Take A Pick Tuesday - Psycho Pass

                Take A Pick Tuesday: Psycho-Pass

 

 

 

You ever get a little paranoid, who doesn’t these days, a little paranoia is good for the soul but if you’re clutching George Orwell’s 1982 in your hand then you might want to watch something potent, plausible and fantastically done. Of course I’m speaking of Psycho-Pass which raged through like a beast, drawing in leagues of fans watching it, myself included managing to win over critics for the most part. In a future Japan there lies the Sibil System in which police arrest, investigate and hunt down cases with high psycho-passes, something measured by devices that allow them to read how much stress you’re under, the type of frame of mind you’re in and could make you a dangerous criminal that must be arrested or even killed. Along with the investigators there are those that are used like hunting dogs called Enforcers, people who had been arrested with high psycho passes that agreed to help the police, provided they know that those they assist have the ability to kill, injure or call them back if they choose so.

 

     We enter with Akane Tsunemori who is new to the force and quickly finds how her judgment of individuals bangs heads with both the way these forced hunting dogs may pursue a criminal as well as the Sibil system. Including the judgment of one of the Enforcers Shinya Kogami or as I like to call him, Kogi for short, which was ironic considering her interest would lie with him the most. Kogi has keen institution which starts to make you wonder immediately about his past, especially once they start to deal with strange cases of killers and strange cases involving psycho pass readings.  Could it be that she may find her way of thinking is understood by Kogi, if so than what is it he knows as certain cases begin to connect and what great secrets may lie underneath once this is pursued. In this world it’s debatable if people are truly free or not, technology is certainly a believable couple of leaps from ours.

      Every necessity advanced is something that can be seen a plausible leap for us, such as being able to change the design of the house by a simple touch from a hologram screen, to the outfits worn, and communications taking and yet another interactive step forward. This technology would also come along in her cases as well, with the dominators that allow the proper police in her unit to measure the crime coefficient of suspects and take necessary action. Whether to set to injure or stun or kill, the dominators are these elaborately designed guns, large that pack a mighty punch, we’re talking when set to kill bodies ending up in pieces. Of course it has to be authorized as well even so though the weapon itself is built in with the Sibil system so it can have its prejudices as well as its weaknesses.  Each person they look for is different, some seem more innocent than guilty and some seem exactly what they’re hunting for, the differences in these cases as well as how certain characters are connected with people with high psycho passes is one of the strong aspects of the show and one of the hardest to pull off for a show. However much of it is not as it seems. They go into interesting detail even well-educated professors with voiced opinions and musicians that do not play music according to government protocol have to live in danger for being hunted for their high psycho passes or soon to be ones, naturally there are also those that are against the system established.

 

     The show does everything right in how it gets in the mind of the main characters, as well as the criminals allowing you to feel that you’re almost in the Sibil System. One of the most interesting things to me at least it how can a person function in this sort of society, it seems the way we would consider a normal lifestyle is by living on the outside. The interesting thing is you feel you get a peek into what might be a normal life through Kana when she is with her friends, which isn’t often, she seems sort of disconnected as she becomes closer with her work but the most dangerous thing is when the lines are blurred. Akane Tsunemori of course has an interesting development of a character, not even from the beginning does she seem like a helpless character even as she’s trying to understand the world.  I love her design to, the wide eyes and sometimes the expressions on her face help to make her an interestingly designed that departs from the average main protagonist of a show and the world around her really makes her who she is as it does for all the other characters. The slickness in the animation can be attributed to the dark colors used to make the backgrounds, the city and the mood.  

There are of course the murders they investigate, almost always they are people that are living under the nose of everyone else. Who they are can be very misleading, probably one of the most brutal is a school girl who befriends and takes other female classmates as lovers and kills them turning them into sadistic works of art. Interestingly enough not long after being aired, the show would get a re edit which would change the episode count to 12 hour long episodes. When it was aired in Japan in this format, a similar murder happen in which a sixteen year old school girl had cut up her classmate which forced them not to air the episode since the people behind the show found it would inappropriate considering the similarities in the case. What’s eerie was this episode had already been aired in it’s 30 min format way before that.

 

 I wish I could say that it was giving away something by telling you that but it’s not, it’s merely the premise and details of the case. Right away you’d wonder how come people like this couldn’t be found in such a fool proof system that rules every aspect of life but even then, it’s much more complicated than that.  Kogi like Kana is a lovable character you can’t help but root for and a total badass who is serious but not emotionless, neither is he cruel and you find out why he is so similar to some of the others. While he has the tough guy look, cigarette and six pack and all there personality that lingers which makes the character so interesting shows in his design, like all the others there's no extravagant hairdo, dark hair slightly spiked, dressed like an inspector even if he is an enforcer just begging to see what lies under the surface. This along with his growing concern for Akane and his kick ass fighting style make him more than an effort to be cool instead they make Kogi the definition of cool. There whole group are likable but you may find frustration in the first season with their head, that seems to go against offer of insight into an investigation, he follows the book as firm as he does because often it is the investigators that are victims of the system just as much as everyone else but it becomes clear that even that is not a guarantee.

     The apparent questions and flaws with the society might be the very threat that could be looming behind everything they’re investigating. Psycho-Pass puts everything under the microscope and they know how to do it well, clearly inspired by certain films with similar themes and another thought provoking future dystopian type story Ghost In The Shell, it manages to not only be inspired but also do something unique and individual to itself in a series.

 

      Psycho-Pass know it has to examine the obvious, a perfect world as a solution that is as dangerous as a flawed one but they manged to take it further than that, using the concept as merely a building block as they explore human nature. Look at the people in this sibil system world and what you see is people that are victims waiting to happen, why you might ask well it is because no one is supposed to have anything to fear in this society. How would they know what a threat is until it was too late, sure fear can play on some awful things but being aware of danger and the darkness that hides behind people is  something anyone should caution to do in public. It’s common sense to us which is not in that world, one that has left much to be obsolete in many ways, the police in the many ways that an investigation would need to have been carried out, in all the things that make our society what it is, as well as for those that are out of place. If there are no place for certain ones how could the system control them?

    Psycho Pass asks these questions, the results can be horrifying at times as often as they could be enlightening on what builds the concept of dystopian futures and the value of what we keep in our minds for none to see, an impossible thing in many ways in this world. Why and how do we accept this and when do we start to question is, isn’t humanity’s existence always to question? Every culture in the world has a different way in how they react to things emotionally, what are acceptable reactions, what would be out of place and uncalled for and yet could any culture really live desensitized instead be arrested or allowed to be killed, just because it’s a necessary evil. Those are enough reasons to love the show but you have so many others, the characters, chemistry, connections and complexities, the animation is so slick looking, without it sounding strange the show maintains this sense of sexiness in the way everything is designed, backgrounds included, they also have spectacular animation sequences for the openings and endings credits of the show. If there was a need for incentive to watch the show it’s a very available show with the seasons available on multiple digital outlets, both  being distributed by Funimation and the movie having just been released in January.  Psycho –Pass is an addictive watch filled with questions and answers and the very thought of what they mean, it’ll leave you questioning and entertainment  reaching new highs of what you can enjoy from a series. If you're anything like me you'll enjoy it enough to find you are unfit to fit into a Sibil system run country.