Many years ago I enjoyed watching the dark and freaky Psycho Pass first season.

Then as the seasons went on the quality deteriorated. Now with a re-release on Bluray I was super keen to see if the first season was as good as I remembered. And now I have watched it, it sure is!

If you haven’t seen it before, Psycho Pass is dark.  It’s set in a sci-fi world where everyone’s brain is constantly being scanned. With this it can tell if people are going to commit crimes. People with too high of a score are captured by the cops. These cops are armed with special weapons called Dominators, these are guns which will only fire if aimed at someone approved by the system. They can use this to stun someone, or explode them into a mass of blood.

So yeah, it’s pretty dark.

The series follows Akane Tsunemori who is a rookie cop. Her first crime she checks out has he persuing a messed up criminal who has a hostage who he has raped. They catch up to him to take him out, but the messiness of this future becomes apparent fast. The woman he has abducted and abused has her mind starting to go because of the awful crap done to her. Perfectly innocent not long earlier, and now a potential future criminal. Our new rookie is immediately caught up in the horrifying ethical situation of what to do with her.

Told ya it’s dark didn’t I?

The series follows the series of characters in the division as they investigate crimes and go after a big baddie. What makes the series interesting is the side stories that get pursued throughout. We have all of the people the live and breathe the system, then we get baddies and how some really undermine the idea of what’s going on. Akane being our main character is interesting. She has grown up in a world without crime because of what the cops do. But being one of the people that now has to do this she faces the reality of taking people out who haven’t committed a crime yet.

The theme is really good, but Akane doesn’t get the development she deserves.

Added to this is fantastic animation and voice acting. The world has been built beautifully to create a massive futuristic city that feels interesting and gnarly. It manages to capture the feel of futuristic and dystopian in ways that look initially very clean, but then with the awful horrors they uncover and the wider horror of what the cops do it creates that jarring feeling.

Psycho Pass Season One is still an exceptional series. If you haven’t checked this one out yet, then I can’t recommend it enough. And if you don’t have it in your physical collection yet then this blu-ray is a must add!

The post Psycho Pass – Season One (Anime) Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Can a system of government truly be effective if it is unable to judge those who do not fit the norm of society?

Psycho Pass Season 2 is the sequel to the hit anime series, Psycho Pass, and is set nearly two years after the events of Season 1. This Season follows Inspector Akane Tsunemori, her junior Inspector and her new team of Enforces as the MWPSB (Public Safety Bureau) once again set out to hunt down a criminal mastermind whose aim is to bring down the Sybil System.

The Sybil System is a technologically advanced system of government that is made up of the brains of the criminally asymptomatic, those who possess no symptoms of being a criminal and who do not fathom their actions as morally wrong.  In Psycho Pass, this system pre-judges every citizen based on their ‘psycho pass’ hue, the level in which they are potentially capable to commit acts of violence and crime. This level is also referred to as the ‘crime coefficient’, and where this level is beyond the value of 300, the Sybil System orders the immediate execution of the person as a way to prevent any criminal act from occurring, in advance.

In Season 2 of Psycho Pass, Kirito Kamui is a criminal who cannot be judged by the Sybil System and goes about killing Inspectors and Enforcers as a way of judging those who the Sybil System deems to have a clear hue (i.e. a low crime coefficient), stealing their Dominators (the specialised guns that the MWPSB carry) in the process to further question the Sybil System’s judgement.

Despite Kamui being her biggest concern and priority, Akane is also dealt with two very different problems within her own team, her junior Inspector, Shimotsuki, who strongly disagrees with Akane’s methods and does everything in her power to have her superior’s authority questioned, and her Enforcer, Togane, who attaches himself to Akane and shows a great deal of interest in Akane’s hue.

Season 2 of Psycho Pass is much darker and twisted than Season 1. The psychology behind the plot is much more detailed and in depth compared to Season 1, with the reasons behind Kamui’s actions being difficult to comprehend initially. The violence he causes and inevitable executions that occur is unimaginable and cruel. The anime does well to make these violent scenes so horrific and gory that it is easy to feel sickened and mortified by Kamui’s wrongdoings. Whilst this is hard enough, what’s even worse is the nastiness of Shimotsuki and the way in which she goes about to undermine Akane’s authority. Her backstabbing and constant moaning about Akane’s outside the box thinking is irritating, but it is her treatment and superiority complex over Enforcers that had me disliking her instantly.

As for Togane, the depths of his character isn’t revealed until the last few episodes and while the character does well to try to be very much like Kougami (the Enforcer in Season 1) to Akane, he isn’t fooling anyone.

Season 2 had me questioning the Sybil System and the way in which the criminally asymptomatic are thought of as the perfect collective hub to judge citizens. Law comes about from morals and ethics, the determining factors behind what is right and wrong. How did the concept of right and wrong come about? It is my understanding that at some point in early civilisation, the concept of right and wrong would have been determined by the feelings of the majority. For example, a person would have committed an action that hurt and upset the majority of people. This would then have been depicted as an act that is wrong and goes against the peace and happiness of the majority. This action would then be forbidden and those who commit this action will be punished for hurting the majority. If the feelings of the majority are what morals are roughly built on, then those without feelings are not fit to judge. That would be my assumption.

In Psycho Pass, the Sybil System is made up of a collective of brains that are unable to comprehend feelings. That, and the fact that they are unable to judge the psycho passes of a collective group illustrate that the system is flawed and incapable of being effective in changing times. By Akane consistently pushing the boundaries, questioning what it means to live virtuous lives and ultimately proving that it is people who should govern people, the Sybil System is forced to adapt and change to keep up with modernisation.

With an intriguing, thrilling and thought-provoking plot, Season 2 had me on the edge of my seat. With just eleven episodes, I was hooked and completed the show in three days. The writing of this anime illustrates the creative team’s sheer brilliance. Along with stunning graphics, visuals and an epic, almost haunting soundtrack, Season 2 of Psycho Pass was every bit as exhilarating as Season 1. My only gripe was that the season was too short. I want more. If not more episodes, then another Season will do. I just can’t get enough of the story, the conspiracies and the way in which it makes me question the future of our society.

Both seasons of Psycho Pass are a fantastic watch. If you’re looking for gripping anime to delve into, I cannot recommend Psycho Pass more.

The post Psycho Pass Season 2 (Madman – 2017) Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

How much are you willing to give up to live in a peaceful Utopia?

What if the cost of a crime-less society meant losing your freedom of choice? Can you really depend on a system without human monitoring or control?

The anime series Psycho Pass illustrates such a dilemma. With the complete collection of this anime series being recently released, I finally had the chance to immerse myself in the series, and what a series it was. This review is of the anime’s first season.

Taking place in a totalitarian and dystopian future, Psycho Pass’ story centers on the new world order, in which an omnipresent computerized system, known as the Sybil System, measures the ‘psycho passes’ (or rather, mental states) of each and every citizen, labeling those with values exceeding accepted norms as latent criminals. These latent criminals, despite having not committed a single crime are treated as criminals regardless by the police and are arrested, rehabilitated or simply executed purely based on their potential to be a threat to society. 

Akane Tsunemori, a new recruit to the MWPSB (the Public Safety Bureau), grew up naive and believed in the value and power of the Sybil System in keeping the peace. Her role as an inspector and encounters with enforcers (a group of latent criminals used by the authorities as hunting dogs, or rather, are the disposable muscle in criminal investigations), particularly that of Shinya Kougami, a former inspector turned enforcer, shakes that belief and leads her down the path of questioning the entire world in which she lives.

The series opens with an introduction to the Sybil System and the roles in which inspectors and enforcers play in dealing with criminal activity, as well as an explanation the power behind the MWPSB’s specialised weapon, the dominator, which is controlled by the Sybil System to only allow certain people to operate it and its different functions.

When criminal activities and serial murders threaten the peaceful utopia, Akane, Kougami and the rest of the Division 1 of the MWPSB investigate and come to the realisation that these heinous crimes have all been orchestrated by one, Shougo Makishima, a puppet master using his puppets to breakdown the entire Sybil System for his own diabolical reasons.  The mystery and intrigue that took place in trying to solve these crimes were tantalizing, reminding me much of anime such as Death Note, Future Diary and Terror in Resonance, where not much is known and given to the audience, creating intense suspense about who or what is about to be the next target.

In racing against the clock to prevent Makishima committing yet another murder through his ‘puppets’, major flaws in the Sybil System are revealed, thereby illustrating the danger that comes with psycho pass scans. Someone once said to me, “everyone is allowed to have a bad day”. If having a bad response to a bad day means your psycho pass hue gets raised (which then categorises you as a latent criminal) then each bad day will eventually label you as a criminal that needs execution. The Sybil System is most definitely a system with laws that impeaches on human rights.

Makishima embodies the very term of a psychopath with no feelings whatsoever about the evil deeds he commits. Rather he flourishes and revels in the chaos he creates within such an orderly and perfect system. The characterisation of each and every character is brilliant in season 1 of Psycho Pass. Where Makishima is obsessed with destroying the system, Kougami is obsessed with terminating the man who poses the greatest threat to society. We are able to watch on as each character undergoes a change in their viewpoints. We are privy to their deepest fears and emotions and watch as these characters, seemingly strong and content with their lives, essentially fall. This is exactly the kind of characterisation that builds a story and makes for a gripping and thrilling watch.

The graphics and soundtrack only add to the visually aesthetic experience we are graced with in Season One of Psycho Pass. With futuristic self-driving cars, transforming dual mode guns, and a completely computerised system powering the city, Psycho Pass’ world gives viewers an insight into the possibility of the future.

The story, the characters and essentially each and every element of this season of Psycho Pass finds a way to get inside a viewer’s head, providing little nuggets of thought about the way in which society works, and, the moral and ethical questions that arise around the idea of a computerised world governed by a system with no human control. These are certainly deep questions but are worth contemplating as the future will be upon us very soon. Should we live in a world governed by the Sybil System, that determines who we are, and our potentials right from birth? Is this the kind of society we want to live in? Can we really be governed and judged without any proper means of defence and no protections under our basic human rights?

The post Psycho Pass Season One (Madman – 2017) Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Psycho-Pass. It’s an anime series that I stumbled upon a few months ago and immediately became engrossed by. The series caught more than just my attention; it caught my dedication toward completing an entire series. Not only did I watch through each episode of Season 1 and 2 twice, but I was so enamoured with the series that I even bought the limited edition collector’s set of the visual novel game, Psycho-Pass: Mandatory Happiness. When I heard that a film was releasing, I made very sure to pick up a copy to add to my collection.

Psycho-Pass: The Movie, is thematically similar to the anime series and the visual novel, in that it is still very much a science-fiction thriller about a dystopian society ruled by the artificially intelligent collective known as the Sibyl System.

Unlike the anime series, which is set in Tokyo, Japan, this film is set in the fictional superstate known as the Southeast Asian Union (SEAUn), which has begun to implement the Sybil System’s method of government. Main character and lead inspector, Akane Tsunemori, returns and once again challenges the methods of the Sybil System, as she makes her way to SEAUn after terrorist activity in Japan suggests that her former colleague, former enforcer Shinya Kogami, who played a prominent role in season 1 of the anime, has become a terrorist.

Akane’s investigation in the SEAUn ruffles some of the state heads’ feathers as she stumbles upon the local military’s plot to abuse the Sibyl System for their own gain. In addition, her reunion with Kogami is not at all what she had expected as she learns the truth about what has been happening at the SEAUn.

While similar in style to the anime series, the film’s plot isn’t as interesting as the series, or even the video game. In fact, while entertaining as something to watch, the film was rather lacklustre and was disappointing in that it didn’t highlight much of Akane’s brilliance as a detective nor the depths of Kogami’s character. That, and the villain of the film was nothing short of flat, unlike the twisted Makishima and intelligent Kamui, the villains of the anime series.

In addition to the characters being rather dull compared to their anime counterparts, the excitement of technology and use of dominators is done away with in the film, removing the notable cyberpunk theme of the anime series from the film. Not to mention that none of the supporting characters, such as Akane’s team of enforcers, are given their due. Ginoza, the former inspector turned enforcer, seems to be undergoing a slow character death throughout the progression of Psycho-Pass, from being a tight-ass inspector constantly on everyone’s case, to an enforcer who cared a bit too much about Akane and her recklessness, to a guy with a pony-tail trying hard to look ‘cool’.

One of the aspects of Psycho-Pass that I love is the soundtrack. Both seasons 1 and 2 of the anime series as well as the video game had soundtracks that were incredible. The film’s soundtrack however, didn’t quite do the series justice. Together with the lack of the core ingredients that makes Psycho-Pass great, such as brilliant futuristic themes, the film just doesn’t feel like a Psycho-Pass film.

Another aspect of the series that I really appreciate is the dynamic and futuristic visuals. While the visuals in the film were decent, I was disappointed at the lack of a more futuristic, thematic visuals that were more in line with the anime series.

Despite many of its flaws, the film did convey some important messages, which is the idea that sometimes you have to bend the rules, have faith in your team and look for the truth in order to lead a happy and fulfilling life.

Psycho-Pass: The Movie is definitely a film that is watchable and entertaining, however, viewers and fans of the Psycho-Pass series need to remember not to take this film too seriously and to appreciate it as a standalone film of sorts.