Sunday, April 07, 2013

This Too Shall Psycho-Pass.


I have to admit something. When I first started this anime, I hated it to all hell. There were so many disagreeable tropes that all rested within the naive, consistently odd-looking main character, Tsunemori Akane (Akane Tsunemori for Western style). I didn't like her; I didn't like the way she acted or moved. In fact, I liked everyone but her at first, and my dislike of her was so uncharacteristically vehement that she was actually ruining the anime for me. But for some reason, I continued on. The plot and the surrounding characters were good. By the time I got to episode 8, I had to stop for outside reasons, but when I came back, I treated this anime just like all the others I've seen.

And that's when Psycho-Pass really came through for me.


I've never has such a complete turn around like this before. I'm not saying that suddenly I'm its number one fan, and all others should bow down because I love Psycho-Pass the most. I just really appreciate the characters and the plot so much more. And yes, that includes Akane. The story sort of bounces between Kogami Shinya (WS: Shinya Kogami) and his stalwart desire to figure out a certain case. The one thing about this anime that gets to me so much that I hate endlessly is the SiByL system. Which is the creator's intent of course.

In this anime, it literally just takes one thing to increase your Crime Coefficient. If it's over 100, then you're basically in trouble for a misdemeanor. Higher than that and up to 250, you're looking into a pretty serious felony. 300+ and you're going to get blown up. And the sadder part is that emotions count as well, so if you're a victim of a kidnapping and you're distraught, the chances of your Crime Coefficient going up are 100%. It's an extremely flawed system that had me pissed from the get go.  Don't even get me started about how Hue colours are attributed to every citizen within Japan as well. Ah.

Some felons who have been incarcerated have had a chance for redemption, and are called to join the MWBSP if they have reasonable potential. Of course, the SiByL System has to judge on whether or not one has the potential to join this police force. If you haven't guessed SiByL is the end all be all, and something just isn't right with it. And if you couldn't tell, I knew it from the beginning, but even I didn't realise the horror and the truth of what was behind this god like force.

Without getting too much into spoilers and a great deal of the cases, I've to leave you in a haze of confusion. But be careful! Your confusion could cause your Hue colour to cloud which would essentially raise your Crime Coefficient. You don't want to get taken down by a Dominator, do you? Oho, there are so many things to point out. So little time.

I liked this anime. And there are still a few questions I would like answered, but that adds to the sort of mystery and unsettling nature of this series. It's a nice watch. Hopefully, your mind will be a little less radical than my own was at first. If you have some time or are interested in watching something new, give Psycho-Pass a try, and let me know your opinion on it.

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