But here we go on to the review:
Story - 9/10
This is probably one of the hardest concepts to rate, since it has definitely strong and weak points. First things first, this is a cyberpunk police investigation anime set in almost 100 years from today's time. So, on this alternate future, Japan has isolated itself completely for the entire world, and now runs by a unique system called SYBIL, that messes people's tendency of committing crimes of any kind. This is made through a scale named Psycho-Pass, where a person with a number more than 100 is already someone who'll never be "normal" again, and anyone with more than 300 must be eliminated. And now, the police moves on only one weapon, named Dominator, which can only shoot once the person has a Crime Coefficient superior to 100. Up to 300, it only shoots a paralyzer, and if the person aimed at is a psychopath or such, the mode is the Lethal Eliminator, that will shoot to kill, blowing up the person.
This is the world in which the anime is set in, and I have to say it is pretty creative how they put Japan as being a completely lonely country that has no contact with the outside. And of course this is made in a pretty logical way. No one can ever leave Japan, while no one can ever enter, because if such happens, maybe the Sybil system would be all over the world, and could be traded in the black market for example. And most interesting of all is that we can notice Japan is getting more isolated throughout time. I don't know if what the anime says can become the truth to Japan far in the future (not due to Sybil and such of course), but who knows.
But well, let's just think about the situation: a system that decides if people should die or not, if they should stay in a mental hospital forever or have a normal happy life. That's pretty strange, and if we think closely, every system without exceptions isn't perfect, all of them have one or more flaws. But does the Sybil System has flaws? Well this is up to you to find out by watching the anime.
Anyhow, the anime has a much deeper meaning than what it seems, especially in the beginning. This happens because it starts with a series of cases which the main characters (detectives - I'll talk about the division later on) have to solve, from a social game mystery to cases where girls were turned into dolls and put on public places as a form of art. And this part I found a bit boring to watch, but of course, still enjoyable and well-scripted. However, when you past half of the episodes, things are going to start getting insane with the appearance of the best character and the one who carried the anime without doubt, whom I'll comment on later.
Well, the story is not perfect and it falls a bit near the ending of the anime, however it still is really well-written, and, if you're into philosophy and social discussions or critics, you'll surely enjoy the story to its essence, from how the Sybil works to decide who is right and who is wrong in the story.
Art - 10/10
For an anime, I had to give a 10 to Psycho-Pass on the concept of art, since it has definitely the best scenario I've ever seen on any original anime series. Everything is extremely well-thought and detailed, from the buildings to the awesome design of the robots, labs and especially the "labyrinth". Every single aspect of the scenario has a function, and is of course extremely creative and detailed as I said before, however, what really out stands is the fact that everything new about the scenario such as holographic rooms and mobile are all straightly related to the Sybil System and how it works out, which is definitely a strong point when I say about the development of the scenario.
Of course the scenario is the outstanding point in P-P when we talk about art, however the actual characters are also extremely well done. Even though the designer is Akira Amano, known for being the author of "Katekyo Hitman Reborn!", a poor manga and anime compared to Psycho-Pass, and the fact that the characters look a lot like the ones from Reborn in some terms; all of them are well made and the designs fit their personalities a lot, and I have to say also that the style chosen for the anime fits very well the dark world it is set in.
Sound - 9/10
There's no much to talk about the soundtrack from the anime. It is pretty good and matches perfectly the cyberpunk dark and mysterious world which the anime is set in. I enjoyed some songs a lot, but of course the main theme out stands all the other tracks from the anime, being one of the best themes I've heard in a long while (not only from anime). For the openings and endings, they're all pretty good and also match the style of the anime, but the both the second ending and opening are really better compared to the first ones.
Characters - 8/10
Well... This one was even harder than the story itself. And the fact is that there's a huge problem I found with this anime: the few development of the character's pasts and such made me not care a lot about them in the story. But I didn't dislike any of the main characters, it's just that I couldn't care about what would happen to them, only with one that I will talk about later. But let's get a little more in to the characters:
The main protagonist of the series is the newest member of the police, Tsunemori Akane, a twenty year old woman that looks like a teenager. And one thing that is interesting about her is the fact that, even though the anime is based a bit on action scenes and such, her character isn't made to be the "strong and badass cliche girl" that we see a lot in almost every game, movie, manga, anime or comic. She is a normal person who has basically the cleanest Psycho-Pass possible (not actually... But I won't give out any spoilers) and is not worried about becoming a latent criminal at all, what makes her Crime Coefficient not rise easily. Her development also doesn't seem forced, and it is made in a pretty cliche but light and good way, at least in my eyes. Her personality also makes her a pretty unique character in relation to most of the ones from the police department, except for the male protagonist, Kogami Shynia, her partner that had a terrible and tragic experience in the past which will be revealed later on. He is determined and seeks for an objective that most people have already put down and forgotten about long ago. He's not much of an interesting character by himself, only when it comes to his way of thinking as a criminal and the intelectual fight against the antagonist.
So, here we are, the antagonist... It is indeed hard to talk about him, once it involves lots of spoilers, and I really don't want to give them. So here we go: Makishima Shogo is far, far and far from being a villain. If you finished the anime calling him an annoying villain or a bad guy you should think again about how you see things. Makishima fights for one thing only, and seeks for one thing only. He is definitely the character who carried the story forward, and the one whose absence would have made the anime not good at all. He's also the reason I had to give a "8" as the rating to the characters. But one can only know how Makishima is the best character if this one can also think more than what the story objectively says.
Overall - 9/10
Psycho-Pass has beautiful art, interesting plot and storyline, a deeper meaning behind the plot itself, and one of the best antagonist I've seen. Overall, this is a must-watch to everyone who enjoys police investigation or wants something to reflect and think while watching. It can be a bit hard for the sensitive ones to watch, since almost every censure has been eliminated from the gore scenes.
I strongly recommend you Psycho-Pass. Even if the beginning is a bit slow and the conclusion was poor and a bit disappointing, it didn't ruin the anime a lot, and it still is one of the best seinen I've watched so far.
