Persona 5: The Animation Episode 23 Recap/Review: 'How About A Deal With Me?'

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The death of Kunikazu Okumura is not going well over in Japan as many people believe The Phantom Thieves were involved with his death.

The heroes have no chance of clearing their names, until they meet Goro Akechi who is a junior detective. He might be the only person in all of Japan that can prove their innocence.

Makoto invites Akechi to be a guest speaker at the school's festival.

The rest of The Phantom Thieves are worried though because they're not sure about Akechi's true intentions it. After all, it's hard to trust somebody that you have not fully met yet.

Luckily for The Phantom Thieves, Akechi believes they are not responsible for the death of Kunikazu Okumura because it goes against their morals.

The Phantom Thieves usually change the hearts of criminals in lieu of killing them. The Phantom Thieves still believe the man in the black mask is the true killer.

The interesting thing about this week's episode is that we find out how smart Goro Akechi really is.

He knows the heroes are The Phantom Thieves because he recorded video evidence of them entering the metaverse! However, Akechi knows the students were not responsible for the recent deaths and wants to help them clear their name.

Makoto’s sister Sae Nijima is the head of the police investigation and they have put a 3 million yen bounty on The Phantom Thieves as they want any information about the identity of them.

Akechi thinks of another plan as he feels The Phantom Thieves should change Sae’s heart and convince her they are innocent.

The only thing that’s a problem about changing Sae’s heart is that Akechi tells the team this should be their last mission ever as The Phantom Thieves.

After Sae’s heart has been changed, he wants them to retire from their shenanigans as The Phantom Thieves.

The Phantom Thieves don’t have much to say, but comply with Akechi’s rules.

As of right now, he’s the only person that they can trust since nobody else knows that they are The Phantom Thieves. They also need to convince all of Japan that they are not the real killers.

The team learn that Akechi himself also has the ability to enter the metaverse like they do and he claims to have seen the man in the black mask too.

Whoever this man is, they need to find him and find out why he has been killing people recently.

This week’s episode did not have much action, but it’s an important one because it moves the narrative forward.

Not to mention people that have played the game before will know there’s more to Akechi than meets the eye. I won’t spoil anything here, but let’s just say Akechi isn’t someone they should be trusting.

Anyway, it’s good to know Persona 5: The Animation is going longer than 24 episodes.

This means the series isn’t going to be rushed so the rest of the stories can be told at a nice pace. Join us next week as we will review and recap episode 24!

Wanna read more on this? Check these out: Persona 5: The Animation Episode 26 Recap/Review: 'I Won't Let It End Here' (Spoilers) (more); Persona 5: The Animation Episode 25 Recap/Review: 'Jealous Sinner' (more); Persona 5: The Animation Episode 24 Recap/Review: 'A Challenge That Must Be Won' (more); Persona 5: The Animation Episode 22 Recap/Review: 'Is This Our Fault'? (more).

And here are some more related articles: Persona 5: The Animation Episode 21 Recap/Review: 'You Can Call Me Noir' (more); Persona 5: The Animation Episode 20 Recap/Review: 'My Name Is Beauty Thief' (more); Persona 5: The Animation Episode 19 Recap/Review: 'Aloha' (more).

A few more: Persona 5: The Animation Episode 18 Recap/Review: 'I'll Guide You To Victory' (more); Persona 5: The Animation Episode 17 Recap/Review: 'X Day' (more).

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