In the future, Japanese society lives under the watchful
eye of the Sybil System. If your mind
goes to dark or it’s believed you’ll commit a crime, the system will deal with
you. Enter Akane Tsunemori. Following the close of the Shogo Makashima
case and the disappearance of Shunya Kogame, Akane is now the leader of the MWPSBs
CID Division 01. Familiar faces and new
blood have been assigned to her unit and their first mission as a team: the
investigation of a dead Enforcer, a missing Ipsector and two lost
Dominators. Someone is rising in the
shadows to challenge Sybil directly…and it has its eyes equally and dangerously
set on Akane herself.
Well we kicked off Year 5 of the Anime Corner with the
bloody, insane but brilliant Season One.
How about we close out 2018 with Season Two and see if it can be just as
good, if not better. Welcome, dear
readers, to Psycho Pass 2.
There’s an obvious problem going right into Psycho Pass
2: Season One wasn’t perfect but it was pretty damn close. How do you follow up the rivalry between
Kogame and Makashima? How do you
progress the story of Akane knowing what Sybil really is? How do you up the creepy and uncomfortable
factor that made the show disturbing but fascinating to watch? There are more questions to ask but it’s
better if we just delve right into things and see just what Season Two is doing
right and what it is doing very, very wrong right out of the gate.
The premiere feels the opposite of the first seasons, which
isn’t a bad way to kick things off. With
Akane in charge, Division One is doing things a bit differently now with
apprehending criminals. Rather than just
executing them, Akane wants to save them, her way of following her own beliefs
and sticking it to the Sybil System as well.
She’s already got supporters in the returning Ginoza (who if you’ll
recall became an Enforcer after he lost his father in Season One) and
Yayoi. And she’s got three new
subordinates she’s made a nice impression on, it seems. There’s Hinakawa, a shy guy but a talented
Hologram Designer. He gets a couple of
good moments to show his skills and twice at Akane’s request is he involved in
two potential case cracking event. Next
is Togane, who I guess is supposed to be our Kogame substitute for the
season. He doesn’t do too much in this
opening set besides emulate some of Kogame’s vibe and beat the crap out of a
workout bot…just like Kogame. The only big
bit of detail added to his character is that he possesses the highest crime
coefficient of anyone on record…leave it to Sybil to saddle him with Akane to
really test her, if he does anything at all.
And then there’s…ugh Shimotsuki. You might remember her from the very end of
Season One, showing up for her first day just like Akane did at the very
beginning of the show. If the storys
attempting to make Togane the next Kogame, it is flat out failing to make
Shimotsuki the next Akane…or anything remotely positive. In all four opening episodes, Shimotsuki
questions and sasses every single decision, theory and order Akane
delivers. She belittles the Enforcers
and refuses to bend the knee to any authority short of Chief Kasei. Seriously, everytime this girl opened her
mouth, by the time she closed it my response to the screen generally began with
a swear…or flipping her off, same difference.
If four episodes was just a primer for how angry one character could
make me, just how the hell am I going to feel about her at the end of the
season (were we not so close to the end of the year I’d probably do a Top 5 on
the Worst Decisions Mika Shimotsuki Does in Psycho Pass II…maybe in early 2019,
we’ll see). Akane must be the most
patient person on the planet to keep her around after one case and not fire her
ass right at the end of the day for being such a brat…yeah that’s it,
Shimotsuki is more brat than cop. But I
should stop myself now. I’m sure ill be
complaining about her far more and far worse later on.
Ok so one new character is threatening to derail things
big time. But can the story support her
weakness? I want to say it’s too early
to tell. However, even though the
mystery starts fresh, it feels like we’re heading in a very familiar direction. That and also it looks like any chance of
Stand Alone cases is going out the window.
I suppose that cant be helped given that Psycho Pass 2 is only 11
episodes long. But back to
“familiarity”. Once again, someone is
stepping up to challenge Sybil itself, this time with the cryptic question,
“What Color Am I?...or WC? For short”
Once again, someone is finding way to cloud peoples Psycho Pass so they
can commit crimes and not be judged for it. That’s not to say this it isn’t
without it’s fare share of those super intense situations Psycho Pass is known
for. The hostage crisis two parter was
tough to sit through as one Old Man Prophet wailed on people and Inspector
Aoyanagi was powerless to stop it…and ended up meeting the same gruesome end as
everyone else. Doesn’t change the fact
that there’s still a “been here, done that” feeling. The only question remaining to ask is, will
“Kamui” end up being Akane’s Makushima?
I cant ignore that he was able to overcome two Inspectors and one
Enforcer to get the ball rolling on his master plan and let a whole medical
facility of people get slaughtered to further this plan. Cant say he isn’t ruthless, even if he thinks
otherwise.
Actually the bigger question should be: is Akane up to
carrying a season without the every reliable Kogame? Akane definitely seems capable I think. Her intuitive nature and outside the box
thinking keep her from being the nagging stiff that Shimotsuki is. Akane’s also continuing to improve her
relationships with Yayoi and especially Gino.
I did like how Gino was being overly protective of Akane when he felt
she was getting too clouded by theories.
If you think about it, with his father dead and Kogame MIA, Akane might
be the only family Ginoza has left in the world and he’ll be damned if he loses
her too. The investigative scenes
between the members of Division One were still solid too…though they did have
to work to ignore Shimotsuki trying to shoot down every theory cause she didn’t
come up with it first. Still, there’s
something to be said about Kogame not being around. Suddenly the Sherlock level intellect is absent
and, while the team is capable of solving crimes im sure, it feels like things
would be more clear if he were around.
Heck, Akane has this cute little habit of lighting cigarettes just to
feel like Kogame is close so she can focus, it’s adorable.
While it’s not off to the same, slam bang start as Season
One, Psycho Pass 2 is just getting started and has room to grow and hopefully
deliver a tale as immersive and challenging as its predecessor. Bloodier crimes, bigger guns (ASSAULT
DOMINATOR!!!), bigger moral and ethical challenges…but the second you think
about Mika Shimotsuki you kind of hope she isn’t going to be the sole reason
this season doesn’t succeed.
Well, I hope everyone sleeps well this Christmas
Eve. There might be a special present from
the Anime Corner waiting for you in the morning. Have a Happy Holiday everyone.
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