First Impressions / PSYCHO-PASS

OP Sequence

OP: 「Q-vism」by Who-ya Extended

「Laelaps’ Calling」

On average I’m fairly sure most of us would’ve forgotten the fall season is still missing a couple heavy hitters after getting into its fourth week, but Psycho Pass certainly didn’t waste any effort in helping remind everyone of that fact. This series’ third season may be starting off with serious doubt and concern given past happenings (particularly its second season), but in between this week’s opener and the hints of things to come, I’ll be damned if it’s not beginning on the right foot.

In light of everyone watching Psycho Pass 3 having already seen at minimum both prior seasons (because only the masochist would start a series midway in), a lot of the background here shouldn’t need explaining as frankly this episode doesn’t stray far from the garden path. This world’s Japan is just as Sibyl dominated and morally divisive as it was previously, concerns over individual Psycho Passes and staying below Enforcement level are just as prevalent, and the setting is just as deliciously cyberpunk as ever. The major difference of course is that this season features an anti-isolationism push and increased immigration, with the accompanying transformation of an otherwise idyllic, homogenous Japan catalyzing tensions very likely to become one of Psycho-Pass 3’s calling cards. It may be too early to determine this season’s main overall theme, but you can be sure the answer is not far out of sight.

From these newfound tensions and themes likewise comes this season’s characters, and here I imagine is where most of the musings will stem from. Our main duo (at least for the moment) looks to be Shindou Arata (Kaji Yuki) and Kei Mihkail Ignatov (Nakamura Yuuichi), with the former being a lackadaisical, happy-go-lucky boy and the latter a more rigid, hard assed purveyor of justice. Whereas Kei is relatively straightforward (Russian name, military backstory, and that formalized personality make him an easy read), Arata is going to be the interesting one to watch—and likely not entirely in the good way. To be honest I’m not entirely sold on the kid supposedly being a mentalist and having the clairvoyant power to become (in a mental sense) someone else. With Psycho Pass heavily focused on psychology and mental gaming with little “true” magic, suddenly having a main character go full magician and bypass a lot of the series’ restrictions makes things (and key mysteries) seem a little too easy to deal with. It could be unfounded worry on my part, but after that second season (and with Ubukata Tow of season two fame back series composing), the doubt will take a bit to fully dissipate.

Where this will really come into play is with our returning characters, because oh boy are there a lot of answers needed in this realm. For starters we have Tsunemori Akane (Hanazawa Kana) as both ex-Inspector and seemingly locked up, and everyone’s favourite justice loving Shimotsuki Mika (Sakura Ayane) as chief. Yes, chief. We also get lovable Karanomori Shion (Sawashiro Miyuki) and the quiet redhead Hinakawa Shou (Sakurai Takahiro) making appearances, although the big one is Ginoza Nobuchika (Nojima Kenji) because the sound of a deal with Mika doesn’t invite love and peace when she’s up the promotion ladder and Akane is out of the picture. Considering the Sinners of the System movies don’t cover the reasons for these character updates it’s truly anyone’s guess just where this season is going with them, but I firmly suspect it won’t take long for the reveal given how likely it’s associated with Arata’s (and Kei’s) ulterior objective. It may all be conventional Psycho Pass right now between silenced whistleblowers, corporate secrets, and the existence of a new (potential) Sibyl opponent in Bifrost, but once this season’s underlying twist is finally shown things won’t be sticking to the trail for too long.

We may not know yet how Psycho Pass 3 will match up to its prior seasons, but with 16 episodes to work with (each of the eight episodes will be an hour long), plenty of intriguing plot tangents, and these fantastic production chops, I’m firmly betting this one will be what’s needed to finally right what’s wrong with this franchise ship.

 

ED Sequence

ED: 「bullet」by Cö shu Nie

23 Comments

  2. In light of everyone watching Psycho Pass 3 having already seen at minimum both prior seasons (because only the masochist would start a series midway in)…

    Sometimes I wonder if only the masochist would have watched season 2, so will I be able to make sense of season 3 without it?

    Angelus
    Reply

    1. yeah, s2 is kinda standalone’ish. but to be frank it ain’t bad, don’t listen to speshul people from reddit or holier than thou from /a/. it’s not close to s1, characters got…erm, not brilliantly written, but some stories are great, worthy of s1.

      oy vey
      Reply

    2. The story of season 2 itself isn’t of much importance, but the character development that happened during could end up factoring in. Most of the current cast is new characters though so it’ll end up being a matter of if and when characters from the previous seasons return. For the moment at least you should read up on Chief Shimotsuki as she was introduced in season 2 and you’ll want to know how Tsunemori’s junior ended up in charge of the whole department.

      qwert
      Reply

    3. As oy vey and qwert mention the second season likely won’t be mandatory viewing to make sense of this one, but watching it beforehand will definitely help make better sense of certain developments (e.g. Akane and Ginoza).

      Pancakes
      Reply

  3. While I do hate Mika Shimotsuki, and I am still not sure if she truly realized her own flaws, I am reminded that her mind is a product of how the world was made in her time.

    Frankly, I would wonder happen if Mika Shimotsuki would be in a situation similar to Re:creators. Like to know how she would react when a fan collects all of Mika Shimotsuki’s mistakes and smacks it right in her face.

    Greed
    Reply

    1. they did precisely that at s2 end, if i remember correctly. Mika found the whole truth and went whacko, completely off the hook insane in the membrane singing happy rain type of broken.
      don’t remember if they showed her psycho-pass at that moment, but i would wager things it got to vallhalla via dominator territory easy

      oy vey
      Reply

    2. I’m hoping this season is going to be a bit of a redemption arc for her. At this point she seems to be in the same position as Akane was after finding out the truth about Sybil but instead of being more antagonistic towards the system she’s realized she can do more to resist it from a seat of power within it.

      qwert
      Reply

      1. Considering where we left off I highly doubt she decided to resist the system. More likely she saw a better opportunity to dispense justice by becoming further entrenched in the system lol. All subject to change though, we first have to find out what happened with Akane.

        Pancakes
        Reply

  6. I still miss the main villain, Shogo Makishima from season 1. For me, he has really set a very high standard of how cool and wicked a villain could be that truly could be appreciated. Season 2 was a disaster for me with unlikable cast of Enforcers and mainly Mika with her ignorance and lackluster performance. So far, season 3 does not start as well as I thought it would be. All the strategies, logic and playing of words between characters (philosophy) seem not there to amuse me for this season but I will observe…

    fishell
    Reply

    2. Fat chance it will happen.
      They have Gen in season 1 and Tow in season 2, and you knew the difference in quality right away, right? And….well…I don’t see Gen’s name in the team for season 3….so……yea.

      whatever
      Reply

  8. I wonder whether they’ll go full financial crime here. But I’m afraid the writers don’t have enough expertise to incorporate economics & financial themes in a clever and engaging way.

    Sherris
    Reply

  9. Sinners of the System is actually pretty good. Certainly much more character driven and better executed on that regard than season 2.

    There’s also crazy amount of for-shadowing of what’s to come in season 3, especially concerned with what foreign affairs is up to.

    hoh
    Reply

    2. Nope you do not. Those movies serve to fill in some blanks for both prior seasons and the first movie and from all indication won’t be directly referenced in this season. They may help provide further information on some of the characters, but you won’t need them to make sense of this season’s story.

      Pancakes
      Reply

      1. Okay, great! I felt like I was missing something given how things started off this season and when I heard their were in between movies I thought those events happened in them. Thanks! I’ll watch the films when I can track them down.

        Clurm
        Reply

  11. Woah.
    New mentalist gimmick.

    More players.
    The “Fox” planmaker and the Bifrost.

    Ginoza at the end.
    Guess I need to watch Psycho Pass SS to find out the relation.

    What is the truth?

    Good vibes for the 1st episode.

    iron2000
    Reply

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