seems boring at first, it picks up into something much crazier. I will admit, though the usage of MacGuffins is rather cliché and does take away from this plot a little for me, it tries to do something different with it by having the MacGuffins be personally connected to the characters overcoming their personal challenges, which adds more personal stakes to the story for the major characters. I loved the fact that their personal conflicts between themselves and their friends/family are really heavily explored and shown to have real-world consequences and effects, harkening back to how Tatsuya's emotions affected the fate of his world in Innocent Sin and almost the fate of the world in Eternal Punishment.

Many of the areas from the games such as Sumaru, Yumezaki, and the Abandoned Factory are here and serve roles in the story, which helps strengthen the connection to the games more, while also having a couple of new places thrown in that don't feel out of place.

The Characters:

The characters here are...interesting. They're probably not characters you'd see appearing anywhere in any of the games, but they do still fit into the world of Persona 2 and do have their charms, both in terms of writing and visual design. Kazumi is an interesting protagonist and so are the major characters like Keito, Narui, Rinne, Rihito, and Yakumo. All of them go through their own personal journeys one way or another and grow in some way by the end, some more than others, since there's only such much character development you can squeeze into eighteen chapters over three volumes. With the amount of time given, I'd say Naotsugu Matsueda (Satoru Horii) did his best in trying to give us characters that we can quickly sympathize with while still being explored well enough to where we can care about them. Yakumo's lackeys get the least amount of development and while they have great designs, Rago and Rea are the only notable ones due to their roles and personalities outside of Rihito before he becomes an ally to Kazumi.

All in all, while these characters don't compare to characters like Tatsuya, Maya, Eikichi, or Ulala (which is frankly an unfair comparison given those characters had two whole games to be fleshed out and explored), they're all still decently explored and are likable enough to where you'll still probably dig them as I did.

The Visuals:

While nothing stunning, I will say that it's a pretty clean, at times visually exciting manga that's good for its time as a year two-thousand manga. The fight scenes are the real highlight of this manga, getting to see everyone use spells and fusion spells from the games, which ties this manga even closer to the games is great stuff to see for a nerd like me who just came hot off the heels of playing the Duology. The locations and Personas from the games are all accurately depicted and look great! As I briefly mentioned before, the character designs, while not necessarily in line with the characters you'd see in the games, are still pretty cool in their own right and have their own vibes they give off. There are some panels here and there that I did find pretty cool.

Overall, it's pretty great stuff, I have nothing to complain about here.

The Verdict:

As someone who's played the Persona 2 Duology, I got a real kick out of this manga and it's nice to experience something outside of the games, as good as they are. I'd only recommend this to people who have played Persona 1, Innocent Sin, and Eternal Punishment, though, even if it's a mostly self-contained story. For what it is as a spin-off and in-between for Innocent Sin and Eternal Punishment, it's pretty great and I don't really see how it warrants having a 6.86 MAL rating as of writing this review. It's a shame this never got an official localization given it's more than likely canon and connects pretty neatly with P1, IS, and EP, not even with the two-thousand-eleven reprint. If you're someone who's played the games but hasn't read this, it's just more Persona 2 at the end of the day and it's a fairly short read.