Psycho Pass 3. Man
has this one been a long time coming. I
reviewed the first two seasons back in 2018 as part of the Gundam Anime Corners
Fifth Season. Like the general
consensus, I think the First Season is a work of art with one of the best
finales ive ever seen in an Anime.
Season Two was so embarrassingly bad I’m surprised it was fully approved
at all by the studio with a terrible retread of a familiar case and one of the
most infuriatingly frustrating characters in all of Anime in the form of Mika
Shimotsuki. Sure Psycho Pass: The Movie
worked to redeem some of Season Two’s faults by putting the main story back on
Kogame and Akane but still left things without a clear direction of where
Psycho Pass was going. Well after an
anthology film trilogy, Sinners of the System, Psycho Pass returns to TV with
the long awaited Third Season. Is it
already better than Psycho Pass 2? Yes
it is but I don’t think it’s quite up to the gold standard set by Season
One…not that it isn’t up to the task of trying.
Curiously enough, we have enough of a time skip to basically
clear the board of most of the original players. Akane is locked up for a crime big enough for
Sybil to turn its back on her (maybe?).
Shimostuki is the new Chief of the Public Safety Bureau…which should
piss anyone off at the mere thought. But
then again, with the Kase Avatar taking a backseat apparently, if Sybil was
going to have anyone running it’s puppet agency, it would be the biggest tool
of the franchise. And surprise, though
there are signs that Shimotsuki is trying to keep some promise to Akane, she’s
still an unlikeable twat. Probably one
of the best moments of the first two episodes is Arata cutting off Shimotsuki’s
transmission when she tells him to back off of a case…yeah I like him more
already.
Speaking of, Arata is a fascinating new lead. He’s happy go lucky, extremely laid back and
yet is just as brilliant a detective as Kogame or Akane. The big thing Arata brings to the table is
his “Mental Trance” skill, which allows him to dive deep into the psyche of
just about anyone, especially victims and relive certain moments of their
past. Naturally this has to come with
drawbacks. Even his partner and best
friend and co-lead Kei, knows that if Arata dives too deep, his Psycho Pass
could cloud beyond the point of no return.
We already see some side effects as Arata constantly spots some human
with a scary Wolf head gazing at him with nasty intent. It’ll be interesting to see the other shoe
drop on Arata’s abilities and if they could truly be his downfall. Btw, Arata is also Daredevil given his
parkour skills in Episode 2.
Thankfully, Psycho Pass 3 doesn’t seem to be in a hurry
to replicate the “uncatachable killer wants to find Sybil and expose it for all
its fakeness” plot and is instead focusing on seemingly unconnected murders that
are actually tied to some secret cabal playing with Japans economic state. Is it possible one of these three major
players in this ring are going to try and take control from Sybil and rule
Japan their own way? Hard to say as
Psycho Pass continues to make the villains as cryptic as possible. Let it be said now: No bad guy in this
franchise is ever going to topple Shogo Makashima and im not expecting this
trio of shadowy gamblers to do the same.
As for the cases themselves, theyre both unique in their own way. One revolves around an election race between
two Govenors (a former Pro Wrestler and a former Pop Idol…good commentary on
todays times having actors and pop idols running for important offices) and the
other around the crashing of a next generation transport drone). These aren’t just straight up grizzly murders
and it points to a new kind of way of committing murder in a world when
predicting that with Sybil has become the norm.
Unit 01 will have its work cut out for it.
What about the new cast?
Well it’s clear Psycho Pass 3 is going to play up the buddy cop routine
with Arata and Kei’s friendship. The new
Unit 01 Enforcers are more miss right now than hit, even being kept more to the
background than ever because Arata and Kei are better at their jobs than all
three of them combined. It’s good to see
Sho Hirakawa returning as the sole remaining Unit 01 leftover from Season
Two. I’m hoping to see continued growth
from him and hey, it’s always nice to see the sexiest latent criminal hacker Karanamori
again. BUT HOLY CRAP KOGAME AND GINO
WORKING TOGETHER AGAIN!!! Man I didn’t expect to see these two back so soon in
Season Three, if at all. I don’t know if
any explanation for this much needed pair up happened during the Sinners of the
System trilogy. But it doesn’t
matter. We got to see both of them
manhandle Arata and Kei’s new enforcers (Kogame both by himself at one point),
and learn that the two of them and Soga are working with the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs. Kogame is back with the
law again, Akane is in prison? WHAT THE
F*** IS GOING ON!!!??? I mean, ahem, I
hope we find out more about our favorite characters sooner rather than later. As much as I like Arata and Kei, Kogame,
Akane and Gino will always be my favorites and the show feels different in
their absence. Thankfully the two new
leads are more than capable of following in their footsteps.
One thing to note about Psycho Pass 3 is the episode
lengths. This season is only 8 episodes
long but each one is 45 minutes long, a double length episode (hence why im
only covering 2 episodes a week, much like I did with Hellsing Ultimate and
Gundam Unicorn). The first season was
rereleased this way years ago and billed as a “Directors Cut”. Having never seen that, I can only assume that
most of the two part cases were merged into singular stories. It’s intriguing that Psycho Pass 3 is trying
this too. But there are drawbacks. While both episodes end on good cliffhangers,
the structure of both episodes is…odd.
Episode Two is guilty of this more as it moves from one cases conclusion
to the beginning of another before bookmarking things. Why not just have the cases all play out in a
single episode a la most US TV Procedurals like NCIS or Criminal Minds (the
show I keep comparing to Psycho Pass frequently). Not sure if this could hurt the overall
enjoyment factor of the season. It’s
good to be back in this world again and seeing the cases diversify like they
did in Season One. Maybe the 45min run
time will be something I ignore if I like everything else.
Well, I would say things are off to a good start but I
don’t want to jinx myself either. Psycho
Pass 2 also started on a different note from Season One but devolved into a
mess by seasons end. I hold out hope
that Psycho Pass 3 wont repeat Psycho Pass 2s mistakes (even if the transitions
between cases aren’t so smooth and Shimotsuki is still around). But a cool new cast, a check in from old
friends, and some new cases to expand Sybil Society Japan all make for a good
new beginning indeed. See ya next week
for more Psycho Pass 3.
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