Cyber-Punk At Its Best?

When you look at anime shows/films as a whole, I think it’s arguable to state that the most popular stories/tales tend to be the ones that focus on futuristic ideas or outcomes that are set in worlds that are very stylised and revolutionary. Of course I am talking about the anime’s that are essentially Sci-Fi driven; to be more specific, the dystopian/cyberpunk ventures that almost always centre there narratives on intelligent human talking points like artificial intelligence, division of society and many more. The best examples that parade these deeply intelligent ideas in their own way would be in anime’s such as Ghost in The Shell, Neon Genesis Evangelion and Cowboy Bebop which even today, remains to be THE anime Sci-Fi/action flick to go and watch since it’s near to perfect in all standards. What is interesting to see now is how nearly every single Japanese animated Sci-Fi series/ feature you’ll see will more or less adopt these themes that Ghost in The Shell firstly used without any hesitation since it does work and can catch the eye of the viewer. However, there are only a select few anime’s that use these themes and be successful at the same time. One example that does this near to no fault is Psycho-Pass. While you can look at Psycho-Pass and say that ‘it’s just another generic Sci-Fi flick that borrows these societal and psychological themes’, it’s very much a series that for that majority of it’s episodes, deconstructs these ideologies into something that feels and looks very original. The writing/structure of this series allows its own story to flesh out these ideas and go into great depth on these theories like society and whether a world, like Psycho-Pass where society is essentially run by machines, is a benefit or a downfall. Furthermore, with Psycho-Pass having enough time to build up the narrative, the world and the themes, it also has time to build up the characters and how they tackle these futuristic concepts. 

Psycho-Pass is set in the year of 2113 where In this revolutionised version of Japan, a breakthrough has been made in technology that can accurately determine any person’s mental state, there inclinations and there aptitudes leading to a society where your employment is determined by complex algorithms that decide what job would suit you best for the betterment of society. This system, known as the Sibyl system, is also very good at determining various likelihoods that you would ever commit a crime. This is where the Ministry of Welfare’s Public Safety Bureau (MW PSB) come into play. Armed with the sophisticated weapons known as Dominators, Inspectors  of the MW PSB have the ability to directly connect with the Sibyl system to determine its judgement of any specific individuals. Sibyl’s algorithm’s determine the individual psychological data or Psycho-Pass and are assigned a number; have a high number and the inspectors can paralyze you and bring you in for ‘recovery’. If your Psycho-Pass is too high however, you will be executed on the spot. In this world where criminals are either executed or removed from public eye, the story’s main plot line really begins when it focuses on this possibility of some criminals being able to bypass the system in some way. The series focuses its plot around Akane Tsunemori, a 21 year old newly assigned female inspector who over the course of the many episodes goes from being incredibly uncomfortable at her inspector role, to someone who is respected by her fellow colleagues due to her own calm demeanour, brains to fight against conflicts/criminals and a headstrong mind when it comes to justice. Alongside Akane, there is also the Enforcer Shinya Kogami who although was previously removed as a promising inspector due to his involvement with a case which caused his Crime Coefficient to rapidly increase to abnormal levels, he does manage to help Akane improve as an inspector. Along with the other members of MW PSB’s Unit 1 which includes the characters of Nobuchika Ginoza, Tomomi Masaoka, Shusei Kagari and Yayoi Kunizuka, Akane and Kogami are eventually faced up against Shogo Makishima; a charismatic, literal individual who masterminds his way in constructed several murder cases and aims to destroy society along with the Sibyl system. Although along the way, Akane, Kogami and the rest of Unit 1 get closer and closer in capturing Makishima, a shroud of mystery slowly creeps forward as the truth surrounding the the Sibyl system becomes much clearer…

As with most T.V shows and some anime series that are successful, one of the key ingredients that a successful series has to adopt in order to get the story to make sense, is the introduction of the first few episodes and the structure that follow it up all the way to the very end. The start of the series is always important as it’s essential to set up your main characters, the setting and how the narrative is going to go down. With Gen Urobuchi’s writing in Psycho-Pass, all of this is done near to perfectly. The first few episodes are really good in setting up this high-tech, dystopian world; telling you as the viewer, the ins and outs  of the world and then later proceeds to rip up that world from it’s roots when the real story of Psycho-Pass begins near the half-way point. With Psycho-Pass having a somewhat elongated introduction setting up the key points of characterisation, the setting and the story, what I like about the first of half of this series is how it smartly deconstructs the main thematic talking points. Don’t get me wrong however, it’s not like when you’re watching Psycho-Pass that you’re looking at the unwritten laws of the genre anything and really, in the fictional bubble where the story takes place, whatever the writer says goes and we as the audience have to acknowledge that. However, the manner in which Psycho-Pass explores these highly-talked themes is very difficult to do, and that’s why I enjoyed it so much because a lot of effort has to be placed in beginning rather than later so that not only is the story interesting so that you watch it, but it also has to be fleshed out to a great degree. By Psycho-Pass doing this, it does rather cleverly spark a shroud of unexpected mystery which makes you question things about this series like the legal system being infallible and the fact that this system is entirely being monitored by computers that determine the worth of any given citizen based complicated calculations that the average person need not to worry?… suspicious indeed. Yet despite this, Psycho-Pass has a little bit of a tendency to go beyond the call of duty. What I’m referring to in this instance is how in the later stage of the series, the narrative plays out as some sort of futuristic bad-ass version of Sherlock Holmes, which isn’t a bad thing. In fact if you think about Psycho-Pass being Sci-Fi version of the Sherlock Holmes stories, you will enjoy watching this show even more as constantly throughout this series, Psycho-Pass has a knack for contrasting old values and old book tales like Gulliver’s Travels, with the ideals that society has in this futuristic setting.

So as mentioned briefly in the brief synopsis early on this review, our primary characters that shape the way the story goes in Psycho-Pass are Akane Tsunemori and Shinya Kogami. Again as mentioned just in the previous paragraph, the opening episodes to this series do help deconstruct a lot of key elements. One of those elements is the characterisation and how the characters progress as individuals and how they shape the story. The specific character in which this applies to most certainly is the character of Akane as she is someone that changes for the better every time she appears on screen. Akane is an inspector, fresh on the job with little knowledge on how the MW PSB does it’s job. While at first she appears to be shy, naive and sceptical of being a inspector of the MW PSB and the skills that she has at her disposal, Akane more or less grows into the job required of her and becomes much more when she’s partnered up with the rough-and-tough Kogami. What is pleasing to see of a character like Akane is how she doesn’t fall into the typical femme fatale type of womaniser that most female characters turn out to be in any anime series you might watch. For sure, Akane’s ‘bad-assery’ comes in the form of her intelligence and later her headstrong will to do the right thing in the name of justice which is all thanks to Kogami’s teachings, experience and strength. Unlike most female characters as well, Akane is someone that I think people can relate to in the sense that she is someone that is flamboyant with her looks and does the radical option like other femme fatale characters. Akane with every problem she faces in this series, handles these issues in a realistic yet methodical manner which in return for us, the viewer, gain the info we need due to her persistence and character as a whole. I think her overall change is a refreshing sight to see. Shinya Kogami is an Enforcer after being labeled as a blatant criminal by the Sibyl system, he becomes nothing more than a watchdog for the police. There is much to say regarding his overall effect as a meaningful character other than that for one, he is the Sherlock Holmes of this series in that he spots clues that others oversee and goes toe-to-toe with the villain of the asymptomatic Makishima in book intellect and hand-to-hand combat. The other interesting thing to note about Kogami is his relationship and chemistry with Akane; in particular, the different worldviews and other contrasts that these two characters have between them which essentially becomes one of the driving forces of the show. They both have their own ideology on how justice should be managed whilst working together on occasion to crack a criminal case. If I mentioned Kogami being the ‘Sherlock Holmes’ of Psycho-Pass, then it has to be said that the villain of Makishima has to adopt this Moriarty role; a person who likes to create anarchy simply because he thinks the system is corrupt and wrong and that everyone should have free-will which if you think about what he does say, he does have a point. One is so likeable about his story arc is how complex of a villain he goes and out to be. His references to literal tales like Gulliver’s Travels, George Orwell’s ‘1984’  and many other Shakespeare excerpts (especially from ‘Titus Andronicus’), do make him appear to be both uncommon in charisma and a true gift in constructing a ‘narrative’. The only disappointing that let the characterisation down in Psycho-Pass is the development of the secondary characters. Sure we do get a little bit of backstory from each secondary character, but the backstory itself doesn’t get me attached to those characters like what Akane and Kogami did. With Psycho-Pass adopting a world that has a lot of mystery and themes which tackle the essence of society, I think it would have been fascinating to know more about the other character’s backstory and how they connect with this ambitious idea of a universe. 

Now since Psycho-Pass is your typical dystopian anime, it does as a matter of fact contain a lot of different themes which originally came from other anime’s in the past, notably in works like Ghost in the Shell and Akira. I could if I wanted to talk about all the different interesting themes that Psycho-Pass upholds. But unfortunately I would be here all day going on and on. Not to mention, I have already gone into great lengths with the marvellous characterisation of this show, so to write up an even longer paragraph talking about the themes and references, it would take an age. But, what I will do is brief you on what to expect from this show in terms of what themes they flesh out. The obvious motifs to take out from Psycho-Pass are the psychological themes; more specifically, the importance of living without stress and this idea about expression of freedom since this is a world which banishes free will and introduces a system which is all monitored by machines. The most noteworthy thing to mention that Psycho-Pass does do constantly throughout the various episodes, is this urgency to reference quotes from different books. Ranging from the likes of Shakespeare, George Orwell and Joseph Conrad, many of the quotes reside from tales that are about freewill, Artificial Intelligence, independence and restriction in the face of hardships.

The general look of the show in terms of it’s animation is fairly generic and simple though there are little things that seem to be a little out of place. Don’t get me wrong, there are circumstances in which Psycho-Pass can pass as something that is beautiful like when the show cuts to an establishing shot of the city-scapes which works better when the story is set in the night time. Production I.G did what they did best; they made a futuristic society look visually appealing with some minimal yet effective choreography which worked well with the radical camera movements. What was lacking however was that nothing appeared to look extraordinary compared to most anime shows out there. What is a bit of a frustration to see as well, is the use of CGI in an animation that is drawn. For the majority of the time when CGI is used in a drawn piece of work, it just doesn’t work on the fact that what you’re seeing on screen isn’t truly believable. It’s understandable on some occasions in Psycho-Pass considering that it’s set in a futuristic state and that there’s bound to be things like robots/mecha’s that are going to appear. But to use it as a gimmicky thing for a lot of the time in any  action or tense scene, then it does drag down the quality a little bit.

While the animation of Psycho-Pass may not be the best thing you’ve ever seen, one cinematic technique that I can implore is the use of sound in this series. What is really refreshing to hear in terms of the music in this series is how it doesn’t just stick to one style of a music genre or even just using traditional styles considering it’s setting and what the show wants to show off in terms of it’s themes and story etc. What Psycho-Pass does consistently throughout is that it uses the best kind of music to fit the emotion of the scene. Be that by using classical music or in some cases techno. It allows the scene to dictate the kind of music rather than having the music influence the tone of the show. Furthermore, generally for most of us, opening or ending sequence of any sort of show can be something that we gloss over and skip. For me I will always say that the shows from the 90’s, that I grew up with, will always have the best opening themes ever due to the fact that they were catchy and never got boring listening or seeing them. In the case of Psycho-Pass, it provides an opening (2 opening intro themes in fact) that generally get you pumped and addicted for the show overall. I said in my previous review of Cowboy Bebop that the opening to that will remain to be one of the best anime openings ever due to it’s musical style which fitted well with the shows overall outlook and had a retro opening montage which you would see in something like a Tarantino film. It’s more or less the same with this show, as it uses the right music to express the tone of the show. Plus, the animation in these opening sequences are really pleasing to the eye. In some regard, it did make me think as to why the Directors of this show never used animation from the intro, into the actual series. What is interesting to state lastly about these opening sequences is how they change your feeling of the show. With the first OP, the monochrome animation with the discontent song generally adds this feeling of melancholy and mystery as stated before. With the 2nd OP, it not only kicks-it up a notch with it’s animation covering all of the colours on the spectrum looking like something you would see from Andy Warhol, but the music of this 2nd intro which is introduced half-way through the series, adds to this feeling that you’re pumped and ready to watch the ending of this tense story.

Reviewing all that has been said, I can’t say that Psycho-Pass is a bad series to watch due to the fact that it paces its characters and story really well and with this pacing, it allows it’s own story to flesh out the themes right from the ground up which arguably were already from popular anime like Ghost in The Shell and other Sci-Fi Japanese animated films/series. The way in which the characters assert themselves from each other really is something that you don’t normally see that often and is really refreshing to watch especially since it features a character like Akane who doesn’t play out to be your stereotypical female bad-ass. After watching the first series in English Dub on Netflix, I did however get this sense that Psycho-Pass could have offered more. You do get this feeling throughout that there is potential to make this series stand out from the crowd with the fact that the secondary characters weren’t entities that I connected with and being that it it’s set in a revolutionary setting, you would think the animation would explode, but it doesn’t. Ultimately, it feels like a preview, rather than the real thing. Of course there is a 2nd season of Psycho-Pass so the potential to improve is there. The question remains however, will Psycho-Pass 2 go on to resolve these bland issues and ultimately stand out from the crowd?… we shall see.

With that note it’s time to end this review. As always, thank you to everyone who has enjoyed reading my latest anime review. Of course, if you have an opinion that you would like to share regarding this show, feel free to comment down below. Just a quick note before I sign off. This week I should have another Post to put up which will be coming out later on this week. As far as reviewing purposes however, there won’t be a review to put up next week unfortunately as I’ll be working on a special Post which will be a sort of update as to changes to my Blog since I am going to Uni and there will be some changes that I’ll be making. It’s nothing to worry about as I will always be on this Blog Post until I die or whatever. that Blog Post will come out around 2 weeks from now so be sure catch up on that if you’re a regular reader here. That’s about it guys, again, thank you for reading, it makes me happy when people enjoy my reviews or other Posts. I’ll see you all later on this week. Take Care!! 🙂

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ – Alex Rabbitte