First Impressions / PSYCHO-PASS

「魂の基準」 (Tamashii no Kijun)
“Gauging the Soul”

No surprises this week, but the focus has shifted back on Akane and she finally makes a move! And by that I mean, she’s finally taking a stance against Sybil after all these weeks. Since the beginning of the season I’ve been waiting for Akane to do something rather than silently sit in the shadows of the corrupted system that she works for. We know her POV, but I want to see her take action and actually challenge the Chief or at least – do more for the people that also oppose the system. This episode continues to reinforce the reason why I love Akane so much and she finally stands up to become the focal point of the show again. No more bashing poor old Mika! I promised last week that I would lay off her for a while and that is why… she does not get her own paragraph this week.

One of my complaints last week was how predictable Tougane got as a villain. The camera doesn’t even try and hide the fact that this guy is pure evil and he’s just out to cloud Akane’s psyche. The scary looks on his face, the fact that he actually murdered Aoi, all just point in one direction – Tougane is up to no good. I feel like this is one piece of the anime that bothers me because for so long you’re contemplating who he is, what he’s up to and whether or not you can really trust him. Then the writers reveal his history – not slowly – but rather, just a dump of information about his mother and how he’s artificially created and now, there’s just no mystery left. He’s out to get Akane and he makes it very obvious. I’m simply displeased with the way his character is portrayed, but if it makes for entertaining television and gives the audience another antagonist, then why not? The more I see Tougane these days, the more Kamui doesn’t seem like such a d*ck himself.

Kamui is a whole separate issue that I have. I don’t really have a problem with his motives, but the way that he executes his plans, hurts my heart. It hurts that he has to take so many hostages all the time and kills innocent people to prove a point or test his theories. You can say that he’s the lesser of two evils, but I still don’t think that two wrongs make a right. In this case, if he’s wants to locate Sybil and destroy it, he could’ve possibly done it another way. What I can finally admit that I like about Kamui though, is his ability to lead people into following his ideals. Up until this point, I’ve always thought of him as someone that just brainwashed individuals, threatened them or fed them lies – but no, he’s actually trying to take down Sybil and change society. Something that no one else has come close to accomplishing (at least, between now and season one) and I have to give him more credit for that. Akane has sat on the sidelines for a while, but Kamui has taken action further than I expected and on a much more larger scale than I imagined.

The episode also had other elements in it that I didn’t really care for. I know the murder of Aoi is supposed to be a pivotal point in changing Akane’s hue, but I just don’t feel much towards that death. I feel as though Akane’s grandmother was only introduced for the purposes of being killed off and that just doesn’t leave a strong connection with me. Of course, no one can argue that seeing Kougami again was the highlight of the episode – it always is. Seeing him (even as Akane’s active imagination) makes me feel that much more excited to see the movie and it’s a nice reminder of the relationship that the two have. I like seeing Akane and Nobu as a duo as well, but the trust and chemistry that Akane and Kougami have is undeniable. I can’t wait to see how Kougami shows up again in the upcoming movie (and/or future episodes… I can always hope!).

Bottom Line – @RCCherrie: Shit is going down on #PsychoPass2 and then we get a cliffhanger! Noooo! Always knew Akane was a smart cookie tho #pp_anime

68 Comments

  1. I simply cannot stand Tougane. The idea of such a completely lame antagonist actually ruining Akane is just such a disrespect to the character they’ve painted her out to be. She’s far too intriguing to be taken out by such uninteresting motives and means.
    I’m honestly on Kamui’s side now. As much as I’ve hated his means, something tells me that we wouldn’t be witnessing such a fearful Sibyl system w/o his methods. They keep acting as though they aren’t worried about Kamui…but they’re trying awfully hard to kill him.
    At this point I simply feel sorry for Mika. What a poor excuse of a human being. The sad part is she’s simply a result of a system that’s taught people to glorify their own sanity and safety over others to the point where it reflects in the way they’re instructed to do their jobs. She’s not worthy of any hate, she’s simply pathetic. The way she actively continues to act all doe-eyed and unaware even while she knows everything she’s doing is simply wrong…but she somehow can’t prevent herself from doing so.
    How pathetic.

    Tougane….he’s such an awfully written character to me. I like absolutely nothing about him, just some nutcase who gets a boner off making everyone else crazy. ZZzzzZZzZZzz can we focus back on Kamui v Akane please? Tougane is such an unpleasant, uninteresting, and uninspiring addition to the show.

    Kabble
    Reply

    1. The ‘paint her black’ ruse was a bit lame, but I like his evil; Ok, I don’t really mean that, but his passive-aggressive attitude is interesting to see. He seems very capable of pulling Kougami level fighting stunts, but they built his character in a way that appeals to my curiosity.

      flCer
      Reply

      1. If it’s over 300, you probably feel like killing someone. If it’s over 700, you like to set people on fire before breakfast, kick puppies around noon, and bludgeon old ladies before you sit down for dinner. After that, you go to sleep to the lovely sound of screams so you can wake up to a brand new and wonderful murder filled day.

        CTT
        Reply

  3. I like how Tougane is portrayed as the evil. Makes a nice contrast and makes viewers question which side is actually evil; Tougane who works for the government to preserve order, or Kamui the one that’s orchestrating terror. I’m a bit surprised Kamui is going head on, alone, against Tougane. Sure, he’s got the dominator, but characters like him seem to be more of a planner than a fighter.

    I’m not picking sides, but I’d expect Tougane to come out on top in a 1v1 situation especially when they’re already in relatively close quarters. He’s 700+ in crime coefficient!

    flCer
    Reply

  5. So .. if seeing Akane’s friend have her throat cut right in front of her and failing to act to save her did not cloud her hue permanently (from PP1), why would having her grandmother who she doesn’t seem to interact with much being murdered do it??? Really PP2 you can do much better than this tripe!

    Scruffy
    Reply

    1. I don’t think the death of the grandmother was supposed to blacken her hue, but it was the action that she would take to avenge her death. It was supposed to motivate Akane to kill Kamui and change her hue as a result, but the plan didn’t work.

      unitedred
      Reply

  6. https://randomc.net/image/PSYCHO-PASS/PSYCHO-PASS%202%20-%2010%20-%20Large%2020.jpg
    Akane you have my condolences.
    https://randomc.net/image/PSYCHO-PASS/PSYCHO-PASS%202%20-%2010%20-%20Large%2021.jpg
    Kogami <3
    P.S. Did anyone notice that quick evil smirk that Togane had (before the camera focused on his face directly) after Akane walked passed him? https://randomc.net/image/PSYCHO-PASS/PSYCHO-PASS%202%20-%2010%20-%20Large%2008.jpg (shivers)

    random viewer
    Reply

  7. https://randomc.net/image/PSYCHO-PASS/PSYCHO-PASS%202%20-%2010%20-%2021.jpg
    Any episode with Kogami is great by my book.
    I’m surprised by Togane’s PP though. How does the Sybil system recognize his psycho pass as 700+ and yet he’s still loyal to the system. Mass murderers from season 1 got 400 tops from their actions. Does Sybil consider clouding one’s psycho pass as more degenerate than murder? Or is clouding inspectors’ psycho pass a special case in their mind(would have written eyes but then again).

    Justpassingby
    Reply

  8. Actually there has been a theory floating around that Akane might be criminally asymptomatic that her hue would not be clouded or allow her crime coefficient to rise in the face of great distress. If this is true, is Sybil System aware of this and is keeping her alive to add her brain to their collection of brains when the time comes? Love how Akane is tackling Sybil by bringing up the Omnipotence Paradox.

    You have to wonder what has Kogami been doing all this time and whether his appearance in the Opening has any significance to the plot other than being a reminder to Akane and us viewers.

    We know that Psycho-Pass Japan is isolated from the rest of the world due to the sustainability of system, I am really interested to see the state of other nations, cant wait for the Movie.

    Flappy
    Reply

  13. I thought the entire division 3 was dead but apparently not (yet anyways).

    Tougane villain was a complete disappointment, at least the PP1 criminals were interesting.

    But it’s amazing how even a figment of imagination in the form of Kougami makes an episode feel so much better.

    KJacket
    Reply

    1. Perhaps for every Gun Holder, there is another critical point. For this one, it is her Eye. For the other Inspectors perhaps it is other body Parts. Try and Error, or he got his Hands on this Identify Gun Holder Parts. So he just need to fake these parts to have a Green light

      WorldwideDepp
      Reply

    2. It wasn’t totally explained, but it was hinted at. Shion (?)had said in earlier episode that they found some sort of eye replication stuff in Kamui’s hideout near the docks. It seems like, when using Dominators, it’s the eye that’s used to identify the user. Kamui studied Shisui’s eye and was able to replicate her retina configuration or something. It’s just like those spy movies and whatnot actually.

      witchhuntress
      Reply

    3. Huh? But they explained it. Saiga-sensei did two episodes back, I think, when he was interrogating the doctor. Kamui made CONTACT LENSES out of Shisui’s eye, so everyone who wears the lense, can use the dominator.

      Yuki
      Reply

  17. Well, you could have mentioned, that Mika gave Akana the report about Togane and his mother, so she coulddraw the conclusion about his mother being Chief Kansei. And that she’s probably trying to stop Togane (who defenitly is not dead yet), by the look of all things.

    dean
    Reply

  18. I like that Akane calls out Togane’s mom on her bs, and knows that she’s been in charge for this entire season because the other brains want her to take responsibility for her actions. In the end the experiments she did came back to haunt them.

    TheVoid
    Reply

  19. Reading the comments for Psycho Pass reviews on this site is always such a pleasure!
    On another note, Tougane is such a disappointing character that I am happy the show finally gets rid of him (hopefully). The omnipotence paradox is also really interesting and well-used in the context of the story.

    cwin
    Reply

  20. Ahh….Kougama-san, why such sort screen time ;___; plus, its only Akane’s subconciousness…are you busy playing Gil at UBW lol…

    Hmm, i guess im gonna be one of those people whos just gonna sit back and eat popcorns til everything is done :/

    The omnipotence paradox is really intriguing btw…go go Akane~

    onion warrior
    Reply

  22. So, Reviewing what have Kamui has done so far:
    -Planting explosives for the MWPSB to capture
    -Kidnapping an inspector and a Dominator for his own (and subsequently other’s) use, killing an enforcer in the process
    -experimented with controlling people’s Pshyco-pass levels during the pharmacy incident.
    -eliminates a lot of enforcers using a remote program disguised as a game, capturing more dominators as a result
    -eliminated all of the diplomats who indirectly caused the transportation failures (ie. year of hell?)
    -threaten an inspector with her relative’s capture (though might not be his doing / relative taken afterwards)
    -forcing Sybil to reveal its location by overloading the usual secure data routes and trying to force Sybil to use a bypass data route by using the dominators on 3 train-loads of people in a short time.
    –Explosives from earlier are re-controlled remotely.

    …quite the laundry list, I have to say.

    info600
    Reply

    1. he is Magnificent Bastard crossed over with Chessmaster…
      -arrange the capture of bombs by Sybil forces
      -only to retake them now
      -guess what will he use them against when he will find location of Sybil HQ?

      ewok40k
      Reply

  23. Tbh I think, that Akane was at least at Saiga Sensei’s level this episode. (if not even surpassed him by chance)

    Seeing her talk that way to Misako (aka current chief) and the Sibyl System made me really proud (inside me, yes freaking give it to her finally) and when she found out about her grandma’s death I just felt like holding her and saying everythings gonna be fine, we can do this Akane. (our poor Akane chan ;_;)

    Just for a moment, I actually thought that Kogami was srsly back again – he succeeded to snuck into the HQ of the MWPSB in between all the chaos and couple of divisions busy, informed himself of everything that happened probably with access to some files – and suddenly literally popped up to help Akane in this crisis. (we do know him this way and god it would have been awesome) However, I believed it for only a few secs, then I was like noooo, please dont let it be her imagination again……. >_<

    Altogether it was one of the best episodes thus far and I cant wait for the next week!

    Yato
    Reply

  24. At least Kamui is not totally bloodthirsty. He used the dominators first on passengers most likely to go over 300 to minimise civilian casulaties, and found a way to evacuate them afterwards.
    Sybil on the other hand, is remorselessly willing to kill all the hostages to get Kamui.(what would you suspect from bunch of latent criminals with license to kill?)
    All of this reminds me of Dubrovka hostage crisis… Do not take hostages in Russia, the government there will gas both you and them.

    My take? down with Sybil, vive la revolution!
    Not much could be worse than current dystopia where everyone is desperately checking his hue everyday…
    And real psychopaths are judging all else.

    ewok40k
    Reply

    1. It’s not that Kamui didn’t want to kill the hostages(by paralyzing the ones near 300 first), but his aim was to USE the dominators on people(to overload network) – killing them would leave him with less targets.

      And freeing the hostages was part of the deal with Akane for the underground map. Of course they would have an escape route, it’s part of simple planning.

      KJacket
      Reply

    1. Tougane is like the Joker in a sense, he just likes to watch the world burn, or in this case, bring high, honourable, and straight-laced people down his level. From what I can tell Tougane simply finds entertainment in corrupting others and seeing how much it will take to do so.

      There’s no envy in Tougane’s actions, if anything he has been constantly rewarded for what he has done (i.e. the “love” of his (pseudo)mother). Destroying Akane’s clear hue is just another pet project to him.

      Pancakes
      Reply

  27. Yes to Queen Akane putting ppl in there place also I’m really starting to think she isn’t criminally asymptomatic or anything special biologically tbh just a girl with an unusually strong mind & spirit which I’m liking idea wise.

    Kamui is ‘Clear’ but Akane…she ‘White’

    fatalblue
    Reply

  28. Maybe I missed this but what is with Tougane level? First we are told that he had the highest level of any recorded psycho-pass. Ok, that’s fine. Then we see the flashback and we are told that Tougane was asymptomatic. That he was engineered to be that way. The puppies, remember the puppies. So his level should have been negligible. The Kamui scans him, presumably before killing him, and his level is over 700. Ummm, WTF?!

    MartialBob
    Reply

    1. The implications here is that Togane is a failed experiment. The Togane Corp thought they had successfully created an asymptomatic human artificially but somewhere down the line that thought was proven false and here we are.

      fatalblue
      Reply

  29. looks like im a little late. Someone may have already posted this but here goes

    Show Spoiler ▼

    shensu3
    Reply

    1. Hmm…there wouldn’t be an anticipated movie if that happened, and if they wanted to make more money after next year.

      Show Spoiler ▼

      witchhuntress
      Reply

  31. The main point Akane made is that it’s not Kamui in the Omnipotence Paradox being criminally asymptomatic. Kamui represents something that SYBIL was never able to judge – collectives. As an aggregate of different parts, Kamui is unique, as well as a mirror to what SYBIL has become when they judge people. By judging Kamui, SYBIL would be able to judge itself, and that’s a question the disembodied brains don’t want to ask themselves.

    This has rumors and hints of Issac Asimov’s Robots and Foundation (Gaia), the Borg collective, The World of Null-A, and other sci-fi ethical questions. I find it most refreshing to not be about Kamui being criminally asymptomatic, nor a gengineered failure like Tougane – who is nothing more than Chief Kansei’s substitute son, and part of an ego trip for the person who created SYBIL and is now part of it.

    Inspector Akane is similar to Gilbert Gosseyn in the World of Null-A: a sane person in an insane world. SYBIL has made people into drones in its’ totalitarian world, and the cracks are showing. Rather than be distracted by personal issues, Inspector Akane has insider information as to the real problem in society – the power behind the politicians that has become corrupt, unthinking, and unchanging in its’ own way. Yet that SYBIL system has great value in keeping society from its’ own ills, which is Akane’s dilemma.

    jhpace1
    Reply

  34. Why Kamui in the last episode states that, depending on who is pointing the dominator to sybyll the verdict of guiltiness could change? It’s not true, though sybyll can judge collective psychopass it always itself which makes the decisions, pointing a dominator doesn’t make you part of the judging system, just a dominator handler and that’s all…

    save
    Reply

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