OP2 Sequence

OP2: 「Enigmatic Feeling 」 by 凛として時雨 (Ling Toshite Sigure)

「ヨブの救済」 (Yobu no Kyuusai)
“The Salvation of Job”

This week is one to remember as several main characters are just getting written off like flies in my shows. Unlike Akame ga Kill though, Aoyanagi’s death was completely unexpected. Even while I was watching, I thought to myself that this girl is going to come out alive because she’s such a pivotal character. Of course I was wrong… however, not only did Aoyanagi die, but so did everyone else being held hostage within the building! As exciting as it was to watch, the episode was a great turning point for the series as new technologies were released and Kamui’s motives are becoming more clear (hehe*). It was also horrifying to watch a massacre of innocent people, but I don’t see how anyone could’ve come out of that without raising their Crime Coefficients.

First of all, let’s have a conversation about Mika here. Please enlighten me if you have a different opinion because I’ve tried many times to rationalize her actions in my head. That girl gets more and more irritating every time I see her because she’s just so tunnel-visioned by her role as an inspector. I gave her the benefit of the doubt earlier – for a whole 3 episodes – but in a one-cour series, you can only take so much ignorance from a character that should be further along in her development. I’m not expecting her to turn into Akane’s best friend or anything, but it’d be nice for her to realize the flaws of the Sybil system and why Akane does what she does. It was back in episode 1 that I recall her stating that they’ve been partners for a while (including the off-screen time we haven’t been a part of), so why is she behaving like Akane is against her? It’s almost to the point that she wants to prove Akane wrong – Kamui does not exist. What I can’t stand most of all is that Mika seems to be so loyal to the Sybil system that she can’t see around it. Her role as an inspector is exactly how it’s written in the book (similar to how Aoyanagi felt I’m sure) and it’s blinding her to what’s actually happening. There were so many opportunities for Mika to just charge in and help save Aoyanagi this episode, but she didn’t. She didn’t do anything but stand around and watch Crime Coefficients rise and then, witness innocent people die in front of her. Does she still think that’s right? I seriously hope not. I hope she realizes that it rests on her shoulders that these people could’ve possibly lived if not for her inability the bend the rules a bit and do something! I understand that at the time she thinks she’s doing what’s best and no one could’ve imagined that such a maniac would be amidst, but isn’t that part of the role of being an inspector? To assess these situations and action what they think is appropriate? From an outsider’s POV, it seems like Mika didn’t make full efforts to see beyond the gated doors and windows.

Asides from Mika, this episode was a pleasant surprise and I actually thoroughly enjoyed the anticipation it built-up to the final moment… when everyone dies. The scenes were quite graphic and I never would’ve thought it would reach such brutality from an old man. Not to mention that he stripped everyone down? But why…? I guess it was meant to increase their eustress levels (or stress levels in general) but it was still disturbing to watch. This man was blabbering on and on about how these individuals in the hospital were suppressing their eustress levels – which to me sounds like they’re suppressing the “good” type of stress. When I was in school, we were taught that some types of stress could be motivators and actually push people to be productive – this is eustress. When eustress becomes too much to handle and it starts to diminish your performance, that’s when it becomes distress. To me, I don’t think this old man was experiencing “eustress” nor was he helping liberate these people from their eustress suppression. If he was in fact motivated to beat people up, then yes – I guess you could say that he was motivated with “good stress” but it’s still not humane! Now the question to me is, whether or not this is the key to clearing one’s Crime Coefficient? I don’t think your eustress levels in particular have anything to do with it, but your stress levels in general. If you know or think that you’re doing something wrong, witnessing something terrible or strayed off the path of your morals, then your Crime Coefficient would reflect that. However, if you don’t think you’re doing wrong or – like this man – if you think you’re doing good for the world, then your Crime Coefficient would reflect that too; even if it goes against what’s truly “right” in the world. I think this man was so far deep in believing what Kamui told him that he genuinely felt that this would help people – therefore, no matter what he did, his Crime Coefficient would never recognize the crimes he was committing. Does that make sense? It would also explain why Akane’s own Crime Coefficient doesn’t rise and she doesn’t worry about it.

The final topic I want to bring up are these “experiments” that Kamui is performing with the police force. Akane mentioned that Kamui wants to try different things with the Dominators – probably testing out their limitations or what they’re capable of. Kamui has proven that anyone can shoot with a Dominator, and the Dominators can read anyone’s Crime Coefficient (just not his for some reason) and now – it can also kill other inspectors. All the while, the force has created a new advanced weaponry that can analyze and kill someone without physically seeing them. Now if you’re someone that fully depends on the Dominator and trusts Sybil to make the right decision (e.g. Mika), then I can see why you would use it. However, we know that’s not the case anymore and this new Dominator seems too intense if inspectors trust it that much. In Aoyanagi’s case, she must have realized at the end that Sybil wasn’t going to help her. Time and time again, she attempted to stop this criminal and even lost her life for it. It’s a shame that we won’t get a response from her now that she has recognized the faults of the system – but she was holding a phone…Was it recording? With the revelations in this episode, I can’t really guess Kamui’s next move anymore (that’s why I’m not an detective…). It leaves me scratching my head because the focus has shifted from clear Crime Coefficients to the potential of Dominators. It seems like the issue is how the Dominator reads your intentions rather than the act that you’re actually performing. Hence why Sybil doesn’t even need to see you to judge you.

Bottom Line– @ RCCherrie: There were so many things I liked and disliked about this week’s #PsychoPass2. But why is Mika just standing there the entire time?! UGH!

Full-length images: 09, 16.

117 Comments

  1. Fuck you Mika Shimotsuki. Seriously. I hope your psycho pass turns midnight black and you suffer a slow and agonizing death before this is all over.

    RIP Risa Aoyanagi. You were a total babe.

    SBC
  2. This week’s episode just basically had me face-palming throughout it. I mean I realize that the civilians wouldn’t know how to react in that kind of situation considering the society they live in even frowns upon showing a negative emotion without a chance to blow yourself up, but really? I’m more displeased how weak some of them were. Like the guy who got his head smashed in. When he went for the old guy I was like “Hell yeah! FInally!” Considering physically it looked like he could take him….but then….yeah….unless this old guy was on some stimulating drugs to increase his strength and speed then something should have happened. Then again, it goes back to the whole “they don’t know any better answer” *smh*….that excuse managed to make it past the first season with that one guy brutally beating that women to death in public with a hammer, but this….its like that society is full of “wusses” (we all know what I want to say there). Even the inspectors and enforcers….-_-. Asides from Akane’s crew (exception of Mika) I swear the rest of the law enforcement just straight out sucks. I’m at least glad Aoyanagi used something else asides from a dominator to subdue him….before getting blown up “I don’t know, I just shot the person with the highest crime coefficient” herp a derp~ -_-. There’s more I would like to point out…but that would be long. SO I hope next week Akane raises hell within her work after witnessing what happened. Again, I feel bad that Aoyanagi died like that, she could have became a closer ally to Akane if she survived….plus I was shipping her with Ginoza

    SDFGS
    1. I can sympathize with you. While I was watching the violent scenes, I got increasingly irritated that everyone just stood there unable to retaliate, or even attempt to run.

      I’ve come to the conclusion that, in the universe of Psycho Pass:

      Those with healthy hues are either pacifistic and weak, or distinguished and rebellious. I chose the description carefully, because unlike how the series portrays the societal structure, I as a viewer must say those with a clouded Psycho-pass are far superior than those with healthy psycho-passes.

      flCer
      1. thats the whole point of psycho-pass. Those with healthy clear hues are “mindless”, “clueless” and without care/stress. The sybil system decides the careers and futures for you, and the way the city/country is developed is to provide automatic service (remember in the first season that the entire agriculture industry is automated, it can be implied that everything else is automated with people just supervising the automation).
        As a result the population has become carefree, with little stress about their life, they dont need to worry about not having a job, not having a home. They are basically “mindless” sheep and dont suspect anything.

        Anyways what i am saying is that yes, it seems unrealistic in our world. But in their world, it seems correct.
        And to confirm that the only ones that have healthy hues are mindless.

        sithstormjedi
    2. Coming from someone that’s always loved Psycho-Pass, you have absolutely no idea the level of disappointment I’ve experienced with this episode. They have officially jumped the shark. Why do I say that? The conflict that was portrayed throughout season 1 was due to opposing ideologies and not gross incompetence. What we have here is just some of the stupidest people on the face of the planet carrying guns. While season 1 showed a lot of brutal violence as a result to an over-reliance of the Sybil System, what we IMMEDIATELY saw afterwards was Division 1’s ability to adapt, to change the way they approached the situation. I mean for God’s sake, they suppressed riots in season 1 without killing a single person. It was revealed in that season that killing criminals collectively lowered their psycho-pass. So WTF is this garbage?? They’ve become so intent on making it Akane vs everyone that they’ve had to dumb down everyone else.

      This is a deal breaker man. Consider this series dropped :/

      plushkin
  3. I like how the last couple of episode show just how different is the relationship of Akane-Mika, from that of Akane-Kogami. Kogami nurtured and helped Akane develop the required skill set to be a good detective. On the other hand Akane is absolutely indifferent to Mikas profesional conduct and skills. She merely tolerates her, instead of mentoring her. They have absolutely nonexistent camaraderie and parthership, shown by Mikas lack of respect. Akane’s indifference has only deepened Mika’s stupidity and incompetence. Mika now only serves as a grotesque of a distopian world.

    On other note – did anyone notice Kamui’s facial scar. I wonder whether it will have a story impact.

    asd
      1. @SDFGS – In the moment when Kamui walks on the street and wonders what color Sybil will turn out to be, you can see clearly hes side face – there are scars from a facial surgery.

        asd
    1. I think that the difference is that Akane was willing to accept Kougami’s mentoring (she demonstred to be more open minded right in the first episode, when she tried help the victim), but Mika gives the vibe of being a more rigid, closed-minded person (maybe she *is* the stardard of Sibyl Japan’s citizens?), so even if Akane did try mentor her, Mika was bound to resist to it, since Akane’s methods are divergent of Sibyl’s standard procedures (I wonder *how* the actual training of Inspectors actually is…)

      Rick
    2. LoL this season is all about kamui the “ghost” and his real identity, it is actually hint so many time , i see people don’t really care about it much , don’t i will say it now , kamui is kagari , there are no eveidences but there are hints , 1 the knowledge of medicine’s secret(ouryo rikago case)
      2. “is there some one that sybil can’t detect?” “only non existant people”
      3. dead people is detectable 4. knowledge of Akane point of view
      5. know her house and even some kind of obsession
      6 what color? is a rhetorical question to the whole society , i suggest that he know sybil secret
      7. interest in dominator and even knowledge of police protocal
      8. facial scar

      and last but not least devil proof theory. The story is trying so hard to point out that kamui is a ghost , also it’s not that dominator can’t measure him but that the first episode it read only the inspector PP and not his. The only person tqht sybil can’t detect is non existance people , Kagari is the only who is forcefully erased by sybil, remember kagari share a view with akane and he repect her alot and he is the other one MIA who know sybil secret apart from akane , Idk how he survive but hey it’s still not reveal , i may be wrong but i don’t think i am with this one

      PeTdo
    3. To be fair, S1 Kogami was an enforcer, Ginoza was the ‘partner inspector’. If you were to have to compare, it’d be s1 Ginoza-Akane vs s2 Akane-Mika and I’d say they’re similar in that they opposed each other’s actions. S2 Mika clearly refuses to consider the opinions of enforcers compared to Akane who accepted Kogami’s mentorship in s1.

      KJacket
  4. Wow….just coming back from reading reviews and stuff. Apparently Anime News Network and mos of its followers really hates this series. Then again it goes with how much people are willing to put up with when literally most of the characters are making wrong decisions. Shesh, people actually dropping this show after this episode, come on!

    SDFGS
  5. She didn’t do anything but stand around and watch Crime Coefficients rise and then, witness innocent people die in front of her. Does she still think that’s right? I seriously hope not.

    https://randomc.net/image/PSYCHO-PASS/PSYCHO-PASS%202%20-%2004%20-%20Large%2018.jpg
    Seriously now…refusing to believe that the Sibyl system is flawed, that would be plausible given that its been drilled into society over time that Sibyl is absolute,but refusing to interfere because of lack of orders and jurisdiction plus fearing responsibility? I don’t think she’s worth her pay…
    I found Aoi from Coppelion anime to be the most annoying character I’ve seen so far…
    Mika now, seems about to take over that position…

    Techim
    1. Mika really doesn’t have a backbone, but she is very younge. We saw her in High School last season so I’m wondering how fast she was pushed out of training onto the force as well. There is also the possibility that the case up to this point where by the book which means she hasn’t had to think outside of her training till now as well.

      It was horrifying to see her stand there and watch but that’s what most people do in this world. That blind faith in the Sybil that pretty much everyone has is a true evil. The inability to judge in shades of grey.

      Ani_BEE
    2. You’re mistaking the reason behind Mika’s actions.
      It’s not about respect or trust, it’s about fear : She is terrified by the idea of seeing her hue darkens. She even refuses to exchange with people with high Crime Coefficient for that reason.
      That’s why she’s paralyzed and is unable to take any action.
      That’s still stupid and annoying, but it makes more sense.

      Ironically, that would makes her really weak to Kamui’s influence.

      That may also be why se resent Akane that much. Akane doesn’t care at all about variation, and such always stay clear.

      shytende
  6. This episode was infuriating lol. What’s even the point of having inspectors/enforcers there? They should just go ahead and mount the dominators on drones already. The system tells me to pull the trigger so i pull it regardless of the circumstances/context? this shit is crazy lol.
    I get the point Kamui is trying to make, but i hope he will get a death as gruesome as possible. Like Sybil, he just plain disgusting.
    Mika incompetence is just baffling. She spend most of her time second guess Akane rather than doing her fucking job. If she didn’t refuse to go with Akana orders, this could have ended with less deaths. I hope this will be a wake up call for her, if not, i hope Kamui gets his hands on her.

    Satyr
    1. Curiously, “why don’t we just use drones” was answered in the 1st season…

      The whole WC? plot is actually bullshit, because hues aren’t crime coefficients, and a dominator isn’t a hue scanner. Hue/pass connection is just an in-universe lie. Sybil doesn’t give damn how happy, calm or full of life someone is – just remember the people Makishima had to do with. Whatever Kamui can do with hues of other people, that alone shouldn’t have resulted in Sybil not being able to judge them properly.

      voidn
  7. Please don’t criticise Mika too much here, she was too busy flirting with Kunizuka to act.(^_^)

    I don’t really think we can judge Mika’s actions with the normal standards, the world of Psycho Pass is one completely different from our’s. Even back in season 1, during the helmet incident, on-lookers of a certain incident did nothing to stop an atrocious crime. The perceptions and morale values of the characters in the world of PP do not fit with our way of thinking. In a world where maintaining a lighter hue can mean a smoother life, not acting may be the smarter thing to do.

    Mixed Milkshake
    1. Mika is an inspector, dealing with those type of situation is her job. I’m not going to give her a free pass like i could give those civilians for not defending themselves. She has been second guessing Akane every moves since she joined, instead of doing her job.
      -Akane: *breathes*
      -Mika : *frowning brows* “I don’t think you are supposed to breath like that inspector”
      You get the drill lol

      Satyr
  8. First thing first, the episode format feels like the second half of an hour long episode aka. director’s cut…

    So. I am, so far, hate a few things in the show after 4 episodes:

    1. Mika, and her lack of nerves and arm-chair act after a year and a half of duty as an inspector.
    2. Sybil, and its human-like arrogance without even considering the possibility of thinking of trying to prevent some of its flaws from affecting day-to-day ops. without resorting to dictator like actions.
    3. Kamui, and his, well, evilness? He’s definitely not Makishima in ideology.

    /rant

    Oh…

    – but she[Aoyanagi] was holding a phone…Was it recording?

    @ Cherrie – I think that was the remote for the pharmacy’s storefront shutters…

    info600
  9. That scar on Kamui’s face just leaves an open question of who is he really? Not only is he a “ghost” but his face might not even be real! He can even be a “ghost of the past” if you know whom I mean.

    random viewer
  10. I agree that Mika is annoying. However I will give her a benefit of a doubt for a few reasons:
    1) This is probably only the second unusual case she has come across thus far. In the first one, she might’ve been right that it would’ve been best to kill the bomber outright. After all, the bomber did manage to escape and trigger another bomb, which I think they implied that there were victims that time. This would’ve given her a sense that she was right and that Akane was in the wrong, even though Akane’s actions have led to the discovery of Kamui’s existance.
    2) Running in blind this time could’ve also been dangerous from their point of view since they have no idea what is going on. Afterall, they just dealt with a bomber who had set traps for them back in the first episode. Of course, waiting for a reply from Aoyanagi was pretty stupid, and I did find myself thinking “OPEN THE DAMN GATE!” many times too.
    3) With regards to her doubting the existence of Kamui, most of the others are also skeptical that Kamui even exists. So Mika is not alone in this thought. A lot of others believe it impossible for a single person not to even be detected by Sybil in the first place.
    4) Finally, unlike Akane who became an investigator because her results were befitting of it according to Sybil, Mika probably got influenced by the death of her friend in the first season, and probably believes that if she worked more efficiency to the rules of Sybil, that she would be able to save others.

    There were many other events which could have unfolded which might have changed the outcome of this event. Firstly, the whole mob of victims could’ve acted against the old man at once. Surely better than attacking one at a time. Secondly, why did Akane never contact Mika regarding what she believed might have been happening behind those shutters? She contacted the Holo expert to look around, but never contacted Mika. I’ll hold off judging Mika until I see her actions at the outcome of this event, because we have not yet seen her thoughts on the massacre yet. This is afterall the first real trigger for character development. In the first season, Akane’s initial development was when Kogami was on the verge of shooting the rape victim in the first episode, but Mika has not yet encountered anything of the sort thus far. If she continues to try and follow Sybil despite now seeing its obvious flaws, then I’ll definitely start to hate her character.

    Other thoughts:
    1) I made a mention last week that I thought Aoyanagi might have died because I heard a crack when the old guy punched her in her face at the end of last episode. I hoped that she lived but now wished she had died there and then. The way she went out this time is probably the most tragic of deaths yet in this series, betrayed by the system she believed in when all she wanted to do was save everyone else in there.
    2) The old man seemed to keep his psycho-pass down by using whatever drug was in that mechanical dog. He took another breath of it just because Aoyanagi pointed her gun at him after being uncuffed which was why is psycho-pass reading was so low. And it kept on increasing from that point onwards because the mechanical dog was destroyed.
    3) The phone was to open the mechanical door. It was tragic that noone outside waited for the door to open fully before shooting.

    Taiakun
  11. I think you’re critizising Mika too much. What happened to her is pretty much the same to what happened to Akana when she couldn’t shoot Makishima thus letting her friend die. It’s pretty obvious that she’s going to change. I think Yaiyoi will help her with this and Akane might tell her about the death of her friend. I guess the change in the OP is symbolic for getting a cloudy hue. Btw how did the old man die? Did Kamui shoot him or was it one of the police?

    dean
    1. I’m so happy that people think like that. I mean that has the most reason, unfortunately even top reviewers can’t see that (I’m not talking about Cherie, heavens no, I’m talking about the person who gave it a horrible review on Anime News Network). In a sense I also came across another comment someone made that made sense:
      “First, I didn’t want to comment but I wanted to see people’s reactions to this episode and yours by far was the most interesting. Second, your thoughts on how the victims should have reacted are correct in terms of normal society aka reality. In this anime it’s clear that Sybil is the government. Makashima in season 1 says people have become so reliant on Sybil that they don’t know how to manage their stress anymore without help. In this episode it shows excatly what makashima was saying. The victims have become so reliant on Sybil that they don’t make any decisions without Sybil’s guidance. Plus the diffusion of responsibility is coming into affect. For a psych major like me this anime is full of psychology theories and ideas. Each one of the victims diffused the responsibility of taking out the criminal to the inspector. The one guy that attacked got so stressed out that he panicked and attacked the guy. Which, before you say the guy has super human strength or something. He doesn’t, the guy who attacked did so in a stressful state and in doing so he did not attack with any power or muscle. Imagine it like throwing a piece a paper at someone it’s just going to either fall short or bounce right off the person. This episode didn’t have plot holes it just raised a bunch of questions on human behavior.”

      Last thing though….do they even have TV? I mean wouldn’t certain programming cloud their hue (because mine certainly did after watching this)? If they do I’m assuming their channels are just composed of someone saying “Its all okay. Just breath in-and-out and all your worries will be gone” while showing a grassy field.

      SDFGS
    2. People are failing to see that Akane is exceptional. Wasn’t her well developed critical thinking skills despite the type of culture she grew up in the reason she was offered to become a part of Sybil in season 1? Besides her most everyone else is simply a product of a world that discourages anything but relying on “god” Sybil for answers.

      Now make no mistake I faced palmed much at Mika’s inaction BUT considering the world of PP it wasn’t hard to understand why she or even the ppl from squad 3 acted the way they did. Even Aoyanagi didn’t diverge from protocol until the very end.

      That said I’m banking on this ep being the catalyst of which Mika’s eye’s will begin to be open to the flaws in the system.

      fatalblue
  12. Aoyanagi has a solid, hot body. To think that body went from this

    https://randomc.net/image/PSYCHO-PASS/PSYCHO-PASS%202%20-%2004%20-%20Large%2011.jpg

    to this

    https://randomc.net/image/PSYCHO-PASS/PSYCHO-PASS%202%20-%2004%20-%20Large%2026.jpg

    is pretty hard for me to take.

    A broken angel is a beautiful in its own way.

    https://randomc.net/image/PSYCHO-PASS/PSYCHO-PASS%202%20-%2004%20-%20Large%2023.jpg

    https://randomc.net/image/PSYCHO-PASS/PSYCHO-PASS%202%20-%2004%20-%20Large%2025.jpg

    A dead angel however can no longer be anything – it simply cease to be. That lost of potential is what makes it difficult for me. What a waste!

    https://randomc.net/image/PSYCHO-PASS/PSYCHO-PASS%202%20-%2004%20-%20Large%2035.jpg

    Overall, the animation was a bit clunky but this episode was done well – A grade.

    KF
  13. I don’t think Mika annoying. I think its important to consider her as a product the Sybil city state. As much as we empathise with Akane and the ‘humanity’ of the other Enforcers it is important recognise that they are, in the whole eye of the population seen as a deviants of society. They ones who were unable to keep their hue clear, judged by Sybil unfit for society so they are shunned and commodified, only fit for acts which would destabilise an upstanding ‘clear’ citizen.

    Sybil is a system that in geared towards taking away personal liability or anything that engenders independent thought. The Dominators are a good examples of this, through the rhetoric of being ‘judged’ by Sybil even something as destructive as killing something is sanitised and personality responsibility is taken away from the individual and transferred to the State (Sybil).

    The only personal liability left is the management of your ‘Hue’ and Psycho-pass.

    This leaves people dependent and reliant on the system. Because of this ‘cultural hegenomy’ the values of the system (Sybil) become conflated with the values of the individual’s dependant on the system. It makes sense then that individuals like Mika are completely irritated by outside thinkers like Akane who don’t follow the dogma set down by Sybil, further still, her actions are supported by the very people Sybil judged not fit for society. For anyone who has ever experienced this within a job environment, ‘someone getting rewarded by breaking protocol’ this is an infuriating experience.

    Still, I empathise with the people who find her annoying but simply because she conflicts with the values of the viewer. A perspective of intertexuality is needed.

    My 2 cents.

    SCO
  14. Frankly speaking right now, after watching this episode, I am very afraid of going out since I’ll definitely be flagged by Sybil if it ever existed. Memories from PP1 episode 9 came torrenting in.

    But as a villain or anti-hero, Makishima is much much more better than Kamui.

    cruiser2710
    1. Seems way more toned down than the 1st season actually, what with the almost exclusively women victims and sexually charged violence. At least its equal opportunity abuse here.

      tsunemoris
  15. Akane is the anomaly. True. But there is a subtle (not so subtle) vindictiveness when it comes to Akane from Mika. This is clouding her judgement, and making them opposition instead of a team. Akane is not stupid and ‘appears’ to not be taking offense, but she is not going to work to handle someone in a crisis situation when she has the authority, she is senior, to directly order Mr. Holo (forget his name)to perform a task.

    Igniteous
  16. This episode was pretty brutal and hard to stomach even by Psycho Pass standards. I wouldn’t be surprised if the episode offended some more conservative viewers as some of the scenes with the hostages were pretty awful to watch. I think that scene where everyone exploded is gonna stick with me for a little bit.

    Also the Aoyonagi x Ginoza ship blew up in a pretty bloody and horrendous fashion, I didn’t expect her to get off’d so quickly. That was no way for an attractive and fiery spirit to go. I was surprised that what was once a listless old man was able to cause this much trouble and to even lead to the death of who I thought would be a major character. Kamui sure is working hard to fill Makishima’s shoes.

    kondee
  17. saw the screen caps on this slaughter fest…so i had to dl…..just some observations from someone who more or less does not know wtf is going on.

    1) in the future, keystone cops are at it again!! hilarious levels of incompetence.
    2) in the future, old men are superior psychically. any attempts to subdue them will likely lead to wonkey wooden like knockout animations.
    3) in the future, a gun that simply makes people fall to the floor brain dead has been deemed highly illogical…..instead these tools have been replaced by cost efficient firearms that turns people into gobs of flesh and gore that splatter all over the place.

    now i remember why i dropped this show in season 1

    BROOKLYN otaku
    1. judging by your responses, you most likely dropped the show not out of boredom but most likely you lack the brain capacity to even understand it (no seriously, this isn’t one of those direct insults as you clearly glossed over Cherrie’s thoughts and the actual good comments left on here explaining the “frustration” of how things are handled in that society)

      SDFGS
    2. Completely agreed w/BROOKLYN. It makes me wonder what criteria the Sybil System uses to choose its Inspectors of society. In modern society (US and Canada’s) if all those inspectors and enforcers shot at ONE person, then its tolerated. Shooting at ~10+ people screaming for help while covered in blood (possibly soiled themselves a bit), NOT OKAY… AT ALL.

      So if its not okay now, how the in the bipity bopity boo is it okay in the future? Especially in Japan? It truly is at hilarious levels of incompetence. “Imma shoot through the wall that I can’t see through and have no visual nor audio confirmation of who or what I am shooting, but Imma do it anyways because the cool transforming gun is showing me shiny numbers.”

      – No one mentioned to the group with the guns that an inspector was present in the building despite the fact that that’s why they were there.

      – Aoyanagi couldn’t learn nor thought rationally (despite being a public safety inspector). If the gun didnt work the first time, why would you think it would work the second? Also wouldnt it have been easier to subdue the guy with the nail gun and finish him off with the dominator?

      – Why is there a LOADED nail gun in a mental health clinic?

      – “in the future, a gun that simply makes people fall to the floor brain dead has been deemed highly illogical…..instead these tools have been replaced by cost efficient firearms that turns people into gobs of flesh and gore that splatter all over the place.”

      Even worse, if that’s what police are using, what the funk is the military using?

      Kishagi
  18. From the very first I want that newbie killed because she’s annoying with her naivety, but Aoyanagi got killed instead……….. So they want to prolong the annoyance further…..

    cryarc
  19. Its been awhile since i’m checking up RC…^^ but with the incident regarding PP2, i really love to hear people’s opinion about this episode.

    Mika – her hate poll is rising. I love how you summarized her Cherrie and i second that. I cant accept how hopeless she was throughout the entire incident. She was trying hard to awfully abide the Sibyl law but somehow angered Hinakawa acting on Akane’s order searching for the holo. I hope she redeems herself later after this tragedy.

    Kamui – his line of justice is somehow had me love/hate him at the same time. Yes, i do love to see him dethroning the fucking Sibyl system, but the way he let “crazy” people massacring one another is unforgivable. But the society is just so pitiful and pathetic, i just dunno what to say anymore.

    Akane – all i can say about Akane is: PLEASE HURRY UP!!! I’m dying to see her battles Kamui for this one. Her ability to keep her Hue clear while going to a verge of insanity but still human inside is what makes me putting all my money and hope on her. I hopes Kogami returns and put a smile on Akane’s face. She hasnt been fully “emotional” since PP2 episode 1.

    Aoyanagi’s death had left me trauma watching this series. WHY DOES SHE HAD TO DIEEEE?! I’m starting to love her, and just when i have this feeling of attachment, Urobutcher just had to go with his killing spree! What she did back there is how a real cop really should’ve acted, but sucks that Sibyl’s stupid inspectors shooting her down unjustly, i hate this show.

    RIP babe, i’ll missed you ;____;

    onion warrior
      1. Urobuchi isn’t the writer this time around. The person who directed…or wrote Hamatora is doing the script. I think Urobuchi if anything is just overseeing the script to make sure it doesn’t take a large detour….like get all Moe.

        SDFGS
      2. He doesn’t need to be, he created perfect son, the dominator, dominator will continue his work of death without him being there, Gen found a loophole, influence without presence.

        Dwarg
      3. Writer is Kumagai Jun, Series Composition is Tow Ubukata. If no one hasn’t seen Mardock Scramble movies, all written and series-composed by Ubukata, well, I’d just like to say that Ubukata is more brutal from the start. More graphic too. And no censors.

        witchhuntress
  20. While I get that Aoyanagi dying was a shock, and Mika was beyond annoying as a character in this episode especially, why has no one mentioned the statement towards the end?

    “What colour are you… Sybil?”

    I think that deserves some thought too, no?

    Djalaal
  21. “Aoyanagi san ,this moment you manage to overcome your weakness and able to blossom as a Human being , you anger , your distress and rage are so beautiful , but there for the best moment still the one that you cease to exist” *Mikishima make his remark while watching a foota

    PeTdo
  22. It’s possible that the reason the old man stripped the hostages of their clothes is to make them feel vulnerable and embarrassed, leaving them literally exposed. There have been a number of real life anecdotes of robbers and kidnappers forcing their victims to remove their clothes to prevent any sort of retaliation.

    Mika is super annoying (as usual) but this event may finally wake her up to her dependency and faith on the Sibyl system to handle criminals. You can already see that she’s starting to crack at the end of the episode.

    Fat Cat Lim
  23. By staging this massacre, Kamui has exposed the ridiculousness (to those witnesses who are still alive afterwards, i.e. Shimotsuki et al) of the Sybil System, judging people based on the Criminal Coefficient, which has been shown again and again that it is susceptible to swinging up and down without warning, and not on their intent and testimonies.

    Though the System, via their robot avatar Chief Kasei, naturally sent Divison 3, which doesn’t seem to ask too many questions, to hush up on all the witnesses who saw the anomaly in action. (And all this done behind Akane’s back, she’s certainly to raise hell with the System next episode over this. )

    Division 3 probably genuinely believed they’re merely doing their job, in a way, they’re unlike Shimotsuki’s inaction.

    echykr
  24. My theory stands that Kamui was a (child?) survivor of the plane crash that holo came from. I don’t think he had that scar due to plastic surgery. I don’t think he’s Kagari or Makishima or Kougami in disguise. He’s a new person.
    Thanks to the tumblr links above regarding defense of Mika and the society in PP. I forgot most of season 1, so I could not have enough as examples to point out before. But anyway, the hostage scene in the mental care facility reminded me of the Stanford(?) Prison Experiment by Zimbardo. This real life social experiment consisted of random people assigned to either of two roles: guard or prisoner. The result of the experiment was that those who were assigned as guards acted their roles to the extreme (this includes bad-mouthing or thrashing perhaps, I forgot), and those who acted as prisoners became submissive or fearful later on under a vicious authority/guard. This experiment is a parallel to what happened in this ep. In the absence of Sybil (their supposed savior/authority), they have no other authority but the old man. They were like children, and Sybil made them like this—so protected and dependent to Sybil.
    On another note, I now remember what Psycho-Pass world is similar to. It is like the world of the novel HARMONY by Project Itoh (too bad he died early). In Harmony, people are protected from seeing/reading about violence/violence-content materials. Everyone is said to be a “resource,” and thereby harming resources will lead to certain measures to be done like in the PP world. And, if there’s one line that I think the OLD MAN IN THIS EP similarly points out in different words/phrasing, it’s that “kindness is the worst.” Since the old man had eustress deficiency, he was under therapeutic treatment that I think, as he’d said, made him numb instead of feel/have a normal amount of eustress. And this numbness gave him more distress—not being able to feel pain, not feeling alive. This guy was reduced into an empty shell all due to Sybil’s kind help. That’s why he looks so dead/so puppet-like. Idk about his great strength though.
    Anyway, Kamui once again grimaces at the loss of another follower, and now we see his scar. His history is still kept intriguing, but he’s being revealed slowly by each “experiment” he does.
    I feel bad for Division 2. Both inspectors now gone…

    witchhuntress
  25. For those unhappy with how the people acted like idiots who can’t protect themselves and the agents doing stupid things, you need to understand the world they live in.

    This may cause some people to be unhappy, but I feel this is an easy to understand illustration.

    Replace Sibyl system with god and the place they live in is an utopia. Yes, the system is no god and where they live is no utopia, but the way people are brought up you might as well say the system is god to them. The simplest explanation is normal people believe in god’s agents, in this case the MWPSB agents, will come and save them. For the MWPSB agents the dominators are like the will of god and whatever it decides will be the course of action taken by the agents, even killing the victims. And when it says the criminal you are pointing at is no criminal, the agents will be helpless since the system has decided the criminal in front of them is innocent. They can’t go against the system, and some won’t even question the reason why it deem the criminal innocent. Of course, there are a few rare cases like Akane who don’t believe the system and act according to their judgement.

    Further analysis would be:
    With god, or the system, deciding their life for them (look at season 1 where Akane and her friends were waiting for their career recommendation) and being the judge of what is right and wrong, most will leave decision making to the system and over time they will lose this decision making even in life threatening situations. So until they reach a breaking point either to be unable to act and think anymore, or to try and save themselves by fighting, they will just wait for help to arrive, which is intervention by the Sibyl system.
    It’s the same for MWPSB agents. They act upon the judgement of the dominators, the will of Sibyl system. Even when the dominators are helpless to stop the criminal from doing whatever acts of destruction, the MWPSB agents will be unable to do anything to stop them until they reached their breaking point. (Example: Akane unable to shoot Shougo and watch helplessly at her friend’s throat being slit)

    Mika is just like the normal people in the society. To put it in terms of the illustration I gave:
    The agents of god just execute the will of god. However, Akane despite being an agent of god, not only don’t follow the rules and sometimes don’t execute the will of god. Instead she act upon her own judgement to do things which no other inspector does and sometime ignore what Sibyl wills. There’s also the part where Akane’s allowed take these actions (due to her special status with Sibyl system which no one else knows) whereby she’s being restricted by Akane (for her safety, but Mika doesn’t know that) For us views Mika can be annoying, but for normal people in that society Mika is the normal one while Akane is the annoying one.

    ofislacker
    1. Because her dragged-out development is stirring up more than it should. I get that she’s supposed to make people hate her, development-wise, but some viewers seem to be losing sight of the actual episode.

  26. Well, thanks for the summary and for the OP shots, but I think you forgot one thing (and I think it’s been on the OP since ep 1): If you look at the last close-up-loop Akane does, the one she’s unbuttoning her shirt, “she” becomes a “he” on the last panel. By the hairstyle, I’d say AKane turned into Kougami, but since it’s all black, I can’t say for sure.

    Yuki
  27. I’ve always found Psycho-Pass an interesting watch which is why I am saddened with what I have to say about this episode: I HATED it. I’ve haven’t hated a single episode this much in a while. It’s a contrived progression of plots that required everyone to be rock stupid just to hammer some ham-fisted message of the flaws of the SYBIL dystopia. Something already done far better and with more subtlety last season.

    I’ve not really a fan of Urobuchi’s work (Madoka was an exception) but I’ve always given him some slack because even at his darkest moments, he always injects something interesting in his writing. Usually to give his signature nihilist themes or character insight that give some shading to characters even when they do horrible acts. Now I’ve only noticed how invaluable his contribution is, because without him being directly involved what we get is a cluster**** of awful moments, designed as pure gore and shock value. It’s just being dark for darkness sake. I absolutely despise that kind of writing.

    The people being passive? Well sure, I could buy them cowering in fear. I mean its not like the series established that civilians can snap under duress to defend themselves… OH WAIT!!! Did the writers forget that MAJOR event on the city that nearly caused anarchy on the “perfect” society? And let me remind you, few people died on that event and their CC never this high. Unless they explain that Kamui has a magic aura that can affect the CC around everyone, I officially call BS on that one.

    Also it was established last season that the point of Inspectors and Enforcers was to add a human element of decision on the SYBIL judgement. Well, its nice to see the writers forget that so we can have our stupid deaths. Have to force some emotion from the audience after all.

    And Aoyanagi? I actually liked her scene with Ginoza last episode. It was nice to see other people with the Bureau get development and wanted to see what they were going with this. Turns out it was just to inject some emotion to this minor character before killing her off. That is the definition of cheap writing.

    Ironically, Mika the one the garnered the most hate, is the one I have least to complain about. It’s still consistent with her characterization of being by-the-book despite the dire consequences. My only gripe is the same one as before: The fact that they established that she has worked for more than a year and yet is written like an incompetent rookie. I wish the writers give her a point for her existence already.

    fragb85
    1. Did Chief Kasei say that human discretion is important in using dominators against people with high CC last season? That killing people should be done only after they’re thought as irredeemable by Inspectors and Enforcers (like Akane seems to be doing now)? Or was it a personal conclusion based on Kougami and Masaoka and even Makishima’s claims? Can you also point out the past episode of that or give screencaps?

      As to people not having low CC in that riot in s1, I honestly forgot what happened. However, as some people recalled and reminded me, those people who watched that riot? They thought it was an act or a joke. Now, I’m not really sure if that was true because s1 is really hazy for me, but if it is, then wouldn’t that explain the low CCs at that time? That since it was an act, people thought nothing wrong about it. So their hue wasn’t clouded so much.

      Also, while I agree there are deaths due to Division 3’s stupidity and Mika’s passiveness, I think it should be noted that these people are not like Kougami and Masaoka and Akane. In fact, we don’t know Division 3 at all. I don’t remember a bunch of people being locked together in a room with someone who can kill them, people who need MENTAL CARE at that and not have high CC afterwards. I don’t recall s1 showing that people in this society have “fight or flight” response—the attack or runaway response that we all have in real life society. In fact, I don’t recall from s1 that people were knowledgeable on how to deal with situations like this when it’s really real and Sibyl isn’t there to protect them. When Sibyl doesn’t think the supposed criminal should be judged, and instead they are the ones to be judged? When as proven by the punched guy who attacked the old man (and failed), those who may do something like oppose the old man will have higher CC than they should have earlier?

      I agree that this ep ham-fisted the flaws of Sibyl, but is that not the point? To have more people in the Public Bureau know the flaws of Sybil through first-hand experience because no one will teach them these flaws or make them question Sybil in any other way? Or show how different Akane, Kougami, and Masaoka’s beliefs are to us as compared to the rest of Sybil’s inspectors and enforcers?

      I agree that it has shock value and gore. Glorified? Perhaps. Justified? Perhaps not.

      witchhuntress
    2. I have another question: Wasn’t the “human element” in Sybil the brains they took from intelligent masterminds/criminals? Not that living Inspectors or Enforcers are directly and consciously involved in Sybil’s decisions?

      witchhuntress
    3. The people being passive? Well sure, I could buy them cowering in fear. I mean its not like the series established that civilians can snap under duress to defend themselves… OH WAIT!!!

      The riot was the result of people having enough and getting their own weapons to fight back. It is a small percentage of the population and from what we saw, they were physically and mentally equipped enough to fight back. This group of people are people ingesting stress suppressants in a pharmaceutical, which means they were even less likely equipped to deal with stressful situations. They were stripped down (making them even more vulnerable) and weaponless and when one of them actually fought back, his head was crushed.

      The two things are not comparable at all. Not everyone will react the same way during a situation and human brains have a fight-or-flight trigger for a reason. A group of people choosing flight does not negate those who participated in the riot choosing to fight. Not to mention that riot was nearly two years ago, in a world that actively tries to scare people into not feeling stressed. An average individual will likely stop caring about the riot and not think about it anymore in order to ensure their continued mental healthness.

      And let me remind you, few people died on that event and their CC never this high.

      Makishima’s CC went lower the closer to killing he became. The character in the robot factory’s CC went down the day he killed one of his coworkers. His other coworkers keep their hue clear by bullying that character.

      During the riot, the people’s CC might increase because they’re killing others but the de-stressing brought forth by releasing frustrations and tensions by beating the hell out of/killing those they deem were “at fault” would counteract that. They were also led to believe that it’s all right because Makishima released false information on the internet.

      Contrast that with this scenario, wherein it’s one person terrorising a group of people that was already mentally ill-equipped to handle stress. There is no de-stressing alternative, no way to let out frustration and tension. Their stress level just keeps mounting and mounting until they’re a hysterical mess.

      Also it was established last season that the point of Inspectors and Enforcers was to add a human element of decision on the SYBIL judgement. Well, its nice to see the writers forget that so we can have our stupid deaths. Have to force some emotion from the audience after all.

      During S01E01, the kidnap-and-rape victim’s CC passed 100 so Masaomi was about to paralyse her. When her CC passed 300, Kougami was about to kill her. You are confusing the character development that Division 1 went through as something that the entire Psycho-Pass world went through when Kougami himself would have probably reacted the same way when faced with a group of people showing 300+ CCs if he was still his S01E01 self.

      The human element does not mean empathy – it does not mean Tsunemori attempting to lower someone’s CC in order to save his life. She is an anomaly after all. Human element means experience and adaptability, which even Sybil exhibits, what with being made of human brains and all. Sometimes, like with Tsunemori, that comes with an innate desire to save lives. Sometimes, like with Kougami, it means relying on their similarity with the criminals to determine their next move. And sometimes, like with Division 3 and Shimotsuki, it means following protocol and acting according to their usual MO.

      Anonymous
  28. Just imagine the turmoil inside the public safety bureau if the fact that inspectors can be judged is released…. May create enough time for good ol’ Kirito to sneak in and have an intimate moment with lady Sibyl. 😉

    DaBanzaiFish
  29. If I had to guess what all of this is leading up to…

    First Kamui tried to determine if someone other than a registered user could fire a Dominator.

    Then he tried to determine if Inspectors would be targets for enforcement.

    Either he knows of the existence of the brains or he at least knows that there is someone beyond a computer program controlling everything at the top. All of these experiments could be leading up to finding out whether if a Dominator is pointed at the person controlling the Sybil system if it will fire.

    This could climax with Kamui going through the brain room and just shooting fish in a barrel.

    qwert
  30. Great episode ! Great post ! We are back to where we started ! what color is sybil 🙂 I wonder what sybil’s crime coefficient is when someone points the dominator at the system.

    shensu3
  31. Episode 4 is not a very good episode of Psycho-Pass. I’m not sure if I’d go straight to bad, but “stretched” is definitely not… well, a stretch. Most of the episode is taken up with Akane, Ginoza, and Kougane trading the details of the Kamui case back and forth as they begin to interrogate a renowned politician with ties to this criminal “ghost.” More importantly, there’s a horrific hostage kerfuffle going on at a pharmacy in the city, but Mika’s unit is in charge of that detail, and she refuses to act without specific orders, so it’s a lot of waiting around as the instigator, let’s call him Cane-Man, forces his hostages to strip down to their underwear and shouts the same tired mantra about Kamui over and over for attempted shock value that unfortunately reads a little silly. It’s a lot of “taking three minutes to convey one minute of information” nonsense with some dishearteningly poor animation breaking it up. (The scene where the first of Cane-Man’s half-naked hostages tries to attack him is painfully awkward.)

    It turns out that this is all just a build to the episode’s hammerfall which will no doubt land as either haunting or forced, depending on the viewer. Given the sentence I started this review on, you can probably guess which camp I fall into. Even in its taste-iffy first episode or its bizarre revelation of Sibyl’s true nature, season one of Psycho-Pass was never this unsubtle. In a franchise already built on strong perspectives, I’ve never felt so blatantly herded into being told what to think and feel and never felt like kicking back at overwrought execution so hard. Where are the spaces between the lines I used to enjoy reading? What is this constant philosophy parroting leading up to brainless indulgent violence built on even more shocking contrivances? It’s the worst version of what Psycho-Pass could have been, and episode 4 is the worst of season 2 so far.

    Ultimately, it ends on a senseless slaughter, depicting more of the show’s “body-exploding” effect in five minutes than maybe ever appeared in the entirety of season 1, except this time, all the victims are nearly naked to make it more shocking, I guess. There’s also a meaningless lead character death: guess that little romance of yours isn’t going anywhere, Ginoza! The writers knew they couldn’t justify finishing things out this way at the hands of Section 2, so they bring in an entirely new Section 3, full of all new characters, to execute the order. Wait, but the show hasn’t even begun to develop all the new characters it already has, and I swear if I see one more person – especially the chief of Sybil – talking to themselves out loud about their motivations again…

    lester
  32. Psycho-Pass is a good example of a totalitarian state. Remove the Dominator and Sybil technology and just use an inflexible social system with top-down absolute management and you get the current anime. Political officers telling the real police and detectives and military what to do, how to act. No one taking their own initiative for fear of reprisal, including summary execution. A system broken that does not allow for even the policemen and women to escape becoming a sacrifice in they are seen in the wrong light.

    The Dominator/Sybil system is a “shoot first, always, never question” system. Crime Coefficient above 100, you’re incapacitated into unconsciousness. Over 300, you’re dead. No second chances, no mistakes – one shot and there will not be anything left of you (I think one guy had a glancing shot and lost an arm instantly in Season One).

    The people are sheep in this state, as written above by another poster (sithstormjedi). Anything other than a sheep shows up on the Crime Coefficient and gets shot. Inspector Akane gets treated like a pariah because she dares to think “outside of the box”, and has the (genetic? mental fortitude?) ability to not raise her CC (or recover her CC). There are no “watchdogs” around the sheep – those are Enforcers and generally treated as criminals one action away from being shot themselves. Look at the Assault Dominator – it doesn’t even get a visual on someone, just their CC level, before being authorized to kill. Imagine drones with Dominators just gunning down people left and right according to their CC.

    What typically happens in a totalitarian state where someone successfully eludes the state is the dictator starts burning people left and right until there is a revolution. Is that what Kamui wants? Is his ability to be invisible, not just “white” to Sybil singular, or can it be learned? Is the man a master psychologist that has discovered the secret to eluding Sybil?

    Kamui is learning about Dominator limits, about Inspector limits. What’s the next step?

    jhpace1
  33. Whoops, I commented on the wrong episode, haha D:

    So anyone else think that the nurse guy who was holding the nail-gun was actually Kamui inside a holo and watched the whole thing before escaping?

    Yuki
    1. I think there’s quite a good chance that he was the nurse. I counted 13 hostages besides him – three of them were killed inside, and 10 outside. So one person’s definitely missing in the body count.

      That said, perhaps we’ll see him next episode receiving treatment for shock?

      karice67
      1. I don’t think so. See, go to minute 17 of the episode. You’ll see the exact time Ayonagi explodes and her blood spills everywhere – hostages, culprit and nurse. The hostages freak out, but the nurse remains cold. And he suddenly disappears right before Kamui shows up. And by the time the MWPSB goes inside, everyone’s already dead – or missing.
        If the nurse really is Kamui in a holo, this means his holos are so top notch they can speak and be touched without producing noise, hence his ‘obsession’ with multiple layers for holos.

        Yuki
  34. While I did enjoy this episode, I feel it was lacking in terms of continuity.

    We learned in the first season that inspectors and enforcers carry Dominators instead of handing them over to drones because that human element is needed in abnormal situations in which the system does not function properly (eg. Makishima and Touma’s cases) and that they can and have previously apprehended people with low crime coefficients. It was even Division 2 which apprehended Touma back then.

    Then there is the people’s reactions during the whole helmet incident. They were very able to fight back after they realize their lifes are endangered, so no one remembers that incident now?

    There was also a point which Yayoi mentioned during the helmet incident, that people who cannot be scanned by street scanners or cameras because they are blocking the cymatic scans somehow, still trigger an alert. So I wonder how they will explain Kamui being able to walk around town just like that.

    So yeah, I kinda feel that this episode completely ignores what happened / was established before and it loses its sense of realism and coherency in the Psycho-Pass world.

    crimilde
  35. Me suddenly watching the opening credits intently…
    Urobutchi is credited as “supervisor” – whatever that title means.
    OH, SH.T

    also, Sybil has a conundrum:
    there are people that can find a way around Dominaotors… or hue scale altogether for that matter
    yet, to admit it and create unit armed with other form of weaponry would be to admit Sybil istself is fallible and therefore not worth the price in freedom
    but when the people in question seize Dominators and start targetting Inspectors things might well soon get so much out of control that the system will crumble anyway

    also “I was only following orders”
    shudder, so many real life death squads used the same excuse…

    ewok40k
  36. Request to the author, can you not put details about “main characters” and “dying” in the same blurb on the front page. I didn’t realise anyone was going to die this week, but I opened RC by accident and boom it was in my face, and couldn’t unsee it. I spent the episode looking for someone to die instead of actually being surprised. Apologies in advance if this offends you in anyway.

    superdx
    1. Are you kidding? The whole point of this site is to summarize, review & discuss episodes WATCHED. If you don’t want to be spoiled then you probably shouldn’t visit the site before watching the episode.

      comicsands
      1. I know better than to come here without watching the show first. Notice how I said by accident. I’ve been thinking about removing RC from the list of sites that I frequent every week, mainly because it barely adds to the enjoyment of the show.

        After this though, I think it’s pretty much done for me. Last season’s coverage of Aldnoah was just too much nitpicking for a show that wasn’t supposed to be deep. The reviews and comments were so negative that even though I enjoyed the show a lot, coming here detracted from that.

        So if RC wants to spoil stuff on the front page, I think that’s fine, that’s their choice. But I would suggest that you will find increasingly less readers coming. This also happened for FMA:B and SAO when commenters would continually spoil the show in advance and the mods barely did anything about it.

        My $0.01. Guess I’ll come back in a year or two. You can find me lurking on reddit/r/anime 🙂

        superdx
      2. @superdx:
        Everyone has a different definition of “spoiler” but if you think talking about the episode that JUST aired is “spoiling”, then I don’t know what to tell you… maybe avoiding the site will increase your enjoyment of it, but I won’t filter out thoughts just because some people may or may not have seen something.

        RC has a wide range of audiences and as staff members on this site, we try and appease to the general public. We blog as fast as we can because we realize that people want a place to visit as soon as they’re done watching. We put up screencaps and full-lengths because… well… everyone wants something pretty to look at. We also try and offer pieces of information that folks may or may not know… but in doing so, if that ruins the “surprise” for you then, I can’t help you because I can’t make everyone happy. One of the reasons I signed up to be a writer is to have that discussion with our readers. I want to hear their POV and talk about things I might have missed – in this case, we’re all trying to decipher what’s going on in PP2. If I limit what I say because I’m worried that someone else will be “spoiled”, then why write if I can’t say what I want to say? PP2 is already an anime-original so everyone is in the same boat; nobody can say for certain that THIS is what will happen.

        I’m upset that you say that we don’t try and moderate our comments because for something like Fate/Stay Night and Akame ga Kill, I think we’ve been particularly careful about spoilers (even if it means spoiling events for ourselves). Of course, we are human so I’m sorry if you read something like “________ dies” before we can because we’re not watching the site 24/7. What makes you think that reddit won’t spoil anything for you more than RC does? O_o Why visit sites like MAL or Wiki or blogs at all then if you’re scared of what someone will say? Everyone takes that risk if you want to converse with someone over these mediums. On RC, I think we’ve done a great job already given that we are not losing readers but gaining =)

  37. So I only got to watch this episode today and well…..

    Even though we’ve got one of the dudes who helped write one of the Ghost In The Shell series on board as series comp., the fact that they’ve allowed the writer who wrote Hamatora on to this project just kinda makes much of Psycho-Pass 2 dip in script quality.

    For one thing, apparently Shimotsuki was one of the students at the all-girls academy back in season 1, and it was shown that she had something called, oh I don’t know, A HEART.

    Well, not anymore.

    I don’t know how frickin’ long the time-skip has been on this one, but it’s as if the core of whatever little character development she had as a minor character gets thrown into the trash-can for scripts, and tacked on with an off-putting, pungent and exceedingly obnoxious personality.

    Couple that with the ‘as a matter of fact’ script-writing and little experience with just ‘letting the actions and expressions do the explaining’, makes this more of a Psycho-Pass for the clueless and unmoved, instead of the Psycho-Pass of intrigue and careful observation. In other words, actions and emotions cannot even speak for themselves. But other than that, one of the biggest script-writing gripes I have is with the handling of Jouji (the outdated shrink) ‘s character. Back in season 1, though it could be an indicator of a thorough lack of understanding on the Urobutcher’s part, at least his character had a touch of a tongue-in-cheek approach to how shrinks operate. This time though, that characterization flair is just gone, GONE.

    Also, although I can understand that you’re trying to portray a 1984 + Brave New World like society where ‘free thinking’, ‘philosophizing’ and ‘individualism’ just ain’t the norm, but still, even then you’d expect some degree of idealism in most of these ‘background extras’ (MWSP/civilians/etc.). You got that in season 1, but not here though… Ohohoho… Definitely off-putting to the max, though it can still be argued that it’s part of what makes the society presented in Psycho-Pass, a uniquely Japanese creation due to culture and history.

    Nishizawa Mihashi
  38. People appalled at Division 3’s actions and expecting them to do better seem to be confusing the character development that Division 1 went through last season, as something that the entire world of Psycho Pass went through.

    I mean, had Tsunemori not stopped him, Kougami himself would have killed the rape victim during last season’s first ep just because she went hysterical and showed 300+. That’s the world of Psycho Pass and not everyone is part of Division 1.

    Anonymous
  39. now there is one thing that bugs me and that is people saying that their are development seriously its only been four episodes and also kamui will destroy sibyl i know that the reason that at the end of akane says to sibyl that one day someone will come and destroy this system and will shut it down . and mika god she was afraid to do that afraid to see her hue darken well the reason we know froom season 1 and gosh people its only been 4 episodes stop dropping the series

    anaw
  40. Just started catching up on this now that it’s finished up and been going through the reviews, and I’d have to agree to a certain extent with what everyone has said.

    While Mika is a product of her environment, that doesn’t mean the audience will find her any less insufferable. However, that’s just an issue of bad writing, as it’s being highly exploitative. Instead of just letting her be a result of their society, something of a bureaucratic robot, they felt the need to make her vindictive and inclined to constant insubordination to Akane, so they could pile on the audience hate.

    She’s pretty much the bad trope of the half-cocked idealistic rookie partner that’s a stickler for the rulebook who’s constantly questioning her partner (who Akane was to a lesser degree in season 1), and that’s just not subtle and it’s just unnecessary. As a result, she’s not much of a character and just an exploitative caricature. Couple that with the way the other investigators blast away mindlessly, and the way all the hostages reacted, or didn’t, it’s really doing a blatant job at pressing the audience’s buttons in the most base way. Sure, it certainly works in eliciting a strong emotional response, but it’s still a cheap ploy.

    And yes, they are a product of their society, but season 1 established a little more sensibility and logic which is absent here. If we are to give them a pass for being socially conditioned, we should still question how some of them rose to their positions, as some sort of standard and capability is still needed for these positions one would surmise.

    TL;DR: mostly everyone deserved to die except Akane and her enforcers.

    Impel Down Hippo

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