From a very young age, I've always been fascinated with police procedural television series, the most notable ones being Law and Order and its spin-off Law and Order: Special Victims Unit. Of the two, I only fully completed Law and Order, while dropping SVU at its 12th season, when Christopher Meloni left the show. This kind of symbolized my departure from television series into a fully devoted transition to the anime world. This was back in 2011. But even then, my love for Law and Order hadn't swindled. If I caught a rerun of its earlier season on TV, I'd sit down and watch it. I love the procedural police genre that much. So imagine my reaction when an anime was announced in 2012 that was a part of this subgenre. It immediately became my most hyped anime for 2012 and I couldn't wait for it to air. And what a joy it was to watch it when it did.
Psycho-Pass takes place in a dystopian future set in the year 2113, where the Sibyl System actively monitors the citizens of Japan's mental state linked to their probability of committing a crime. This assessment is what is known as a Psycho Pass, showcased as a hue and a number. This number is measured by the Crime Coefficient (CC from now on), and when the probability of committing a crime becomes too high in a person, the System marks them and orders the Public Safety Bureau (PSB from now on) to pursue and apprehend. Now this is where it gets interesting.
The task force is armed with a gun called the Dominator which, when aimed, measures the targets CC on the spot and gives out three possible judgments: innocent (gun locks itself), dangerous but not that dangerous (gun paralyzes), or dangerous and in need of elimination (gun kills). The PSB Criminal Investigation Division is divided into two sets of people: the Inspectors and the Enforcers. The Enforcers are themselves latent criminals, meaning that their CC has reached a point of no return and have accepted an offer by the System to become a part of the task force without going to prison. The Inspectors basically keep the Enforcers under control (like a master holding his dog by a leash) and have the authority to paralyze the Enforcers if they ever disobey orders or go buck wild.
STORY
The story begins with Akane Tsunemori, a new Inspector of Unit One as she joins the PBS. She has no idea how to do her job as an Inspector and is basically thrust into the world of crime. The story follows her and the rest of Unit One as they take on several cases throughout the series. The series is episodic in nature, but it does have an overarching story, which is quite noticeable since its basically linked at the end of every arc in the series. The series is 22 episodes long, written by the master of darkness and despair Gen Urobuchi. Now, you have been warned. If you haven't seen a series by Urobutcher before, let me say this from the get-go: do not get too attached to the characters. That is all.
The story is excellent, to say the least. It delves deep into the theme of morality, what is right and what is wrong. And it's Akane that generally has the voice of reason questioning this fact, being the rookie and all. The show portrays just how dependent humans have become of technology, and this is best seen on episode one, where a woman is kidnapped, and when rescued, discovers that due to the horrifying experience, her Psycho Pass has deteriorated and her CC has risen. The Enforcer, being told by the Dominator that she is a threat to society, proceeds to kill her, but Akane paralyzes him (Kogami Shinya) in order to stop him from doing so, so she can then proceed to calm her down and lower her CC. It really likes to explore this concept, and it's brilliantly well executed.
Each episode likes to keep you in rage inducing cliff hangers (rage at the time when it was airing because I wanted to see the next episode immediately after) and provides plenty of twists and turns. However, it is pretty simple to follow and the whole plot could be said in a single paragraph, but I won't do so for obvious reasons. Now there is a trade off, the first episode may shy away viewers for its gruesome and gory climax (and trust me, it did shy away a friend of mine to whom I recommended this show too). This doesn't mean that Psycho Pass is a gore fest, no no. Rather, Psycho Pass is a well crafted story, but it is strong and mature the entire ride. I would not recommend it to a younger audience nor those who are weak hearted or squeamish.
ANIMATION
Psycho Pass was developed by studio Production IG, famous for their relatively high budget shows, such as Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Higashi no Eden and Guilty Crown. There really isn't much to say here that hasn't already been said elsewhere other than that it does provide some really nice eye candy for the viewers. The fight scenes in particular are amazingly well animated with the characters moving in real time. The character designs were done by Amano Akira, famous for her long running shonen series Reborn. Those who have seen or read Reborn in the past (like me) will immediately notice just how similar some character designs are, but that's not a problem in my book.
The only real problems I had with the animation were in episodes 17 and 18, where the quality kind of took it down a notch. It isn't all that noticeable, and Production IG have remade the episodes, so major props to that. However, there are some scenes throughout the series where the character faces aren't all that consistent, especially in the scenes where the characters are discussing a case and simply talking.
SOUND
Oh my God, yes. The soundtrack for Psycho Pass is arguably its greatest feature. Composed by Yugo Kanno, who also composed the soundtrack for Birdy The Mighty Decode, the music simply fits into the show and never feels out of place. When there's a chase scene, or a fight scene, or a simple chatting scene, the music is always there to fulfill its purpose, and it does so beautifully.
The anime sports two opening and endings. The first opening Abnormalize, performed by Ling Tosite Sigure, is a fast paced opening which fits the theme of Psycho Pass perfectly. It is replaced at episode twelve by Out of Control, performed by Nothing's Carved in Stone, a song sung in engrish which also fits the show extremely well. The first ending for Psycho Pass is The Monster With No Name, performed by Egoist. I must say, this song is pure awesomeness and I seriously do not regret the countless hours I have spent listening to it on repeat. The second ending is called All Alone With You, also performed by Egoist. This song is more mellow and slow paced than the first one, and it encapsulates well with what happens in later episodes.
Due to time constraints, the endings had to be played in the background during the final scenes of some episodes. There are also some episodes that use different verses of the ending songs, for example episode eleven. Personally, I really liked this small detail, as it gave it a more epic (yes, epic) sense of closure.
CHARACTERS
I had problems with the characters in this series. The ones the show focuses on are really well developed and we are able to see them change throughout the series, but then there are some that are just outright neglected by the series. The show follows Unit One and all of its members. Unit One is composed of two Inspectors, four Enforcers and an Analyst.
The two Inspectors are Akane, the female lead, and Nobuchika Ginoza, the stern stuck up leader of Unit One. The Enforcers are as follows: Kogami Shinya, the male lead; Tomomi Masaoka, the father figure of the members of Unit One and the eldest; Shuusei Kagari, the jokester of the group who became a latent criminal at the age of five; and Yayoi Kunidzuka, the only female Enforcer and the drone specialist. The Analyst for Unit One is also a latent criminal that goes by the name of Shion Kanamori, in charge of supporting the team with medical aspects and so on and so forth.
The shows main antagonist is called Makishima Shougo, arguably the most interesting character of the story. I won't say much about this guy because it'll be rearing heavily into spoilers, but I honestly haven't had this much fun watching an anime villain since the spine chillingly scary Johan Liebert from Monster and the incredibly charismatic Count from Gankutsuou.
Like I said before, the show focuses heavily on some characters, not all of them. I am, of course, talking about Akane, Kogami, and Makishima. The rest of the supporting cast, while brilliant in their own rights, aren't given proper back stories and are there just for the sake of the others. I really liked all the characters in this series, especially the Enforcers, but they just aren't given the attention they so much deserve.
ENJOYMENT
As I said before, I am a HUGE fan of police procedural series. When Psycho Pass was announced, I immediately wanted to see it. And good God did it deliver. Generally, I don't like to wait week after week for an anime, I like to let them end and then marathon it. But Psycho Pass was so darned good that I had to keep watching. I enjoyed it way too much. That being said, this isn't a show for everyone. This is seinen people. It's mature and it's dark, but most importantly, it was written by the Urobutcher. Be prepared for this anime, cause it will take you for a tremendously high speed ride. And if this review motivates you into watching Psycho Pass, once you watch episode 16, come back to me and we can discuss Urobuchi's masterpiece over some tea and crumpets.
My final verdict for this anime is a well deserved, 9.2 out of 10.
I re-watched this series for the second time a few weeks ago and decided to make a review about it. Huge thanks to firealchemist for proofreading this, go check her out! Also, this was my first review ever, so any feedback would be greatly appreciated.
