Persona 5 vol 3 by Hisato Murasaki

Volume three has the continuation of the story with the master artist, Madarame, who has been accused of abusing his apprentices and passing off their art as his own. Lady Ann tries to get the current apprentice, Kitagawa, to open up about Madarame’s crimes so that The Phantoms can change his heart. Kitagawa doesn’t reveal anything, and rather asks Ann to pose nude for his paintings. The assault on Madarame’s castle reveals another ally for the Phantoms, but the fight gets too overwhelming, and the group backs out for the day.  The next day, they leave their calling card for Madarame, which allows the "treasure" of his heart to materialize into something they can take.  The group of five then assault the castle again, but their carefully laid plan is heavily thwarted at every turn.

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This is me identifying my own bias: maybe it's because I’m a teacher, but the artist taking advantage of his apprentices didn’t make me nearly as uncomfortable as the PE teacher abusing his students.  Having the extra motivation of passing off their work as his, plus crushing potential artistic rivals, gives Madarame a little more substance to his actions, rather than the PE coach just being an awful person to students.  The shading in the art is still really strange and hard to get used to because it uses a pattern to shade rather than inking. Otherwise, the Personas are all beautiful, and their special attacks are really interesting to look at.  

VIZ rates this for Teen+, most likely for the mature themes of adults mistreating children and teens.  There is also some mild cussing.

Sara's Rating: 8/10
Suitability Level: Grades 10-12

This review was made possible with an advanced reader copy from the publisher through Edelweiss. This graphic novel will be on sale July 14, 2020.

Read previous volumes in this series: vol 1, vol 2

Tags: Rating: 8/10, Suitability: High School, Manga, Fantasy, School-Age, Action Adventure