PSYCHO-PASS
a review by HisokaMagician
a review by HisokaMagician
I will refrain from using complicated theories or vocabulary to help you understand where I am coming from.
Psycho-Pass is a cyberpunk crime anime set in a future society where the government can instantly measure a person’s mental state and potential for criminal behavior through a system called the Sibyl System. Every citizen has a “Psycho-Pass,” a number that reflects their psychological stability, and if their crime coefficient becomes too high, authorities may detain or eliminate them before they actually commit a crime. The story mainly follows rookie inspector Akane Tsunemori, who joins the Public Safety Bureau’s Criminal Investigation Division. Inspectors supervise a group of “Enforcers,” people whose Psycho-Pass has already been judged dangerous, forcing them to work as hunters of other criminals. One of the most important Enforcers is Shinya Kogami, a skilled but troubled detective who deeply understands the criminal mind. As Akane investigates increasingly complex cases, she begins to question whether the Sibyl System’s method of judging people is truly just or if it sacrifices human freedom for the illusion of safety. The series mixes intense crime investigations with philosophical questions about justice, free will, and the nature of morality. Throughout the story, Akane grows from an inexperienced officer into someone capable of challenging the very system that governs her world.
Refrain from reading from here on if you dont want to be spoiled.
I think its very fair to say I liked his character, but not to the full extent which I potentially could. Thats because I think in the show there was far too less information in season 1 about him for me to try and justify his reasoning/motives. First of all his motives, supposedly his reason to defeat the antagonist of the show was to avenge his long dead friend. In the beginning of the show, we reason his determination to be because of grief for his dead friend, however, I believe his reasoning slowly started to change over time as we progressed into the show. Maybe he was just carried away in the game of chasing the villain that he forgot about his true motive, I say that because he started acting and treating everyone differently after he met Akane. And I just could not believe that 15 eps into the show his motive still stayed to avenge his friend.
Another major flaw of this show in terms of fully describing his character was that we never got to hear his true opinion of the sibyl system, if he ever would have said "thats completely unfair" or "I think its fitting of this society" then perhaphs I could connect all the dots and try to analyze why he does things the way he does. Overall, he is a great main cast character but lacks a bit of writing, he got a great character design and got a top tier animation.
I would rate him a 9.1/10 character.
I have mixed feelings about Akane as a character. She is a well done main character, but I think she wouldn't fit to be a full screen mc, thats for sure. She kind of boring to watch, her choices and actions are very predictable. I think she is made to be relatable to an average person who watches this show. Nervous in certain situations, not ready to take responsibility at times, scared to take actual action sometimes and believes in true justice that an average person would. Really just an average person with a academic gift + a genetic gift to keep her psychopass low.
However, all that changes in ep 20 when she is told about the truth of the psychopass world. i think the complete switch up in actions, abilities and personality is a slip up in writing. In my opinion, they should have kept it the way they should until the end. Maybe then a more interesting end would come for the show.
Nothing much to say or note about her, I would rate her 7.9 as a character.
The main antagonist of the show, a certainly interesting character. I liked him very much, but again, not to the potential full extent. Makishima is a very cold, sadistic and most certainly genius antagonist. The main thing I liked about him was the quote "A person's value is determined by the times they act willingly". This quote clearly opposes they sibyl system, probably his main motive for his actions. He often quotes stuff from various different books about the philosophy and history of the world.
When I say I did not like him to the full extent I meant quite the same reason as Kougi. We do get to see his reasons but not a very clear motive. For example I wonder how he ever got the idea that a person's value is only determined when they act willingly. I was hoping a nice backstory would have to explain that, but not only did we not have the backstory we never even got to see anything related to his past. The only thing which is aye catching is his genetic gift of controlling his psychopass.
However despite all that, I fully agree with his philosophy. He has a very clear point, a very creative one. In addition to that his character is a very proper one of an antagonist. He likes to keep hiding in the shadows while keeping things in control from the back. In beginning of the anime he reminded me of Johan from Monster.
Makishima only ever acts out of his own interest kind of like Hisoka from HxH. One of the things I liked most would be that he sometimes lowers his pride in the show to admit something or say something interesting.
I would rate him a 9.4/10 as an antagonist
Writing of this show is clearly it's best aspect. It's consistent pretty much throughout the whole show except some specific episodes and small slip ups towards the end of the show. The whole Sybil system thing is a very insane and complex focus of the show. Some people might say that it's not so bad, some people say its horrible, that's ideal for the author to have a good debate going in the fandom.
The show has done extremely well in terms of a detective show, some might say its the best but I pick Death Note every single time out of a million, but different people different views on this.
I like how some characters like Kougi are very pessimistic and brutal, where as some characters like Akane are very soft and believe in justice no matter the situation, this kind of balances out the whole aspect. Then, the tension in this show is incredible, they use everything to make sure the viewer stays on edge while watching critical situations.
However, one thing I didn't enjoy during the show was unbalanced character writing. This was shown very clear. While some characters receive top tier writing and a backstory, others are brushed aside. To give an example I will say Kagari. He was not only not given a motive or reasoning to be in the police force, but had a very meaningless death all while being the main cast. Let me put it this way, I enjoyed his presence simply because he was kind of interesting and acted as he wished. I got mad when he was a total mystery and then died for absolutely nothing, he didn't help the detectives or deliver any philosophy into the story. Another one is Shion, she had a whole episode to prove that she has decent writing, however totally failed in my opinion. She was a guitarist which was jailed for her high psychopass, then went out of the jail and saw her friend doing bad stuff so she for some reason decided to become a member of the police force. Didn't really get why she had such high ambition. And we kind of wasted an episode on her so it didn't really make sense to me.
Besides that the show has executed the writing amazing, nothing more to say.
The main thing holding it back is the first 11 episodes clearly. They were actually good, but never as good as the rest of the episodes. In the first 11 episodes I think the show just kind of lacked action. I get that it had to set the base for the show and all, but it could still be executed a million times better. I guess we still have to be grateful that its not as bad as steins gate or something. It had a clear point, a clear direction, but still lacked tension and action, that's my opinion. Unfortunately most people may drop the show at episode 5 because of this major disadvantage.
The rest of the episodes were purely amazing. They had amazing amount of action, very clear direction, all the philosophy you will ever need. And an ideal antagonist to top it off. The tension was insane too, every ep the show makes it feel like the whole world is at stakes, thats what an ideal anime should do.
Nothing much more to say since it was kind of average for the writing, often when the writing is too good so the author has no entertainment skill to back the writing up.
I don't usually count this as a thing to affect the rating of the anime, but in this anime it just shows so much you cant really ignore it. The main subject here will be the Sibyl system. First of all I think the most important thing to say is, in my opinion it's completely wrong. The show teaches a really valuable lesson, you have to appreciate the opportunities you have. In the Psychopass world, there is no mercy for even thy thought of anything bad or something that opposes the Sibyl AI. Some people argue that it's not so bad to have a world where people don't even consider crime a thing, where everyone does things they are the best at. I stand at the point that it's completely wrong. Yes some points that the anime usually gives to measure a society's ratings are valid, but they just put the happiness aside. Are the people really happy when they know they cant really think they way they want to just because it will cloud they psychopass? At that point, they solely live for the purpose of fitting the sibyl's standards, never for themselves / not out of their own will. This is probably where Makishima placed himself. Still doesn't justify his actions though.
I think Dominators are just like real world money, if you don't really believe in them, they have no value. So if everybody stops believing in them how it happened around ep 14 I think japan would go on to become just like the present world. However, dominators are actually wrong, if a person is depressed, he doesn't necessarily have to be jailed or take therapy, dominator doesn't put a persons ability into account, well maybe taking ability into account is the inspector's/ enforcer's job, so about mid-way into the show we find out that not only is the system itself is flawed, the police is too.
__I really enjoyed the ride psychopass has brought me, all the philisophy that I learned from it will probably come of use sometime in life. It's definitely an underrated show but I would like for it to stay that way.
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