Psycho Pass Part 1 Episodes 1-4

The year is 2112AD, the setting is Japan.  It is a future where ones fate is determined by their mental stability.  Keep it low and society will accept you.  If it rises too quickly, you’re a threat to everyone.  Akane Tsunemori is the newest member of the Public Safety Bureau's Criminal Investigation Division.  One of the brightest graduates, Akane is about to discover all the lessons she’s learned don’t matter when it comes to hunting down latent criminals alongside gun totting Enforcers.  One such Enforcer is Shunya Kogame, a brilliant ex detective who has more in common with a Wolf than a human.  Akane wants to change things for the better and she might be Kogame’s path to redemption.  Are either goals possible in this new utopia covered by a darkness few people choose to acknowledge?

So let me pose you this: What if Blade Runner, Minority Report and Criminal Minds got together and had one of the best sleepovers ever?  The result, surprisingly enough is Psycho Pass, which blends together all three films and shows along with other genre nods into intense but surprisingly good time.  And it’s the show ive chosen to kick off Year 5 of the Gundam Anime Corner.

It’s hard not to spend a couple of minutes in the world of Psycho Pass and not think about how truly messed up it is.  From the skylight, sure Japan looks like a neon lite utopia and during the daylight you see a lot of shiny happy people going by.  But beneath this is so much darkness its unsettling and you cant help but feel like its partly being caused by the people trying to prevent it.  Here’s where the Minority Report bit comes in.  When a persons Psycho Pass reaches a certain level, they have to be detained to keep them from hurting others and if they resist or do start causing trouble, BOOM that’s it for them.  It seems like a pretty clear cut and cruel way to dispense justice.  And its stuff like this that makes me wonder how someone like Akane could even have the personality she has in this world.  Yeah, I get she’s supposed to be the face of the audience who everyone dumps world building exposition on, especially in the first episode.  But everyone else in Psycho Pass is so cold, detached and all about doing their jobs and nothing else.  Every Inspector and Enforcer we meet in this intro set has been around the block for a long time.  Meanwhile Akane’s studied a lot to become a cop, how is she so surprised that blowing half of a guys body off to stop him from killing a girl isn’t a normal thing?

Akane’s naievete can be a little distracting for the reasons I just stated.  However, looking past that, she’s a pretty good female lead for this show.  Her cuteness aside, I have to admire her desire to change things and go about getting justice dispensed a less messy way.  Plus she’s got some great characters to work off of, predominatly Kogame.  He’s a more cynical mic of Spike Spiegel and Kiba from Wolf’s Rain, a brilliant detective who’s seen so much darkness he’s been forced into the role of Enforcer and chooses to both be the investigator while also enjoying the hunt.  Kogame’s got a wisdom to his words but one can only wonder when he’s going to fly off of the rails.  The teaser in the first episode promises he’s  going to find his illusive man, Shogo Makashima…but will it be worth all he’ll have to go through to get there?  The rest of the cast is pretty good.  Gino is the straight man who’s all about the job and sees the Enforcers as tools rather than human beings, so the opposite of Akane.  Masaoka’s got a very “Law and Order” feel to his character, an old beat cop who ended up becoming an Enforcer but is less jaded than Kogame.  Kagari’s the jokester of the group though even he has to try and prove Akane is worth of being around.  Then there’s Yayoi…who’s kind of just there.  She has not distinctive traits or personality and feels like she’s just there to round out the team.  However, it’s clear she’s shacking up with the teams sexy tech expert Karanomori and damn is that a beautiful woman.

I really liked the first three episodes.  Though the premiere feels like an in-game tutorial, with Akane being the player avatar, it’s still an intense introduction that quickly sets the tone of Psycho Pass: dark, gritty, unforgiving and messy (in the way some situations can go not so according to plan). It’s a good stand alone tale, as are the other two stories that follow.  It’s mostly focused on Akane getting used to her new job but the world gets equal focus as well.  Seeing all of the holographic technology that can give you anything from a cute outfit to a lavish apartment to mask a rather dull one was pretty cool and imaginative.  Yes, yes, the illusion is covering an obvious truth, that’s not lost on me but its still cool.  Episode 3 found the team dealing with a bullied employee at a drone factory who ended up being their chief murder suspect.  To hear a supervisor talk about someone who is beat up by his co workers as “filling out a role for the workplace” really ticked me off and I was hoping that it might’ve been the supervisor who was the true culprit.  But again, it further emphasizes that this world where “Sybill” is law is far from perfect. 

The fourth episode was not as great as the others I think.  It wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t really all that exciting until the end.  Much like Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, we went on an exploration of online chat rooms of the future and it looks more World of Warcraft than the day time talk show setup we saw in SAC.  Maybe that’s why it never really struck a cord with me, cause I prefer one style over the other.  Still, it wasn’t terrible and Makashima did surface in the episodes final moments.  Heres hoping we get a bit more info on him soon, other than Kogame having it out for him. 

Lastly, THE DOMINATOR!!! Imagine if Judge Dredd had a cop version of Gene Starwinds Caster Gun from Outlaw Star.  And forget stun and kill settings like in Star Trek.  These things have painful stun and OVERKILL as it’s two basic settings.  So yeah, if I was going to call Psycho Pass a very accessible show to people who don’t watch Anime, especially if they love Criminal Minds, id say that the violence factor might be a put off.  After all, I love the investigations and how the team plays off of each other.  But when you’re showing scenes where body parts are being blown off in a very graphic manner, it might some more casual viewers off.  Me? I freaking love it and it adds a flair of fun to the normal proceedings.

So while one episode wasn’t as good as the others and one character still needs more to stand out, Psycho Pass had an otherwise solid debut set.  Im eager to spend more time in this world, pointing out what’s clearly wrong with it and finding out if anything can be corrected.  And im also cool with watching CID Unit One running around the city solving murders and catching latent criminals cause that’s a pretty fun ride from an entertainment standpoint.  Ok Psycho Pass, you’ve got my attention.  See you all next week.