From 17th to 30th of January I had exams, so I decided to wait for a couple of weeks until they’re over and then freely marathon the newest episodes of Psycho-Pass. Man, I was glad, because the week between the 14th and 15th episodes would have been hell for me. Now it isn’t much better, but I at least know where this show is heading. Now, without any further ado –
Basically, what happened in those episodes was: the 12th episode which we all waited for, disappointedly, turned out to be a filler about Yayoi. It wasn’t a bad episode, but after seeing Makishima in his true colors, getting a backstory of a character that never really got much attention was a little bit irritating. But from that episode, we found out that there actually is a resistance group that opposes the Sibyl system, which may be important in the future of this show. Then, in the 13th episode we see Akane live and with almost the same hue she had before Yuki’s death. Then, she risks worsening her crime coefficient by letting Shion look into her memory and make some photos of Makishima’s pretty face. In that episode, they made Akane look a little too strong, if you get me. First, she’s all shocked and hurt, because Makishima killed Yuuki in front of her and she couldn’t do anything to help her best friend. Anyone would have been stressed out and depressed in that situation, but we didn’t see Akane in such a state. I feel like they overdid it a little, by making her seem SO strong-willed. If they showed how she was thinking things over for a couple of days, feeling depressed but then deciding to stay strong and yatayatayata. That would make the whole situation and her character itself seem much more realistic, because people don’t just get over the death of their best friends. Especially those who were killed in front of them. Especially if, in a way, their friends’ death was their fault. But if we keep that aside, Akane can be considered a really strong female character, which is rare in anime. Pretty independent, strong-willed babyface with balls, lets say 😀 I like her. In the 14th episode we first see Makishima’s new device – a helmet, which copies a cymatic (I have no idea how do English translators call that, because I watch this show with Russian Subtitles ^^”) scan of a person closest to it, so even if Oryo Rikako was wearing that helmet, none of the scanners would recognize her sky-high coefficient. And BAM. IT happens. Makishima finally made his first big move – by letting someone wearing that helmet just kill a person in the street, where hundreds of people would see him, countless cameras or drons would record his actions. That planted fear in people’s minds and made them start to doubt everything – their own minds, the bureau, the ministry and the Sibyl system itself. This made me really glad, because I was hoping that Makishima would go further than being a ripoff Orihara Izaya. But about that later. And in the 15th episode, they dropped the bomb. Massive disorders in the city, stress level rising with terrible speed, killings and whatnot. Everything happened so easily, so much quicker than I thought it would. And the bureau faced those problems well, but in the end, it turned out that it fell for the decoy that Makishima set up for them. In reality, his objective was the heart of the Sibyl system, which supposedly is inside the Nona tower.
Also there were 2 new openings and endings. That’s a bit much for 4 episodes, don’t you think? But truthfully, I prefer the first version of the second opening much more. I can’t really put my finger on it, but that one suited the song(which I love, by the way :3) much more than the second one. And the ending…… I don’t really care for it because the song is terribly irritating to me.
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Now, I’m going to say it again – I’m so glad that Psycho-Pass went this direction! Because while a plain detective is almost like a small ray of sun in today’s anime industry, a Political Detective is a complete delight, if you ask me. And not only because nowadays these type of anime are more rare, but because they’re much more interesting in general.
I’m also loving Makishima, to be honest. He’s turning out to be quite a neat little villain which indeed stepped up from being an Orihara Izaya ripoff to someone more than just an observer, someone who could make serious decisions, take risks to achieve his goals and fight quite well too. In short, he can back up all the shit he does. I actually agree with him on the Sibyl system. Deciding what should be called a crime, who is right or who is wrong, who’s the victim and who’s guilty, or even deciding on who should be a doctor and who should be a janitor – those are the questions that humans aren’t always capable of answering, so giving that right and duty to a machine is absolutely unacceptable. Human mind is far too complex for any machine to fully understand and letting such a mechanism control our lives is far too stupid and risky. Stupid, because people are becoming inert, unable to make decisions or even comprehend what’s really happening around them – like in the 14th episode – and why. Even Akane, who’s an inspector, a detective, a person who’s job is supposed to be protecting people couldn’t make a decision – to shoot Makishima from the Shotgun, or just stand and stare, while he kills her best friend and wait if the Dominator will miraculously react to him. Risky – because there is only one remote control to everyone’s life and whatnot and it’s just generally unsafe, because one object is easier to get hold of than thousands, or millions. No matter how well it’s protected, it’s just too dangerous. That’s why I agree with Makishima and would most likely take his side and try to destroy the Sibyl system. Even though his ways are something I will not accept, his goal is absolutely legit and acceptable to me.
So, if you didn’t realize already, I loved the last couple of episodes. They were very interesting and the pace is getting faster and faster. I never imagined that the society in Psycho-Pass would snap so easily. Of course, they surrendered quite easily, but they were too fast to come undone and rampage like that. The panic in the net is understandable, but the disorder in the town was….. this is the thing, I don’t know if it was exaggerated or not. Maybe it wasn’t, because that helmet gave a chance of revenge, lets say, to all the people who had to keep all the negative emotions and offense inside of them. It gave them a chance to run loose, let all of those emotions out and not being afraid of being caught by a scanner.
In the end, I can say that when I started watching this show I wasn’t expecting it to turn out this well. I was searching for something that would compensate for the disappointment I had from K at least a little and I’m glad I stopped my hoice on Psycho-Pass, because it turned out so well and what’s more important – exactly my cup of tea. Quite dark, realistic, doesn’t sugarcoat anything and shows things how they are. Plus, gives you a little something to think about and look at – what can be better? Let’s just hope that the plot will steadily build up to an epic climax that will lead to an unexpected(in a good way) ending, worth of my enthusiasm towards the show.
Katsuragi 