Sibyl isn’t everything but episode four has me nearly convinced with its balance of investigation, action, and social commentary that it is on par with the first season of Psycho-Pass. Wrapping up this case answers the case’s immediate questions like what makes Komina tick, but only more questions crop up like who is the First Inspector and what is Bifrost’s ultimate goal. With the season already half over, its beg the question of how they intend to wrap up all the plot points from this and previous seasons.
With Yaoyi not being overbearing in her cameo appearance, the MWPSB do all the heavy fighting and this action sequence is a thrill ride from beginning to end. From MWPSB charging into the debate venue to the final showdown, it was relentless in its excellent choreography pace as fights broke between former friends, Enomiya’s henchmen and a giant seven-foot combat robot. I noticed that the writers conveniently forgot that the Dominator has a third and final mode of the Destroy Decomposer. Capable of one-shotitng military-grade drones, industrial robots and custom artificial hunting hound, I find it difficult to believe that a real enforcer would have forgone vaporizing that giant metal bodyguard in single hit. Instead, they have to do this double-team maneuver that signifies their growth as a enforcer/inspector team.
In the end, my assumptions about Komiya were hilariously wrong in that she had ulterior motives and could match Artra’s mentalist skills. She was just oblivious to the Bifrost’s game and wanted nothing more than to be a governor in service of the Sibyl System. While I was being distracted by that red herring, Interestingly enough, the twist that she had an AI holo that overlaid over herself and performed all the political speeches. In a world where the Sibyl System is everywhere and could just turn people into a mist of blood on a whim, it’s not a far stretch to have an AI lead the citizens and whisper sweet-nothings into their ears. Even though it was supposed to be a scandal that would derail her aspirations, it was all part of the overall plan to place her into power. That’s some scary stuff that the Japanese are willing to go through with Komina over Kosuke to give up their rubber-stamped political voice in exchange for an AI much like how the people of war-torn SEAun of the movie voted to import the Sibyl System en-mass in the end. Though this has all sorts of implications for a society as a whole, it never feels that Psycho-Pass is trying moralizes on either side of freedom or security.
I wonder what kind of other shows would benefit from a 45 minute runtime as opposed to the standard 22 minutes. It just seems to give the story the right amount of room to develop the plot and sustain momentum throughout its runtime. Spanning over the equivalent of five regular episodes, there were long stretches of both action and character moments that wouldn’t flow in another format. In particular, the second half of the episode was just a collection of character moments like Artra and Komina going for a casual meetup that done with grace and opens a romantic option for the future. Hopefully, like her governorship, it won’t end up being a horror show. Other parts like Mika attending the post-celebration party is honestly one of my favorite things since Psycho-Pass 2. They’ve actually fixed Mika’s personality by keeping her distance from people and getting pissed off easily, but also being a lot more open minded and clearly caring about her subordinates to some extent even if she doesn’t want to admit it. It’s a big improvement from season 2 when she had blind faith in Sibyl System and thought that her ideology was the only correct one. I can’t say the same for Akane herself this season as it is revealed that she might have killed an inspector who was connected to Bifrost leading to her current incarceration. Although her hue isn’t clouded from doing such an act, removing an inspector, one that is deemed to be Sibyl’s sword in governing society couldn’t be allowed to slide.
