Netflix Is Turning Persona, Of All Things, Into A TV Series
The game adaptation train keeps chugging along.
It’s hard to overstate just how much the modern role-playing game owes to Japan. There was a time in the late 2000s and early 2010s when Western gaming journalism derided the JRPG for its overt anime and manga influences, but contemporary RPGs are indebted to Final Fantasy, Fire Emblem, Dragon Quest, and other Japanese role-playing franchises that outgrew their initial market to become international juggernauts.
Coming into prominence a little later than other JRPGs, the Persona franchise has nevertheless become another big name over the 30 years since its first game, Revelations: Persona, was released. A loosely connected “alternate timeline” spinoff of the dungeon-crawling Shin Megami Tensei series, the series has six mainline installments and a seventh game in development. As popular as they’ve become in the gaming world, the recent announcement of a television show adaptation guarantees that the franchise is about to become even more well-known among a general audience.
2016’s Persona 5 quickly became the best-selling title in the entire franchise, and has frequently been considered one of the best RPGs of all-time.
On June 29, Variety announced that Netflix was developing a live-action TV series based on the Persona games. Christopher Monfette, a writer on Star Trek: Picard and the SyFy adaptation of 12 Monkeys, is set to showrun, write, and executive produce, while production companies 21 Laps and Story Kitchen are involved. This is part of a continued streak of Netflix video game adaptations, including the Devil May Cry anime, Arcane, Castlevania, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, and The Witcher, among others.
There’s some slight connective tissue between each of the Persona games, as they all take place within the same universe (although the use of alternate timelines makes that fast and loose). But essentially, each game revolves around an ensemble of high school teenagers who discover that they can summon “Personas,” physical manifestations of their psyche that can be used to battle hostile supernatural threats.
There’s a clear coming-of-age narrative at the heart of each game (especially Persona 5) that resonates with players across the age spectrum.
All of this stems from the “collective unconscious,” a location created by the total of human wishes and desires, and by the persistent conflict between Philemon and Nyarlathotep, two metaphysical beings representing the positive and negative aspects of the human condition. On a grand scale, the Persona franchise is an exploration of human psychology, with an emphasis on young characters who represent the self-discovery and actualization that come with adolescence. There’s also a lot of time management and dating.
At first glance, a live-action adaptation feels like a weird choice, especially considering the franchise’s unique, bombastic art style. But from Netflix’s perspective, a live-action series might be a good way to gain a new audience outside of the games’ loyal fans: the premise feels adjacent to the kinds of high-concept YA stories the streaming platform has been courting for years, from Stranger Things to Alice in Borderland and the short-lived adaptation of the Shadow and Bone books. That Netflix is adapting Persona is also further proof that the JRPG has transcended the derision of its past and has earned a rightful spot as one of gaming’s most influential and popular subgenres.
The Persona series does not yet have a release date.
