After an incident in his hometown Ren Amamiya is expelled from his school and sent to live and attend school in Tokyo while on probation. However, on the way to school, he discovers a strange app on his phone that, when the correct keywords are entered, sends him to a shadow world. There within, he unlocks the power of the Persona, a manifestation of the rebellion against a corrupt and unfair society held deep within him. Ren and the likeminded outcasts he gathers through his various encounters decided to use this power to steal the corrupt hearts of those whose evil desires manifest in that shadow world as palaces. They soon become infamously known as the Phantom Thieves.
For most people that watched the Persona 5 anime, they were fans of the game. However, I think even non-game players found something to enjoy. If you enjoyed the trials and tribulations of the Phantom Thieves, there is a way you can chase that same high with these anime recommendations.
Anime Like Persona 5: The Animation
For Fans of New Kids in Town
Persona 4: The Animation
Yuu Narukami is the new kid to Inaba. At school he hears a rumor that if you look at a blank TV screen at midnight, you will see the face of your true love. However, when Yuu watches it, he sees a woman getting killed. In an attempt to watch it again, Yuu finds himself able to enter the TV world, a place filled with shadows that can only be fought by personas, awakened manifestations of the user’s true self.
Every Persona game has a different plot that it follows, but the core concepts are the same. In Persona 4, they are solving a murder mystery by entering the shadow world through TVs. In Persona 5, they are trying to reform society and find their freedom in a shadow world they enter via app. Both shows have persona users, both shows start with a new guy showing up in town, and both shows deal with a lot of characters and their character problems.
Durarara!
Tokyo’s downtown district of Ikebukuro is awash in strange rumors, everything from colorless color gangs to a headless rider roaming town populate the rumors. For Mikado Ryuugamine who just moved there from the countryside, he is but one witness to the district’s slew of strange events.
Both of these series actually have a lot in common. While Durarara follows a lot of characters, it starts with Mikado moving to town, like Ren. Then, both of the main characters start encountering strange things that are happening in the cities around them. The more they look into it, the deeper they are drawn in. Furthermore, both shows actually have focus on a lot of different characters and shows their various stories.
Persona: Trinity Soul
Ayanagi City was built to help carry out the recovery from the Apathy Syndrome that happened ten years previous. High school student Shin and his brother Jun meet their elder brother Ryou, the chief of police, for the first time in ten years in this city. However, around this time a series of strange incidents starts happening and Shin awakens the power of persona.
This is somewhat of an alternate setting to the Persona 3 game (which has a pretty good trilogy of anime movies as an adaptation). However, it takes place in the same city, ten years after the game. It is the same sort of fun Persona adventure that Persona 5 presents, just in a different plot package.
For Fans of Powers from Within
Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure
In 1868, Dario Brando saves the life of English nobleman George Joestar. When Dario dies, George hopes to repay the favor by taking in his son Dio. Unfortunately, Dio wants the Joestar household for his own and tries to take it with the help of an Aztec stone mask with supernatural powers. This triggers a chain of events that will affect the Joestar house for generations to come.
While you might not note the similarities between Jojo and Persona 5 within the first arc, but once the Stands get involved, those are basically personas that help the characters fight. If you enjoyed Persona 5 for the variety of personas that represented a person’s inner rebellion, then Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure has tons more of those personifications waiting for you.
The Fate / Stay Night Series
The Holy Grail War is a battle royale in one city in Japan among seven magi selected to be Masters. These Masters summon a Servant, a Heroic Spirit of historic or mythical heroes past, and gain command seals to order their Servant to do their bidding. Together, Masters use their Servants to fight a proxy war for the Holy Grail—a magical artifact capable of granting its wielder any wish. In the Fifth Holy Grail War, Rin Toosaka is among the magi entering the competition. With her Servant, Archer, she hopes to obtain the Holy Grail and have her wish granted. However, when Rin’s classmate Emiya Shirou accidentally enters too, things get much more interesting.
The servants in the Fate series are not so different from Personas. They appear, they fight for you, and they are bound to you in various ways. Both series also feature a protagonist that wants to use their power to foster a change in the world, but the Fate series dabbles in more dark territories.
The Fate series can be a bit complicated to get into. However, if you want to get into it, check out our Fate / Stay Franchise Watch Order.
Guilty Crown
After being ravaged by the Apocalypse Virus, Japan has fallen under control of the GHQ, an independent military force dedicated to the restoration of order. However, a guerrilla group called Funeral Parlor seeks to put an end to their despotism. After a fateful run in with a key member of Funeral Parlor, weak and anti-social Shuu Ouma finds himself with a powerful new weapon, the ability to pull out manifestations of a person’s personality to wield as weapons. Now he must make use of it in order to free Japan once and for all.
The similarities should be fairly obvious here, both shows are about people that can pull out manifestations of a person’s inner personality in various ways to fight. The plots of the show also have to deal in rebellion to a certain extent and expand to a country-wide level.
For Fans of Societal Purification
Psycho-Pass
In the 22nd century, the justice system has changed. The Sibyl System now determines the threat level of each citizen by examining their mental state for criminal intent. This has become known as their Psycho-Pass. Once criminal intent has been identified, Inspectors like Akane Tsunemori are in charge of subjugating them. However, this tough job is not without dangers. This is why Inspectors are paired with Enforcers, like Shinya Kougami, latent criminals with just the right amount of psychopathy to keep other criminals in their place.
Is it wrong to arrest people for crime they might commit? Is it wrong to reform someone by stealing their heart even if they are evil? Psycho-Pass delves more into the ethical and philosophical intricacies in their world while Persona 5, not so much. However, both of these shows take a bit of a look at the darkness of society.
Code Geass
The Holy Empire of Britannia has established itself as the dominant military nation, starting after their conquest of Japan, now named Area 11. Under Britannia’s tyranny, a number of resistance groups rose up to fight for their freedom. Enter Lelouch Lamperouge, the exiled prince of Britannia who has been sent to live in Japan. One day, after finding himself caught in the crossfire in a battle between Britannia and insurgents, Lelouch is able to escape with his life after meeting C.C., a mysterious girl who grants him the power of absolute obedience.
What happens when you take a misfit who was wronged by an unfair world and give them a miraculous power? You will find out in both Persona 5 and Code Geass. The key difference here is that the Phantom Thieves do good work that has some ethical sort of qualms, but produce good results. However, Lelouch in Code Geass operates in terms of grey, especially later on in the series.
Gundam 00
After the world depleted its stores of fossil fuels, it led to an energy crisis like no other. After the world switched to solar power, the countries that once depended on the sale of fossil fuels plunged into poverty, and thus warfare. From this strife rose a military group called the Celestial Beings, who aspired to end all war through intervention with their powerful Gundam mobile suits. This is their story.
The Celestial Beings have a lot in common with the Phantom Thieves as a group. They both seek to reform society in their own ways and work in a way that is not bound by law. In Gundam 00, the Celestial Beings work to stop wars by basically intervening while the Phantom Thieves steal corrupt hearts without permission.
Do you have any more good anime recommendations like Persona 5? Let us know in the comments section below.
