I guess that if you want an anime to illustrate how the economic crash of 2008 transpired, Psycho-Pass has definitely has you covered here. It’s actually cleverly written into the current case and really shows the limitations of the Sybil System where committing white-collar crime can go undetected and has the potential to be more far destructive than simple violence. It’s a rather ingenious way to bypass the system by loaning people money and letting the housing market forces do the rest. The nature of the crime doesn’t make it conclusion any less thrilling when the new inspectors have some hidden talents of their own like parkouring over an entire block of building or winning a gunfight against a shotgun-wielding gangster. Can we just appreciate how good the animation and music is in this entire sequence? I would dare say that this is the constantly best-looking production of the season that is on par with some anime movies and the music is a delightful collection of new songs, remixes and classic themes that defined the first season.
Speaking of the first season, Ginoza and Kogami makes their nonchalant appearance in an epic sparring match against the current team members of MWPSB Division One. It goes without saying that you will need to have watched the second and third movie in the Sinners of the System Trilogy to get the context of how almost all the previous enforcers ended up working for Foreign Affairs. Seeing how Francera and Mika are simultaneously butting heads and working in parallel on cases, it’s likely that both agencies will lead into confronting the big bad of Bifrost before the season ends. It also reveals just how much greater depth that Mika has as character this time around when compared to that wretched season two especially when it comes to being on amicable terms with her former enforcer. It can’t be easy dealing with Foreign Affairs, unruly inspectors and safeguarding the Sybil system, she’s doing a rather decent job at juggling all those pieces without coming off as a bitch.
With the conclusion of the first case, Psycho-Pass now enters into an untapped area of its universe in the form of policiations and idols. As with a society that completely puts its trust in a computer system, its politicians are co-opted into the system of governance within this universe. The methods and timelines of their electoral candidates are different from each other with Hercules promoting physical excellence and Komiya being the face of mental serenity but the results are all the same in the end. Arata’s mental trace abilities are still bullshit but at least the story is doubling-down on this ability by introducing an idol-politician that can do the exact same thing. Having turned her associate and former band mates into latent criminals, she holds similarities to Togane of the second season minus the absurdly high psycho-pass and mother complex and it’s not a bad setup for the next case. After watching the equivalent of four episodes, I can feel confident in saying that Psycho-Pass 3 is on the right track to becoming the top show of the season. I’m loving the domestic and foreign world-building of this cyberpunk dystopian, the new characters and quality animation. Hopefully, you’re onboard too.
Thank god they’re actually doing something with Mika instead of making her character defined by having a hate boner for Akane. Season 2 was very weak and basically recycled the plot of season 1 while also trying to get the viewers attention with shock value but by far the most irritating thing for me was what they did with Mika, especially since season 1 left it off in such a way that Mika was supposedly the new type of Investigator, one that worked with the enforcers. Then the new writer came in and we got the monstrosity that was season 2. Anyway, long story short, this season is already better in every way than season 2.