CapRooney said: I even went and rewatched her arc in the first season to see if there were some hints that could conduct her to turn out like this, and no, seems like this Mika was just created straight out of thin air.
I have seen similar posts (@kondee, @Renaultclio101 etc.), but having just finished S1 and S2, I do not really agree with it assessment. To be honest, I do not think there is enough of her in S1 to form a full assessment anyway, but within those short moments, I think there -were- indications that she could have turn out the way she did.
Now like most people, I do not like Mika in season 2. And I had a positive impression of her in season 1. So how can I assert that the two could be the same (to be clear, I think that with her limited development in S1, they had a multitude of options, but the one they pick isn't that implausible)?
Well, the reason I liked about Mika in S1, is that she seemed to have some good intuition at first glance. She was the only one not head over heel over Rikako, and is the only one to sense that there was something not quite right about Rikako too. However, whatever she sensed couldn't have been that strong, as she sent her friend/possible love interest to a psychopath with a crime coefficient over 400 (second highest in the series). So perhaps, her impression of Rikako isn't so much as sensing something truly dangerous about her, but simply not liking her (a bit like how she doesn't like Akane), and then look for something she doesn't like about her (like how she looked spaced out).
Also in the very scene were she sent her friend to Rikako, it was shown that knew something dangerous was happening either in or near the school, and she had no intention of sticking her nose in it. As a high school student, it is of course sensible action, hence it was not something I criticised her for (though sending her friend there was a critical mistake).. but that very sense of self-preservation, when applied to an inspector, would result in the cowardly inspector that she is known for in S2.
I am not sure if Sybil rigged the result to ensure that she would end up choosing to work as an inspector, but as far as Sybil is concerned, she might well be ideal. Someone who would take orders from the system without question, someone who could be a pawn if Akane becomes too much of a hassle. Sybil generally do not like inspector that tries to be clever (to circumvent orders), as evidenced when Gino in S1 tried to get Kogami transfered to Division 2, and with Mika, it knows that won't be a problem.
And it is not like she has no detective skills. Back in school, it seemed like she knew a lot of things, not just who recently disappeared but it was implied (though the sentence was interrupted) that a former teacher (Touma) had done something bad (since the sentence wasn't complete it is hard to know exactly what she knew but it showed that she had some interest / skills at information gathering). Those skills were somehow demonstrated in S2, but unfortunately for her the case was well beyond her and she ended up shooting her own foot.
Frankly speaking, until she ratted out on Akane's grandma's location (I thought this was only done to make her worse, as it is unlikely the chief didn't have that info) I disliked her as much as I felt sorry for her. I wanted to think that she was not a lost cause. But now, I think that she could only redeem herself by really risking/giving her life for Akane.
I wonder what would have happened if she was in Akane's place in S1, and watched Makishima kill Kagami. Would she still have been so devout to the system to the point where she would welcome the idea of Makishima being turned into a brain in a jar that rule society, even after he kills someone she loves? From what we have seem in S2 my guess is yes, though that is anyone's guess.
Overall, I think she is a sad produce of that society where everyone has internalised the Sybil system (some people still have a soul in that society, but as Makishima would say, most are just walking corpse without a will of their own). It should be noted that while Akane is an exception, it took knowing the real nature of Sybil to really open her eyes (reference to the monologue in the extended version). Mika, when given the same information (though under completely different circumstances, it looked like they were going to tell her then harm her) took a different route (embracing the system), but I think that a lot of people in that society would pick that route too. |