Here is a note to you fansubbers out there. Or anyone else who writes, basically: when using abbreviations, it’s very important to make sure that everyone knows what these abbreviations mean. Explaining them once won’t suffice: people will forget that, and your text will just look like gibberish. “Yes, the ADX needs to use XAW in order to XET so that the PSE can LRX”. That just isn’t nice to read, and even if you happen to know the abbreviations, if you don’t know them by heart you’ll end up spending a few seconds trying to think of it. Precious attention that you should be focusing on other things. That’s why I try to avoid abbreviations as much as possible, unless I know that everyone fully knows what I’m talking about. Sword Art Online’s SAO is a good example of this, though let me know if you were unfamiliar with that one.
Anyway, Psycho Pass: I was looking forward to this one thanks to a very clever marketing campaign: they didn’t announce what this show was about at all, until about a month before it was set to air, really piquing my interest since it’s especially rare for a Noitamina series to do that. It kept delivering cryptic hints, bit by bit, until it was revealed that Urobuchi Gen would write it, the director of Tokyo Marble Chocolate would direct it, and that it would be about a dystopia in which people are judged by computers.
Now, about the actual show: this second episode was definitely not the best second episode of the season, but it has got a really solid first episode as a base. You can pretty much see this second episoe as the proper start of this series, where it’s carefully explained what this show is about, and we can get a bit of a feeling of the characters. There is definitely something deep going on here and this episode was definitely just about the surface.
One word about the animation: I do have a bit of a problem with the late trend of hiring really famous character designers to do your characters, and nothing else. The problem with that is that the character designers don’t really think in terms of practical designs: they just do their job of showing some eye-catching designs, without really thinking about how well they can be animated. Psycho Pass has some clear troubles with htis, and the character designs aren’t even that good. You can see that the creators here have trouble animating them. Jojo’s Bizarre adventure has this problem as well this season, but that managed to solve itself with its direction, though Psycho Pass doesn’t have that. The award for best character designs of the season… I’d give that one to Kamisama Hajimemashita: creative and detailed yet simple and easy to keep consistent, yet dynamic.
Rating: 4.5/8 (Good)
Who is the famous character designer? Akira Amano?…
They look more or less like typical Production IG character designs. I see more of Kyoji Asano’s work in this than anything else. Production IG used to be able to animate this character designs very well, but recently they have fallen from their status as a powerhouse quite a bit.
The big problem here is that these character designs are way too complex so animate properly with all the little frills and details on them. Do you remember when Production IG stood as a powerhouse? That was back when anime didn’t air in HD yet. I’d say that they still are really good at Production IG, they’re just a bit too ambitious for their own good.
The level of detail is no more than the detail in Stand Alone Complex 2nd Gig, or more recently, Real Drive. Those are both available in HD.
I don’t even believe that they did that bad of a bad job in this episode. There weren’t a lot of distorted faces. The designs were consistent. They just weren’t moving around too much. I have to agree on one point though, for their complexity they don’t really look *that* good.
The way I see it, this was a quiet episode that didn’t require a lot of movement and Production IG saw it as an opportunity to save some budget. The animation would have been just as stiff even if they used simpler designs IMHO.
It’s not fansubbers this time, it’s Funimation, they should really know better. And I still don’t know what the MW in MWPSB stands for.
“Yes, the ADX needs to use XAW in order to XET so that the PSE can LRX”. That just isn’t nice to read, and even if you happen to know the abbreviations, if you don’t know them by heart you’ll end up spending a few seconds trying to think of it.
Yikes. Do sentences like this realistically show up in this anime? That sounds like one heck of a problem with the script. I don’t think technically complex shows like GITS got that bad. I’m surprised they don’t introduce original slang terms or something to make it easier to remember.
The trouble is abbreviations are usually needed in the first place to shorten a really long term. There’s only so much subtitle you can flash on the screen at a time and it should fit the speech being subtitled. Walls of text will definitely not work for obvious reasons. I think if the characters use abbreviations, the subs should too, maybe with an unobtrusive translator’s note on screen somewhere or a more complicated one at the end of the episode.
Well, that’s where discussion forums like this one will be useful to get clarification from more informed fans. XD
Well, that sentence was a bit of an exaggeration, but unfortunately there were a few lines in the fansubs that had two inexplicable abbreviations in them.
Eh, I agree that Psycho Pass’ chara design is badly animated (hell, even the promo art looks ugly), but Kamisama Hajimemashita looks so generic and like all other shoujos out there I have to disagree on that.
I’d say the best chara design this season would be either Zetsuen no Tempest or Shin Sekai Yori. Also the Robotic;Notes anime made a good job at improving the original game’s art, which looks horible imo (I know, tastes and all…)
Robotic;Notes had cel-shaded animated 3d-objects as art. Kinda like the recent dot.hack movie. Not a great comparison. XD I thought they threw a lot of effort into that but damn, for a story that’s supposed to be a sequel to Stein’s;Gate, it was a heck of a slow burner. I can’t even guess how a school club building a super robot from an anime is supposed to top S;G. Still think it’s very possible though given what a slow burner S;G was too.
Remember, Chaos;Head takes place in the same universe as well and that one is nowhere near the level of Steins;Gate. With that thought it mind, I went into R;N with pretty low expectations, I thought it would fall somewhere between C;H and S;G. So far it isn’t too bad, but nothing really impressive either.
This isn’t either of those anime however so I will end my comment here.
No comment on the opening? I thought this opening was somewhat strange. Perhaps it’ll clear up what was going on in it as the series progresses. At least it’s clear what the show will be about.
I don’t share the comment on the character designs at all. It did take a second to get used to them, but I actually taken a liking to them. Shinya looks like he could fit in mouryou no hako actually. If one of them is perhaps somewhat confounding, it’s the old guy, Tomomi. He has a bad case of anime hair and he’s (perhaps intentionally) an anime version of Columbo.
The OP was terrible.
WHAT!? Kamisama is just like any other normal shoujo design. Damn I was really hoping shin sekai yori got it, I mean just look at their school uniforms and there normal clothes in the last episode. Wow I honestly did not see that coming. Don’t get me wrong though I like kamisamas designs too but I just thought is was a normal character design. It reminds me of ouran and maid sama. Shows like that. Anyways……..
This show is trying so hard to be edgy it’s ridiculous. And lol Akane has Sailor Moon’s magical outfit changer thingie.
lols, what !!!? Sailor Moon’s magical outfit changer thingies !!! .. what are you, a five years old … it’s a mobile hologram device just like the hologram device she used to alter the her apartment decorations or the one she used later to disguise at the second part of the ep … if you can’t understand something as simple as this why are you watching this show XD
and no, it isn’t trying too hard to be edgy or anything .. there was nothing this episode to even indicate that.
Enjoyed this episode.
The OP seems to be giving the implication that Akane may not be who she seems.
@psgels, spelling mistake my friend, clear troubles with htis.
Fwiw, I didn’t know what SAO was till I actually read a post or two. Never even heard of the franchise before the anime. Oh, Ixion Saga DT > SAO DT, btw. =P
Um, I kinda liked how Kirito got rid of his DT. XD I think Kon is in quite a pinch to get rid of his. I mean, the only female in his party is the princess. Unless he takes the Maryandale route, which the OP seems to hint. XD
I thought Sao ment sexy Aidan orgasm
Hi, Clara here! Topping the list at #1 on the Amars list of things never to say to an Amars is… Self esteem!
Personally, I’ve never been a fan of Amano’s character design, so I agree with you there. However, I have to respectfully disagree with the Jojo critique. Araki’s not even in charge of the character design, so it’s a moot point anyway.
I don’t know what’s the big deal with characters being off model, it’s anime, it’s bound to happen sooner or later, budget is the key. By the way, character designs aren’t complex nor flashy in this one.
I didn’t really see much that was wrong with the animation? Maybe I’m just being unobservant, but really nothing stood out for me as looking weird. hmm.
Agree with abbrev without explanation being annoying. Does anyone know what the MW stood for?
I do love the augmented reality aspect, and this explained how she got into the bureau while so naive, so that does away with one problem I had with the first episode.
wow, so many comments but about subbing and design but not a lot of comment on the story.
I am really digging the story. Really the story line just blew my mind. I didn’t really notice the other flaws….I have to admit I didn’t really care even once they were pointed out.
It’s a great show so far, I hope they can keep up the cool storyline and make it work for the long haul.
Excellent episode, loved how it showed the typical work day from start to finish at that Public Safety Bureau headquarters, with a lot of neat Production IG touches here and there and some world building (and too many hologram devices .. they really make me want this tech to become commonplace a.s.a.p XD)
Loved how the episode also showed Akane interacting with all the enforcers in her team revealing bits of info about her motivation to join the Public Safety Bureau and about their past and how they ended up as enforcers, her interaction with Kogami was the most interesting becasue it actually developed both of them .. she gained stronger resolve that her decision was right and that she really was meant for this job as she felt before (which can be seen in her confidence while she was filing her report at the end of the ep) and Kogami on the other hand had his eyes opened by her action and he decided to start thinking for himself instead of just acting like a robot carrying out Sybil directions as before he was turned numb by not thinking for himself and following the the officers and Sybil directions (which seems to be the curse of this world) .. Akane seems to be the only one so far among the character who actually thinks for herself without being too dependent on Sybil.
I also loved the OP art (so freaking rad, the OP song was weird and not very consistent though), the ED song was awesome.
Oh, and did anyone notice that Dr.Shion and the female enforcer were actually .. ahm .. doing something before Akane arrived (something that involved undressing, well .. you get it), i also wonder why is Dr.Shion so fixated about sexual stuff, “joining him in bed” .. lols .. really XD
Oh, i really didn’t see any major problems with the characters designs or how they are animated, the quality of both are above the average anime out there and are satisfactorily consistent, so i’m not sure what’s the big deal that would require devoting half the post just to complain about the animation instead of discussing the ep itself.
Well said….
I keep wondering why her mental balance is so good? Her actions also looked to be compulsive….i.e. she HAD to protect the victim. Yet that is also clear thinking and she was the only there doing that kind of metal processing.
Then she later has what looks to be mental stress about it, losing sleep etc, but later on she is laughing with her friends about her concerns and fears.
So she can care enough to have empathy with the people around her but can still make clear and tough decisions under pressure.
Well it was only her first day…I’ll give her some time to toughen up to the job. 🙂
I think there should be no problems with character designs given that Amano Akira already had her own manga series (KHReborn) animated with a lot of chapters. And in the poster for Psycho-pass you could tell it was her designs from the beginning without seeing her name (at least I realized). There should be animators who know how to work with her designs.
The hologram tech is really advanced. I wonder how it works… And great backgrounds. I think you’re right about the doc and the female enforcer.
“character designers don’t really think in terms of practical designs: they just do their job of showing some eye-catching designs”
I’m sorry, but what are you talking about? When doing character design for animation the animation of the said character is heavily taken into consideration. Now, if the animators and particularly the inbetweeners can’t deliver, it is a completely different issue. You can have a great character designer and a crappy animator or a budget that doesn’t allows you to polish things to the level you’d like to. That said, there is nothing in character design of particular show that is too complicated or unseen before and the animation of Psycho Pass is your typical anime series animation, no better and no worse than the other shows I’m watching this season. Maybe you are confusing art direction with animation?
I liked this episode a lot. The fact that it paused and spend time on consequences and the world building was great. That little scene near the bed at the end of the episode was a bit over-dramatic, but o well…
MW stands for Ministry of Welfare (Public Safety Bureau)