Persona 3 The Movie: No. 3, Falling Down

Persona 3 The Movie: No. 3, Falling Down
Theatrical release poster. Right caption reads, "Time does not wait. It delivers us all equally to the same end."
Directed by	Keitaro Motonaga
Written by	Jun Kumagai
Story by	Atlus
Based on	Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3  by Atlus
Starring	Akira Ishida Megumi Toyoguchi Kōsuke Toriumi Rie Tanaka Hikaru Midorikawa Mamiko Noto Maaya Sakamoto Megumi Ogata Kazuya Nakai Isamu Tanonaka Miyuki Sawashiro
Music by	Tetsuya Kobayashi Shoji Meguro
Edited by	Takashi Sakurai
Production company	A-1 Pictures
Distributed by	Aniplex
Release dates	April 4, 2015 (2015-04-04)
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese

Persona 3 The Movie: No. 3, Falling Down (劇場版「ペルソナ3」第3章, Gekijōban Perusona 3 Dai San Shō) is a 2015 Japanese animated film and the third installment in a film series based on the Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 video game by Atlus. It is based on the original story by Atlus and distributed by Aniplex. The film will be directed by Keitaro Motonaga and written by Jun Kumagai. It is based on the original story by Atlus and distributed by Aniplex. It stars voice actors Akira Ishida, Megumi Toyoguchi, Kōsuke Toriumi, Rie Tanaka, Hikaru Midorikawa, Mamiko Noto, Maaya Sakamoto, Megumi Ogata and Kazuya Nakai. A sequel titled Persona 3 The Movie: No. 4, Last Episode is currently in production.

Plot

The movie starts with Junpei being kidnapped by a member of Strega, Chidori Yoshino, while Makoto and the rest are fighting Takaya, Jin, and the Shadow Arcana Hanged Man. As they're fighting, Makoto was knocked unconscious and sees a vision of Pharos, telling Makoto that he will be leaving despite Makoto's plead for him not to. Awakened, Makoto and his friends succeeded on defeating the Shadow Arcana and saved Junpei. Following the Shadow's defeat, Takaya and Jin retreat while Chidori is captured by SEES. The next day, Makoto and his friends along with Takeharu Kirijo decided to celebrate their victory for defeating all twelve Shadow Arcana and destroying Dark Hour. However, during the celebration party when the time reaches midnight, the Dark Hour started, shocking them. They then confronted Ikutsuki at Tartarus, revealing that he had changed the recordings made by Yukari's father to lead them defeating the twelve Shadow Arcana, which will bring the end of the world known as "The Fall". Using Aigis' controller, he controlled Aigis to capture and crucified all SEES members except Takeharu whom Aigis holds at gunpoint. Takeharu breaks free and shot Ikutsuki, but he was fatally shot as well by the latter, killing him. Just before Aigis could kill them, she regained control of herself and instead frees her friends. Cornered, Ikutsuki falls to his death from the tower due to his gunshot wound.

Distraught by Ikutsuki's betrayal, Takeharu's death, and the Dark Hour remains, Makoto and his friends are left wondering what they should do from now on. Deeply depressed with Shinjiro's death and Pharos' departure, furthered by Ikutsuki's betrayal and Takeharu's death, Makoto starts to detach himself from his friends out of fear of losing them. While taking a walk, he met a boy wearing yellow scarf who approaches Makoto, but Makoto decides to continue his walk. Meanwhile, Junpei starts to grow closer to Chidori. Entering new semester, the boy Makoto met before, named Ryoji Mochizuki transferred to Makoto's class. He quickly gains Aigis' dislike who states that he is not good. Ryoji occasionally attempts to befriend Makoto despite the latter's refusal, following him everywhere and even takes the same part-time job as Makoto. Seeing that Makoto doesn't really do any after school activities, he suggests that they create a "Helping Out" club, which Makoto reluctantly agreed. As they do the club activities together, Makoto slowly opens up to Ryoji, much to Aigis' dismay.

Makoto and his friends then participated in a school trip at Kyoto. At this time, Yukari confronts Mitsuru, who is still saddened by her father's death and pressured by the responsibility he left to her as the head of Kirijo Group, leading Mitsuru to lose her will to live. Yukari encourages her to keep living in her father's place as he wished her to instead of continuing to lament his death, convincing Mitsuru that she's not alone. Back at the hotel, Makoto, Junpei, Akihiko, and Ryoji stayed at the hot spring until the girl's bath time without their realising. They started to panic when Mitsuru, Yukari, Fuka, and Aigis enters the hot spring. Despite their attempt to sneak out, the girls found them, leaving them at the mercy of Aigis who threatened them with her gun while Mitsuru "executed" them.

Back at the hospital, Takaya and Jin break into Chidori's hospital room, convincing Chidori to leave. Entering Dark Hour, Chidori calls SEES to come at the entrance of Tartarus. Junpei arrives ahead the others, trying to convince Chidori to return, but she tries to kill him. Although Makoto and the others are with him, Junpei tells them to stand back and leaves Chidori to him. Junpei eventually able to calm down Chidori, who reveals that when she is with him, she becomes afraid of death. Junpei then reveals that he feels the same and he doest want to lose her, wishing for her to stay by his side. Criticising Chidori's weakness, Takaya shot Junpei, fatally wounding him. Finally realizing her feelings for him, Chidori sacrifices her life to revive Junpei and professed her love for him before she dies. Junpei's Persona and Chidori's merged, becoming Trismegistus. With Makoto's support, they overpowers Takaya and Jin, forcing them to retreat. Greatly saddened by Chidori's death, Junpei regains his resolve to fight for her sake once discovering that her sketchbook is filled with her portraits of him.

At December 2, Aigis gains access to her damaged circuit, recovering her lost memories as the Dark Hour hit. At the Moonlight Bridge, Ryoji is staring at the full moon and then confronted by Aigis. She finally remembers that Ryoji is actually a Shadow known as Death that she had sealed 10 years ago and determines to defeat him, leading them to clash. At the same time, Makoto starts to remember the night when his parents died, remembering Aigis fighting a Shadow at the same night. Makoto quickly goes to the bridge, only to see Aigis laying defeated on the ground just as he arrived.

Promotion

Previews

No. 3, Falling Down was first teased at the end of the Persona 3 The Movie: No. 2, Midsummer Knight's Dream feature film which began screening in Japan from June 7, 2014.^[1]

Sequel

The film's post-credits sequence announced that a sequel titled Persona 3 The Movie: No. 4, Last Episode would be "Coming soon".^[2]

References

External links

• Persona 3 The Movie Official website (Japanese)
• Persona 3 The Movie at Aniplex (Japanese)