The investigation of Kirito Kamui and his cryptic
question, “WC?”, has resulted in the deaths of multiple Inspectors and
Enforcers…and the criminal is just getting started. Akane and CID Division One find themselves on
the verge of another Makashima level crisis as Kamui continues to test the
Sybil System by arming civilians with the weapons and means to tear down
society without even realizing it.
Akane’s seemingly reckless pursuit of Kamui might blind her to the true
threats right in front of her: Inspector Shimotsuki, who seems determined to
remove her from command for her own benefit; and Sakuya Togane, the man with
the highest Psycho Pass on record who is determined to see Akane’s hue become
dark and corrupted. And when the
terrifying truth of Kamui’s true identity is revealed, nothing will ever be the
same again.
Well…it started ok at least. However, by the end of this set of episodes,
Psycho Pass 2 started to reach beyond the bounds of its world and try to cross
genres, all the while trying to up the ante from Season One and still be
intellectually challenging…when the only thing challenging about all of this is
how it got greenlit and put to screen in the first place.
At the very least, we got a good opener to this set. The drone hijacking episodes were exciting
and scary. The scariness fell to how
unknowing civilians and everyday citizens were at the controls of deadly
defense machines and took them on a killing spree for points. On the upside, Akane and her team, minus
Shimotsuki, handled it like a pro team.
With Akane, Gino, Togane and Sugo trying not to get killed, it was up to
Karanomori, Yayoi, and Hinakawa to save them with their combined hacking
skills. All the while, Shimotsuki came
in late to the party and was forced to complain while everyone ignored her and
did their jobs. You know, later on there
was a scene where Akane had a pretty good investigative break down of events
with her team, again minus Shimotsuki, and it went pretty well, feeling more
like a normal day at the office for CID Division One. It made me remember how some of my favorite
scenes from Season One were the team just spitballing theories in the squad
room. And while it was kind of cheesy, I
did like Akane’s mental recap of events…going over them with her own mental
image of Kogame for support. It was
brief and I know some will shake their head at it, but hey any amount of Kogame
is good for me at this point…cause things were about to make a sudden shift
into WTF territory.
That brings us to the meat of the season, the big reveal
of what Kamui is and what his endgame is.
Ready for this…ok: Kamui is a Frankenstein monster experiment made up of
parts from 184 dead kids, including 7 different brains, and his goal is
to…ugh…his goal is to somehow get the Sybil System to judge him because…wait
for it…the system cant read him. Yeah it
was assumed in an interrogation scene that swapping out enough organs will
cloud ones Psycho Pass even if it should be high. But this is just getting plain ridiculous and
it all feels like a pitch for a whole other scifi series…and this is me talking
about a show where a Big Brother style system is made up of a few dozen brains
in jars. This is what the shows solution
was to how you could top or match Makashima?
I feel like from now on every time I see him, ill just wonder how the
hell Kirito Kamui is even alive much less causing all of this chaos.
Oh but things didn’t just go bad there. Nope there was everyones favorite pain in the
ass brat girl Shimotsuki continuing to whine, pout and generally make herself
unlikeable in ever single frame she was drawn in. Now she’s on a witch hunt to kick Akane out
of her position cause Shimotsuki thinks she’s too reckless and causing more
harm than good. Jealousy thy name is
Mika Shimotsuki. Let’s just recall how
Shimotsuki was absent from two big team events (the ones I mentioned above to
be more precise) when she was off doing whatever it was she was doing…actually
that bit was important but ill get there in a second.) Possibly my favorite moment with Shimotsuki
in it (wait, there’s two but one has to wait til the next section below), was
when she fussed about something pointless and Akane just went ahead and delegated
the workload to her team, who took their jobs without complaint, and Shimotsuki
just stood there with a befuddled look on her face. There’s a reason Akane is team leader
Shimotsuki, learn to delegate and pay attention.
And just when you think it couldn’t get anymore
bizzare…there’s Togane. No longer is he
a Kogame impersonator. Nope, now he is Kasei’s
personal assassin…and her son? Well if I
had to guess on that end, I think that her body is the main Sybil avatar and
her brain, part of the main Sybil hub has been selected to run the Kirito Kamui
case, so she can directly address him as “son.”
Oh and Togane is also a test tube baby who’s been augmented to have the
largest Psycho Pass in recorded history.
AND he has a serious fixation on wanting to darken Akane’s Psycho Pass
by pushing her to her limits with this current case. You know, it’s this kind of out of left field
plot development that makes you want to sit down and wonder what a show with a
challenging, intense and fun as hell first season did so wrong to deserve this
kind of treatment. Part of me wonders if
this “shocker” would earn forgiveness from me if part of it involved Togane
taking out Shimotsuki after she stumbles onto something about Kasei and Sybil
she shouldn’t have. Sadly, it looks like
she still has a purpose to serve it seems…foo.
You know, I decided to hold off on this title til around
Christmas because I had heard how crazy the second season of Psycho Pass was
and if the rumors were true, I was going to have a blast ranting about it like
I did Silent Mobius. This is something
else. Literal patch work villains. A Norman Bates Psychopath with an obsession
with Akane. A rookie who is failing at
life and her job with every single word out of her mouth. I miss Season One. I miss Kogame and Makashima’s Sherlock and
Moriarty debates and fist fights. I miss
the stand alone, Criminal Minds style mysteries. I have no idea what Psycho Pass 2 has
devolved into…but I have no idea if it is going to recover and finish anywhere
near strong when we reach the season finale next week. Cause right now, I invoke Leonard Nimoy’s
Galvatron from Transformers: The Movie, “This is bad comedy.”
Happy Holidays Everyone from the Gundam Anime
Corner. Be kind, be cheerful, be
merry…don’t be Mika Shimotsuki, you’ll do the world a disservice
otherwise. See ya next week for the end
of 2018 and the Season Finale of Psycho Pass 2…ohhhh boy.
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