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anime: Psycho-Pass
Dec. 11th, 2013 08:55 pmPsycho-Pass is a 22-episode anime set in a futuristic Japan in which crime has been all but eliminated by SIBYL, a computer system that also helps people to choose the best course for their lives. SIBYL is, effectively, a Big Brother system that has benignly removed agency from people's lives, and made them happy for it.
SIBYL is able to tell what career a person is best suited for, what meal would be the most beneficial to them, what outfit is both the most flattering and the most suitable for the weather, what TV show they should watch that evening, etc. it's not that you HAVE to choose the career or the clothes of the food that SIBYL tells you to, it's just that, well, why WOULD you risk chasing a career that you may end up not liking or hunting around for one that interests you when you already know what's the most suitable for you, and why would you waste time pondering what to make for dinner or what to wear when you already know what the best option is, even if it may not be your favorite option.
Then there's the flipside of SIBYL, the part that has almost eliminated crime. In addition to being able to help a person make the best choices for their lives, SIBYL is also able to read a person's mental state, and their likelihood of preventing crime. When a person is experiencing stress or has endured trauma, they receive therapy, and if SIBYL judges a person's capacity for committing crime-their "Crime Coefficient"- to be too strong, they are designated s "latent criminal" and given the option of either living in isolation with other latent criminals, or serving as Enforcers under the Inspectors for the Public Safety Bureau (the police), handling aspects of the job that could adversely affect a person's mental state so that the Inspector's Crime Coefficient won't be affected. Like everything else SIBYL does, this appears to make perfect logical sense- the Enforcers cannot be further ostracized or punished, and it keeps the Inspectors from risking become labeled Latent Criminals themselves. SIBYL, however, does not take circumstance or extreme situations into account, and so a person who has experienced extreme trauma could be labeled a Latent Criminal because, at that moment, they're capable of extreme acts in order to survive, or someone could be labeled because they had an extremely bad day and are thinking about how smashing the windows on all the cars on the street would be a great stress reliever. One character is even labeled a Latent Criminal at the age of 5, and lives in isolation until he's old enough to become an enforcer, and some Enforcers are former Inspectors who, despite the protocols put in place to protect them, became too obsessed with one case or another until SIBYL judged them a potential danger.
The main character is Tsunemori Akane, an idealistic young woman who implicitly believes that SIBYL is needed, and who has just become an Inspector. Akane is in a unique position because, unlike most people, she was granted agency over her own life by SIBYL, having tests to be suitable for multiple government agencies and large businesses. She chooses to become an inspector because unlike all the other careers she scored as suitable for, she was the only one in her class to be a match for the Public Safety Bureau, and she decided that meant that there was something she could provide the bureau that no one else could. That Akane was able to choose her course in life in a society where almost no one chooses that is very important, because Akane and her agency-and her struggled to maintain it, are crucial to the series. Throughout the series, people are constantly trying to take Akane's agency from her and guide her onto a path of their choosing-sometimes trying to make her darker, sometimes trying to keep her "pure." (The attempts to keep her pure and maintain her idealism are less irritating here than they would be otherwise, as they come mostly come from Enforcers who work under her and the "I don't want you to end up like me" isn't "you must be a pure and shining light in the darkness" but "I know exactly what will happen if you start getting obsessed and there actually is no escaping it because it's part of what our society is built on.") Akane, however, consistently resists and rejects these attempts to deprive her of her agency, and always makes her own choices, and manages to maintain her idealism even as she learns about and accepts some of the darker realities of her world.
The series focuses on Akane's cases with her unit and her relationship with her supervisor, Ginoza, and the enforcers who work under them, particularly Kougami Shinya, a former Inspector who became an Enforcer after becoming obsessed with a case. Kougami is, at various times and depending on the circumstances, both one of the strongest proponents both for Akane maintaining her idealism, and for her embracing the darker parts of the world, and making choices she doesn't want to because she's supposed to. (Note: Like most such attempts with Akane, these tend to fail.)
As the series progresses, it increasingly focuses on the team's hunt for a violent criminal who somehow escapes SIBYL's judgement, and his attempts to overthrow SIBYL. This was one of those cases where I found the villain uninteresting and even annoying, but where the anime finds him utterly fascinating and wants to spend a lot of time convincing me that he is. As a result, there were a couple episodes in the second half where the show almost lost me due to focus on him, but it recovered. It's also a very violent series, and the violence is often disturbing, and not always necessary. It's also terrible in its representation of mental illness and extreme mental states, despite the fact that a couple early episodes seemed to realize that victim blaming is a thing that actually happens and should be criticized, but that is quickly (and unfortunately) dropped.
It's far from a perfect show, but it's a very interesting and usually enjoyable one, and I found Akane and her relationships and the way it handled her agency to be very interesting.
Have the original OP for the series:
SIBYL is able to tell what career a person is best suited for, what meal would be the most beneficial to them, what outfit is both the most flattering and the most suitable for the weather, what TV show they should watch that evening, etc. it's not that you HAVE to choose the career or the clothes of the food that SIBYL tells you to, it's just that, well, why WOULD you risk chasing a career that you may end up not liking or hunting around for one that interests you when you already know what's the most suitable for you, and why would you waste time pondering what to make for dinner or what to wear when you already know what the best option is, even if it may not be your favorite option.
Then there's the flipside of SIBYL, the part that has almost eliminated crime. In addition to being able to help a person make the best choices for their lives, SIBYL is also able to read a person's mental state, and their likelihood of preventing crime. When a person is experiencing stress or has endured trauma, they receive therapy, and if SIBYL judges a person's capacity for committing crime-their "Crime Coefficient"- to be too strong, they are designated s "latent criminal" and given the option of either living in isolation with other latent criminals, or serving as Enforcers under the Inspectors for the Public Safety Bureau (the police), handling aspects of the job that could adversely affect a person's mental state so that the Inspector's Crime Coefficient won't be affected. Like everything else SIBYL does, this appears to make perfect logical sense- the Enforcers cannot be further ostracized or punished, and it keeps the Inspectors from risking become labeled Latent Criminals themselves. SIBYL, however, does not take circumstance or extreme situations into account, and so a person who has experienced extreme trauma could be labeled a Latent Criminal because, at that moment, they're capable of extreme acts in order to survive, or someone could be labeled because they had an extremely bad day and are thinking about how smashing the windows on all the cars on the street would be a great stress reliever. One character is even labeled a Latent Criminal at the age of 5, and lives in isolation until he's old enough to become an enforcer, and some Enforcers are former Inspectors who, despite the protocols put in place to protect them, became too obsessed with one case or another until SIBYL judged them a potential danger.
The main character is Tsunemori Akane, an idealistic young woman who implicitly believes that SIBYL is needed, and who has just become an Inspector. Akane is in a unique position because, unlike most people, she was granted agency over her own life by SIBYL, having tests to be suitable for multiple government agencies and large businesses. She chooses to become an inspector because unlike all the other careers she scored as suitable for, she was the only one in her class to be a match for the Public Safety Bureau, and she decided that meant that there was something she could provide the bureau that no one else could. That Akane was able to choose her course in life in a society where almost no one chooses that is very important, because Akane and her agency-and her struggled to maintain it, are crucial to the series. Throughout the series, people are constantly trying to take Akane's agency from her and guide her onto a path of their choosing-sometimes trying to make her darker, sometimes trying to keep her "pure." (The attempts to keep her pure and maintain her idealism are less irritating here than they would be otherwise, as they come mostly come from Enforcers who work under her and the "I don't want you to end up like me" isn't "you must be a pure and shining light in the darkness" but "I know exactly what will happen if you start getting obsessed and there actually is no escaping it because it's part of what our society is built on.") Akane, however, consistently resists and rejects these attempts to deprive her of her agency, and always makes her own choices, and manages to maintain her idealism even as she learns about and accepts some of the darker realities of her world.
The series focuses on Akane's cases with her unit and her relationship with her supervisor, Ginoza, and the enforcers who work under them, particularly Kougami Shinya, a former Inspector who became an Enforcer after becoming obsessed with a case. Kougami is, at various times and depending on the circumstances, both one of the strongest proponents both for Akane maintaining her idealism, and for her embracing the darker parts of the world, and making choices she doesn't want to because she's supposed to. (Note: Like most such attempts with Akane, these tend to fail.)
As the series progresses, it increasingly focuses on the team's hunt for a violent criminal who somehow escapes SIBYL's judgement, and his attempts to overthrow SIBYL. This was one of those cases where I found the villain uninteresting and even annoying, but where the anime finds him utterly fascinating and wants to spend a lot of time convincing me that he is. As a result, there were a couple episodes in the second half where the show almost lost me due to focus on him, but it recovered. It's also a very violent series, and the violence is often disturbing, and not always necessary. It's also terrible in its representation of mental illness and extreme mental states, despite the fact that a couple early episodes seemed to realize that victim blaming is a thing that actually happens and should be criticized, but that is quickly (and unfortunately) dropped.
It's far from a perfect show, but it's a very interesting and usually enjoyable one, and I found Akane and her relationships and the way it handled her agency to be very interesting.
Have the original OP for the series:
