to answer that question at the end, androids do indeed dream of electric sheep

I like your interpretation on why Yukari's pink lipstick turned red and her sink being filled with water but here's one on why her eyes disappear. "The Yukari one gets me because make-up symbolism to hide one's emotions behind a mask is like the simplest straightforward one but pairing with the water symbolism. Her eyes are removed in the waters reflection because she won't let anyone look into her soul, even herself!" From Twitter.

Another small detail, Mitsuru speeding away on her bike might also represent her desire to run away from her responsibilities and family burdens. She says so in her link, that sometimes she wants to just take her bike, ride into the sunset and never return.

I think this OP surpassed Shadow World in terms of spoilers hidden in the opening. Crazy to see how much there is.

Adding on to the Butterfly symbolism, the Butterfly was also a symbol of the human soul in Greek Mythology and was often seen in the depiction of 2 gods, Psyche who was the Goddess of the human spirit (or something along those lines). The other is Thanatos, God of non-violent death, he was often depicted holding a Butterfly in his hands to symbolise the soul moving on after death.

I've always veiwed the Evoker itself as a metaphor: "To face your true self is to face death fearlessly"

And the final scene showing the group SEES, with Shinjiro looking away. (The video already explain the reason). Shows the Protagonist is separated from his teammates, which symbolizes his fate. Then throws his music player, an item he rarely seen without, tosses it away. An allegory to letting go of his attachment to his life and friends. The Persona 3 title appearing in it, is telling us this is what game/story is all about.

The girl who lept off the building at the start is also pretty similar to the female protagonist, having a similar haircut and the same style outfit

Probably one of the deeper OPs in the series together with P3P, it almost summarizes the entire game with just the opening.

I feel like Fuuka's evoker scene supposed to represent how SEES were trying to get her to join, not necessarily pressuring her, but they were awfully ready for her as they had already had gear for her.

0:55 Since this MP3 player and pair of headphones are actual products in real life (ATLUS does a lot of Sony product inserts in Persona most of the time, even up to P5 with the NPCs using a PS Vita in the train), this is just a coincidence. No one really thinks it's meant to be a bullet for years until this OP for some reason. 0:25 It's Tatsumi Port Island. Where you find the movies, some request like feeding the cat, Tanaka's original s.link location and whatnot. 1:01 This one detail applies more to his trailer where this particular version did indeed play and we see the first part of the OP for the first time. 12:34 His arcana never changed, as s.link arcanas only symbolizes what this s.link represents to the protagonist (This does not necessarily mean it will line up to their main arcana). Akihiko being the star for the protagonist's eyes goes into the fact that Akihiko is always looked up on as a senior. And why exactly that is the case. A person reflecting multiple facets of different arcanas isn't uncommon, as the character's stories and personalities are not one note. This even ties to gameplay somewhat in the older titles, a person's compatability in respect of the personas in that arcana depends on their personality and is tied to the aspects of their main arcana. Now I am not saying that the given point is incorrect though, Ken indeed does look up to Akihiko greatly. And the way the game handles the story of Polydeuces and Castor is with Caesar having a figure symbolizing Castor (Shinjiro) sitting inside his body after Akihiko awakens to him. 13:50 Important to note how the contract is changed to have Philemon's message in the beginning of the game here. As that was a message meant to encourage the protagonist to live life as they see fit. And that will tie more in the choice at the end of the game. They seem to make that more clear. 16:40 More than likely this is her awakening scene to Juno, as she and Natsuki were having their goodbyes on this roof when it happened. 17:00 Part of Ikutsuki's plan is to assemble all the 12 arcana shadows to awaken the appriser to bring the Fall (But he calls it a prince that will turn into a king, I think this is a reference to an old prophecy in real life wherein a King of Terror will arise. Aigis mentions this prophecy in the game in the Vanilla version of P3 too. In January though so it's not present in FES and P3P). In a way, this shot symbolizes the protagonist and Pharos' arrival being the start of Ikutsuki's plans. And how Pharos gained benefit from this as he is the 13th arcana shadow gaining his 12 pieces. Destined to be the appriser. Ikutsuki is quite successful but not in the way he thinks. 18:38 The white to red transition here is likely a reference to the fact that Aigis being broken down in the moonlight bridge happened twice. In 1999 and 2009, all with the same purpose of stopping the 13th arcana shadow. The white being the event in 2009 when she fought Ryoji. And the red being the event in 1999, just after Death is awakened and is promptly sealed in the same location. It helps that the background seems to have some sort of smoky haze. As the moonlight bridge was on fire when this happened. Due to the car where the protagonist and his parents are in.

yukari lipstick scene also shown her holding the lipstick to her head like she would an evoker

ALSO IN THE PART WHERE MAKOTO THROWS HIS MP3 HE DISSAPEARS

Ah yes "Burn my Bread" My favorite P3 song

I really appreciate your effort. I was struggling with a major writers block in my story and your analysis actually gave me decent amount of inspirations. Thank you so much.

You missed the part where they summon their personas where they're in the same or similar poses when first summoned in a way that is almost a shadow or mirror like effect. A reference to the connection between Personas and Shadows and how they're one and the same.

Been waiting for Sky’s analysis. Love the discussion around this legendary intro 🔥

Not sure if 10:18 has a certain feature about the red lights in the train, but I’m sure it’s connected to the past event of the Shadow experiment, especially the boss that we’ll meet on the train. 18:17, you can see Ryogi’s shoes at the top of the screen, to show him looking down at the reflection, behind the background of red, maybe possibly connecting him to that very past event.

2:36 Damn, you didn't have to do em like that 😂

The evoker-death connection is also seen when cast use evokers they “die” for a moment, especially noticeable with Junpei

Yesssss this is exactly the type of video I’ve been waiting for. This opening is ridiculously amazing and I am just so excited for this game

Amazing video, glad there are people like you to point out so many details making the amazing opening even better

I really love your color theory which is especially important for P3. I never thought this much detail when replaying this op over and over again. But in this particular MV I will take it with bit grain of salt and not too theorize so much since when I compared it with another persona op they take this opening much more bluntly for the spoiler so that it more visible to the already experienced player. (Below is just some argument really. Text above is more than enough to sum up my thoughts) I hold to this idea because they seemingly just trying to fit the scenes so it fits the song which is so much more upbeat than normal persona opening song. I sense it when the new singer part comes after LJ finish his his rap part; unlike other op song, new singer keep pushing the drop (idk the terms, this is from my newbie perspective 🙏) and also makes it longer until before it start to lower in "... how long it may last, its your life... Burn your dread." which I thought this was new since no other song push this hard. The closest opening that I can think of that match this kind of vibe is persona Q and Q2. Especially Q when we can imagine spliting the opening drop into two parts, first when the S.E.E.S member meets with investigation team and when bloody dolls scene comes up. They do push the song here, but they brake the push as the doll scene comes and start over. And what do you think about koromaru shrine scene and fuuka rooftop? Is it a bit too long for them since they don't hold much of significant in originial game (from lore wise, we don't see much of koromaru past aside of Femc route in p3p) while summoning persona scene do feel slightly rushed? I mean, if they decide to elaborate more on koro story before joining S.E.E.S I'll gladly take it.

Great analysis. The best. I’m amazed how you find this stuff out.

17:00 just remembering that pharos alerted us during the game that there was a traitor on SEES and other 3 enemies (Strega) this may explain why he's uncovering the camera

Man thanks so much for the video. It was awesome and very clearly explained 🤩

I'm glad I stumbled upon this video. I've seen this opening like a dozen times, but there was so much you pointed out that I never noticed. Thank you.

This was an amazing analysis! Truly impressed by all the different imagery and connections you were able to draw from the OP. Thank you for putting together such a thoughtful analysis on this beautiful OP.

One thing I was surprised you didn't mention is how at the very end once he throws his mp3 player, he disappears while the rest of sees is still there

You explain this way better how I tell someone, thank you for this video!

Great video, thanks for making it

6:01 its also a callback to the og FeMC, Kotone Shiomi, inside Persona 3 Portable

nice analysis! i liked it very much!

I noticed in 3:30 the little beat in the song kind of sounds like burn my dread “ticking clock” but I could just be hearing things

Great analysis

FUCK I LOVE THIS GAME!!! Really gets you thinking about all manner of things

I think that it’s amazing that they were able to capture the musical aesthetic from the original persona 3

U forgot to mention that the protagonist dissapears at the end representing his transformwtion in door kun

thank you for the analysis! its so detailed and organized. i feel so called out at 2:39 LMAO i just completed the game and i realized how much complex this game is with symbolism compared to P5. The whole game is closely connected to the main theme "Death", and the evoker is literally one of the biggest symbolism. I didn't make sense of it until I complete the game... and you basically summarized it pretty well! i really enjoyed the video and i hope more people get to watch this

Now. This is epic.

idk why but the room where the protagonist pull the trigger reminds me a therapy room

The Red spider lily in particular is a really interesting motif because of how many different interpretations you can take from it. It has it's common association with death and the afterlife in Japanese media, but it has like a billion ties to buddism and folklore that they were definitely fully aware of when using it here. There's so much religious context in Chinese, Japanese, and general buddism that you could probably write about for hours. It literally has a 1023 different given names in Japanese. "Higanbana" means "flower of the other shore" and is said to line the Sanzu river, the river spirits cross to reach the afterlife and enlightenment in Japanese buddism. A couple of other ones I think are significant are "Corpse flower", from it being planted around graves as a deterrent for wild animals digging them up. "Hell flower" from the Lotus Sutra, where it's the flower that blooms in the underworld when someone goes to reincarnate. And "Abandoned child flower" from a folk legend of a woman dying during childbirth and having her soul transformed into the aforementioned lily, growing near the graves of abandoned children.

A life that they are not familiar to them which gives the reason to forget it

Butterfly are a like the maskots of the one who was Igor boss on persona series. It's pretty related to the velvet room and their attendants too, so Lavenza transformed from one on third semester. It was also some as save points on P4. So it's more about spirit guide. Yukari entire paleta, from the original game until now was also based on pink while the protagonist as blue. Since characters were made to complement him. In the art book of the original game she was also the only one who mention her palete and is always along the protagonist in the first images. So you can say it's trying to say there is this bou and at the side there is tis girl, you can figure out the rest by the scenes.

Amazing analysis 👏 😮

If you check right at the end when the MC threw his mp3 player, notice that of all the cast, only he dissapears.......

something I'll correct, the version of Burn my Dread heard in the opening is not last battle, if it were we'd hear "I will" and not those opening notes that are so synonymous with the song, meaning this is the opening version of it, which indicates the start of the journey

The fact that Pharos is the one that initiates the transition to show Ikutzki is to imply the link between them as Pharos being death and talking about the ruin in most of his dialogue and that being Chairman's ultimate goal.

Out of context: the poster for the pre order literally says seal your fate

my favorite scene was that velvet room one. it just hits right at my ass. as a person who... quite interested and do research about the game's lore, this opening is perfect. for people who dont get it, they dont get spoiled, but as the same time its a fan service who finished the original. anyways, appreciate your effort you put in this video. bravo 👏

14:50 the times Igor brings a wild card into the room himself, and especially for the first time, is always through dreams, though After that first time, the guests always have the key to the velvet room (which unrelated to the thematics, I'm so glad we have a visual design for that confirmed in this OP, and it's in the artbook too), allowing them access when they desire, even if to everyone else it just looks like the wild card zones out randomly

Yukari at the beginning might be a reference to her in the first cutscene of the game.

19:00 I think this could also be a nod to the answer and how Aegis becomes the wild card, showing the “birth” of one wild card and the future of another.

Something else pretty cool is that when Aigis collapses on the bridge with the tarot cards around her, that formation is actually a valid configuration for reading tarot! And also foreshadows her status as a wildcard after The Answer

I know a anyone played persona 1 and 2, but the butterfly is Philemon, the master of Igor and the guy who give the persona power to the people...

I want to point this out, but it's not only the images but also the lyrics of the song that makes reference as well thought i should let everyone know

The butterfly it also ties with Philemon. Ken idolizes Akihiko.

Before I watched this, I was expecting a MatPat type of theory: one that possibly goes: "Oh yeah, see that gun they hold? Yeah, let me take you back to when the DPRK was founded"

18:08 this music from the Epic Stupid videos... Was from Persona all along?!

the protag only has the opening movie versions of the songs lol

the op is so good

17:15 probably because of how dumb jumpei can be that he need to be monitored 24/7 to avoid hurting himself or do something much dumber.

At 19:50, I don't know if you didn't care to mention or didn't notice but there are 13 tarot cards in the clock around aigis, the 13th one symbolizing the dark hour

17:09 I'm surprised that you talked so much about the colors but didn't bring to mention the colors of this scene. Ikutsuki so happened to have color shades inverted to every other character. Whilst the main cast has the light blue, Ikutsuki is in a dark blue and the room surrounding him is dark. The also contrasts the images of the rooms being brighter than everything else within the scene. This is a nod to Ikutsuki being the poisonous flower which grew in our garden that Pharos warns about.

I like to think that the gang just smiles at the player at the end because we cherish them and we know they'll be able to move on without us in the future. Thus, the protagonist throws away the MP3 player with a smile on his look saying he doesn't regret his final decision and he had a good life.

The butterfly is also reference to the Greek goddess Psyche. The goddess of the soul. She was depicted as a woman with butterfly wings.

man said it looks like a bullet, its clearly a tampon

When your english teacher asks you why the ball was described as blue

Water in Freudian Analysis also symbolized the subconscious... hence Hikari being troubled inside, and also her past traumas, connected to the experiment, resurfacing in her conscious mind Another thing: the velvet room is accessed by dreaming, or by entering the blue doors. But when the protagonist enters, he simply stay there and the other ones see him as immobile and kinda absent.... I'd say he is dayDREAMING :D

The fact that it's Elizabeth who grabs and throws the Red Higanbana flower also foreshadows Elizabeth's mission to rescue the Protagonist.

18:55 i genuenly don't know what you yapping abt, this is just a call and reference to The Answer, Aigis Chapter if you will

At 3:47 I think those two people are Lotus Juice and Azumi Takahashi (The new singer)

16:37 that's Aigis...

19:50 IT'S A *DOOR!*

There will be spoilers Me: aghte am head out

I still find it weird that there are cameras in the dorm rooms. i don't know if that is normal in Japan. I actually can't think of a good reason why one is needed unless you want to ease drop on someone

person on the roof more resembles Aigis because of white legs and metal high heels

16:00 I commented that on the IGN one!

Very nice vid

20:32 Maybe I'm reading too much into this, but is it not interesting that at then end after everyone of the team reunites, they stay together in the background while the protagonist throws the mp3, looks away from the camera, and disappears while the others are still on the background... Man this op hits freaking hard 😢

I theorize that the reload on the tittle might symbolize this being a remake or something, idk im pretty exited though

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? idk, but bladerunner is a masterpiece

The girl jumping off the building looks a lot like Kotone

12:01 0_o FFS they used an alternate name!?

16:00 I think is on purpose 😅. I saw a lot of comments talking about how this looks like the meme.

Honestly if this is the game that leads to protag’s return I’ll lose it 😂

14:05 ...so, being an adult, got it. XD

Weird note. But does anyone else weirdly get Persona 1 vibes from around here 4:04? Maybe it's because the Persona 1 opening shows a wide perspective on a school building similar to this? I don't know how I made this connection when I'm barely a Persona 1 enjoyer

The blue butterflies are also Philemon who had a larger role in Persona 1&2

11:14 fuuka moaned

7:00 the way you said “mudderrrr” was funny 😂 sorry

I need it 😅

Let's see what I missed...

18:52 there’s no way they’re not alluding to the answer. The fool being in the middle with her is to much of a coincidence right?

I never realized akihiko’s persona looked exactly like shinjiro’s 😢😢😢😢😢😢😢

BRO I CANT WITH THE ENG DUB

22:56 lol. That’s a huge stretch lol

pines!!! (/o_o)/

To the beat of this clip 21:45 22:35 ...Gge ...Avral ...Apup Nollipap

It's just 3 mins op The lore behind it takes 30 mins (or more)