DESCRIPTION

CAST

ANIME ActionPSYCHO-PASS 2
MUSIC FantasyAll Alone With You
MANGA ActionKanshikan Tsunemori Akane
NOVEL ActionPSYCHO-PASS
MANGA ComedyGakuen Psycho-Pass
NOVEL ActionPSYCHO-PASS 0: Namae no Nai Kaibutsu

REVIEWS

• 

  Lasagna

  96/100
  High suspense, amazing execution, fantastic ending. Overall Amazing anime!

  This is a futuristic anime that is based around a System called "SYBIL" that is the sole authoritative body in the city. Scanners are set up in order to measure one's "Psycho Pass" which determines how much of a "criminal" you are. The anime's main characters are a division in the police squad that deals with these "criminals."

  The anime is based around this system. Those who want to save it... Those who want to destroy it... Those who want to find out the truth about it... This mysterious thriller is honestly an amazing masterpiece of art. There are so many elements that make this anime amazing. From the ideas, to the execution, to the truth behind it all, every piece of this anime leaves you wanting more. Everything is executed greatly, even though there were sometimes that things may have seemed confusing, in the end it all makes sense, and doesn't leave you questioning anything (well maybe a few questions, but it ended well).

  I am a guy who NEEDS long anime. If it's not at least 50 or so + eps I'm not really into it. This anime, of 26 or so eps really left me thinking "I would be happy if this was it...." That's how satisfied I was by this anime. However, a second season is out, and it was great too, but the first part was definitely the best!

  This anime also had a lot of unique aspects. The entire idea is genius, and the execution of the idea was very well done, and very well thought out. It also makes you think what if this is how we lived? It really draws you in with how it's all set up, and how the lives of the people are controlled by this system. The main character was decently-unique and the progression was interesting with her, especially with her confrontations with the enemy.

  I highly recommend this anime, it's definitely one of the best anime that I've seen and definitely one of the better anime out there.

  There is a lot I can say, but I don't want to spoil this for people. However if you like technology, futuristic shows, sci-fi, suspense, thrillers, and action this is your anime. It's so unique, and so well done i cannot put into words about it. Just watch :)

  Let me know if there is any questions about this review.

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• 

  TK8878

  65/100
  A decent watch if you're willing to trade characterization for theming & discourse.

  

  Spoiler-free review

  Review in brief:

  Psycho-Pass is dark, brooding, and surprisingly slow in its first season. It presents the viewer with a lot to reflect on both during and after each episode, making it a fine show to discuss in a group, but it sacrifices the quality of its story & characters to do so. Combined with its questionable pacing & direction, Psycho-Pass is difficult to recommend, especially if you want action, novelty, or a memorable story.

  Review in full:

  Is Psycho-Pass for you? For all that it is and does, you need to know what Psycho-Pass isn't to figure that out. Don't watch this if you want lots of action, substantial character growth, any sort of novelty, or an intense thrill-ride. Aside from the infrequent action scenes (which are mainly just the climaxes for each scenario) Psycho-Pass never so much as intends to possess any of those traits. Instead its primary goal is to be a dystopian sci-fi crime drama that takes plenty of time to analyze the nature of criminals, stress, and emotional (in)stability within a society that's set up to eliminate these things before they even exist (via the Sibyl system) and what that means for said society. If you're still interested, know that while this ride does reach its destination, its creators missed many of the aspects that would have made it a memorable experience. It’s better explained with some mind to the order each point became apparent in, so this review will mix the good and the bad.

  _Not a spoiler, just potentially unsettling._ _This anime can get quite gory by the way. Something else to consider before jumping in._

  Despite what I’ve said, the first episode could easily fool you into thinking this is set to become a fast-paced action-thriller. It utilizes one of its simpler yet darker crime cases as a means to introduce the main characters and the Sibyl system, which their jobs and lives revolve around. It also flaunts its visual design with plenty of action and gore (more than a typical case in the season does anyhow). After that first case, much more time is devoted towards piecing together why the criminals do what they do (mainly as a reflection of the Sibyl system and the society it has created). Much of this is initially done through the investigation of many “smaller” criminals whose cases get about two episodes each, though there are also a few episodes that focus on members of the investigation team instead. Eventually this leads to an overarching conflict with the main antagonist that spans multiple cases.

  This brings up one of the more questionable decisions made in Psycho Pass’ production: for all of the character driven plotlines, flashbacks, and monologues, there is little in the way of character development or even definition for much of the cast. Most of the characters remain the same throughout the show, and some hardly display any sort of character during segments focusing on them. Instead, it's nearly all used to flesh out the setting (Sibyl's society) or present a dilemma/topic regarding the scenario the characters are in for the audience to ponder over. This is alright for many of the criminals, as their dilemmas (the crimes they're committing) often say enough about their characters anyhow, but the recurring characters suffer for it. For instance, the enforcer Yayoi has an entire episode revolving around her backstory, and all we learn about her is that she's an ex-musician who developed a taste for music Sibyl disapproves of. Learning that Sibyl holds such strict regulations over artistry helped flesh out the setting, but definitely was not something that needed over 20 minutes to explain. That information doesn't ever play into Yayoi's role either, it's just background fluff and renders her as little more than background fluff to the story.

  As such, Psycho-Pass' generally slow pace isn't the product of a show that seeks to provoke thought or build a mystery around its setting, despite the fact that it does those things. It is instead caused by its insistence to indirectly present itself from the perspective of oft-shallow characters, rather than directly focusing on its setting and criminal cases with the characters simply existing within the space created therein. Perhaps this inefficient method of storytelling was used to justify the awkward 22-episode runtime, which leaves some episodes & segments (including the aforementioned Yayoi episode) sticking out like infectious growths from the anime as a whole. At its worst this causes this season to skip over what would appear to be important plot details in favor of providing dialogue, leading to overcomplexity when raw exposition is inevitably needed to explain some things and even a few minor plot-holes in its conclusion (more on that later).

  _Not only does Psycho-Pass' technology show up everywhere but it's also consistently useful to the plot._

  Plain characters aside, Psycho-Pass' setting does end up well defined. A lot of information about the society built around the Sibyl System is given, but slowly and evenly, making it all easily digestible. Many details regarding everyday life in this world are briefly shown multiple times (such as the use of holograms to decorate rooms, structures, and even clothing, or the numerous cameras & checkpoints where one's Psycho Pass is checked, updated, and used to determine access rights) which goes a long way in cementing this world as its own society rather than just "Generic Sci-Fi City #43".

  Such interactions allow the few standout members of the investigation crew to display development and growth outside of dialogue as their reactions towards societal elements change over time. They also lead to later criminals leaving bigger impressions than earlier ones, as the viewer can better understand the conditions that led them to their criminal intent and more clearly see which of society's roots they've chosen to tear at. It’s likely why the main antagonist, Shougo Makishima, is remembered fondly by series fans. While his actual character is rather simple, what he does and why raises (and answers) major questions with many potential standpoints that lead to engaging dialogue both within the show and outside of it (i.e. amongst the audience).

  Speaking of discussion, Psycho-Pass loves to present moral quandaries and bits of philosophy to the viewers as bluntly as it can. While those who profess to be intellectuals may find the over-the-head delivery of famous dilemmas and quotes from literature & philosophical works dry or pretentious, the laymen won't have to worry so much about understanding what the show is trying to tell them and will have a few sources of further reading on certain plot specifics should they wish to dig deeper. This is what makes Psycho-Pass better as a group watch versus a solo experience, as the dialogue & issues presented in each situation comes prearranged for discourse between people with different levels of expertise or sources of reference.

  _Lots of quality wallpaper material, but wallpapers alone don't make an animation._

  Whether the characters are having a philosophical discourse or gorily killing each other, the visual artistry is of decent quality, but for a strange reason. With a clear & clean style befitting a sci-fi nation’s attempt at utopia chained to the basic expectations for Japanese animation (and rarely more) this anime can provide good wallpapers and some visually engaging static moments but doesn’t manage to do anything out of the ordinary when in motion (except for the OPs and EDs, which have the highest production quality out of anything in this anime). Fortunately, the sound quality is consistently both excellent and fitting. The soundtrack has memorable pieces and can carry the visually unimpressive moments while the voices are distinct, clear, and match their characters. I’m convinced you could just close your eyes and listen to this anime while still understanding almost everything that’s going on.

  Earlier I said that this ride reaches its destination, but I would be remiss to say it reached a smooth stop. While the story around Shougo Makishima serves as an appreciable high point for the show (even alongside the previously mentioned issues), the final case is poorly executed in many ways. In this arc, the characters involved make numerous awkward decisions, often as though they know things they shouldn’t if the story thus far is to be believed, which makes some scenes appear forced and opens up a few plot-holes at critical plot points. At the same time many conclusions the plot reaches are disappointingly predictable, passive, and shallow, seemingly just so that the old conflicts would still exist in the sequel. This predictability also draws out the ending, reinforcing the notion that this story never needed 22 episodes to be properly told.

  Verdict:

  All in all, Psycho-Pass’ 1st season is a brooding & generally enjoyable sci-fi crime drama but it’s also thin and lethargic in certain aspects and that keeps it from being a consistently good ride, especially at the end. Still, it does a passable job of doing what it set out to do while providing a neat sampler plate of intellectual topics to reflect upon afterwards.

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• 

  KaylAguas

  90/100
  A deep and meaningful dive on societal and psychological issues.

  Review will be broken down like so :

  • Story
  • Art
  • Animation
  • Characters
  • Sound
  • Overall Enjoyment

  #__Story 9.5/10__

  Psycho-Pass is the assessment of people’s biometrics. It report’s back their Crime Coefficient it is an index for how likely one is to commit a crime. If it goes past 100 they are arrested and are deemed as “latent criminals”. So this is the future world of Japan. A system which identifies and apprehends people based on their likelihood of committing a crime despite not having done it yet. It’s quite fascist in nature; indiscriminate and merciless. We actually see the irony in the system in the form of Enforcers. They are latent criminals that work to aid Inspectors and generally do the dirty work. That’s a rough summary and setting of the world.

  I admire how they build and establish the world through the first half of the show. For the first half of the show, it feels quite episodic. The Division 1 team goes from crime to crime arresting/executing latent criminals. But it isn’t just that, for these crimes we learn they are part of a bigger threat. It allows us to fully understand the rules and nature of the world, while giving us breadcrumbs in what the overarching plot is. The show allows us to get used to the world and not just throw us to the deep end or have long expositions explaining everything.

  After that the anime dives straight through psychological and societal issues. With the Sybil system, becoming the iron fist of the law. It explores whether apprehending “criminals” who haven't committed a crime is right or wrong. The anime depicts fascism in the form of the Sybil system, simply put, the Sybil system puts in favour how it benefits the society as a whole and not the needs of an individual. The inherent outcome is a society who has lost their humanity.

  I really can’t talk much about it without spoiling it too much, but i thoroughly enjoy the concept and questions it brought to me as i watched the show. The themes of the show is enough to pull me in and is quite compelling.

  #__Art 8/10__

  Art style wise, it’s not bad it does what it needs to. It’s what most people would believe anime looks like and it works well. Nothing too special or unimmersive about it. So i’ll move on to the next point, character design and world design.

  I thought the characters were well designed and represented their characters really well. A perfect example is Kagari, he’s loud, wild and kind of energetic compared to his colleagues. So he has orange hair and hair pins that visually addresses the audience what kind of person he is. Shinya Kougami, definitely fits your run of the mill anime protagonist, relatively spiky hair, tall and good-looking. Despite looking “run of the mill” he does have an interesting design with his spiky hair and loose suit. Kinda reminds me of Spike Spiegel. The designs of the characters were quite well done but i felt that they kinda stuck to the typical look of anime. Don’t get me wrong it’s not a bad thing but it’s just very typical.

  World design had some hiccups for me. We often get these overhead visuals of the city in Japan. It looks beautiful; futuristic and dystopian looking with a dash of global warming. Simple yet effective art depicting what the future could be, as we see remnants of old buildings submerged in water alluding to the fact the polar ice caps melting/ has melted. Without going too much into detail or providing an entire exposition, the visual storytelling in these shots really add to the rich vibrant world it already is. However, I always get pulled out of my immersion when Komissa is on screen. These guys :

  

  They look completely out of place and distracts me quite a bit. I guess it’s a way for the police to look friendly to the public. It feels so out of place with how the world is designed. If i really try and read into it, i believe it may be because since it’s a dystopian future, the monotone, expression-less holograms look kinda creepy but i didn’t really like them that much.

  I really really really loved the Dominators design, it’s so cool. It’s going on my list of cool guns along with Vash’s .45 long colt, Dredd’s Lawgiver and Alucards ARMS 13mm. When it first got used, I was completely inlove with it. ESPECIALLY, when it goes execution mode, HOLY CRAP that spinny thing and firing a massive laser was so epic. I’m sorry if i sound illiterate but it's amazing.

  

  Overall, the art was great, design wise i think they did a good job but i feel like they kinda stuck to typical anime character designs.

  #__Animation 8.5/10__

  Animation is just like the art, great but nothing special. I felt that the action was underplayed at certain scenes because they cut to different angles a lot. I think this kinda disjointed the overall fluidity of the sequence, it didn’t ruin it, it just felt messy and slightly cheap of them. I felt like the cuts were done because they didn’t wanna blow their budget on less important fights. This kinda ruined the flow and motion of the fights for me, because i love me some good long takes. Not to say they didn’t do it.

  When they really try to emphasize the importance of a battle in the anime, the animation can really get good. The hand-to-hand combat in this anime was quite good, it was smooth and you felt the impact of the shots from all the characters. Just look at this (i couldn’t find a better gif but they really are quite good)

  

  I absolutely love how minimal the camera moves and when it moves from left to right it helps bring focus to what Kougami is doing against Makishima.

  A fear I had with the animation was whether they’ll fall into the “still image with moving mouth” syndrome because of how detailed everything was. But to my surprise there’s always something moving when they have long conversations between two characters. This may seem like i’m nitpicking but i feel like motion is really important even if they’re just talking, because i think it really adds to the characters who are speaking. Like what Saiga-sensei said, “People manifest all sorts of signs unconsciously”. I believe this applies for general movement in all characters. It adds depth and personality to each one of them.

  Overall the animation was pretty great with some bumps here and there but very enjoyable.

  #__Characters 9/10__

  I think the characters are exceptionally well done, most especially the antagonist and two main protagonists, Makishima, Tsunemori, and Kougami.

  So I'll begin with Tsunemori Akane. Tsunemori is a brilliantly done protagonist. For a timid, quiet and weak looking protagonist, by the end of the series we see her in a completely different light. Throughout her journey as an investigator, she grows substantially, you really see how all these experiences add up to what she ends up becoming by the end of the show. They really captured this with the final scene of the season.
  I love how it comes full circle, with how the new recruit, Mika, being in the same position as Tsunemori. What makes this a really wonderful scene is that it simply makes sense, with her saying that “Trust them, but at the same time, be cautious of them. If you underestimate them, you’ll get seriously hurt”. These two lines brilliantly sums up her experience with Kougami and adds more weight compared to when Ginoza said it at the beginning. I love her character.

  So moving on to Kougami Shinya. Another expertly done character. He comes off as a tough, seemingly timid Enforcer. In contrast to Tsunemori, Kougami’s character remains the same throughout the season and we learn how he ended up where he is at right now. I love how the two main characters are in complete contrast with one another but are expertly brought together. This creates a compelling dynamic between these two and how their relationship grows as the series progresses. The newbie and veteran dynamic really immerses me into the world. On one hand Tsunemori, like us, doesn't know anything about the world while on the other we have Kougami who’s a veteran in the field. It allows us, the viewers, to truly capture and feel what the world is like in Psycho-Pass

  So for the main villain, Makishima. Simply put, he’s a very compelling villain throughout the show. My man loves to drop references to famous authors and even referenced two of my favourites, George Orwell and Philip K. Dick. For some this may seem pretentious but for me it adds depth to his character and reasoning behind motives. I love the fact that he’s committing these heinous crimes for something that is justifiable. He has this cynical sense of freedom and what it is to be human.
  What makes him so great, is his view of Sibyl treating people like sheeps that need to be herded, and essentially wants them to live by their own will. He wants freedom for people but goes about it in a cynical manner. He manipulates, and his idea of “freedom” is more like destruction for the society that made him feel like an outcast.
  I can go on for ages about how brilliant his character is, but i’ll stop right here.

  I’ll briefly talk about the supporting cast of the CID Division 1, Ginoza, Masaoka, Yayoi, Shion and Kagari. In my opinion, Kagari and Yayoi are the weak links in the supporting cast, despite Yayoi getting her own episode about her back story. That episode also felt really out of place especially with what transpired before. She feels really unimportant despite being on the screen a lot. Kagari’s loud and all over the place but just like Yayoi, he feels unimportant and doesn’t get that much development. Yuki was a better character than the other two and she wasn’t a prominent character. For Shion, she feels important, she behaves kind of like the eyes and ears of Division 1. Ginoza and Masaoka are excellently written characters, Ginoza and his relationship and past plays a major role in the development of his own character and those around him. Masaoka is that old head that still’s alive and kicking, he feels the most down to Earth and actually has an effect between the main characters. I actually love the relationship between Ginoza and Masoaka, for the subplot. I teared up when he died to save his only son. It wasn’t very prominent but the story gives us clues and hints with the father-son relationship Masaoka and Ginoza has. It was endearing how in the end Ginoza forgave his father and accepted him

  The characters in this show were brilliant with a few shortcomings, lovable cast of characters, I grew quite fond of them at the end.

  #__Sound/Voice Acting 9.5/10__

  I’ll make this short. Abnormalize, Out of Control, All Alone with You and Namae No Nai Kaibutsu, are all in my playlist now. The songs picked for this show are absolute bangers and capture the emotion and tone of the show. I catch myself forgetting to skip the intro/ending because of how good the song is. The AMV at the beginning is also well choreographed and are a joy to watch.

  Kana Hanazawa obviously had a magnificent performance for Tsunemori. All the voices suited the characters exceptionally well and have no complaints whatsoever.

  One thing I thoroughly enjoyed in this show is the foley. This, in my opinion, is a very underappreciated art form. I watch my anime on a desktop with 2.1 surround speakers and holy crap, this is the first time I’ve seen my subwoofer fully taken advantage of. In my most anime, the foley all kind of sound the same but not Psycho-Pass. When explosions happen you hear and feel it. I’m not an audiophile but I like me some good sound and was pleasantly surprised with the foley in this anime.

  I think the OST suffered quite a bit, the OST is great but fell short. This is due to the lack of consistent usage of the soundtrack. In action sequences you can clearly hear it playing. But other times it's nowhere to be found and felt that it was a lost opportunity.

  #__Overall Thoughts 10/10 and Miscellaneous Things__

  I thoroughly enjoy the ride that Psycho-Pass has brought, from the compelling characters all the way to the themes it delves into. I find myself questioning society as well as myself throughout the anime. I love the message about stress and society
  I realized that balancing your needs and the society's needs to be more important than anything else. Being too self-involved is not healthy and you grow distant from people, being too involved in society can cause you to lose your identity and meaning on why you live. Balance in my opinion is what makes a great person, too many or too little of anything can negatively affect oneself. Too little or too much freedom has detrimental effects on people

  __Story: 9.5/10__ __Art: 8/10__ __Animation: 8.5/10__ __Characters: 9/10__ __Soundtrack: 9.5/10__ __Overall Enjoyment: 10/10 __
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