I think the architecture in the opening is as key as what Oryo is saying herself. It is stark and utilitarian; it is without any life or joy. Why? Because it has been designed with maximum efficiency in mind. There are no human flourishes that invite interpretation. The builiding is simply what it is supposed to be: a place for patients to feel serene. This mindset reflects not just the condition afflicting Oryo’s father, but the condition of the world of PSYCHO-PASS itself. At its best, the System is boringly efficient. At its worst, however, it literally renders people inactive and unresponsive. It should come to no surprise, then, when Oryo says, “…[the] pathogen will never be eradicated. This is a disease called serenity…” The emphasis is mine, because I think serenity perfectly captures what Huxley was trying to warn us about: the danger of becoming comfortably numb.

I think the dissatisfaction lies in the fact that the System doesn’t actually put people in the best position to succeed. That’s what it wants you to think, but the truth is that it really puts people in the best position to not fail. And there’s an insidious reason to achieve this sort of serene success. When you aim for the highest of the highs, you may fall woefully short, but when you succeed, you feel as though you’ve achieved it through your very own means. This is the sort of individualism that is endangered in the world of PSYCHO-PASS. By ensuring that you won’t fail, not only will you feel indebted to the System, it also ensures this easily-achieved “serenity” that renders its people too impotent and comfortably numb to rebel. The System is designed in such a way that only the most socially deviant can and will act out.

1984 is the go-to book when it comes to dropping dystopian allusions, but I do think Brave New World has always been the more apt comparison for the direction that our civilization is headed. Consider Oryo’s other words: “They don’t notice anything. They don’t say anything. And they don’t think anything. They are merely a shell of their former selves and soon they will disappear like the melting snow.” By maximizing efficiency, the general populace in PSYCHO-PASS are no different from the humans being used as batteries in The Matrix trilogy. Of course, the System requires your labor. It requires your manpower and obedience to keep its wheels turning for perpetuity. At the same time, everything comes so easily that you are not required to think.

This reminds me of how people will often rage at “ugly” art without understanding that this sort of tension and conflict being expressed by the audience is exactly what a lot of artists are trying to achieve. What simply gives us pleasure will not always invite thought and criticism. Of course, a photorealistic rendering of a human being is technically impressive, but what does it make you think or feel? A lot of artists thus utilize the abstract and the obscene just to invoke a strong reaction from the audience. Sure, I won’t deny that some young artists are easily impressed by the avant garde, and thus attempt to mimic modern art without any thought into its construction. In our contemporary society, “trolling” has become a part of our vernacular, so we see these amateurish attempts as nothing more than artists “trolling” for attention. It thus becomes all too easy for the rest of the movement to be broadly dismissed because we’ve been conditioned to accept only what pleases us, and label inauthentic anything that hopes to challenge this preconception.

Plot summary: Ginoza takes Shinya off the latest case because Ginoza’s a jerk who thinks Shinya’s emotions will get in the way.

As usual, Akane spends most of the episode just trying to understand Shinya. Meanwhile, Oryo continues to murder more and more young girls, and Makishima sits around and hammers us over the head with the story’s meaning.

Notes:

• Oh, the irony in Ginoza’s words: “I can’t allow a detective who can’t put aside his preconceived notions to be a part of the initial investigations.” There’s another key contrast I haven’t really discussed much: the fact that only the Enforcers really think. Ginoza doesn’t have to think. He simply follows the protocol. He simply depends on the System for everything. On the other hand, Shinya might jump to conclusions, but he only does so because he actually comes up with his own conclusions.

• Akane gawking at Shinya’s body might make sense if he actually looked like he had washboard abs and not just a bunch of flesh-colored lumps:

• Just another instance of hyperrealism at play: is Shinya overly aggressive with the training doll because he knows its a robot or because it looks too human? This ambiguity lies at the heart of cyberpunk.

• Shinya: “It’s me who kills a person, not the Dominator. In order to keep that in mind, I have to feel the pain here.” He’s simply repeating what I’ve said at the top of this post. Shinya continues to hone his own fighting skills, because he understands that he cannot allow the System to stamp out his individualism. First, the Dominator allows its wielder to feel no guilt because it determines for its wielder which suspect to apprehend as well as how to apprehend said suspect. The wielder also doesn’t feel responsible because the job is easy; when you don’t have to earn your victory, you don’t feel as though you’ve actually achieved it. The same is true for failures. Finally, it can be said that Shinya simply wants to feel.

Unlike, say, Ginoza, Shinya doesn’t want to be yet another cog in the system. When he apprehends a suspect, he wants to feel it, even if this feeling is nothing more than the pain in his fists. Sure, there’s a certain sadomasochistic streak here, but his desire does make sense on another level. His job has an enormous impact on people’s lives. If Shinya merely becomes a part of the process, he will be alienated to the effect he has on results of his actions. To use another metaphor, the PSYCHO-PASS system and the Dominator make up the assembly line. Those like Ginoza are simply there to ensure that the assembly line continues to operate at max efficiency. Shinya’s need to feel reflects the alienation of the modern assembly line worker, i.e. the need for the craftsman to feel pride in his or her work.

• Akane’s antics seem rather juvenile and ill-befitting of the show. First, her silly “Oops, did I say something I shouldn’t have?” covering of her mouth in an earlier scene, and now, her pointing like a child at Shinya to cover himself up in a shirt.

• Sasayama gropes his female coworkers, but rages at a rapist. Right, you guys just keep pretending that the former is nothing more than harmless fun just because worse things could’ve happened instead. The implications of this juxtaposition is quite apparent even if it’s not intentional.

• Oh, the naivete of teenagers: “I wouldn’t get near something bad from the start.” Yes, you guys are invincible. Nothing bad will ever happen.

• Oryo: “There’s this quote from Kierkegaard that my father liked. ‘Because man is superior to animals, in other words, because man is the self and spirit, man can be in despair.’” I wonder where this exact Kierkegaard quote comes from. Regardless, Kierkegaard was a Christian existentialist, who ultimately believed that despair came from not accepting God’s will, but we don’t have to concern ourselves with that.

We also don’t need to cover all three kinds of despair that Kierkegaard goes into, especially since PSYCHO-PASS itself doesn’t seem specifically Christian at the moment, though this can change as the narrative develops. But why invoke Kierkegaard then? Because it sounds cool on paper? Possibly. But I do think one of the Kierkegaard’s concerns do make sense within the context of the anime, and this is the fear of the Self. In other words, we are distinct from animals because we have the capacity to self-reflect; we have the capacity to distinguish the Self from the world around us. For some people, however, there is this fear of Oneself that can a lead a person to render the Self unnecessary. So how does this all make sense within the narrative of the anime? The System is what makes the Self unnecessary. Remember Oryo’s words from last week’s episode:

“It seems you can’t choose the life you wish. I understand how hard that is. In this era, the System determines everyone’s aptitudes and we all have no choice but to live by it and be satisfied with only a happiness forced upon us… as we are unable to make our real dreams come true. The person you desire to be… Your true worth… Don’t you want to try discovering them?”

In other words, the fear of existentialist despair has led people to rely upon a System that makes unnecessary people’s own ability to choose their own way in life. In other words, the Self is made unnecessary. You’re just another part of the process. Despair is thus not something to be feared, but rather, something to embrace: “Unless you know despair, you cannot know hope.” Despair (and hope) is what sets us apart, after all; the authenticity of the Self is what makes us human. Oryo’s catatonic father knows neither despair nor hope, much less the rest of the population. On the other hand, this fear of choice, i.e. a fear of stress and suffering, leads to this utilitarian, max-efficiency society that renders us less than human. Another way to understand the problem: ask yourself if animals have regrets. Under the rule of the System, however, can a person in PSYCHO-PASS have regrets? To regret, you’d have to feel as though you should’ve chosen otherwise, but does the System give you meaningful choices other than what to wear and what to eat for breakfast?

Sure, you can bring up the fact that Akane’s the exception to the rule since she chose to join the MWPSB when she had other superficial choices before her. I’ll contend, however, that she’s the exceptional archetype. She’s the anomaly who tries to infiltrate the cold, logic-bound system with her compassion and nurturing for others, even robotic simulations. She’s meant to be unique, even if she often acts like a displaced anime heroine.

• Oryo: “My father used dismembered bodies as the subject of many of his drawings. That’s because they symbolize the contradictory nature of the self.” I think the “contradictory nature of the self” refers to the fact that the Self is more than just the body. Our Self — with a capital ‘s’ — is more than the sums of its parts. The maintenance worker from last week marveled at the beauty of the dead girl despite the objective fact that the body has been dismembered and rearranged in an illogical way.

• We could also ignore all these words and just go, “OMG YURI.”

• Makishima: “However, once Psycho-Pass checks became routine, people have found their sense of stress numbed so much that patients who can’t even recognize simulation itself started appearing.” Everything we’ve been discussing over the last couple of weeks can be found in this one sentence: the dangers of the hyperreal, the alienation of the worker, etc.

• Makishima continues to say, “Once that happens, they’re the same as living corpses.” In other words, zombies. If you want to get all sociopolitical, lumpenproletariat is another word you can use. “Soon their autonomic nervous system stops functioning on its own and their vital functions shut down.” In other words, the death of the spirit leads to the death of the body. Our villain rebels against the System by trying to sow chaos and suffering because it ironically brings the system back to life. To combat serenity, he aims to jolt the zombie-like society to life with suffering.

• More evidence of the dying Self: “In this era, everything that could be called a reason for living has died out. No one tries to talk seriously about what life should be like anymore.” It isn’t crazy to think that in a world where a person’s thought process could be quantified, so has the idea of an ideal life been quantified. We’ve defined it; just follow our orders.

• B-but I thought authorial intent was everything: “Well, it’s not uncommon for there to be a disconnect between the creator and the impression their creations give.”

• There’s Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” playing in the background as our two men discuss a horrific topic. I actually find it tacky. I’ve never been impressed when other shows have done the same thing, e.g. trying to make nursery rhymes seem creepy. The irony here has become so passe and unsubtle.

• In terms of storytelling, however, this part of the episode is a disaster. It’s literally the villains just sitting there, telling you the entire gist of the story: “This is what it means, folks!” Show, not tell! It isn’t that difficult!

• The clunky storytelling continues: “You guys prepare toys, and we, mischievous children, use those toys to shake up society.” This is rather disappointing, but I guess I can’t be too surprised. After all, this is the same writer who felt that the breakdown of the symbolic order should be represented by literally guts and fecal matter.

• Another example of cyberpunk is the new guy disguising himself as a schoolgirl with a hologram. The blurring of the lines between the sexes is another persistent source of ambiguity in the genre.

The deadly consequences of yuri. Anyway, I apologize if this is a bit of a rush job compared to my previous entries.

Plot summary: Shinya uses his detective smarts to identify Oryo as the culprit. Unfortunately, he lets an old man prevent him from apprehending the suspect. Not that it would’ve mattered anyway, since the Dominator would’ve just annihilated the girl. I mean, wouldn’t they want to question her? Oh, this is the plot summary section? Okay, to continue on… Makishima initially helps Oryo escape, but she soon realizes that she has been betrayed. Makishima no longer takes an interest in the girl, so he allows for her to be “raped,” so to speak. See the analysis below for an explanation of what I mean.

Notes:

• Makishima: “If the academy doesn’t take action, they’ll have to answer to the parents.” I would have expected them to answer to the parents after just one unsolved murder, let alone two.

• I like and dislike Oryo’s feminist spiel at the start of the episode. I dislike it because it’s too obvious. To echo my complaints from the previous week, PSYCHO-PASS has a tendency to beat its audience over the head with its message. This academy trains young women to become nothing more than trophy wives! So I literally turn them into trophies! Remember the mystique of the first victim? It was interesting to decipher what the statue meant. It was fascinating to see how other people interpreted the same piece of “art.” In the end, I think we came close to what Oryo says at the start of this episode, but without the anime having to spell it out. The message could be found within the visual narrative of the anime itself. So what I’m disappointed by is that the writer just decided he couldn’t hold it in any further. He had to tell us now! The dialogue isn’t necessarily boring, but it also felt unnecessary and uncreative.

So what do I end up liking about the spiel anyway? Just that it’s not everyday that you find an anime character decrying the shackles of the “good wife, wise mother” role. All I want, however, is for this message to be presented in a visually interesting way. Hey, it’s anime, not a dissertation!

• This is not so much a flaw with the anime, but a flaw in Oryo herself. Oh, so she’s perceptive to how society pigeonholes young girls into a single role? Well, what does she do about it? She just constructs gruesome statues. She said last week that she’s bringing her father’s work to life, but it’s unclear how these statues are supposed to make people confront their human despair. In the end, she seems to be a purposeless killer.

• Y’know, it’s bizarre to me that our lovable gang of detectives continue to think Toma is the prime suspect just because plastination is involved. From what I can tell, the previous cases of plastination yielded grotesque corpses. What Oryo has done, on the other hand, is so markedly different. But then Akane says, “Based on the analysis of the chemicals, I could only think that the possibility has increased that this is the same culprit from three years ago.” Uh, only if the culprit suddenly has the flair for the fabulous! I mean, seriously now… criminals don’t just suddenly become artists.

The fact that the victims have been turned into art is itself a clue! Hey guys, here’s a hint: all art is derivative in some form or another! Maybe you could use all your amazing computer technology to look up similar works of art to see where the culprit gets his or her (yes, we all know it’s a she, but the characters don’t) inspiration!

• So of course, this sets Shinya up to look like a genius! But oh no, the genius has been taken off the case! Instead of actually making Shinya a genius, however, the writer has instead opted to make everyone else incredibly dumb.

• Oh dear, Akane beams when Shinya invites her to come along with him on their own private investigation. It’s the one time she doesn’t look droopy-eyed.

• We get to visit a facility where the dangerous members of society are kept or trapped, depending on how you choose to interpret it. First, we see a guy surrounded by dolls, then we see another guy who appears to be into drugs. We also see a guy who is deeply interested in… books? Is learning a crime? Is he some sort of anarchist who takes in dangerous literature?

First, it’s surprising to me that these dangerous members are allowed to keep such contrabands. It makes you wonder if rehabilitation is the goal at all, or if the System simply wants to conveniently remove these people from the population.

Second, you’ll notice that they’re all males. Finally, these images are all rather transparent, aren’t they? Oh, the obsessive otakus, the zombified drug users… the enemies of any police state.

• Shinya also tells us that the facility won’t hesitate to vent poisonous gas through the vents in an emergency. This is a cruel and barbaric society beneath all cleanliness.

• Well, I guess instead of looking it up on the internet, you could always go ask some nutjob for clues instead. But yeah, a strange guy in the facility identifies the artwork easily. That’s usually how it goes.

• Strange guy: “It was because they were not superficial, trendy art. Instead, they contained firm fundamental themes.” Uh huh. Yo anime, are you trying to convince me or are you trying to convince yourself?

• Way to go, old man:

Now those kids will never buy into authority cuteness again! But anyway, I’m assuming that Shinya’s under Akane’s authority. Why did she not bother to mention to her colleagues that Shinya would be showing up at campus? Is this how a brilliant professional of the MWPSB operates? Instead, she opts to run up at the very last second to say, “Please wait! There’s a suspect among the students!” Gee, a little warning would’ve been nice.

• How on earth does Shinya know where to find Oryo? He just walks straight to her location on campus.

• Why would the headmaster tackle Shinya? Did he not hear the massive 473 coefficient? Or does he doubt the Sibyl’s judgment? And of course, an old man restrains a super fit guy long enough for Oryo to escape.

• In the end, Oryo disappoints Makishima, and he quotes Tamora, a character from Titus Andronicus:

“So should I rob my sweet sons of their fee:
No, let them satisfy their lust on thee.”

To give you a little context, Tamora is the one who directed her two sons to rape and mutilate poor Lavinia. Lavinia begged Tamora to just kill her, because for women back then, losing your virtuousness was worse than death itself. But recall Oryo’s rant from the very start of the episode. What is the purpose of the boarding school? To turn young women into proper ladies so that they may become trophy wives. What would these rich husbands likely desire least of all? A tainted woman for a wife. So in the end, Oryo meets a similar fate as poor Lavinia. One of her legs gets caught in a trap, and a robotic hound slices one of her hands, probably removing a few fingers. Not only that, look at how the old man at the end kills her. He aims a rifle (a phallic symbol) straight at her head and fires a shot so powerful that it literally sends her head flying (removes her maidenhead, i.e. her virginity). That’s one way to rape a girl without being explicit about it.

• So how does Oryo disappoint Makishima? He rejected Mido because he felt Mido wasn’t original enough. I guess you could say that Oryo merely imitated others, but I suspect there has to be something deeper than this. Makishima seems like an agent of chaos, someone whose purpose is to disrupt the System in power. Perhaps he feels neither Mido nor Oryo are impactful enough in their crimes. After all, Makishima sees the society as one being in a deep slumber, its senses deadened by “serenity.” Anyway, he now has his eyes set on Shinya.

Near the beginning of the episode, Akane sits down to watch an interview with a rather familiar face. It’s interesting to see how the interview is conducted. We first see a scene where the news crew (at least that’s who I think they are) decides which holographic background to use. The initial choice is deemed to be ostentatious: “Hmmm… I’m not sure… Isn’t it a little too flashy? People might feel it’s tacky instead.” The anime then cuts back to Akane’s apartment, which is exactly as ornate and tacky as what the news crew had decided against. Yes, it’s a bit of a subtle jab at Akane, but it’s also funny in the sense that there are people like Akane out there who wouldn’t have found the holographic background tacky at all. Instead, the news crew decides to conduct the interview with a French street side cafe backdrop.

But it’s ironic because I think this second choice is even worse than the last. For a street side cafe, it is completely empty and devoid of life. If anything, such a scene would look even more unnatural and “tacky” than the previous background. In opting for an ideal scene, the result is anything but. Again, the anime plays with the idea of simulacrum. And this discussion of the hyperreal becomes even more relevant than ever because our interviewee is a walking, talking simulacrum himself: “…who, except for his brain and nervous system, is entirely cyborg.”

The man interrupts the lady to say, “It’s a mystery to me why other people haven’t given up their limiting bodies.”

Interviewer wonders, “Limiting, you say?”

Senguji: “Plato said that our souls were imprisoned in our bodies.”

Look at the way the man is dressed. His interviewer is dressed formally, but nothing out of the ordinary for a professional-looking lady. Since we’ve been discussing “tacky,” the man’s attire is definitely tacky. Furthermore, his eyes have this unnatural, vacant look to them. Also, keep in mind how he interrupts the lady. He does so without any acknowledgement of what he’s done. He just talks over her. In any other situation, we’d just say he’s rude, but within the context of our current discussion, does his interruption hint at something deeper? Is he lacking some intangible human quality like politeness that you or I share? One more thing: A cyborg body is itself a representation; what we have here is a simulacrum of a man. He has used cybernetic implants to create an ideal version of himself, but what we have instead is an unnatural-looking man who doesn’t seem to be all there. The previous scene thus feeds into this one; the man is like the street side cafe himself: they look ideal on the surface, but unnatural and “tacky” when you really think about them.

As an aside, it is curious why the writer decided to invoke philosophy again. When Plato says that the soul is imprisoned by the body, he means that our capacity for intelligence and rational thought is immaterial. As such, the soul has more in common with the abstract Platonic Forms, i.e. fundamental ideas that truly make up the nature of reality, than it does with the corporeal body that it is attached to. According to Plato, the soul therefore wants to reside at the level of the Platonic forms. If this is truly what Senguji is referring to, it is hard to understand how transhumanism will assist him in this philosophical pursuit. After all, transhumanism doesn’t seek to destroy the body. Rather, it seeks to create a greater body than the unguided hand of nature could ever possibly deem necessary. If anything, the “soul” here continues to be grounded in a very physical, material way. I’d imagine, however, that most transhumanists are probably not mind-body dualists either.

Plot summary: Shinya takes Akane to see one of his old mentors, Professor Saiga, who is supposed to teach Akane how to profile criminals. Meanwhile, we learn a bit about our latest villain. He is a sadistic man who feels alive only when he hunts his prey. Makishima suggests that Shinya becomes our villain’s new target.

Notes:

• Just more of the predator motif coming through: “It feels like my prey’s tail just brushed the tip of my nose. For the first time in a long while now, I’m feeling pretty good, Gino.” The cold opening is a bit deceptive. It starts out all chill and and friendly; Gino admits that it was a mistake to take Shinya off the case and apologizes. Shinya seems to accept the apology jovially enough, but a dangerous streak undercuts his words. It is especially ironic since Gino has just said,” It was me who got emotional. He wasn’t your delusion,” yet Shinya now sees this case like a hunt for game. And judging from what we know about Shinya and the fate of his former partner, there’s no doubt that this case is emotional for him. Plus, Shinya’s facial expression says it all:

It’s important to keep in mind that Shinya isn’t exactly in this line of business to protect and restore justice to the world. Maybe that was his initial goal before, y’know, his friend got “plastinated,” but he sure as hell isn’t a world defender now. For weeks, we’ve sandbagged the PSYCHO-PASS system for how it dehumanizes its citizens, but let’s not forget that cops and detectives like Shinya are also dangerous. For all their brilliant intuitions, those who embark on a personal crusade like Shinya are the easiest to corrupt. It’s only fitting that Makishima now takes an interest in Shinya.

• Seeing Akane change her clothes at a press of a button makes me wish she’d change her terrible hairdo.

• Is that what we’re doing already? Is it already time to hint at a possible romance between Akane and Shinya even though the former seems more like the latter’s legal guardian than a love interest?

I know bad boys are all the rage, but man, she’s spent more casual time with Shusei than Shinya. Has she and Shinya ever even had a discussion that wasn’t work-related?

• Well, now we know for sure that Akane was getting ready to meet Shinya. So it begins.

• You could say there’s a certain humanity to death. We all live our lives knowing one day that we’ll die. This inevitability influences us more than we’d like to admit. A man goes through a mid-life crisis for this very reason, even if word ‘death’ never crosses his mind. We all feel as though we’d like to accomplish something great before we kick the bucket. A person like Senguji, however, never has to worry about death, and doesn’t that make him less than human? Nevertheless, he says, “I never expected that overcoming aging would lead to such happiness.” Naturally, Shinya (indirectly) counters with his humanistic reply: “Life as a latent criminal isn’t the sort of thing you’d want to go on forever.” I suppose he frames the issue in another way: live long enough and you’ll just pile on so many sins that you won’t want to live anymore.

• The interviewer counters with the fact that “cyberization” of the brain is still rather far off. We already have lifelike AIs though. The PSYCHO-PASS system can scan a person and boil down their propensity for crime down to a single number. How much harder would it be to quantify a person’s characteristics and idiosyncrasies and copy it to an AI? But then again, does this AI retain the personal identity of the person it’s copying? Senguji believes that when technology can “cyberize” his brain, they will have reached the age of immortality, but who actually lives on? Does he live on, or just some simulation of him?

• Also, if his entire body is cybernetic, why did he choose to look and sound like an old fogey?

• Senguji: “Isn’t it about time for us humans to be a little more like God?” I’m sure God has more to him/her/it than just mere immortality!

• Not a very flattering shot of our main girl:

• The old man does make a salient point regarding the fears of becoming more than 50% cyborg. In the world of PSYCHO-PASS, people’s lives are automated (or assisted, if you want to put it nicely) to such a degree by technology that — from a certain point of view — it seems almost silly to be fearful of losing one’s flesh. Or, to frame it another way, their way of life is more than 50% electronic. Why does it suddenly make a difference if their corporeal bodies become more than 50% electronic as well?

Well, how would someone respond to Senguji? Let’s revisit that mind-body problem again. I think people’s general apprehensions about becoming more than 50% cyborg shows that we identify more with our bodies — and not just our brains — than we think. Deep down, a lot of us believe we’d feel a sense of identity crisis if more than 50% of our bodies was suddenly replaced. After all, a simple nose surgery can be distressful to a person and that’s just a nose.

• Akane and Shinya are about to meet some guy at his private home, and the former remarks, “I don’t see much environment Holo being used here.” Shinya replies, “He doesn’t like that kind of stuff.” Are we about to meet a luddite? It’s just a funny exchange to read because our stranger’s home still seems dominated by technology, but ooh, he just doesn’t have environmental holos.

• Our Professor Saiga hardly looks to be any older than Shinya:

• Professor Saiga takes one look at Akane and seems to discern almost everything about her personal life: “People manifest all sorts of signs unconsciously. Once you get the knack of it, you can easily read those signs.” Uh-huh, I bet he just looked her up on the internet.

• It’s a little amusing to hear that criminal profiling is considered an outdated method when the PSYCHO-PASS system seems to do just that. Oh sure, it doesn’t merely look at your face, but how is it any different to jump to a conclusion based off of some scanned brain waves or whatever the hell the PSYCHO-PASS system does? In the end, you crunch a few variables to spit out a number that indicates a probabilistic outcome. The variables are the only things that are different.

• The worst criminal ever since the start of the Sibyl system! How many Hitlers does that add up to?

• Unfortunately, we don’t get to see this “intensive crash course” into criminal profiling. Instead, we cut to some typical police procedural stuff as the rest of the gang try to track down Makishima. I think all we really learn is that Makishima is ten billion steps ahead of everyone. When we finally return to Akane and Shinya, they’re already on their way home. Quite frankly, I’m a little disappointed.

• Apparently, just learning to profile criminals will cloud your hues. Well, it does make a lot of people racist… but good ol’ Akane is too wholesome to be corrupted.

• Shinya: “Say there’s a dark swamp and you can’t see the bottom. In order to dredge the swamp, you have no choice but to jump in.” A bit of a strained metaphor. I did, however, expect the cliched “When you stare into the abyss, the abyss stares back” or something corny like that.

• I wish I could hear why Makishima thinks humans are not at risk of extinction. The cunning part is silly. What other animal would you even consider cunning?

• Supposedly, Senguji enjoys the thrill of the hunt. It’s what makes him feel youthful and exuberant. He directly says that his game prevents him from becoming one of those catatonic patients at the hospital: “You maintain a healthy and sound life by sacrificing other lives.” As a result, Makishima promises to offer Senguji an exquisite target: presumably Shinya. Let’s predict how our new villain will disappoint Makishima, though. After all, isn’t he a hypocrite? He has no problems turning himself into a cyborg, but he has to hunt real humans to feel alive — the implication here is that feeling alive is to feel human. As such, Senguji hasn’t transcended his human limits whatsoever as long as his happiness continues to hinge upon his ready supply of prey. We just have another pathetic old man who feeds on the life and blood of others to get through the day. All that talk about cyborg parts were pseudo-intellectual hogwash. Why not just hunt a robot if it’s just the mere thrill of hunting that turns him on?

• Oh, the camaraderie between Gino and Shinya from the start of the episode seems to have been short-lived. The former chews out the latter for bringing Akane to an oh-so-dangerous man.

• If this is true…

…then why do you pair her up with Shinya? C’mon now.

• I like that Akane stood up for herself. More specifically, it didn’t seem like Shinya had to say anything on her behalf. Now, let’s hope her lesson with Professor Saiga means she’ll be less of a babysitter for Shinya and more of an actual detective who catches criminals.

So why do you guys think this episode is subtitled “Methuselah’s Game?” Methuselah is a biblical figure who’s notorious for having lived to an incredibly old age. I think over 900 or some ridiculous number like that. Who’s our Methuselah though? Is it Senguji, who’s now more cyborg than man? After all, in last week’s episode, he expressed his desire to achieve immortality should cybernetics ever manage to “cyberize” a person’s brain. But how does hunting human prey figure into the picture? Is it the fact that our game is rather anachronistic, with a hunter, his dogs and “foxes” on the loose? Or is that if Senguji becomes Methuselah, i.e. immortal, the only way for him to continue feeling human is to engage in this age-old sport that should be all but extinct in a futuristic world like PSYCHO-PASS?

Plot summary: Using one of Akane’s friends as bait, Senguji leads Shinya into a trap. The cat and mouse game begins, but Senguji soon realizes that he’s being tested by Makishima. Meanwhile, Ginoza wonders if Shinya planned his escape all along, but Akane remains faithful.

Notes:

• Heh, remember when the show’s creator said he hated moe?

Before anyone gets all huffy, I’m just joking around. This isn’t really moe, but still, you have to consider Akane’s role in this anime. What has she done to balance out her cute, ditzy personality? Nothing thus far.

• Hm, it’s Christmas Eve in the anime. I wonder if this will have any relevance.

• Akane and Shinya end up in a deserted, rundown portion of the city full of defunct streetlights, rusted signs, flooded roads, abandoned buildings, etc. It’s curious that such a “ghost town” could exist so nearby that you could just get on the freeway to reach it. And why is it completely deserted? Not even a hobo or anything? What happened here? Why did the city abandon it? Why did the citizens follow suit?

As a bit of an aside, these questions aren’t criticism from me; these questions are just examples of me thinking about the anime’s setting. This is the sort of understated world-building that I actually like. I hate it when the world-building becomes the actual focal point of a scene. That’s when world-building bores the piss out of me. In this scene, Akane and Shinya are here on a mission, so there’s a purpose to the narrative even with the world-building. What I notice in a lot of shows where the world-building takes over is that the narrative becomes aimless.

• But we know that our current villain — the weirdo cyborg and not Makishima — is some sort of self-proclaimed expert hunter. Shinya says, “It’s definitely strange. There’s no doubt that this is a trap.” So now the deserted cityscape isn’t just that; it’s an urban jungle for our latest hunter and his game.

• I’m not so sure I buy Shinya’s plan. Like any silly horror story, the pair split up: “If we both get taken out, who’s gonna call for help.” Well, you don’t even know if you’re outnumbered or not. If anything, splitting up could mean it’s easier for both of you to get taken out.

On a bit of a related note, you have to start wondering now if Akane has had any extensive combat training. Oh sure, she can fire a Dominator, but who can’t? She never gets to do any of the dangerous shit with Shinya as though he has no confidence in her to hold her own. Instead, she gets to sit back and play the secretary navigator.

• Hijacking the signal and impersonating Akane is a bit of a neat trick, but it ties into our larger theme of simulacra. We, as in the audience, know that this isn’t the real Akane. So we can easily pick up on voice’s unnatural inflection. I mean, it sounds like her, but it’s lacking something that defines Akane, doesn’t it? But why doesn’t Shinya recognize this then? Especially when we just saw last week how he studied under some great criminal profiler who can instantly discern your life’s history from just observing and listening to you. But again, the fact that I’m asking these questions doesn’t necessarily mean I’m criticizing the anime. I said this ties into the idea of simulacra; Shinya isn’t really all that close to Akane, so he doesn’t initially* recognize that there’s something wrong in how she sounds.

*He concludes later that it’s a fake, but it’s well beyond the point of no return.

• And now we have a bizarre underground railroad and a train that still has power. This seems like the sort of thing someone should notice, but maybe the bureaucracy is such a mess that no one seems to care that power is being used in some defunct portion of the city.

• According to Yayoi, this place has been repeatedly developed so this is why Akane’s map didn’t match up with what Shinya experienced… but this place looks like it has been abandoned for years. Ergo, the software failed to account for a redevelopment that happened years ago? I’m afraid I don’t think this makes much sense.

• All of a sudden, Ginoza wonders if Shinya staged all of this to escape the clutches of the MWPSB. First of all, for someone who relies mostly on data and logic, this seems like a dumb reach for him. Second, it just makes no sense, especially for such an experienced investigator like himself. Gee, I’ve worked with Shinya before. These days, he’s obsessed about avenging his ex-partner by hunting down this illusive Makishima. Yeah, sure, he’d definitely run away from the MWPSB and all their fancy detective equipment to become a renegade. That makes much more sense!

Anyway, it just feels like they wanted Ginoza to be a dick for no reason.

• From Shinya’s discussion with Yuki, we at least know he respects Akane. We also learn that Yuki didn’t take Akane’s concerns very seriously, which is worth thinking about. The girl seems surprised to learn that Akane’s job can be so dangerous. It’s not just “Oh, Akane is such a silly girl, so I don’t take her seriously.” I mean, Akane joined the fucking police force. That’s serious stuff, isn’t it? But that’s true from our world. In our world, we know cops have to fight drug dealers, serial killers, themselves, etc. Perhaps the perception of the occupation is drastically different in the world of PSYCHO-PASS. Let’s say Yuki is a reflection of the larger society as a whole: is there a perception out there that the MWPSB doesn’t have to do much? Is this perception by design or incidental?

• I mentioned the term “urban jungle” earlier, and I still think the description is apt. Shinya comes across what looks like a giant mousetrap, so he remarks, “Even their traps are anachronistic.” It’s worth keeping a couple things in mind though. First, let’s recall Makishima’s discussion about “serenity.” The city is really about doing anything possible to maintain this aura of peace, so much so that some of the city’s inhabitants fall into a coma-like state. Senguji, however, combats this by hunting humans as prey. He also hunted Oryo by having Makishima lead the poor girl underground. So think of our “urban jungle” as Senguji’s attempt to force upon his victims the vicious state of nature outside of society’s bubble. Here, he can force his victims to feel emotions beyond mere serenity so that when he kills them, he feeds upon their emotions, whatever they may be. Does Senguji play this game, however, because he’s made himself less than human?

It’s just apt if you think about what — rather than who — Senguji is: he’s more machine now than man. If we think back to last week’s discussion, remember that our buddy Senguji is a hypocrite. Our villain believes that it makes no difference if our bodies are replaced by machines, but at the same time, he can’t satisfy himself with hunting a mere simulation. He has to hunt “the real thing.” But what is the real thing? It’s not as though he goes into the actual city to kill people. First off, it would be stupid because he has a higher chance of getting caught that way. But secondly — and on a metaphorical level — if he hunts in the actual city, he’d just be hunting “machines” when he would rather hunt animals.

Again, the discussion from last week revealed how he believes mankind has allowed machines to replace a large portion of their daily lives. The inhabitants in PSYCHO-PASS rely upon all sorts of machines, computers and AI to determine how to dress, what to eat, how to drive, etc. When you factor in the whole serenity angle, it’s clear that we have “machines” everywhere. Senguji is a machine because he’s replaced his human body with cybernetics. The rest of society’s inhabitants, however, are also “machines” in some sense because their lives are so automated by the System. Even if we see them as human beings, hunting them would be a mere simulation for Senguji. He thus has to remove his targets from the system and place them into the urban jungle. This way, they become not just human again, but animals again (humans are animals, after all) for him to hunt.

But both the OP and the anime itself has hinted over and over that Shinya is more animal than human. Senguji isn’t merely hunting someone who’s forced out of their protective bubble — like Neo emerging from his imprisonment and goes into total shock when he sees the “actual” state of the world. Rather, Shinya has always been an animal ever since his ex-partner died.

• Yuki’s stupid in a way that doesn’t make much sense. Right, I’m trapped in some underground maze, it’s dark, and it’s scary. I mean, there are literally dangerous traps everywhere. But hey, a bag full of supplies! It’s even illuminated in a “HAY GUYZ GO GRAB THIS” sort of way. I mean, you could say, “Maybe the girl’s just stupid,” but it’s stupid in a confounding sense. She’s so stupid that she falls for the most obvious trap. It just seems like lazy writing to force something to happen.

• Oh, I should mention what Senguji and his night-vision goggles kind of remind me of: The Silence of the Lambs. And it’s not just the fact that our hero is being hunted by a killer who can see in the dark. The villain here wants to transcend his body, so he turns himself into a cyborg. In The Silence of the Lambs, the killer coveted his victims’ skin and wanted to become a woman (it’s been a while so I’m sure I’m leaving out a subtle detail). I’m not saying Senguji or this arc is directly inspired by The Silence of the Lamb or anything, but I found it an interesting comparison.

• It’s clear that although Senguji relishes in other people’s fear, he’s rarely rattled himself. So Makishima turns the tables on him. What can our cyborg feel now that he’s also in great danger? Or rather, how can our cyborg feel?

• I wish Makishima wouldn’t say cheesy shit though, like “Will you understand the meaning of this game?” It’s doubly cheesy because the anime goes and explains the obvious yet again: Shinya can win easily if he ditches Yuki. But will he? Probably not. He’s the good guy. Thus, his true nature is “revealed.”

• Are you serious? Shinya just knew that there was something off about Yuki’s underwear?

• Remember how Shinya brought up Akane’s faith when Yuki asked about her performance as an investigator? Obviously, he didn’t mean her faith in the almighty. But faith in what? He says, “She intuitively understands what it means to be a detective,” so you might think faith in the traditional method of sleuthing. But really, it’s clear that she has faith in Shinya, and that’s what he likes. She gives him a pretty long leash (or perhaps none), and he’s allowed to do whatever he wants basically. With Ginoza just straight up shit-talking Akane for trusting Shinya so much, now it’s time for Akane to have faith in his character.

But again, she doesn’t do much of anything this episode. And once more, Ginoza being a dick for no reason other than to introduce conflict.

• Who didn’t laugh at this:

I mean, c’mon, let Akane do something other than make silly faces. Maybe next week, the anime says.

Let’s hope I still remember the characters’ names.

Plot summary: A flashback episode regarding how Yayoi came to join the MWPSB as an enforcer. She used to be a Sibyl-authorized artist, but was eventually locked up when her hue became cloudy. Ginoza and a still uncorrupted Shinya then recruit Yayoi to help quell an uprising in her old haunting grounds. Yayoi initially resists joining them, but after coming face-to-face with the remnants of her youth, she decides to move on and become an enforcer after all.

Notes:

• I guess it’s finally time to flesh out the side characters, and we are starting with Yayoi. I am sorta curious how she went from a rocker to having the aptitude to be an enforcer for the MWPSB.

• On a side note, the “prison” for our latent criminals raises some interesting questions. For instance, despite the fact that the walls are completely padded, one “prisoner” has banged his head on the wall for so long that his forehead is bleeding. No one really seems to care though. In fact, everyone’s left to their own devices even though the voice on the loudspeaker repeatedly encourages our latent criminals to purify their hues. It’s apparent that PSYCHO-PASS’s society pays nothing than lip service with regards to helping latent criminals. Is it a budget problem? A societal attitude problem, i.e. latent criminals can help themselves? A bit of both? This has really been a recurrent theme throughout the first half of the series. The SYSTEM seems perfect on the surface, but there are dangerous flaws hidden away from public view.

To a certain extent, this reflects our attitudes in the real world, does it not? How often do any of us think of the welfare of those currently in prison? But of course we don’t! Because if they didn’t want their lives to suck, they shouldn’t have committed those crimes! Out of sight, out of mind. Let’s just never consider the fact that someone guilty of a harmless crime like, say, possession of one joint of marijuana can end up being housed with gangbangers. But hey, up to you to reform, right? But I’m digressing…

• Before accepting a job as an enforcer, Yayoi asks an interesting question: “Does that mean that my Psycho-Pass will never recover?” One, it speaks to the nature of the job; there’s a certain assumption that enforcers will always have cloudy hues. Two, her question implies a bit of optimism. How long had she been a latent criminal by that point? It’s clear that she feels she could still nevertheless recover. But how many actually do? Of course, the anime doesn’t tell us, and I suppose it’s possible that people do recover. But considering the themes and messages that the first half of the series has espoused, what do you think? Do you think anyone actually do return from the brink? When Ginoza tells Sasayama that Yayoi wants to eventually return to her civilian life, it should be noted that the latter remarked, “How naive.”

Later in the episode, Yayoi rages over the prison’s refusal to let her buy guitar strings, and so her hue turns dark yellow. People in lab coats rush over to her cell, but I hesitate to call them doctors because it’s not quite apparent if they’re actually doing anything to heal our latent criminals. Oh sure, the female voice tries to calm Yayoi down by suggesting that Yayoi has been a good patient, and as such, she is sure to leave soon. But it’s important to note what the anime chooses to show us, and what it chooses not to show. It chooses to show us how the prison will flood the cells with some sort of pacifying gas if a patient acts up. It doesn’t choose to show us whether or not anyone actually undergoes therapy. Y’know, sitting down and talking with a psychiatrist? Having the psychiatrist help you work through your emotional and mental problems? We can assume that such a thing might occur behind the scenes, but why? The show has been insistent on pushing this theme that extreme pacification is harmful. Remember how Makishima speaks against the idea of serenity and how it has seemingly zombiefied the masses? Maintaining peace is the System’s utmost concern. And between actual therapy or injecting you with a chemical cocktail to knock you out peacefully, I’m sure the System prefers the latter.

• I’m not a fan of sitting through OPs (and EDs too), so if there’s anything interesting in the new one, I’ll depend on my readers to inform me.

• “Humans will live a more civilized life.” Of course, what does “civilized” mean in this context? Just moments ago, the same voice promised “a stable life in which your talents are used to their fullest.” I’m almost reminded of Greek philosophy in a way, where someone — I forget who — once said that there’s a best purpose for every tool. To sit down and objectively analyze that hammers are for hammering and that knives are for cutting, well, that just makes perfect, logical sense. The tricky part is whether or not we can do the same thing with human beings. Hammers don’t have feelings unless I’ve been metaphysically mistaken all along. Hammers hammer and it doesn’t matter if they don’t like it. But just because I’m good at, say, bureaucratic paper-pushing, it doesn’t mean I’d be happy with doing that job for the rest of my career. How does this guarantee a stable life? Shouldn’t the aptitude test also factor in attitude, i.e. gauging one’s interest in the myriad job fields?

I can’t help but think of how since modernization of Japan, rigorous exam systems have been put in place to stratify its children from an early age. I’m only familiar with taking the SAT to get into college. Most anime fans probably know how even high schools in Japan require taking an exam. From my bourgeois Western perspective (I’m being tongue-in-cheek here in case anyone takes offense and thinks I’m implying that all my Western readers are bourgeois), I’d say that’s way too much stratification at such an early developmental point in a person’s life. I mean, not all kids mature at the same speed, but if you are behind the curve, the system compounds the matter by sticking you in a bad high school. But again, perhaps I’ve gone on too much of a tangent. Is PSYCHO-PASS directly criticizing this system? At the moment, eh.

• At the start of the episode, I wondered if rock — with all its subversive elements — would ever actually be condoned by the Sibyl. But according to the show, Yayoi was Sibyl-authorized to become an artist. Not only that, there are authorized bands with authorized music. I wonder if it’s like Christian rock…

• I wonder how other subbers are translating this same episode. The term “antisocial community” has to be an oxymoron, no? It’s such a misnomer.

• Looking young and hip there, Masaoka:

• Oh I’m sure it’s nothing, but I raised an eyebrow at Shinya saying, “If you want to escape a life of continually having everything taken from you…” then giving her a gun. It piques the side of me interested in gender issues.

• The rest of the episode pretty much plays out the way you’d expect it to, i.e. Yayoi reluctantly joins the MWPSB for some modicum of freedom, and as a result, she comes face to face with her troubled past. I will say, however, that it’s hard to see Yayoi here as a sympathetic figure. Her intentions seem purely selfish to me. Yes, Rina can be considered somewhat of a terrorist, but what else can one do against such an all-encompassing System like the Sibyl? Yayoi warns that if Rina continues down this path, there’s no turning back, but from the looks of it, there ain’t much to turn back to.

• I guess I don’t understand Ginoza’s fears of letting a latent criminal wield a Dominator. After all, Dominators serve as the Sibyl’s eyes, right? So a Dominator will only fire at those that the Sibyl deems dangerous. Who cares who physically pulls the trigger, then? The Sibyl is effectively responsible for every single action that a Dominator takes.

Dun dun dun!

— People are still playing that game, apparently. Of course, there are sick individuals in the world who just want to hurt others, but these perpetrators are newly-minted, if you will. They are the results of the recent rise in elevated stress level. I just don’t see the causal connection between elevated stress levels and directly harming people. Plus, why would you be this stupid? Even if you wanted to hurt people, why would you openly play a game that can be easily tracked?

— Saiga: “Transplanting a lot of one’s organs is like transplanting one’s Psycho-Pass.” That’s an odd thing to say. I kind of wanted Saiga to explain his logic, but I guess the anime felt like it has spelled everything else out enough. On a related note, he’s not really trying to interrogate or pump the representative for information whatsoever. He’s just talking to the audience. I don’t really like scenes like this one because they’re disingenuous.

— It is now nighttime, but Akane is still standing on that ledge. Unless she came back for some odd reason, she literally just stood there for hours. She then complains that she couldn’t shoot. Then why didn’t she let Sakuya shoot the gun? Is it because she cares about him the same way she cares about Shinya? I hope not. Sakuya hasn’t really done a goddamn thing to justify that sort of treatment. But if it’s not that, then why? This is especially bizarre because it sounds like she wanted to take the shot herself.

— By the way, Sakuya is right. They did come face-to-face with their ghost, a.k.a. Kamui. What say you now, Mika? Ginoza? Every goddamn person who has doubted Akane even though it was fairly obvious that technology wasn’t infallible?

— Akane: “Who on earth are you trying to point those Dominators at?” Is that really the pertinent question? How about… “Why are these Dominators still operational?” Or how about “Even if the members of the MWPSB have high readings, why are you allowing the Dominators to fire?” More importantly, why is nobody asking those questions? Why is nobody questioning the fact that the Sibyl System isn’t playing a large enough of a role in stopping this madman? The Sibyl System is doing nothing but sitting back and throwing its hands up in defeat. All I can do is scan for people’s Psycho-Pass! A bloo bloo bloo… all I can do…. is scan! ;;

— Shinya pops out of Akane’s imagination to help her through these tough times. She then snaps back to reality, and realizes that Shinya’s words were actually Sakuya’s. I wanted Shinya to be involved in this story somehow, but not like this, man… not like this. It’s fairly obvious that Sakuya is supposed to be this twisted subversion of the former Enforcer, but it doesn’t work. We hardly know anything about the guy other than that he’s a creep, and he’s aping Shinya’s actions. We spent two-cours with Shinya. We’ve only spent six episodes with Sakuya. Not only that, it was revealed rather early on that he’s up to no good. So not only does the audience not find him credible, the audience doesn’t find Akane’s reliance on him credible either.

— Maybe the answer is just that literal. Maybe Kamui’s color is clear because he’s hiding behind other people’s organs as Saiga had suggested. In other words, he’s this dystopian world’s version of a zombie. He’s dead to scanners for all intents and purposes. That would explain why these same scanners can’t recognize or detect him. But why can’t the Dominator scan his brain, which, presumably, he can’t replace with a transplant? I doubt having a new face would somehow help him avoid this problem.

— Saiga: “As long as Sibyl continues to recognize [Shisui’s] actions as valid, those Dominators will continue to be used.” Oh, so we do acknowledge this… so is anyone going to bring this fact up with Kasei?

— But just look at this:

Shion: “Hey, is that sarcasm towards Sibyl?”
Saiga: “No, it’s suspicion.”
Shion: “That’s even worse.”

God is unquestionable. You can’t even joke about God.

— Oh look, Ginoza’s onscreen. Let’s see what he has to contribu–…

Ginoza: “Tsunemori, you should rest a bit.”

Oh, right. He’s a robot these days. He can’t say anything but a handful of lines over and over.

— Ginoza is exasperated at the fact that Akane hasn’t moved from her apartment yet. I’m sure Sakuya is delighted about this, because he thinks this will make it easier to corrupt her. Do you get the feeling Shinya will just show up at the last minute and save Akane?

— The very brief conversation between Akane and her grandmother feels stilted. It doesn’t feel like two loved ones catching up. Instead, her grandmother is basically telling her what to do next in the story. Epiphanies every time I talk to my grandma! Ahhhhhhh, this writing, man.

— Finally, we ask Kasei some very important questions. And of course, her answer is completely stupid! Shisui’s Psycho-Pass is still clear so there’s no reason to disable her access to the Dominators! Genius! Air-tight logic! We can’t make exceptions! Akane deduces that the Sibyl System just doesn’t want to appear flawed, i.e. it is incapable of handling the current situation. So let me get this straight. A group of super-intelligent brains would rather preserve its reputation in the short-term over stopping a madman who is very carefully and very deliberately causing people’s faith in the Sibyl System to erode? Does that make sense to any of you? It doesn’t make sense to me. I’d rather swallow a bitter pill and stop Kamui dead in his tracks instead of letting him run around and cause mayhem. But hey, that’s just me! I’m certainly not a writer who’s attempting to put himself in the shoes of a group of super-intelligent brains.

— But everyone’s stupid! It’s not just the Sibyl System! Akane wants to know how they can stop Kamui if the scanners won’t even recognize him?

Kasei: “It’s simple. In fact, you tried to do it, right?”
Akane: “Are you saying that killing him is appropriate?”

Of course it is! Look how many people he has killed! His aim isn’t just to commit crime. He’s not just your bread-and-butter serial killer. His aim is to bring down society altogether.

— Like Makishima, this guy is a terrorist. Does he deserve a fair trial? No! But there’s no such thing as a fair trial in this world anyway. Who lives and who dies are completely dependent on the Sibyl System’s judgement. But that’s the problem, isn’t it? These characters are so used to having the Sibyl System judge everyone that they can’t even entertain the idea of passing those same judgement themselves. That’s why Shinya was a hero. He had the guts to judge Makishima, especially since the Sibyl System wasn’t going to do so. No, you shouldn’t go on a rampage and judge every single person out there, deciding whether or not they get to live. But when there are clear-cut cases like Makishima or Kamui, you shouldn’t hesitate and let these assholes kill more people. What is wrong with you!

— Akane: “…we’ll arrest him and bring him to rightful justice.” Sigh. What is justice? The longer Kamui is on the loose, the more people he will hurt. No amount of “rightful” justice will undo the pain and suffering that he has caused or will cause because Akane allowed him to get away in last week’s episode. I know her grandma said that people’s lives are valuable, but I don’t think someone like Kamui is what the old lady had in mind.

— Mika learns that everyone who has worked with Sakuya ends up becoming a latent criminal. Why is he allowed to work for the MWPSB again? I guess we won’t find out until much later. I laughed at Mika being so spooked that she would toss her drink away over a phone ring.

— According to our crack team, Kamui “has an extraordinary knowledge of drugs.” So not only is he a master of psychiatry, he’s a proper surgeon because he can remove your organs without damaging them, he’s a master at holograms, he can hack into incredibly secure networks, he can program a game that somehow translates action in the real world to gameplay that you see on screen, and… oh, of course, he “has extraordinary knowledge of drugs.” Welp. At this point, what can’t he do?

— Can he salvage this sequel?

— Aaaaand in the middle of an investigation, Mika throws a tantrum.

— All of Kamui’s holograms appear to be aged versions of kids who had died on some plane crash. But then the one survivor is… dun dun dun! Kirito Kamui! But if he’s this smart, he would never leave such an obvious clue behind. Obviously, he wanted our investigators to figure this out. The only question, then, is to what end?

— Magically, however, our investigators can’t even access Kamui’s records. They can talk to his surgeon, but not surprisingly, this guy is also a devoted follower of Kamui.

— I don’t think I’m a big fan of Sho’s characterization, especially the whole “big sis” thing. It’s just cringeworthy. Because this season is too short to really develop any of these characters, all the writer can do is distinguish them by giving them very obvious traits. Mika’s a giant baby, Sho stutters a lot, Ginoza just doubts Akane, so on and so forth. It makes for a cast of characters that are difficult to relate to.

— Then we get a reminder that Shion and Yayoi are still a thing. Okay. Yayoi is barely in this sequel, but at least we know these two lesbians are getting it on! There’s no other way to show that they’re lesbians either.

— The Togane Foundation is then linked to the doctor that Akane has just taken in. Man, I think the new writer is too concerned with spinning a web of conspiracy instead of just writing a proper story.

— After Sho finishes aging up all the holograms, our heroes realize that they’ve been interacting with Kamui this entire time! But the audience already knew this from the get-go. Hell, I said this back in week two:

According to Kitazawa, his accomplice had come to see him and made his color clear. Risa instantly believes that this is a lie, because the only person to visit Kitazawa recently was a therapist. Considering what we had just learned about holograms, however, I can’t help but think our villain had disguised himself as a therapist, then made his way to Kitazawa to clear the guy’s color. The problem, however, is that the therapist himself claims that he had talked to Kitazawa. But how do we know that the therapist in front of Akane is actually the real therapist? What if the real therapist had been killed a long time ago, and they’re actually talking to the bad guy?

So the big reveal is a giant letdown. The sequel isn’t as clever as it wants to be.

Will Psycho-Pass hurt me this week? All signs point to yes.

— Wow, this is just ludicrous. According to Kamui’s surgeon, he has the bits and pieces of 184 different people inside him. C’mon. This supposedly includes seven people’s brains. C’MON! This isn’t even science fiction anymore. This is just stupid as hell. Multi-body brain transplant? Are you kidding me?

— In any case, this ridiculous story explains why he’s completely invisible to the Sibyl System. I take it back, Sibyl System. You’re not stupid. You just couldn’t believe something this stupid could actually exist. Seven brains in one. Holy shit. What have you done, Ubukata Tow? Holy fucking shit.

— The idea isn’t even bad in theory. Someone who is a ghost in the Sibyl System’s eyes? Someone that machines can’t recognize period? Okay, that sounds like a solid premise for the second season! Let’s roll with it! So how do we explain the fact that he’s invisible to the machine? Well, uh, he’s a composite of 184 dead people. Holy fuck. We saw a dying kid with parts of his brain missing, so we decided to stick seven other brains inside him. Genius! Last week, we wondered if there were 184 people working for Kamui, or Kamui posing as 184 people. I bet no one could ever guess that Kamui is literally made up of 184 different people! In fact, when the episode started up, I thought this was an elaborate hoax to throw our heroes off. I thought the bad guys were just pulling our leg. And now, this.

— Here comes the long, drawn-out flashback. Kamui’s sad, sad story is that people avoided him simply because the Sibyl System avoided him. No one wants to do anything that is tantamount to doubting the Sibyl System. So naturally, he wants to destroy the entire system.

— The problem, however, is that the storytelling sucks. This is literally what a Panopticon is. Let me explain it to you. This is literally what the Season of Hell is. Let me explain it to you. There’s no attempt here to even be the slightest bit creative. We’re just sitting in a room, watching two people talk to “each other.” In reality, they’re just talking straight to us, spelling out every little detail in the driest way possible. The only small twist here is when the surgeon takes on Kamui’s appearance at one point to tell Kamui’s story. Then he morphs back to being the surgeon when he gets back to his part of the story. But that’s not enough to dispel the fact that they were just rattling facts off at us.

— What I also dislike is how conspiracy-ridden this story is.

— More barebones facts. Kamui simply figured out to heal people, so they’re all loyal to him. Masuzaki’s story at least somewhat makes sense. He used to huddle in the streets, frozen from stress until Kamui came along. But Shisui has had no characterization. We don’t know what her life was like before this series. We just simply see her become one of Kamui’s followers without much explanation. This is a sign of a rushed or lazy story. Maybe both.

— Yep, I’ll just leave this right here…

Akane: “No, it’s probably safe to say that all the 184 people, the victims except Kamui, are the Holos that he wears. … It means they were all Kamui.”

— I’m hoping that one of these characters would apologize to Akane. Y’know, the ones who doubted her and said she was wrong? Psst, I’m talking to you, Ginoza.

— As for people like that politician, he was replaced by… an illegal alien! Even our very own leaders are actually illegal aliens too! See? Not keeping a closer eye on our borders helped to allow these tragedies to occur! Illegal aliens are bad! I mean, do I think the anime trying to make a direct political statement about illegal aliens. No, I doubt the writer even realizes it. I’m sure he thinks this is just a convenient way to explain how there hasn’t been a rise in missing persons cases in the past few months. Even so, he could’ve used anything here — anything instead of illegal aliens. The missing persons problem isn’t even a huge problem. No one would even think of it had the story not brought it up. Therefore, it says something that the writer defaulted to having illegal aliens play a role in destabilizing Japan.

— I don’t know what the conversation between Sakuya and Jouji was even supposed to accomplish other than dredging up information we already know.

— I love how the entire case can be understood by simply looking things up on the Togane Foundation. Everything is there! Kamui wants revenge! And Sakuya has no father! And the Togane Foundation is clearly linked to the Sibyl System! And this is information anyone could have accessed if they had bothered to stop by the Ministry of Economy Patent Office’s archive room. Kasei later explains that they leave this information out in the open in order to lure in nosy people like Mika, but still. It all just feels so contrived.

— Basically, the Sibyl System is trying to create asymptomatic individuals. To what purpose? To bolster itself? Probably. Sakuya was created to see if an asymptomatic individual could artificially be made. It didn’t work, but he’s still useful. He’s attempting to corrupt Inspectors, after all. So why Akane? Well, here’s my speculation. Her Psycho-Pass never clouds, right? Nevertheless, Mika seems to be convinced that Akane is doing all sorts of bad things. She’s wrong, however, in assuming that Akane’s reading will increase. Our heroine is perfect, after all; her Hue will never clear. In other words, Sakuya wants to corrupt Akane without actually clouding her Psycho-Pass. This would then turn Akane into an asymptomatic individual. The Sibyl System hasn’t gotten rid of Akane, because it has always had its eyes set on adding our heroine to its collection of brains in a vat.

— At this point, Kamui is just an unintended side effect from all those experiments. He feels like a nuisance that the Sibyl System refuses to take seriously. It wants to stop Kamui, of course, but at the same time, it seems confident that Kamui will inevitably be stopped. The Sibyl System has bigger concerns.

— Having said all of that, I want to harp on something. This is what Mika had to say about Akane: “Many Inspectors and Enforcers have already become victims because of bad decisions made by Inspector Tsunemori.” Really? I didn’t get any impression that those deaths a few episodes were Akane’s fault whatsoever. They were just following a lead. What would Mika have done instead? Anyway, I guess Mika is going to hate Akane until the bitter end. As expected, she wants Akane removed from the MWPSB entirely. This almost feels like a vendetta for her. Maybe she has some deep-rooted resentment that carried over from the first season, but I can’t imagine or remember what Akane might have done to incur Mika’s wrath to such an extent.

— Haha.

— But this episode is terrible. Absolutely terrible storytelling. It starts off with a conversation between Jouji and Masuzaki. Then it was a conversation between Akane and her team. Then it was just Mika talking to herself… she talks to herself some more by typing out her report. We are just sitting here, listening to her literally read her report out to us. And of course, there were smaller conversations in between these larger conversations. A conversation between Jouji and Sakuya. A conversation between Sakuya and Akane. A conversation between Akane and Jouji. Good lord. I don’t have a problem with exposition. Exposition is a crucial element to all stories.  You can’t get rid of it. Nevertheless, but it should be used wisely. In other words, you don’t line these conversations up like this, and blow through all of them in one episode. It’s just so lazy. What’s next? Mika’s going to deliver her report to Kasei, and have a conversation with her?

— Yep.

— So what does “AA” even stand for? “A priori acquit,” apparently. As expected, it has something to do with asymptomatic individuals, which is what the Sibyl System consists of.

— Kasei is sitting down, so what is Mika even looking at?

— Then twists upon twists. Kasei is really Sakuya’s… mother? Ugh. Worst of all, Mika simply slumps to the ground and gives up. Hell, it feels like the sequel has given up on us too.

What bothers me these days is how human the Sibyl System has become. In the first season, I had the perception that the Sibyl System valued logic and utility above all else. If it thought you had crossed a certain threshold — and as a result, you were a danger to society — it killed you regardless of the extenuating circumstances. If you were meant for this job, it put you in that job regardless of what you really wanted to be. If recruiting Makishima would help society more, then justice be damned. Let’s recruit Makishima! In other words, the Sibyl System didn’t have selfish motives. The Sibyl System didn’t desire to control the world. It simply did what it thought was logical, and controlling us was the horrific byproduct of its logic. You could certainly disagree with the Sibyl System and its premises, and Makishima definitely made a great case. He unfortunately targeted innocent people to get his point across, and at the same time, you also couldn’t deny that most people in this society lived in bliss and happiness thanks to the Sibyl System. The point of the first season was that both sides had their pros and cons, and that made it scary.

In the sequel, however, the Sibyl System has become all too human. It is now selfish. It is now absurdly evil. It is now involved in all sorts of conspiracies to help bolster its image and delegitimize others. Basically, it is now a moustache-twirling, evil mastermind. Worst of all, Kasei has become too involved in the sequel. She has always been the face of the Sibyl System, but now, it feels like she’s an individual with her own individual aims. This kills the idea of a bunch of linked brains valuing logic and utility above all. And again, this makes the Sibyl System seem all too human. And here’s the thing. Society’s reliance on the old Sibyl System is really just great cynicism, which is what makes the world in Psycho-Pass feel so dystopian. The idea is that man can’t govern himself. Man can’t make his own decisions. The question: what will bring about the apocalypse? The cynical answer that you hear all too often these days: man. Man will kill himself if you just leave him to his devices. Man can’t even pick the right career for himself. He’s good at X, but he’d rather do Y instead! What a fool! Therefore, society has welcome the SIbyl System with open arms. If man can’t rule himself, let’s have a computer do it.

Yes, the Sibyl System is made up of human brains, but the way it used to operate, it was more like an unfeeling, uncaring machine that only valued maintaining order and peace in society. But here’s the even greater cynicism: even a computer can’t rule us. The computer can only rule us by stripping us of our humanity, thereby turning us into extensions of the computer itself. The situation in the first season of Psycho-Pass was truly hopeless, because it seemed as though there were no right answers. Well, the second season undoes all of that. The Sibyl System has become all too human, and likewise, it is quite obvious what our heroes must do. Yes, they must stop Kirito “I’m a walking Swiss Army knife” Kamui, but they must also stop the Sibyl System at all costs as well. There’s no meditation on the nature of humanity. There is no great debate on what is ultimately the best course for society. Sure, the first season fell into the trap of pontificating a little too much, but all of that has gone out the window. You just have one angsty piece of shit in one corner, and one laughably evil mastermind in the other corner. There’s no ambiguity here. Just take them all down.

What we had before was something completely dystopian: the unfeeling machine maintains peace and order, but at the cost of our humanity. Now, however, the machine has become completely human with its own selfish goals. The first season toyed with ideas about humanity in a futuristic world. Can a man who has replaced 90% of his body still be considered human? Can people really consider themselves human if they let a computer make all the big decisions for them? How do we balance justice against the greater good of society? What if justice is simply the greater good of society? On the other hand, the sequel is just about overthrowing a corrupt king. Ultimately, the sequel disappoints because it has moved away from the very themes that the first season had established in such an extreme fashion. Of course, I don’t want the sequel to just repeat the same questions that the first season had broached, but it doesn’t even serve as a proper continuation. For all of his flaws, Urobuchi confronted some lofty questions about humanity and what awaits it as technology continues to improve by leaps and bounds. The sequel ignores all of that in favor of a simple, age-old story about an evil despot. Psycho-Pass 2‘s greatest flaw is that it has become ordinary.

Stray notes & observations:

— We even see a flashback where Sakuya’s mom beams with pride as her artificial son murders puppies. Knowing that Sakuya’s mom ends up becoming Kasei, it just drives home the point that the Sibyl System has lost its identity, and some fraud has stuck this caricature in its place. The old Sibyl System was obeyed simply because it was logical to a fault. The new Sibyl System has to involve itself in all sorts of conspiracies just to keep itself legitimate. It’s silly. Why have we gone down this road?

— What I find funny about this discussion on the omnipotence paradox was that I never got the impression that the Sibyl System was perfect in the first season. It clearly wasn’t perfect. It simply operated on a set of accepted premises and came to the best possible conclusions for society. For some reason, however, the sequel has suddenly decided to portray the Sibyl System as this entity that needs to be seen as perfect. But if this is really the case, then why would it need to involve itself in so many conspiracies? And that’s the funny thing about it. By wanting to become an omnipotent god, the Sibyl System renders itself all too human.

— I don’t remember ever seeing any skin from Akane in the past, but it’s the new Psycho-Pass age, I guess.

— Sakuya’s conclusion that Kamui must have killed Masuzaki is pretty faulty, but our heroes are none the wiser. Except Mika, of course, but she’s meant to be hated, so she won’t say anything.

— Sakuya: “My will is society’s will. Since you vowed to respect the law, you cannot deny me…” Simply because he’s the Sibyl’s “son.” Bah, this entire season is just getting worse and worse. The Sibyl System has lost its identity, replaced by these fools.

— Yeah, everything about this sequel makes my blook curdle.

— Everyone proceeds to stand in front of a burning building and calmly discuss the evilness of these politicians. And oh yeah, we have illegal immigrants being burned alive, but not just that, they were also modified to look like animals. It’s brutal. It’s twisted. But why? Why does the show need to go this far with these evil politicians without giving us any context? Rikako’s twisted sculptures in the first season had context. We understood why she created them. In the sequel, it’s just, “Oh yeah, these assholes turned innocent people into bizarre animals for their amusement, a fact which I’ll explain to you in this short conversation.”

— So uh, this Koichi guy has Aoi’s severed ear, but then at the end of the credits, we see Sakuya about to do something to the kidnapped grandmother. We know Sakuya had Mika look into the whereabouts of Akane’s grandmother. It’s clear that Aoi had been replaced by a fake grandma in an earlier episode, but what’s the connection here? Who had Aoi in their possession all along? Who cut off her ear? I assume that Sakuya wants to frame Kamui for Aoi’s death, and see if this corrupts Akane. But if Sakuya is the one who cut off Aoi’s ear, then how did it end up in Koichi’s possession? Are they allies? And if Koichi’s the one who cut off Aoi’s ear, then how did Sakuya find Aoi?

Penultimate episode, you guys.

— Oh man, there’s nothing like the sweet smell of exposition to kick off the start of a Psycho-Pass episode! Yes, I can see that Kamui has taken five hundred passengers hostage, but thanks for confirming this fact for me over and over, everybody.

— So much pointless dialogue: “Feel the pain that comes from being the reason someone precious to you died. Paint yourself black, Akane Tsunemori.” So let’s see, the heroine looks troubled, confused, angered, etc.? That’s not enough! Spell it out to the audience! We gotta make sure they know exactly how the girl feels, and what Sakuya wants her to feel. Wait, double-check to make sure the audience also knows that Kamui has taken five hundred people hostage! Do they know that? Do they?! Cut back to Kasei! Have her talk really slowly and smugly about the topic again. Maybe she can offer a new perspective!

— You know the show is cutting corners when instead of seeing Kamui’s underlings shoot their Dominators at the hostages, we instead cut to the outside of the train with bright lights flashing through the windows.

— So the plan is to literally overwhelm the Sibyl System, which would… overload… the normal processing routes? What is this? A literal information traffic jam? Are you serious? I mean, if the Sibyl System gets overwhelmed or something, I imagine that it would slow to a halt, hang, reboot, or whatever. I don’t expect some “bypass” to suddenly fix any of those problems. But whatever. Maybe the technology works in ways I don’t know about!

— And I love how Kasei is just sitting there, talking to Kamui, but she’s really talking to nobody in particular. More accurately, she’s really just filling us in on what is happening, because the story can’t be assed to tell itself in any other way. It’s awkward and stupid writing.

— Kasei informs Akane of her plans to blow up the entire train and its 500 hostages. Naturally, Akane opposes this plan. Kasei’s reasoning? Oh, they’re probably latent criminals by now. Yes, yeeeeeesss! Embrace the dark side! Become the moustache-twirling villain that Tow Ubukata wants you to be! The Sibyl System is no longer this cold bastion of pure logic, using numbers and algorithms to push East Asian values to the limits! It’s now just a maniacal old lady who blows people up because “Meh, fuck them.” Meanwhile, Sakuya is good for nothing but grinning stupidly at no one.

— Unfortunately, it looks as though Akane’s poor grandmother is dead. But don’t worry, because the ghost of bishie past is here! And this time, he doesn’t turn into that weirdo Sakuya. To top it all off, this is all it takes to set Akane on the right path. This is literally all it takes. Akane’s grandmother just died, so you think she might compromise her ethics. You think she might now have to grapple with the ethical struggle within her, and that this is no easy task. But it’s okay! Let’s just talk to a figment of her imagination for a minute! That’ll do the trick!

— It’s a good thing we huffed all that second-hand smoke. No doubt that cocktail of chemicals is what allowed Kogami to magically appear in Akane’s mind and talk some sense into her.

— Kamui is a collection of individuals, so if Sibyl System can judge Kamui, then likewise, the Sibyl System can be judged. And that’s apparently… terrible or something. I don’t really see it, but that’s what the characters tell me. I mean, why should the Sibyl System fear being judged? It’s not evil. Well, up until now, it wasn’t evil. In season one, it certainly did things that we disagreed with. It limited people’s freedoms, and it created the sort of society that we wouldn’t want to live in. But for its purposes, the Sibyl System created a stable society that maximized happiness, and every action it took was born from the cold, hard logic that the collective happiness of everyone was more important than individual trivialities.

Look at it this way. East Asian cultures tend to emphasize the group over that of the individual. East Asian cultures tend to prioritize social harmony and the collective well-being of the community of that of the individual. In that sense, the original Sibyl System simply took these same values to the extreme. The first season of Psycho-Pass is unsettling, because in many ways, it was Urobuchi’s heavy-handed response to the society around him. Again, the original Sibyl System wasn’t evil. It merely prioritized different values, and it took those values to the logical extreme. That’s not evil; that’s provocative. And with that in mind, I don’t see any problems in judging that Sibyl System. You wouldn’t really get a color out of it.

— As for the sequel, however, all bets are off. I mean, The Sibyl System is deliberately corrupting people, involving itself in massive conspiracies to undermine its foes and rivals, so on and so forth. Basically, the new Sibyl System is clearly evil, so I guess that’s why it doesn’t want to be judged.

— I’m not sold, guys. I’m just not sold. Sure, a sequel should be able to stand on its own, but when it opts to make such silly changes to an established formula, then nobody’s going to like it. And the way I see it, the old Sibyl System was intriguing if somewhat frightening. The new Sibyl System, however, is just cartoonish.

— Kasei: “…the impact on society once it accepts a collective Psycho-Pass…” This would apparently result from judging Kamui as a collective entity, but I don’t see it. I think it would be more accurate to say that Kamui is a collective individual. Likewise, the Sibyl System dispenses its judgement as a collective individual. Society, on the other hand, is not a collective individual. Members of a society may have some abstract, nebulous goals in mind, e.g. make the world a better place, but they don’t directly work together to accomplish those goals. Each member of society has his or her own individual goals to pursue, and society’s will is just a very generalized view of the big picture.

Meanwhile, Kamui might be a composite of many different people, but these parts all work together towards one goal. There aren’t conflicts within Kamui’s thought process that we know of. Likewise, the brains within the Sibyl System all work towards one goal. They don’t each have their own individual wills and goals to pursue. All they do is sit there and work as a single individual. Basically, you can’t just compare society to either Kamui or the Sibyl System. The latter two operate as if they’re individuals. They may be a collection of different minds, but they are each nevertheless one. Society, on the other hand, is a loose term to describe a group of people, but you can never call society an individual. So this risk of giving society a collective Psycho-Pass when the individuals themselves are clear… well, I don’t see it. It’s just not valid. There’s no danger here. I think Kasei, and thus the writer, is just overthinking the problem.

— Oh hey, Mika is still useless. What a surprise.

— Akane arrives at the spot where she’s supposed to meet Kamui, but she finds Sakuya there. All of a sudden, she knows everything that he’s up to! Up until last week’s episode, however, she didn’t really suspect a thing. The story’s just too rushed. I don’t even know why they bothered with this second season at all, because nothing develops organicially.

— Kamui then shows up, and takes aim at Sakuya. At the last second, Akane tries to prevent what should have happened a long time ago from happening. Are you serious? Is there any reason on this planet to keep someone as dangerous as Sakuya around? Oh right, she’s just protecting the law, you guys. The funny thing is, the Sibyl System itself thinks that Sakuya is a target for enforcement. Not only that, Sakuya will certainly kill Kamui if Kamui doesn’t kill him first. So with all of that in mind, screw these silly laws.

— Anyway, next week’s episode should be the last, so at least we won’t have to suffer through this much longer.

Alright, alright. Let’s get this finale over with, so when it’s all said and done, we can just pull a Mika and pretend that none of this ever happened.

— Ah, Akane is protecting Kamui. But why would she need to? Doesn’t she trust Kamui to be able to fire a shot and stop Sakuya dead in his tracks? Honestly, I still think she’d rather apprehend the dude with the highest recorded Psycho-Pass reading ever instead of just outright ridding the world of such a monster. We gotta protect the law, remember?

— There we go: “But that doesn’t mean I should give up on protecting the law.” Protect that law, baby! She protects it so hard, she leaves Sakuya handcuffed to the ground but also unattended. Wise? I mean, are we to believe that the guy won’t somehow free himself and cause mayhem? Hmmm.

— Shisui seems to be on her last legs, but to be honest, it doesn’t really matter. Her character quickly ran into a brick wall early on in the season. We knew nothing of her before she became Kamui’s pawn, and we know nothing about her now. So for Ginoza, who’s another poorly utilized character in this sequel, to go, “She’d go that far for Kamui?!” it’s just useless information. We have nothing to compare her current disposition to. If anything, his utterance merely highlights the fact that we don’t know anything about the girl.

— The conversation between Akane and Kamui really just nails down how petty this whole thing feels. The latter bears the grudge of the people against Sibyl. That’s it. A grudge. Meh. Besides, you know what’s going to happen. Sibyl will finally be able to judge both itself and Kamui. As far as Kamui is concerned, he’ll be super guilty! Sibyl, on the other hand, will magically wipe itself clean somehow. I don’t know how, but it will. After all, it still has a role to play in the upcoming movie, and well, Kamui does not.

— Really? Are we getting a flashback from Sakuya at this late stage in the story?

— So he’s sick for his mom. Like really, really sick for her. Well, that’s pretty cliche, but whatever. In any case, we learn that Sakuya corrupts the Inspectors that he works with, because this will allow his mother to stay “bright and shine bright.” What does that even mean? How can pushing other people to commit wrongdoings have anything to do with Kasei?

— Oh look, Sakuya has freed himself. Didn’t see that one coming.

— So Sibyl judges Kasei/Misako and that’s that. She’s dead. Okay, whatever. But wait, why does Akane stand idly by and allow this to happen when she, for all intents and purposes, prevented Kamui from finishing Sakuya off? All Kamui literally had to do was pull the trigger, but she jumped in front of the Dominator and acted like she was protecting Kamui from Sakuya. In both cases, the Sibyl System gave its “blessing.” In both cases, it’d be “lawful.” Likewise, why aren’t we bothering to arrest Misako?

— Of course, let’s just be real. Sakuya’s going to come back and get his revenge on Kamui, then afterwards, they’ll both die. With him, Kamui, and Kasei/Misako down for the count, the slate is wiped clean for the movie, and we can forget this sequel ever existed.

— So Kamui meets the brains behind the Sibyl System, and sees that its crime coefficient is over 300. All of a sudden, the Sibyl System announces that its evolving! As predicted, it’s going to acknowledge Kamui’s existence, it will now judge itself, and last but not least, it will rid itself of all the bad elements! Man, I knew something like this would happen, but not in such a lame way. Literally, Sibyl will just destroy the bad brains in its system and voila! We’re clean, boys! As a result, Sibyl’s crime coefficent is no longer high enough for enforcement action… as determined by Sibyl. That’s like a police department going, “We launched an investigation, and our conclusion is… we didn’t do anything wrong! Yaaaaaaay. By the way, the ‘bad elements’ have been put on paid leave!”

— And Akane is satisfied with that! She buys SIbyl’s bullshit! Yep, yep, Sibyl has evolved! How do I know? Well, it said so! That’s good enough for me! AS FOR YOU, KAMUI-KUN…!!!

— We then see Shisui get taken down, but she’s not dead. This scene is just to wrap up this particular loose end, but again, what ends up happening to the girl makes no difference to me. Her character is threadbare, so I really don’t know why they’re bothering to keep her around.

— Akane: “If only you had chosen a way that didn’t lead to anyone getting hurt…” Can’t you say the same for Sibyl? Look, this is what’s missing from Akane’s philosophy: justice. She wants to protect the law so badly, she’s completely forgotten about justice to begin with. Can a serial killer suddenly have a change-of-heart one day and say that’s he’s no longer going to hurt anyone? Sure, he can say that, but we must still hold him responsible for his previous actions. I don’t see how you can get around that. That’s the only way to achieve justice. Law and order isn’t just about subduing people who have a high propensity for crime. It’s also about respecting people’s actions, and thus administering justice.

If you overlook a person’s previous crimes, you’re not respecting their actions. You’re not respecting the fact that they are autonomous entities, capable of making choices that will incur serious consequences. The same thing applies to Sibyl. So what if Sibyl’s crime coefficient is now low? It’s still true that Sibyl had committed numerous crimes against humanity. Even if we grant that Sibyl can and has successfully rid itself of its “bad eggs,” we still haven’t achieved justice if we just leave Sibyl alone. This isn’t hard to grasp. Justice doesn’t stop when you’ve learned your lesson.

— So Sakuya shows up and tries one last time to corrupt Akane. He does so by confessing to the murder of her grandmother. As his last parting gift, however, Kamui calms her down. What a cool guy!

— As predicted, Kamui and Sakuya shoot each other and… well, that’s that. Slate’s clean, boys! Well, Sakuya is still barely alive, but he can’t do anything anymore in this current state. Mika shows up intending to shoot the guy, but ends up changing her mind in about the most pathetic Mika way possible: she’s going to just forget that she knows anything, including her own involvement. Nice!

— But despite its “evolution,” Sibyl won’t “institute a collective Psycho-Pass for all of society as of yet.” Great.

— Time to wrap up even more loose ends! We don’t need ya anymore, Saiga! Back into your prison, you go! Oh look, Yayoi is now suspicious of Mika! Oh no, I guess no lesbian sex between those two! And Kasei’s back! Yaaaaay.

— I don’t even want to listen to this final conversation on law and society. After what Akane’s done — or is unwilling to do — I don’t want to hear any of it.

— Anyway, we’ve hit the reset button, so the movie’s good to go. Nothing to worry about here! This sequel may as well not exist!