Psycho-pass is a phenom of psychological/dystopian anime. It delivers all that it promises in the synopsis and more. The character development, the soundtrack down to the minute detail, the plot progression. It was fantastic....at least the first season was. The second season was a tad of a derailment and many would agree. However, lets continue.
Story (8/10) The series is set in a dystopian future where a Hue coefficient determines the stability of the average psyche, whether they be mentally stable or no. Think of George Orwell's thought police brought to life; however, instead of hiding in an alcove of the apartment and scribbling in a black book, one follows the view of the enforcer of the thought police for their beloved "Big Brother," the Sybil System. Now, thinking a 1984 cop out would be bad, it actually delivers to the big screen a magnificent performance. Everything from the squabbles with the small-fish to the overall arc in catching the main protagonist: it delivered a Conan Doyle feel of progression "catching a small fish leading to a bigger fish cliche." So, it was an interesting, unrivaled premise in terms of psychological crime. However, the second season tries in its best efforts to match the superiority of the first; and fails absolutely miserably.
Art (10/10) Holy Hell was the style great. I mean, the futuristic tech looked fantastic and fit the "peaceful, yet dystopian" genre. The character sets all have a certain feel: none of them had a distinct anime cut-out. Oh, and the friggin gun, the Dominator! OHHHHHHH! hot damn that thing is crazy when it transforms. You will absolutely love the art style. A crisp, yet "something hidden under the surface" feel to the whole platter.
Sound (10/10) Before watching this anime, I recommend turning your subwoofer and sound bar to max bass. The Dominator shot reverberates around the entire room, its freakin incredible the level of bass that is. The scenes all follow up with a fast-paced bgm tempo. The fight scenes have an incredible overlay with an equally fantastic soundtrack. Bottom line: the sound was fantastic. Oh, lets not forget the legendary openings by the one and only Ling Tosite Shigure, the same who did the first Tokyo Ghoul opening! That was enticing, but I believe what stole the show were the endings by Egoist...now those were something quite fitting for the show as a whole for both seasons.
Character (10/10) Again, it is hard to develop a character well in any anime as it takes a lot of screen time, but Psychopass delivers an impactful performance. What do I mean by impactful? All of the characters directly correlate with the plot flow. The mass populus and Akane's friends swayed into the dystopian happiness. The vagrants and pedophiles fed up with their locked away mentality. The Enforcers....each of their personalities all add up to a symbiotic relationship with the story and comes back full circle. However, I will say this. no spoilers. I was very disappointed with the lead's character portrayal in the end....what i mean is, she broke her character bounds and did something completely out of character. It never really made any sense to me nor a lot of fans out there. Nevertheless, bravo performance.
Enjoyment (8/10) Why so low for an appraised show? I never really was into cop drama. However, I enjoyed the show which was completely beyond my taste and fashion. The show had a fantastic first season, but that was all for me, the first season. The rest of the show had no impact because the lead antagonist was gone. A sort of Moriarity style actor came into play, yet squelched like a flickering candle. Where this is no Moriarity, there is no Holmes. Where there is no Joker, there is no Batman. See where I am getting at?
Overall (9/10) This would be a 10/10 if it werent for a second season. The extended edition was fantastic, yet the second season sort of killed it for me. Also, what killed it was the out-of-character performance near the end of the first season. It almost took the "everyone falls under the face of Big Brother" cliche straight from George Orwell, which frankly pissed me off because of 1. thats been done, and 2. they broke out of character to follow the leads of plagiarism....which is stupid. But overall, a fantastic show which cannot be mentioned enough. If there was an epitome of character development, this show would be the face to portray it along side.
