Category: Psycho Pass

Now this episode marks the time for Psycho pass to take a more in-depth look at its setting. In the first half we got to see what it’s like to live in this society, and now this series really starts to question it, and it does so in quite an interesting way. It’s not like the Sybil system is currently evil now, this episode looked at it from quite a few different angles and perspectives. I really liked that.

Nobody in this episode actively questioned the Sybil system, yet everyone talked to each other as if they did, to try and reassure each other. Akane in particular did bother her time to question that system, but rather actively challenged her emotions by reliving her memories, going along with the system. In this episode she was shown that her crime coefficient does not rise really high, but in the end, what does this mean really? She is a great asset to the flawed Sybil system.

Also, take note: this episode had a small bit that played at the end of the ED, which is rather important. In this episode we’re introduced to who is probably the one who manages the enforcers and the entire police. I already like her character: I like her dialogue and how she is trying to manage the Sybil system without things going out of control. And at the end of the episode a connection between her and Makishima was revealed, which should hint that her hidden agenda could become really interesting for the next few episodes.
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)

Interestingly, Psycho Pass had the same idea for episode 12 as Robotics;Notes: develop a side-character. Overall, this always is the episode for side stories: right after the big halfway climax. Psycho Pass’ case is interesting, because of how little the character in question showed of herself before that episode. She was just there, but with this episode, Yayoi got a character.

Dead people are often glorified in these kinds of series, but here is one who actually turned out to be quite an asshole when you learn who he actually was. Or at the very least he is incredibly rash. Beyond being about Yayoi, the rest of the older cast also got some interesting details added to them.

I found it quite strange that all of the latent criminals were just lumped together like that. Yayoi for example still could think quite clearly, but she was put together with people who had very obviously lost it. Or was that meant to show how she was special? That she was one of the few people who did not go crazy from being locked up for so long, being denied her artistic expressions?

Artistic expression is one of the surprising themes of Psycho Pass, by the way. It’s almost as if there is no normal art to be found and instead it seems like this show hates artists. Or more precisely: the Sybil system hates artists. In this series, you’ve got the psychopaths, like with the murdered schoolgirls, but the other artists are labelled as liberalists and freedom fighters. I can’t believe I’m spotting similar themes as AKB0048 here…

Also, the new OP: I liked the old one better. Mostly because of the dull vocals that you hear everywhere else in rock-songs. The ED is similar: quite generic, in my opinion. Although it does have some nice visual ideas.
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)

Now. This was incredibly intense. This latest installment has really pushed this series to new levels and I really was at the edge of my seat through the entirity of the scene between Akane and Shougo Makishima. And hands off for the creators for actually doing it: killing off the girl. From Urobuchi Gen this was to be expected, but many other writers would have chosen to let her live, which would just not have had the same impact.

Because the end of this episode was just hopeless. Akane really looked completely shocked in this episode. She was slightly different and more competent from the usual rookie you see in these positions, but she still is naive, believing that she can just take care of things herself. This episode was so over her capabilities. The direction of this episode really was amazing in bringing this forth.

I just wonder… what idiot thought that the Sybil System would be a good idea? I mean, what it basically does is sniff out psychopaths. The junks and the mentally instable people whose desires go out of control. There is another group of killers out there though: the ones who simply don’t care about human lives. These guys aren’t necessarily psychopaths, they just have no value for anything and just kill whenever they find someone annoying. Or in Shougo’s case someone who just rationally manages to kill people.
Rating: 6/8 (Awesome)

This really is an episode that I easily see Urobuchi Gen write. It may have lacked any gore or something, but it was nevertheless quite sadistic, using an innocent friend as a hostage for a simple game.

This episode worked in two ways, first fleshing out Akane and Shinya (having this girl tell about how Akane always solved problems is much more effective than just showing it), and then by pulling a very good cat and mouse game by the previously established android. Again a psychopath who was given the means in order to become a murderer, but this time it’s made very obvious that he also is being tested, and will just be disposed of when he fails.

One strange details is how Shinya suddenly got the idea of a radio antenna being hidden in a bra of all things. You have to have a specific mind to really realize that. I guess that that also was the point of that scene: the white-haired guy knew Shinya so well, that he’d know that he’d come up with such a far-fetched theory.

I also liked how this episode toyed with responsibility. I mean, Ginoza definitely went out of the line, but he’s right: Akane pretty much is responsible for human lives now, which is such a big change from her education. If Ginoza’s theory were true then she could have easily killed him off indirectly due to the system that they live in.
Rating: 5/8 (Great)

Psycho Pass is a technically well written series, and what I mean by that is that it’s getting more and more eloquent: the things it has to say in its dialogue are getting more interesting and creative with every episode. It’s perhaps not on Ghost in the Shell levels, but still quite impressive compared to the other series that are currently airing.

The dialogue also really made this episode. It was both very good at describing its characters, and very interesting to hear what the different characters had to say. In particular the cyborg villain caught my attention, and the animators also seem to like this guy. Nobuchika had a major shock when it turned out that his father’s hue got clouded, and this episode really took its time in explaining not only what this meant for him, but also how the other characters related to it. Because of that this series feels more and more solid with every episode.

And yeah, speaking of Ghost in the Shell, this series definitely takes some cues from it, especially now that the talks are starting about androids. The focus of both series is completely different: Ghost in the Shell was a political thriller with a lot of focus on the mass media, while Psycho Pass looks into psychology and the minds of psychopaths, but there are definitely overlapping themes, like questioning the conveniences of having an automatic body, and how we get used to it and depend on them. Having said that, Ghost in the Shell still has much better writing and direction than Psycho Pass at the moment, but nevertheless I hope that this series will open up the door again to more intelligent science fiction thrillers, that will go even further away from your average series in anime, and that dare to take even more risks. Production IG in any case definitely made up for Guilty Crown with this: this is really the kind of daring that I expect them to do. Not that generic mess of plot twists.
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)

Urobuchi Gen likes gore. Fate/Zero showed this, and this arc of Psycho Pass showed that yet again, and especially. This episode was just brutal as it shows the conclusion of the latest arc. It was meant to get Kougami in the spotlights again amd show his ability to deduct and his connections. His bizarre connections involving a guy who took turning his body into art to the extreme.

As for the themes of the current arc, this episode showed the flaws in the past murders: the lack of creativity or message behind it. The culprit just wanted to carry on her father’s tradition, rather than kill with a statement like her father did. It’s a very morbid way to look at art like this.

Psycho Pass also has a very interesting view on its references. Usually when a show quotes another work, it’s kept with a brief reference: just one shot and nothing more. Here, they quote entire paragraphs. Last week played a lot of Beethoven’s 9th symphony. This series really attempted to make its symbolism have this slow impact. And it worked really well.
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)

I have been waiting for this kind of series for so long. Especially this episode, which just leaves the action for what it is, and instead creates tension through both art and dialogue. This episode was nothing but long dialogues between people about the current case of dismembered schoolgirls in a disturbed Maria-Sama ga Miteru setting.

This is a kind of storytelling style that I really love, but doesn’t happen often. It’s hard to balance because there is so much dialogue, making it hard to add in other stuff, but this episode balanced it out wonderfully in the way that it turned these murders in this weird kind of art, while at the same time exploring what goes through the mind of its creators, from the perspectives of different people.

On top of that, the way in which this case is loosely connected to Kogari’s reasons for becoming an enforcer is quite interesting, especially the backdrop of this series in which his friend was the victim of this deranged artist. Also for this friend to be a complete womanizer that he dfound interesting, rather than some perfect human being.
Rating: 6/8 (Awesome)

This episode ties everything together, and I like it. What psycho pass has basically been doing is gather tropes, and taking a look at them through the mind of a psychopath. Last arc this was about online communities, this time we have this series’ rendition of Maria-Sama ga Miteru. What would happen if one of the characters there was a psychopath, and given the opportunity to commit murder?

This episode really tried to give a strange sense of beauty and aesthetics to murder, taking the elegance of what you’d usually expect in a catholic all-girl high school, and using this in its story really well (also making this the second show this season to quote shakespeare). In this episode I also really could spot some hints of Naoyoshi Shiotani. I can’t exactly put my finger to why, but the style of direction in this episode reminded me of Tokyo Marble Chocolate. Still, I’d say that he’s quite a bit more restrained compared to the episodes and OPs that he has directed in the past. But that I guess is to be expected, considering how much more people are involved in the making of just one series, compared to a single episode or opening for which you have much more freedom (which is probably also why Sayo Yamamoto keeps doing the direction for OPs like what she did for this series as well).

Also, alcohol. Love seeing it used again. Not just for the sake of alcohol, but rather that it can show totally new sides of the characters. Also, it’s good to see the female lead not get instantly drunk. There are very few female leads I’ve seen doing that. And I’d say that this episode was particularly good at fleshing out the cast, on top of telling its story, and I liked the small scene where the female lead still tried to keep up with her friends, and where we revisited one of the culprits of one of the previous episodes.
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)

You know? Psycho Pass is very good at using its build-up. This arc was rather strange at times, but what I really liked was the climax of this episode in which the villain of this arc was apprehended. The directing there was really good, the music rocked, and everything came together. Of course it got quite surreal in a way that wasn’t for everyone, but I liked how creative it was (also, that use of alcohol rocked).

I also liked how this episode went much more in-depth into the existance of online idols. Last week we were introduced to the concepts, but this time showed much more details, and what it means to be an online celebrity. The scriptwriter also really liked to quote famous philosophers in this episode. It also made me wonder: if someone killed me, and still kept posting at the same rate that I do… would people notice?

This also showed a bit more about the world of Psycho Pass: the world here seems to have its own method of determining psychological coefficients, but not optimal search algorythms: people still need to search smartly if they want to find something, because there is so much information. On the other hand, Holograms have gotten to such an advance state that even a computer can’t tell the difference; that, or there are tricks to fool the visual sensors for the computers (which is why everything looked so trippy).
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)

This episode was… odd. Very odd. I liked it and all, but it shows this future rendition of online communities that just made no sense. Or rather: things have to move in a very strange direction in the future for it to make any sense.

THe thing with this episode was that it had some nice ideas, but it combined them in a really weird way. Central was a new way for people to interact online with each other: using Virtual Reality that allows them to create their own persona. Logically there are pepole who stand out as celebrities in this setting. And after that it gets weird.

These celebrities have much more elaborate designs than the others. Why would that be? Computing power or something? What also akes them famous is that instead of creating content, like what a lot of today’s famous people on the internet do, they create personalities that people want to be with. Okay. Later on in the episode, a character calls this a “forum”. Okay. And for some reason, even though a computer monitors the entire cities, it cannot keep track of all the proxies it inhabits. Did the privacy laws on the internet survive this well, even though the rest of the setting is so well managed?

The question here: would the internet really evolve in such a way if virtual reality were introduced? I mean, that community definitely wasn’t mormal and all, with tons of shady guys hanging around it (so how on earth did Akane end up there), but this feels like a bizarre way for things to evolve.

What I did like was that there was one thing that this episode did show offline meetings, to show that not everything is virtual. Oh, and this episode was worth it to see Shinya float around as a talking coin. And I admit that I am intrigued as to what on earth the motives of the villain of this arc are.
Rating: 4.5/8 (Good)