Psycho Pass

**Psycho Pass** is a action, drama, psychological, science fiction, cyberpunk, mystery anime series written by Gen

   Urobuchi, directed by Naoyoshi Shiotani and Katsuyuki Motohiro, musically composed by Yugo Kano, and produced by Koji Yamamoto, George Wada, Kenji Tobori, Wakana Okamura, and Production I.G.  It began airing on October 12, 2012 and concluded airing March 22, 2013, with a total of 22 episodes.

## Plot

The series starts with Shinya Kogami, an Enforcer under Akane's watch during her first mission. Akane Tsunemori is a new police Inspector at Unit One of the Public Safety Bureau's Criminal Investigation Division. Akane is ashamed of shooting Kogami under her watch during her first mission when she judges him a threat to an apprehended criminal's life. Kogami thanks her for intervening in what could've been a murder, which influences Akane to stay. She is accompanied by veteran Inspector Nobuchika Ginoza, a strict man who looks down on Enforcers; Tomomi Masaoka, a middle-aged Enforcer who used to be a detective; Shusei Kagari, a carefree young man who was marked as a latent criminal in childhood; and Yayoi Kunizuka, a former musician turned into a latent criminal stemming from a relationship with a terrorist. Over the course of Akane's early investigations, the group uncovers the works of Shogo Makishima, a prolific criminal mastermind. Makishima is a Criminally Asymptomatic (免罪体質 *Menzai Taishitsu*) – he is persistently assessed as having a low crime coefficient by the Sybil System in spite of his actions and plans, thus protecting him from Dominator shots.

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 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.

## Why It Rocks

1. Georgous animation during the most pivital moments in the series, which include moments that have lots of drama and action, or when characters are being brutally murdered by dominators.
2. Very appealing art style which perfectly brings to mind a cyberpunk aesthetic, especially the background art.
3. Incredibly interesting and creative concepts regarding not only the technology but also the themes in the story.
4. Being written by Gen Urobuchi, Psycho Pass has lots of the trademarks which has made him a famous writer, which includes being incredibly dark in tone, (and visually dark too, for that matter), and putting many of his characters through unthinkable suffering.
5. Great, intersting, complex characters.
6. Good music.
7. While Akane Tsunemori is kind of a bland, boring, and uninteresting character, she does have one of the most unique moments in this series, which is where she decides to not abolish the Sibyl System, but instead to make it better and fix it's flaws.
8. SHINYA KOGAMI!
9. Shogo Makishima is one of the best villains in all of anime.
10. One of the most unique concepts for a Science Fiction anime, in a genre where most of it has to do with time travel or artificial intelligence.

## Bad Qualities

1. The main character, Akane Tsunemori, is kind of bland, boring, and one dimensional, and clearly only exists to be an audience surrogate.
2. Despite running for 22 episodes, and being amazing, Psycho Pass didn't live up to the entirety of it's poential.  There's plenty more ideas that could be explored with the world, the technology, and the themes, Shinya Kogami is on the run, (one of the best characters in the series), and Akane's journey to alter the Sibyl System and make it better.

## Reception

Fuji TV producer Akitoshi Mori said *Psycho-Pass* was the first work under his control. Early screenings of the series at the Noitamina Shop & Café attracted few viewers, which bothered Mori. However, as the series continued, the quantity of viewers increased. By the final episode, over 1,000 people had queued to watch the finale even though the venue could only accommodate seventy people. This made Mori happy because he realized how many fans were following and supporting the show; he wanted to see a bigger audience at future screenings.[34] DVDs and Blu-ray discs of the series achieved good sales.[61][62] In April 2014, the series was nominated for the Seiun Award.[63] In the *Newtype* anime awards from 2013, it was voted as fourth best title of the year.[64] Episode 11 of the series was awarded "Best Episode" in the Noitamina 10th anniversary fan vote. Shinya Kogami, Akane Tsunemori and Shogo Makishima also appeared in such polls as winners of their own categories.[65] Anime News Network also listed as the fifth most accessible anime series for people who have not watched Japanese animation.[66]

The first season has garnered critical acclaim.[67] Rebecca Silverman from Anime News Network praised the show for its "high level of interest" in depicting its dystopian world. However, she said that its violent scenes were so gruesome they might scare viewers.[22][68] Kotaku's Richard Eisenbeis called it a "compelling cyberpunk mystery", praising the society depicted and the series of murders orchestrated by Shogo Makishima. However, he criticized the use of advanced technology and compared it with other science fiction films despite saying that it handled the themes better whereas Makishima's immunity to it was left unexplained.[1] DVD Talk gave high praise to Makishima because of his achievements across the story and his personality.[69] Certain episodes have been referred as "filler" because they are used as a build-up to the climactic ones.[22][70] Bamboo Dong of Anime News Network gave high praise stating that from episode 12, the series was "a real blast to watch" and that she was glad with the development of the protagonist, Akane Tsunemori. However, she severely criticized the plot twist regarding the Sybil System's true identity calling it "one of the stupidest revelations in the history of anime".[71]

Thomas Zoth from The Fandom Post praised the show's focus on the relationships between the protagonists and the development from these. Akane's growth across the series earned major praise by multiple reviewers.[72][73] Zoth enjoyed the series' climactic action scenes between Kogami and Makishima, and the scenes portraying the status quo. He said the sixteenth episode is "Urobuchi's masterpiece."[74][75] Silverman commented on the parallelism between Akane's and Kogami's development, which resulted in an ambiguous ending that should be decided by the viewers.[68] The supporting cast received similar praise by DVD Talk but the reviewer said some were underwhelming and Shion is the least-explored character.[76]

During the streaming of the series, Silverman criticized the animation because of the low lighting levels that might make it hard to understand.[22][68] Hiroko Yamamura from Japanator noted the series' high budget and praised the animation style and the focus on details and technology. She was attracted by its premise and expected the quality to remain consistent across the entire series.[77] Similarly, Jacob Hope Chapman from ANN praised the animation for its high quality.[5] Episode 18, which is known for its flawed animation, was improved for the home media release of the series.[71]

Feedback to *Psycho-Pass 2* has ranged from mixed to negative. Dan Rhodes from UK Anime Network noted that *Psycho-Pass 2*, while entertaining, lacked the twists of the first season and appeal of Gen Urobuchi's writing.[78] Richard Eisenbeis from Kotaku praised the origins of the Sybil System which was unexplained in the first season. While also praising the differences between Akane and the new Inspector, Mika Shimotsuki, Eisenbeis criticized the new antagonist and how much gorier the series was in contrast to the first one.[79] Nick Creamer from Anime News Network was more negative during his review as he felt the new writer, Tow Ubukata, did not make the anime appealing despite his previous enjoyable works. He went on to say "overall, Psycho-Pass 2 stands as one of the most disappointing works I've ever watched to completion," citing it a failure as both a sequel and an independent series.