Psycho Pass – 18

So I already read that the animation of this episode would have… issues. So how did it turn out? Well, it was definitely noticeable For some shots, it felt like the cleanup-animation work was not done, and I suspect it was a case of an outsourcing company that did not make its deadline. Still, it wasn’t that bad and this episode did get across what it wanted to do, and it was a building-up episode anyway. I have seen much, much worse, many times before.

The strongest scene of this episode was where Akane shot Kougami. It was a bit of a strange move in which the Sybil System lacked a lot of subtleties in hiding their true intentions, but still: at htat point they probably believed that nobody could do anything against them and it was worth the risk. Akane has grown much more than what I expected her to do and I loved how dependable she has become.

The inner politics of the police force were really interesting in this episode. And yet again, I have to wonder why the police force is so small and why it’s so difficult to get replacements? I mean I get that there is less crime and all, but society has to be pretty screwed if there can be hardly any capable policemen in the case something goes wrong (like in this episode, where an enforcer starts to think a little too hard). I mean that is the big fault with the Sybil System: it doesn’t seem to grasp the concept of insurance. Did Urobuchi Gen do this intentional?
Rating: 5/8 (Great)

8 thoughts on “Psycho Pass – 18

  1. It could be intentional. The less human element there is, the less likely it to discover the nature of Sybil system and to act against it.

    And perhaps it is really hard to recruit police force – in the society, where mental health is on the first place, who would want to work on the job that’s most likely to make you into a criminal? Half of their numbers are former inspectors. Most of the people who’d want such job would probably be unqualified to do it.

    1. Would that be like them not having an appropriate psycho-pass for the job, but those qualified for the job run the real danger of becoming latent criminals/enforcers? yeah, just like the episode abt the artists.

      I loved how everyone in the team knew what kougami was planning without them explicitly saying, and subtly parting ways, like that infotech blonde woman and masoka. And I like how the dialogue at the end was not forced or cheesy but very practical and straightfoward.

      Honestly, with the way akane handled that scenario I feel like Sibil will be on her case officially now (esp since this had been foreshadowed before), if only for her clear stable psycho pass

      Say, how many more episodes to go? I saw the credits at the end of this episode and feared they’re taking a break?

  2. It wasn’t just intentional for the story to emphasize the human qualities, but it wouldn’t be strange if it was also the intention of the Sibyl System and the people behind it to wipe out peoples’ dependence on human instinct and work solely with the system.

  3. It’s intentional. Gen is poking at the Japanese police dept/Japanese society in general. That’s pretty much this whole show. The police dept is especially telling…

  4. I feel that any job that requires critical thinking, i.e. Scientists, would have a high likelihood of leading to high crime coefficients, due to inquisitive natures required for the job and curiosity towards the system. I wonder how stilted R&D would be in such a society.

  5. It’s pretty stupid how the Sybil System avatar/director has to manually force the gun into lethal mode, while someone else can still shoot to paralyze. This should be done on system level and for any and all guns trained on the selected target.

    1. Well, the more power one has, the higher the possibility they can do something otherwise ilogical while leaning on their power to get away with it.

      But think about it, the dominator Ginoza weilds says “enforce at will”, then turns into eliminator half way. There’s no way they would have pinned Chief and that together without the objectivity and observation of our point of view as watchers of the show. I mean, remember how we felt when we saw the dominator hacked for the first time?! as Bane in Dark Knight Rises would say “Impossible!”

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