Psycho-Pass 2

By: Robert Murphy

**Heavy amount of spoilers**

The original Psycho Pass was an anime that I had no prior knowledge of going into it when I began to watch it and it instantly became a program that I wanted to watch every single week. This wonderful sensation returned when the newest season, Psycho Pass 2, made it's arrival just a few short weeks ago. The show depicted a futuristic world in which everyone lives under the law of the Sibyl system, a faceless body behind society that watches everything that you do and will remove you from society if you present a threat to it. It does this by measuring people's intent to do wrong doings such as commit crimes or acts of violence because this affects everyone around them and their Hue. Hue is the color system by which everyone is judged, having a clear Hue means you will live a happy life, a dark Hue and you either are imprisoned or killed. It is a dark and marshal law type of town but everyone lives in peace, from the outside looking in the society under Sibyl is a paradise but those like Akane Tsunemori know the truth.

The story this time around is a further continuation of what happened from the first season of Psycho Pass. Akane has returned as the now veteran inspector and works with a mostly new team of faces but never the less, she returns to trying to protect society after learning the truth about Sibyl last season. Her new threat though is something of an entirely different level, a man named Kamui has arisen from the shadows and not only is he committing horrible crimes but he doesn't even register on the Sibyl system. Where as apposed to our last bad guy could simply keep his Hue levels low while committing crimes, Kamui simply doesn't even exist. Kamui though isn't acting out randomly, no he is a character with a plan and I watched it meticulously unfold each week and I absolutely could not stop watching. You find out that he wants to know how the Sibyl system works, taking down Enforcers, kidnapping Inspectors and testing Dominators, all to find out how Sibyl judges society. All this was incredibly interesting as I said but at the same time, insanely frightening because these experiments usually involved gross amounts of death, violence or mutilation of people to get what he was after and he just unflinching moved on to the next problem. 

This brings me to the other point of the season I enjoyed which was the Sibyl system itself getting revealed. Yes, we learned that the Sibyl system is a being run by the minds of societies most intriguing criminals but other than big reveal we don't learn much. This time around the origin story behind Sibyl and how even some of the people volunteered to be apart of it. It sets the ground work for most of what we know in the new season and despite having a short time to do so, it manages to present the information smoothly. 

Earlier I mentioned how we are introduced to some new characters, while most of Akane's former team were lost in the first season some still remained but a new junior detective has joined the team, Mika Shimotsuki. While she is the junior, she has been in the field with Akane and the Enforcers for some time now. She is an overall mix for me as a character for the simple fact that she does serve a purpose to the story that I liked but her actions are so irksome that it's hard to notice. Mika excepts the Sibyl system to a fault, she views criminals as people to be judged and removed and Enforcers are the lucky tools to be assisting in Sibyl's justice. She in turn hates the actions of Akane and her attitudes toward dealing with latent criminals, Mika would just want to shoot them and be done with it and not trying and save them if possible. Mika does in the end learn the truth about Sibyl herself and her response as a pure believer proves the feeling that most of society would make if they found out the truth as well. People cannot question the will of the "God" that they live under and excepting is the best course of action.

As for Kamui as the new villain, he may have had an enjoyable plot that wrapped me up each week but as for a character, he is fairly flat. The brief moment where you finally get to know what he's all about is right at the end before he pops into a blood bubble and then you're left to think about the rest of the time you actually learned nothing about him. He was a ghost in all honesty, even when people talked to him on screen it's almost like he's not even there and he just seems to be another faceless entity like Sibyl. This was overall great to further the plot in the story but as a villain you would think with all he's done he would inspire more emotion in you. 

For a final sort of warning though I would like to note how immensely bloody this season was. Psycho Pass 2 already has the mature rating, Psycho Pass had it too, this time however it is more than warranted with the number of people that you will watch implode all over the screen and warp your senses. There is also a puppy scene I don't want to get into, psychological and physical torture will ensue and you will be watching it all. It is a mixed sort of feeling I had because the show does not do it for any shock value whatsoever but it is a lot and I wonder if it was really all that necessary. 

My final thought is that Psycho Pass 2 continues the already great ground work that was put forth from the first season. Not only do we learn more about the Sibyl system this time around but it itself gets to be judged by another entity and has to decide whether or not it can evolve or be destroyed by it. The story also sees the return of some great characters, Akane herself becomes more of the main character that I wanted her to be and carries herself stronger than ever after the incidents with Sibyl. I do however wish that Kamui had been a much more dominant presence, I didn't get to like him until the very end and then he was gone and unable to make a further impact. But else wise, if you can handle the mature rating and are a returning fan, I would recommend watching Psycho Pass 2.

Good:

- Akane and a couple other returning solid characters as well as some new ones

- Learning more about Sibyl and it's origins 

- Kamui's plan and unraveling the Sibyl system had me wrapped up every week

Bad:

- Kamui himself isn't too dominant of a bad guy

- Mika was a hard to like character and her actions certainly don't help

Scully Rating: 8.8 out of 10

Psycho-Pass

By: Robert Murphy

In a distant future of Japan, its people are all monitored and watched by a technological break through that measures citizen’s psychological states, mental inclinations and aptitudes right down to its core. This technology is known as the Sibyl System and it has paved the way for what many believe to be a perfect society where crime is almost none existent, people are all employed and live in an almost utopian society. Psycho-Pass tells the story of the people who stop the few crimes that still occur in this day and age and bring them to justice by either capturing them for therapy and treatment or removing them from society all together. Sibyl decides whether a human life is worth being around in the new society founded here and people known as Enforcers are the executioners that carry out its judgment.

The world of Psycho-Pass gives off a very Ghost in the Shell feel to it when I first starting getting into, a futuristic world of technology being extremely well advanced with holograms and robots all over the place. However, the concept is far different from Ghost in the Shell where people live in almost numbing bliss free from cares or worries about the people around them, almost like they live in Canada or something. At first I quite enjoyed the state in which people lived in but as the show progressed I soured on it, not because of the shows story telling but because the people were in fact numb and lived shallow lives do to the bubble world they lived in under the Sibyl System. Sibyl monitors peoples true feelings and looks deep into just what kind of person you are, not by the actions you take or how you live your life, that doesn’t matter to Sibyl because if you’re deemed a bad egg you’re going to be cracked. This is fine for most people though because a majority of the population is happy but it doesn’t seem too great from the other side especially if you’re someone that is deemed unable to be fixed by therapy and are removed from society all together, either by killing you or putting you in an isolation facility.

The story itself follows the people who work at Public Safety Bureau's Criminal Investigation Division, those who track down criminals that either refuse treatment or have been scanned by Sibyl and seen to have clouded emotions or Hues as the show calls it. Akane Tsunemori is the newest member to this team and she works as an Inspector, people who give orders and are generally in charge of the criminal cases that are found by Sibyl. Then we have the Enforcers, these people are what is known as latent criminals people that should be removed from society but are used to help track down others with high crime statistics so Inspectors crime statistics don't go up. Akane is a shy and seemingly fragile girl who you wouldn't expect to work in a job like this but she chooses it as her career because she recieved a high aptitude for it from Sibyl and joins to find out why. Akane almost right away shakes the foundation of what Inspectors are suppose to be like and she treats the Enforcers like normal people, not looking down on them and judging them. Alongside her, I found the Enforcers all to be loveable characters but weren't to deep as far as characters go this was the case I found with Nobuchika Ginoza, the other Inspector working with Akane who even when he had a something personal about his life come into the story it kinda fell flat or you saw it coming. My absolute favorite character had to of been the antagonist, Shogo Makishima, who was the one in the story to actially make me feel the sourness I mentioned earlier about the society under Sibyl. Shogo does an excellent job of being that bad guy you hate to love and makes the story what it was for me which was great. 

Psycho-Pass is one of those animes that comes along and makes a stand on something and says okay this happening, this is what society or something is going to be like and makes you really question whether its right or not. Much like in Death Note, criminals are being punished and removed from society and Psycho-Pass does the same thing except that it’s sanctioned and it’s an every day thing that people welcomed. Whether you agree with it or disagree with it is something you will have to watch and decide for yourself.

Good:

- A solidly paced and compelling story

- Shogo is probably one of my top anime antagonists and really drives the story

- A great setting in a Ghost in the Shell like futuristic world

- Makes you question whether or not you’d want to be lived in a world under Sibyl

Bad:

- Characters could have used a little more work

Scully Rating: 9.0 out of 10