Psycho Pass Review

Psycho Pass
Genre: drama, sci-fi, crime, action
Format: 22 episodes (22min)

Psycho Pass is a crime drama set in the future, where a person's psychological state is constantly monitored to determine their mental stability.

A person who is deemed unstable, is apprehended and placed in a psychiatric treatment centre. Some people are tagged as latent criminals. This means that even though they have not committed a crime, their psychological state has been determined to be unstable and are treated almost as poorly as real criminals.

I love the grungier parts of the city.

Law enforcement is carried out by Inspectors and Enforcers, who wield special guns called

Dominators. Enforcer's themselves are already latent criminals and Inspectors are authorised to

detain them if they cause trouble. The rational for this is to prevent contamination of the Inspector's

mental state by becoming too involved in the crime. The Dominators evaluate the victims mental state and determine how much force (if any) is allowed to be used. A person with a high crime coefficient can be killed on the spot while a lower value will only authorise a non-lethal stun from the weapon.

The overall system used for the analysis of a person's mental state is known as the Sibyl System. It goes beyond crime control, it also determines a person's future by calculating what proficiencies they have and recommends their career path. It could also identify a 4 year old child as a future criminal and end all his aspirations immediately. 

Despite this somewhat Orwellian state, things are relatively peaceful and safe. How could you be afraid of anyone if you know that they are being monitored throughout the city? The anime does actually mention Orwell as well as other renowned authors such as Philip K. Dick and William Gibson. In early episodes, it's easy to see that the city took some influence from movies like Blade Runner as well as works by the above mentioned authors. In addition to that, many other authors and philosophers have their literature and ideas worked into the plot. These include Max Weber, Blaise Pascal, Michel Foucault and many more. It's more a case of the story being inspired by their concepts rather than focusing specifically on any one of them and in some cases it feels just a bit like name dropping but it is appreciated nonetheless.

The show follows the efforts of the police and the crimes they work on. These crimes set the tone for the series and give insight into this unique world, the people who inhabit it and their motivations.

There are many different arcs in the series which focus on separate cases. Many of these are linked to the main plotline and in addition to that provide a deeper look into this false Utopia.

Kougami with Tsunemori: being a smartass but also probably being correct.

The primary characters are a duo consisting of inspector Tsunemori Akane and enforcer Kougami Shinya. They are almost complete opposites. Tsunemori chooses to become an Inspector despite having the aptitude to take on any other job. She has a strong sense of justice and believes in upholding the law according to the Sibyl System and the regulations it dictates. Kougami is more emotional and uses old fashioned detective reasoning and gut feel to approach crimes in a way the others can't. 

Psycho Pass is a thought provoking, suspenseful anime with good pacing and a solid plot. It proposes a world which could be seen as Utopia but at the expense of losing what it means to be human and all the good and bad that comes with it. Psycho pass is well written, intelligently executed and highly entertaining. It is well worth watching.