Psycho-Pass

In a word: underwhelming.
Reading the many positive reviews for this show, and having had it recommended to me by two people, I was excited to start this show, but unfortunately it did not deliver. I had read a few times that Psycho-Pass was like a spiritual successor to Death Note, however, with its less-than-stunning characters and slapdash plot, it felt more like a fanfic that tried (and failed) to capture the dark ethical themes in Death Note. Not only is the philosophy half-baked, but - with the exception of Akane - it is also difficult to discern what ethical or moral system the characters are ... operating out of.

Story - 6: An interesting concept is more or less squandered by mediocre writing and poor story-telling. The first half of the story seems to focus around the characterization of the main villain. However this characterization and build-up has practically no other purpose other than foundation for the villain. In addition, the villain is a very flat character, with the only traits being bloodlust and intellect. There are many unfounded plot jumps, ranging from small hops to downright leaps of faith, causing a disruption in the suspended belief that we are supposed to hold as viewers. The quality of writing is directly linked to the quality of characters and character development (which is also pretty shoddy). The first half of the series seems to have no bearing whatsoever on the wider plot of the series. The plot developments for the most part seem forced and rely too much on the psychology of the characters - characters that all suffer from extreme mediocrity. Despite all this, it does somehow maintain a thread of intrigue and tension that keeps viewership somewhat bearable

Art - 7: The art is good, though it's nothing really special. Some of the 3D effects are really good, but some are really unnecessary.

Sound - 8: Probably the strong suit of the whole series, Psycho-Pass sports a very good OST in addition to classical songs such as "Ode to Joy" and "La Fille au Cheveux de Lin". Though I have heard better soundtracks.

Characters - 5: Another weak point for Psycho-Pass, the characters in this show are mostly flat and static. The only character who shown even a semblance of development is Akane, though her development falls short of anything I would expect. We don't get the backstory on any of the characters, only hints, which by itself is not bad. However, some of the characters rest of the actions or stories of their past. Not addressing their pasts, I believe, was a big mistake. But perhaps the weakest part of the characters is the lack of their own thoughts and feelings. We don't need to literally hear their thoughts, but without any asides or personal moments, the characters fall flat and become shadows of what they could be.

Enjoyment - 6: Definitely not the worst show I've seen but it is a far cry from anything I consider "great".

Overall - 6

Extra ratings:
Gore: 6.5 - definitely some gory stuff but nothing really over the top
Sadness: 2 - not a sad show at all
Feel Good™: 2 - not a show that gives you the warm fuzzies
Addictivity: 4 - really easy to pace if necessary
Misogyny: 1 - probably the show the least amount of misogyny I've ever seen, anime or live action.

- English Review (Translated version)

With "Psycho-Pass" something quite surprising and frustrating has happened to me. In theory, when I started to see it, it had all the ingredients to be an anime that would become part of my favorites: dystopian future, science fiction, dark environment, thriller style... All elements that attract me greatly in anime in particular and in any story in general. The problem has been that then in practice... it hasn't been like that, I miss something, it doesn't attracting me, it doesn't reach to glued me to the screen.

The initial framework is interesting. It is true that at first it gives the ... impression that we are going to be faced with a procedural series of crimes, in the style of american television series such as Criminal Minds or CSI. In a few chapters it can already be seen that this is simply an introduction to something greater, to the real plot, which from then on becomes the central axis and turns the anime into something much deeper with a multitude of moral and philosophical conflicts.

The problem is not the plot, which is good. I think that the main cause of my lack of feeling is an unattractive rhythm and a way of developing scenes tremendously wasted. Another aspect with which I had a love/hate relationship has been the continuous mention of philosophical authors, literary works and other forms of culture. This is always good, the classical culture must be promoted whenever possible and in a product like anime is to thank this apparition. The fact is that they resort to this resource on so many occasions that it ends up bordering the thin line that separates cultural homage from pretentious pedantry.

As far as characters are concerned, despite having a very high level antagonist such as Makishima, I think that "Psycho-Pass" lacks not too much depth neither in protagonists (including Akane and Kougami, although a priori the protagonist is only Akane) nor in secondary. In spite of being a "long" series (22 episodes), they don't spend much time on getting to know in more detail the personalities, past events and motivations of almost characters. Most of these revelations are through simple dialogues and with little time spent with them. Interestingly, the only episode that is destined entirely to a character's past is to probably the most insignificant Enforcer of all, as is Kunizuka. Incomprehensible.

The technical section is not bad, but it doesn't stand out at all. Artistically everything looks beautiful and solid, but also generic and without much personality. I felt like I was watching Spike (Cowboy Bebop) in every Kougami scene. More of the same happens to the music section. Complicated to keep a memory of any of their melodies, because they do not differ too much from others already heard a thousand times. Openings and endings continue this stay in no-man's-land. If any of them stand out, I choose Ending 2, that is emotional and strong.

As I mentioned at the beginning, it was strange my "Psycho-Pass" view. What I didn't like is not something tangible, something concrete. These are subjective sensations. This, although it cannot be expressed in words at all well, is something that is absolutely valid for a review. Because actually this is all the important when we write them: expressing our feelings with a product. And these are mine.


- Spanish Review (Original and faithful version)

Con "Psycho-Pass" me ha ocurrido algo bastante sorprendente a la par que frustrante para mí. En teoría cuando empecé a verla tenía todos los ingredientes para ser un anime que entrara a formar parte de mis favoritos: futuro distópico, ciencia ficción, ambiente oscuro, estilo thriller... Todos elementos que me atraen sobremanera en el anime en particular y en cualquier historia en general. El problema ha sido que luego en la práctica... no ha sido así, me ha faltado algo, no me ha terminado de llegar, de atraerme, de pegarme a la pantalla.

El marco inicial es interesante. Cierto es que al principio da la sensación de que vamos a estar frente a una serie procedimental de crímenes, al estilo de series de televisión norteamericanas como Mentes Criminales o CSI. A los pocos capítulos ya se ve que esto simplemente es una introducción para algo mayor, para la verdadera trama, que a partir de entonces se convierte en el eje central y convierte el anime en algo bastante más profundo con multitud de conflictos morales y filosóficos.

El problema no es la trama, que es buena. Creo que el causante principal es un ritmo poco atractivo y una forma de desarrollar escenas (que no historia, no es lo mismo) tremendamente desaprovechada. Otro aspecto con el que he tenido una relación de amor/odio ha sido con las continuas menciones a autores filosóficos, obras literarias y otras formas de cultura. Esto siempre es bueno, la cultura clásica hay que promoverla siempre que sea posible y en un medio como el anime, no muy dado a ello, es de agradecer esta aparición. El caso es que recurren a este recurso en tantas ocasiones que se acaba bordeando la delgada línea que separa el homenaje cultural de la pedantería pretenciosa.

En cuanto a personajes, a pesar de contar con un antagonista de muchísimo nivel como es Makishima, creo que "Psycho-Pass" adolece de no demasiada profundidad ni en protagonistas (incluyo a Akane y a Kougami, aunque a priori la protagonista sea solo Akane) ni en secundarios. A pesar de ser una serie "larga" (22 capítulos), apenas dedican tiempo para conocer con más detalle las personalidades, hechos pasados y motivaciones de casi ningún personaje. La mayoría de estas revelaciones son mediante simples diálogos y sin apenas dedicarles tiempo alguno. Curiosamente el único capítulo que destinan entero al pasado de un personaje es probablemente al Ejecutor más intrascendente de todos, como es Kunizuka. Incomprensible.

El apartado técnico se queda a medio gas. No es malo, pero no destaca en absolutamente nada. Artísticamente todo luce bonito y sólido, pero también genérico y sin mucha personalidad. Me daba la sensación de estar viendo a Spike de Cowboy Bebop en cada escena de Kougami. Al apartado musical le ocurre más de lo mismo. Complicado guardar recuerdo de ninguna de sus melodías, porque no difieren demasiado de otras ya oídas mil veces. Los openings y los endings continúan esta estancia en tierra de nadie. De destacar alguno, me quedaría con el Ending 2: emotivo y con fuerza.

Como comenté al principio, ha sido extraño mi visionado de "Psycho-Pass". Lo que menos me ha gustado no es algo tangible, algo concreto, algo palpable... son sensaciones subjetivas. Esto, aunque no se pueda expresar del todo bien con palabras, es algo totalmente válido para una review. Porque en realidad se trata de eso cuando las escribimos: de expresar nuestras sensaciones con un producto. Y éstas son las mías.

Hmm, yeah. Psycho Pass.
Anime about a future where human mentality has become understandable and readable by machines, people have their jobs assigned to them based on their scanned aptitude, VR progressed so far that social drugs like alcohol and tabacco are a thing of the past since you can get high online.
Brave New World all over again, this time in anime format.
Except it's not, because instead of doing some actual introspection, or at least asking questions that would lead viewers to do some thinking, this anime magnificently adapted itself to the era of social rejects that are too timid to be violent in ... real life.
So, what we get is a grimdark show, containing rape, violence and all other candies for shut-ins to vent their frustration, but still fashioning itself as something seemingly deep.

Although I say that, I admit the show is good, topping in everything except subjective enjoyment, so if you, contrary to me, just want to watch some show that graphically portrays strangling/ vivisecting and then mummifying leftover corpses/ raping and beating a bunch of young women after which a group of weathered, grisly detectives explode that episodes villain into a grotesque mass of blood and rendered flesh while doing their best to stay hard-boiled, then you're in luck.
There's no message in there though, I'm afraid. Or it's under much bigger pile of corpses than i'm willing to dig through to hear it.

Puh, ok. Where do we even start here? Be aware, there will be minor spoilers.

Let's do something that I actually really enjoyed. The art. The city looks amazing and really excels at convincing you of the "futuristic metropolis" setting. Characters aren't really anything new or exciting, but they look good enough.

Now, this is where we start to run into some trouble. The soundtrack was mediocre at best, nothing really memorable. I found the ending to be rather catchy, but nothing I'd listen to outside of watching this anime.

And now we get to the really messy part. The characters and plot. First off, we have the ... millionth iteration of "naive, idealistic rookie and cunning yet oddball partner". The side characters aren't really anything to write home about either, the senior, the loose cannon analyst and the two that get so little time to develop or act at all that they are completely generic. The amazing thing is that we actually get told part of the backstory of one character (Kunizuka), yet it doesn't really tell us anything about her except that she apparently likes music and was reluctant to join the force at first? The even more amazing thing is that we learn a lot more about the DEAD partner of another character than the LIVING current member of the team. But nothing of that matters anyway because it is never brought up again.
It's kind of frustrating looking back because the anime could have been significantly shorter if they hadn't tried giving everyone some kind of personal problem to then not resolve. Why bother making up these subplots if you only use them to pad time? For example, the senior guy is the father of one of the inspectors. They develop quite the interesting dynamic between them. How is that resolved? Senior guy fucking dies and the inspector gets to have sad 30 seconds about it. Wow. Or, one of the enforcers is actually an ex-inspector. The ex-partner of one of the inspectors, in fact. Why did he become an enforcer? Because he apparently was to good at understanding criminals and because he wanted vengeance for one of his subordinates that was murdered. This isn't actually mentioned often, it's just there to give the Enforcer guy a reason to kill the antagonist.
This also brings us to quite the gaping plot hole. The criminal coefficient of detectives apparently rises if they can effectively solve crimes by reconstructing the thoughts and emotions of suspects. Despite this, they still get punished by the system if their coefficients are too high. So, essentially, this "police" is cultivating... people that are bad at policing. This seems like a very good way to burn through manpower, which they seemingly do because it's mentioned several times that they are short of it, while not actually cracking hard cases. The policing these guys do also, in practice, consists entirely of aiming their transformer-orwell gun at a bad guy and pulling the trigger. Besides that, they are barely armed or trained in combat. And the entire plot of the anime is "what kind of implications has it if transformer-orwell gun doesn't work on someone obviously evil?". That's it. There's also the pseudo-intellectual monologuing about the nature of humans and their desire for security, or the convincing illusion thereof, but that feels kind of comical when your supposedly perfect system sees nothing wrong it someone being beaten to death with a hammer right in front of it. So in addition to the system not being able to detect ONGOING crimes purely by the action, it actively burns out the exact kind of people it employs to deal with it's imperfections. Doesn't sound like a very good recipe for long term stability to me. Especially since the "police" roboters you sometimes see appear to be nothing but demeaning trash cans without any actual means to fight crime.
Unto my next point. Demographics. It's made rather obvious that people that have not committed any kind of crime can end up flagged as latent criminals and thusly be treated as less than human and be possibly restrained in "rehabilitation" that, from what we see on screen, seem to work contrary to what they are supposed to do by isolating people in featureless rooms and leaving them to themselves. This includes victims of crimes and minors of any age. To make this shorter, you could end up in a hellish facility seemingly designed to mentally torture you through no fault of your own. And since it's mentioned that these facilities have horrible success rates, wouldn't that mean that you are locking up an ever increasing number of people for literally no reason? Wouldn't people start to notice that people rarely, if ever, return from their rehabilitation? And since you are more likely to end up in one of these facilities if you work in a high-stress environment, isn't this society burning out their best and brightest at an alarming rate for an arbitrary number that seems to only be tangentially related to someone's ability or willingness to commit crimes?
And since the Sybil system is so obviously tyrannical, dictating nearly ever aspect of a citizens life, how come people agreed to it? In Japan, one of the currently safest nations on earth, of all places? And why aren't they resisting it? Even if the answer to the former question is just "conditioning", why didn't they resist it when it was still being implemented? This system abolished most academia overnight. You know, those people with the biggest understanding of the systems implications and what it would mean for society, and the mechanics that keep said society working (agriculture, mechanics, etc..)? Later in the anime we discover that a) those academists are extremely unhappy with the state of the world and b) they have access to apparently encrypted mass communications. I couldn't dream up a better breeding ground for an inssurection if I tried. And, as if to taunt the described people with possibly anti-state tendencies, none of the critical infrastructure seems to be meaningfully guarded. In combination with the desperately understaffed security forces, the state that is described as more stable than ever before by the anime should have collapsed years ago.
And as if understaffed security forces, the angering of the people most able to bring the state down and an obviously tyrannical government that isn't all that good at doing the very thing it was introduced to do wasn't enough, here come the "criminally asymptomatic". People whose coefficient and psycho-pass can't be decisively measured. So, essentially, people who can do whatever the hell they want because there is no judicial system anymore to judge them even if they were caught. The occurrence rate of them is determined to be 1 in 2 million. And you're telling me that among the massive amount of people that have nothing to lose, and are capable of seriously impairing the state, there's not a single one among them that can also act with impunity because of that neural oddity? To show you how ridiculous all of this is, let's examine some of the many, many ways you could bring the Sybil System down with.

1) Incite riots to destroy the trust the population has in Sybil.
This is done in the anime. The only reason it doesn't work as intended is because it seems people in future Japan can go from bashing each others head in with garden tools on a massive scale to regular, unspectacular day without a hitch.
2) Deploy jamming devices around the city.
This would be deadly in a modern city and could cause potentially billions in lost revenues. All with a few simply, widely available electronics components and amateur knowledge on how to use them. There are manuals online on how to build one. And if that's the kind of damage they can do in a current city, what do you reckon they'd do to a city where EVERYTHING is completely dependent on constant, wireless connection to the internet? This isn't even hard, as it's acknowledged by the anime that there are no scanners in homes and that you can avoid the public ones if you put effort in.
3) Snip telephone/power cables
The more primitive version of the above, with most of the same effects.

And yet, nobody has even attempted to do any of this, and more? The only thing you need to do is interrupt as many peoples routine as possible, because the system is likely not equipped or prepared to deal with you. But I don't have a fundamental problem with unrealisitc scenarios in anime. I have a with said fundamentally problems being made into plot points, and yet magically irrelevant at all other times.

Phew, rant over. Overall I enjoyed this anime while watching despite all it's flaws. It's by no means great. Or memorable. It's something that serves well as a way to spend time, nothing more, nothing less.

There is a lot of anime where you can watch and have fun or like just to pass time. If you are looking for that kind of anime, this isn’t a place for you. If you like thinking about philosophical things like life, the meaning of life, what is wrong or right etc., welcome my friend because you have come to the right place.

There is utopian world– which is really dystopian- where it gives a system calls Sibyl. Sibyl controls what the person will do and measures if this person is dangerous to humanity or a normal citizen. It seems like it’s an average ... plot but it is more philosophical. If we look at the philosophical side of the anime, the main concept is a person’s ability to think and what makes a person, human. If a person can’t think or act like what the person wants then can we say that that person has any different than a farm animal? If there is a system which thinks for you, then people will accept it but then does it make you a human? Isn’t the ability to think makes a human, human? And the fact that they don’t know what the system based on, how it measures you is basically unknown but the people thrust it anyway because they think that the system is something superior, a high power that knows everything and can do anything (but in the end it is not). And it is really easy to control people who don’t think or obey you for any cause because they don’t know better. So you can control everyone and bring order. But is it worth to bring order, in order to make people unthinkable creatures that will obey only? And I really enjoy thinking and trying to answer my questions and relate to the characters and what will I do, if I were them.

The pacing of the anime was slow. You can’t finish 21 episodes in one go. I mean, you can but then you will be bored and feel like your mind is exploding. This anime has a really heavy concept and because of it really heavy pace. But I really enjoy watching this anime at the end. Just don’t binge watch this anime.

About the characters, there are two characters that developed really well. Kougami and Makishima. Their ways of thinking and the belief they had etc. was really good developed. They really make you think and question Sibyl and not only Sibyl, the real life also. At least they got me thinking about more philosophical things in my life. Kind of eye opener to me. Akane was OK I guess. At the beginning she couldn’t think of herself because of the Sibyl and everything but in the end, she started to question and she started to have thought on her own so I guess she developed really well too. At least that was the producer’s intention. But Kougami and Makishima were in the spotlight. The other characters were just there to be there. The producers made them a little bit unimportant and disposable characters. I wish I saw them a little bit more or at least the relationship between them or their past and the way they think. I mean two of the gang died but it was like “Well they died/disappeared… Anyway, where were we?” And I really wish that they had a little bit more caring than this.

But overall, it was a good anime if you want to think about the anime afterward and just want to experience heavy subject, you can watch this anime.

Sleek, dark, noiresque sci-fi about a future Japan where everyone’s crime potential is scanned by some infallible, impartial computer system (hint: it isn’t). Our protagonists are government agents who are tasked with implementing the system’s judgment (whether that means arresting someone whose “psycho-pass” level is too high, or killing those who are too far gone). We learn about all these characters and their ideals and their back stories (all of which seem to have been affected by this system). I appreciated that although there a few one-off episodes, all of it is more or less connected to the larger plot arc of the show.

The show’s ... protagonists are in love philosophizing their way through dialogue scenes, bringing up what’s implicit in the action of the show and then commenting on it at length (what is this, a Christopher Nolan movie?) Gen Urobuchi, the show’s writer, also seems to be in love with references; Shakespeare, Rousseau and Terayama are all name-checked at different points throughout the action. Granted, the references are not random, and actually help to illuminate what’s going in the show, but I just thought it was prevalent enough to mention it.

PSYCHO-PASS’ strengths ultimately is not its philosophical inquiry, but rather its portrayal of the maturation of its lead character from rookie to professional. It’s surprising that that’s what ends up the thing that I take away from the show, and not none of the free will, police state technology shenanigans. It might just mean that the show’s engagement is more shallow than it at first seems. However, this does not prevent the show from being massively entertaining.

copied/pasted from my blog: thenextthingblog.wordpress.com

This review contains minor spoilers (I guess?)

I truly had great expectations with Psycho-Pass and it's potential and in the end i only found disappointment. For a story that could be deep and well developed, what was presented is very shallow to say the least.

We are shown this futuristic scenario but most of the necessary explanations to understand it are left aside, and until the end a lot of "how's" and "why's" remain unanswered. And to complete it, i can only assume the characters just exist for the sake of the "plot" because they have little to no personality of their own and overall aren't likable.

My ... biggest problem was it Akane, she was probably the most boring, annoying and lifeless characters I've seen in a while. In the beginning I though I could like her because seemed to have a more righteous sense of justice than the one that ruled their reality, but that's only on the first few episodes, after that she was just downright oblivious and naive, even with all she had seen in her job. After all that said let's get to the real problem with Akane: honestly she is everything I despise. At first I though she was only a victim of alienation by the system, but when she finally acknowledged the truth she decided to do nothing about it because society was happy living in ignorance and she didn't want to ruin it for them. I'm sorry but i cannot stand characters that conform with such a distorted reality.

The only character I can say was likable in the slightest was Makishima. At some point i sympathized with his cause, but it was for only a brief moment because the reason behind his desire to free society was never shown. Was he doing that because of some background story? Or was just for fun? Or just for the plot's sake? Who knows, who cares

And then we have Kogami, he's brilliant and does not have an ounce of charisma. At first sight he might like your average badass character: listen to no one, does what he wants and smarter than everyone. But only after a short time he started to listen and care about everything Akane said or told him to do, and why that happened is beyond me. I'm not even going to enter their boring and unfounded relationship.

Characters and story aside, some dialogues are very interesting and leave you think about some important matters, such as the impact of technology on our lives and about the system itself and it's alienation, and I personally enjoy those kind of things. It also had one of the greatest and most disturbing scenes I've seen that represents all of what i previously said and I have to give credit for it.

Psycho-Pass could've been a great story but it was poorly executed and the characters only worsened the situation, don't expect it to be about blowing up dictatorial systems or the likes of it. I guess that part of of my disappointment was due to having such expectations and receiving the complete opposite.

Pros:

- it was interesting to see 3 different characters with different ideologies and how they interact
- makishima (chaotic evil) was only character that seemed interesting
- dystopian world building was well done
- art was fine, OST was good, and I liked the OP (Abnormalize)
- ending was well done in my opinion, by giving a conclusive ending with a few things left open

Cons:

... - other than makishima most were flat characters that were used as a plot device
- even makishima himself wasn't too interesting, however, he stood out because rest of the characters were poorly written
-Shinya and Akane wasn't really well written. Shinya was typical careless MC who is going to do whatever he wants and Akane is the desperate lover. Honestly, these two didn't add much to the series and mostly felt like they were just plot dummies.
- show used shock elements (violent murders) too much when it wasn't necessary to keep the interest of the audience. Most of them added nothing to the plot or to the story
-it took about 6-7 episodes to get better, which felt like a waste of time
-plot writing was sometimes poorly done, and characters were acting inconsistent

overall: 6/10 -- it beats the average shows but it wasn't really good

This title is not bad, I watched only the first season, I don't want to continue watching. The anime has a lot of references to various creative figures, quotes from books and their titles, of course I'm glad that the writer is literary oriented and I like the variety of these references, but the story is a bit long, after watching some episodes you feel their filler, the plot tropes are interesting within the framework of anime of this time. As a result, I recommend it to everyone, the anime really stands out from the other hundreds, but with some nuances.

This is my first review on this site so bear with me.

Essentially Psycho-Pass is a show with a lot of potential but with slightly better than average results.

Characters: 5/10 The only reason I'm not putting a 4 here is because i love the antagonist and how unpredictable he is, he makes up for a lot of the bland character development. BUT. The character that really ruined this show's enjoyment for me is Inspector Akane Tsunemori, the main female lead. I hate her. And not the "i hate her because she is evil" kind of hate. I hate her in the same way I ... hate the people that make me sandwiches at Subway. No life. Dead stares. No real development. She is so lifeless. Even her character is written like this. In the story her psycho-pass is always mild and stable no matter what because... random unknown reasons? She never deviates from that, and everything she does is done because she is just a drone with fake emotions doing whatever is perfectly balanced and logical. She is hatable because this is how she comes off even though they try to write her as a ditz turning into a badass(-ish?). Yet she always manages to come off as a ditz. Even towards the end she's running around in her little office skirt like she just got the job bending her knees inward like she's never held a gun before. I don't know if I've ever seen a character so incompetently written. there is so much to hate about her because there is so little to even say about her. And now they are going to put another bland lifeless smol gorl character in season 2? What happened to VARIETY. Yeah no thanks i think im not even gonna bother with S2. I'm done ranting

Also there are a lot of other character developments that were sorely missed and could've easily been exploited for better attachment to them and their lives, but i digress.

Story: 7/10 The story itself is actually really good and mostly well-thought out. It follows multiple antagonists at first then slowly centering on 1, so it keeps you pretty engaged. It also has a mildly complex but digestable lore and it does a good job and giving you more elements of that lore as time goes on. I think these are the things that kept me going. The premise of the world is genuinely interesting

Production/Art: 7/10 Somewhat generic? But also really solid, not annoying at all, and generally cool to look at. It's not groundbreaking by any stretch but definitely a treat. Typical sorta dark sci-fi look and colors, very neat.

Sound: 5/10 5 because I'm addicted to the song 'abnormal' lol (OP 1), the rest of the OST was meh.

First I want to state that my review will encompass not just the first season (not the extended versions), but the second season, and the first movie. These are all available on Funimation. I have not watched anything else yet.

I was very conflicted when I first started watching this series as it is very difficult to imagine a world like this. The whole latent criminal aspect and everyone being so trusting of the Sybil System never sat well with me. It's also really hard to tell early on just how prevalent crime is in this city. There are very few options for weapons. There ... are stun batons, dominators, and some EMP grenades in short supply. Some of these complaints are addressed to some extant over the course of the first season. What bothered me most was the concept of a weapon that requires permission from Sybil and only has two settings, stun or BLOW THE BODY UP FROM THE INSIDE. Really this makes no sense on any level. Not only does it eliminate potential witnesses, but it terrifies everyone who sees it, raising stress levels and creating more latent criminals. I also don't care too much for violence without purpose. I stopped watching the first season a few episodes in because of this. I came back a few weeks later, but I was still constantly on the edge of giving up. Almost every review I looked at was glowing, no one even mentioned the absurdity of the dominators. The second half of the season does improve, although it drags on a few episodes longer than I would like.

I will say that the characters were interesting. The animation was moderately good. The writing and dialogue was probably one of the higher quality elements, with the exception of the usual villains and their philosophical monologues. There is a lot of great deduction. The overall plot was really just a vehicle to make you think about a serious moral and ethical dilemma. How much freedom would you sacrifice for safety? That dilemma is brought up again and again in different ways throughout the series. It was clearly heavily influenced by Blade Runner and other dystopian Science Fiction stories. Personally, I think using the plot for in this way is acceptable.

The second season was much more consistent and cohesive. The main plot started early and continued to be possibly more horrifying than the first season, which I still believe was absurdly unnecessary.

I would argue that the movie was one of the best science fiction anime movies I have ever seen. You can skip the second season if you want, but you need to watch most of the first season to understand the movie. The animation was top notch. There were some more interesting characters added. My favorite parts were the way that it explored the world outside of Japan and the introduction of some very advanced weapons. I was very disappointed by the limited weaponry in the series, so this made me happy. Also because it is set in another country, dominators are rarely used.

Meh 🤷🏻‍♂️

Going in, I was quite excited to finally watch Psycho-pass. I knew it was a very popular show at one point and was looking forward to checking out a sci-fi seinen anime.

Unfortunately, Psycho pass is held back by bland characters and pretentious writing. Too many minutes in this show consist of long winded rants about the world that just become boring and irritating as the show goes on. On top of that, there is a real lack of ‘entertainment value’ from the plot as you are essentially watching a slow detective show with a sci-fi skin.

That said, the show has very nice ... visuals, some effective world building and a great soundtrack. The voice acting for the dub is also excellent.

All in all, I wouldn’t recommend Psycho pass but I can see the appeal.

This is that one show that I want to love or rather I do love but due to the presence of a certain character I can't like as much as I want. This character feels very puched no matter what situation we're talking about, heck even in the later on movies and seasons this character is just pushed on to the viewer. Lead character Kougami, loved him, Ginoza I so much wanted to see more of him and more of him with Kougami as they are hinted a few times best friends, I would love to see how a latent crimnal and a regular person ... would interact for regular stuff, we got very little of Kagari but his death hit straight to the heart but Akane was such a horrible character that she brings down the quality of the entire show for me. She is just a newbie and she acts like one for half the show but after her friend is killed she just becomes this unstopable force, and all the characters around her act in her favour all the time Ginoza's father treats her more like his child than he does to Ginoza even Kougami leaves after leaving a letter her but not his best friend. Only character who did not fall for was Makishima and boy is he a good villian. He held the series together more than any character and it shows and overall if you remove Akane from the show it becomes pretty good, it already has great music, amazing animations and intresting character but even in 22 episoded they managed to explore only a few them and only Akane properly even if she was being given extra attention. And due to her my entire experience with this show instead of becoming good became horrible.