Psycho Pass

***Psycho-Pass*** (Japanese: サイコパス Hepburn: *Saiko Pasu*?) (stylized as ***PSYCHO-PASS***) is a

   Japanese anime television series that was produced by Production I.G, directed by Naoyoshi Shiotani and written by Gen Urobuchi. The series was aired on Fuji TV'sNoitamina programming block between October 2012 and March 2013. The story takes place in an authoritarian future dystopia, where omnipresent public sensors continuously scan the Psycho-Pass of every citizen in range. The sensors measure mental state, personality, and the probability that the citizen will commit crimes, alerting authorities when someone exceeds accepted norms. To enforce order, the officers of the Public Safety Bureau carry hand weapons called Dominators. The story follows Akane Tsunemori,Shinya Kogami, and other members of Unit One of the Public Safety Bureau's Criminal Investigation Division, and the crimes they investigate using Dominators.

*Psycho-Pass* originated from Production I.G.'s interest in making a successor to Mamoru Oshii's achievements. The series was inspired by several live-action films. Chief director Katsuyuki Motohiro aimed to explore psychological themes in society's youth using dystopian storylines. Several rules were used to focus on making the dystopia that the characters live in.

The series was licensed by Funimation in North America. A second season began airing in October 2014, with an animated film released in January 2015. A manga adaptation has been in serialization in Shueisha's *Jump Square* magazine and several novels, including an adaptation and prequels to the original story, have been published. An episodic video game adaptation called *Chimi Chara Psycho-Pass* was developed by Nitroplus Staffers in collaboration with Production I.G. New novels and another manga are due to be serialized in 2014.

## Plot

*Psycho-Pass* is set in 2113. The Sibyl System (シビュラシステム *Shibyura Shisutemu*?) is actively measuring the populace's mental states, personalities, and the probability that individuals will commit crimes, using a "cymatic scan" of the brain. The resulting assessment is called a Psycho-Pass (サイコパス *Saikopasu*?). When the probability of a person engaging in crimes measured by the Crime Coefficient (犯罪係数 *Hanzaikeisū*?) index exceeds a certain level in an individual, he or she is pursued, apprehended, and killed if necessary.

The plot focuses on Akane Tsunemori, a new Inspector of Unit One—a police unit from the Public Safety Bureau's Criminal Investigation Division. Tsunemori hunts criminals alongside a special team of so-called latent criminals called Enforcers. Inspectors and Enforcers use large handguns called "Dominators"—special weapons designed to fire only at those with a higher-than-acceptable Crime Coefficient. Akane is ashamed of shooting the Enforcer Shinya Kogami during her first mission to protect a latent criminal. Kogami thanks her for stopping him from becoming a murderer, which persuades Akane to stay. She is accompanied by veteran Inspector Nobuchika Ginoza, a strict man who looks down on Enforcers, Tomomi Masaoka, a middle-aged man who used to be a detective, Shusei Kagari, a carefree young man who has been a latent criminal ever since he was a child, and Yayoi Kunizuka, a former musician turned into a latent criminal after interacting with a terrorist. During Akane's first investigations, the group learns about the existence of Shogo Makishima, a mastermind who is responsible for multiple crimes. Being Criminally Asymptomatic (免罪体質 *Menzai Taishitsu*?), Makishima's criminal psychology yields a low Crime Coefficient, making him safe from the Sibyl System and the Dominator.

The Enforcers and Inspectors start hunting Makishima, who aims to destroy the society created by the Sibyl System. To do this he causes riots in the city to draw the police away from the Health and Welfare Ministry's Nona Tower facility, where Sibyl is located. Akane and Kogami stop Makishima's forces while Enforcer Shūsei Kagari follows one of Makishima's allies to the tower where Bureau Chief Joshu Kasei kills Makishima's ally and Kagari to keep the true form of Sibyl a secret. Kasei tells Makishima that Sibyl is a hivemind of similarly asymptomatic individuals and wishes him to join the system but Makishima escapes. Realizing the truth behind Makishima's escape, Kogami leaves the group to kill him. Akane is later directly contacted by the Sibyl system, which orders her to capture Makishima alive. She agrees to do this on the condition that they withdraw the execution order for Kogami. Learning that Makishima plans to commit bioterrorism to weaken Japan's economy and bring the system down, the Criminal Investigation Division searches for both Makishima and Kogami. There, Makishima tries killing Ginoza but Masaoka sacrifices his life to save him. Despite Akane's efforts, Kogami kills Makishima and the former's erstwhile comrades never see him again.

In season two, Akane, now the leader of a restored Unit One including rookie inspector Mika Shimotsuki, Ginoza, who is demoted to an enforcer, Yayoi and two new enforcers, Sakuya Togane and Sho Hinakawa, face a new threat in the form of Kirito Kamui, another criminal mastermind who, just like Shogo, intends to bring down the Sybil System by exploiting its flaws instead of just wreaking havoc. Skilled in avoiding all forms of detection and capable of helping his supporters to keep their Crime Coefficients low, only a very few believe that he actually exists, including Akane.