Akane Tsunemori has faced the darkness before and always
kept a clear hue. However, the closure
of the Kirito Kamui case might finally push her into an abyss she cant return
from. Baited by Kamui himself and
unknowingly stalked by her own subordinate, Togane, Akane will have to rely on
her own will and beliefs to see this case through and see justice done the
right way. Many questions remain: will
Sybil play along with Akane’s ultimate decision for Kamui? And what roles will the demented Togane and
the tormented Shimotsuki play before the curtain closes on this horrific
ordeal? The answers to these questions
and more will pave the way for the future of society as it begins to change
once again.
This couldntve been more the opposite of last time. If you may recall, when I reviewed Season
One, I said it was damn near perfect.
Few Anime can have the kind of build up that is given such epic and
great payoff as Psycho Pass. Psycho Pass
2…feels like it got lost in a crazy idea and is doing its best to forget it
ever happened, even before its over and done with. Shoddy writing, weak characters, Sybil acting
unlike Sybil and an ending that tries to emulate its predecessor and doesn’t
even come close. Part of this fail could
be aimed at the head writer of the season, which is kind of a shame in my head. Tow
Ubukata, the head writer of this season, also wrote Ghost in the Shell: Arise,
which I really liked. However, the hard
scifi turn into Frankenstien feels more like a Ghost in the Shell move. I wonder if original series writer, Gen
Urobuchi, could have saved this whole seasons premise. But we’ll never know.
Akane, Akane, Akane.
She’s grown quite a bit on me since her first appearance on the
show. She’s gone from innovative rookie
to battle hardened inspector over the course of two seasons. But this finale proves that, against all
odds, she truly is incorruptible. No
matter how bad her life gets or how much hell she sees: people being burned
alive, the loss of a family member, even dealing with the darkest soul she’s
ever encountered…her Psycho Pass still stays low and cool. Truth be told, im not sure if I wanted to see
more of a rageful reaction when she found out her Grandmother had been
abducted, and later killed. As it stand
though, what was done with it was fine and one of the few notable positive
scenes in the dismal latter half of this season. Plus it got us another visit from Mental
Kogame, God I would’ve loved to have seen Real Kogame show up and kick Togane’s
ass.
Besides Akane and a few scant moments of awesomeness from
the bulk of Division One, including the return of Soga and his make up with
Gino over a past incident, the rest of this finale was a mess. Sybil somehow let one of its brains run the
show when it should have realized Toganes mom was so far off the deep end that
she’d kill their investment in Akane just to settle an old score and protect
the Togane Empire she left behind.
Kirito Kamui failed to be anything close to a memorable villain, or
memorable beyond his bizzare origin story.
Even Togane wasn’t given the best send off possible, and I think he had
the biggest potential of all the new characters introduced. His calm and professional demeanor hiding a
sadist who loved nothing more than to discretley cloud the hue of others would
have made him a good candidate for a season long villain. However, he ended up devolving into an emotional
baby with long standing mommy issues, which was no less highlighted when he ran
away crying cause he couldn’t corrupt Akane like he did so many others in the
end. Sybil purging Momma Togane and a
few select others to better perfect itself could be a whole other discussion
that could make my head spin. Let’s just
say I still and never will believe in the system…but it was better portrayed in
Season One…just like everything else this season.
And what of this seasons major point of anguish: Mika
Shimotsuki? Well she’s shown the Sybil
systems true identity and claps and cheers cause she’s freaking out and still
such a tool. She keeps trying to tell
herself she’s blameless despite her inadvertedly lending a hand in the death of
Akane’s grandmother. And she still
believes she can be in charge one day and just let everything that happen slide
as if it was just a really bad dream. I
swear, if I didn’t need the brains cells to try and make sense of this overall
arc as a whole, then everytime Shimotsuki appeared on screen, I’d start
slamming my head into a desk. You know
how she could have been saved? If they
had committed to making her Togane’s disciple of sorts due to her clear disgust
and jealousy with Akane, she could have at least had a more focused role, and
would’ve given support to her and Togane being the Anti Akane and Kogame team
up. However, that will likely never
happen, even if a possible third season picks up where Season Two and The Movie
leave off. It has been a very long time
since any Anime character has gotten me this riled up. I could even quote Supernatural: The Abridged
Anime, “It’s amazing ive hated you completely since weve met and you’re STILL
losing points.”
I can see now why everyone was saying that you didn’t
have to watch Psycho Pass 2 before seeing Psycho Pass: The Movie. The only reason you might need to check it
out briefly is to know why Shimotsuki, Hinakawa and Soga are on Akane’s team at
the beginning of the flick. This season
ends up being such a huge trainwreck it nearly sullies the name Psycho Pass in
the process. The mystery devolves into
bad scifi from a totally different show.
The messages and themes from the first season are jettisoned for
something a lot less profound, almost like they just started to throw darts at
a board and see what would stick. As bad
as all of that was, Mika Shimotsuki’s continued presence almost atom bombed the
whole thing…cause she’s just…ugh, the worst.
There were bits of saving grace here and there, mostly in the first half
with the start of the Kamui Case and the introduction of the new players. Akane had a really good team that went mostly
underutilized cause Shimotsuki didn’t want anyone getting more attention than
her. Hinakawa’s shyness and potential
made him a surprise good fit for the unit and he played well with Yayoi and
Kiranamori. Soga could have had some
really good moments considering his history with Gino but he was taken out for
most of the season. Ginoza continued to grow but we rarely ever saw that happen
on screen, hell I wanted more time with him and Akane considering all they’ve
been through (why wasn’t he consoling her after she found out about her
Grandmother?). It’s true that Psycho
Pass 2 had some big shoes to fill but it tried to outgrow them quickly to make
its own mark on the world…and boy did it, just not the kind of mark people are
going to look back on with fondness.
If we were going by Sibyl rules on this one, Season One
should be preserved for the Think Tank.
Season Two…target for lethal elimination. Final Score for Psycho Pass 2 is a 4.5/10. And that, ladies and gents, closes out
2018. Expect a new “Welcome to the
Gundam Anime Corner” feature tomorrow and get come back next week as we kick of
2019 with Slayers Next…yeah next
years gonna be “The Year of The Slayers”, stay tuned for more. See ya in 2019 everyone.
No comments:
Post a Comment