Psycho-Pass – 08
Let me read you a bedtime story~
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Whew, just finished another essay and wrote an exam today. I’ve got some breathing room to finally catch up on Psycho-Pass now with a quick post. Oryo’s arc wraps up rather nicely this week, leading us to the next catastrophe/massacre/horrible event of the series. Although Psycho-Pass doesn’t quite use cliffhangers, it does a great job hinting at what’s to come next and constantly throwing us bones. |
It’s not very difficult to come to the conclusion that the murderer is at Oso Girls Academy when all of the victims are from the school, and the previous suspect for plastination murders was a teacher who worked there. Somehow, it never crossed Oryo’s mind that leaving such an obvious trail would put her into hot water. Shougo seemed to disprove of her inability to branch out from the same pool of victims since it made her a giant target, and she could potentially lead police to him if she was caught alive. I think the main reason he grew so bored with her is that she was only able to copy her father’s work and didn’t want to expand her horizons. She was at a plateau, and Shougo wouldn’t get to see her grow and flourish. Even Kougami notes that her murder displays have no real agenda or message behind them. Everyone seems to find her art to be devoid of originality aside from Oryo herself, who spends a great deal of time explaining why she’s doing this. It’s a kinder death than being a submissive housewife to the bitter end, she says. It seems like she’s trying to express herself, but I guess it doesn’t compare to the previous murder cases.
In the end, Oryo is hunted down by robo-dogs and shot in the head by Shougo’s henchman, which is not how I expected her to go down. It would have been great if the Dominator had a stun setting for people with high criminal coefficients so that they could actually arrest criminals. How will they ever catch someone like Shougo if it’s protocol to just kill criminals on the spot? There is no way for the police to trace the crimes back to him if they don’t have a witness to question about it. This is either a huge oversight in the production of the Dominator, or the inability of the police to decide when to paralyze and when to vaporize. It makes me wonder how prisons even exist if they all get shot on sight. I guess if they catch it when you’re young enough, you get the pleasure of staying alive…but you have to spend your life in a prison that will gas you if you so much as scratch at the floor with a spoon.
I actually would be quite pleased if the prison wasn’t a one-time thing and Kougami constantly used his connections in the world of the mentally-unstable to get info. The anime tribute to real life tattoo-canvas Rick “zombie boy” Genest was pretty damn cool, and even the people Akane just gave a cursory glance while walking down the hall seemed like cool and creepy people. I bet library bro knows a lot of stuff from the mountain of books in his cell. He could be useful. It’s an interesting way to move crime investigations further, and I just really like seeing what they do with people who are too far gone to become Enforcers.
Bonus Screenshots: Show ▼
It was a bit pathetic that Oryo was caught so quickly because she made such a stupid, stubborn error…but having someone killed by a middle-aged man in old-fashioned hunting gear is as good of a way to end an episode as any. Shougo sure has some interesting henchmen. Anyways, each time a criminal is caught, it’s never a big loss because you know Shougo will find someone even better to amuse himself with. That someone appears to be Kougami. I don’t know how he can antagonize someone on the police force without being caught, unless he uses another middleman. The reason Shougo has been so elusive is that he’s never directly committed any crimes, but if Kougami’s piqued his interests then he’s going to have to be a little more direct. But hey, whether or not it’s a smart plan doesn’t matter! It means we get to see more of Shougo! I hope that next time he quotes something that doesn’t fly right over my head, because that final monologue felt very lengthy since I wasn’t able to catch the reference. Otherwise, it was another solid episode of crime-solving shenanigans with a dramatic death and a dash of the police sucking at apprehending people. No abs though, unfortunately. D:
There there, don’t cry…maybe we’ll see Kougami’s sexy abs dripping with sweat next week!
About Overcooled
A neuroscience graduate, black belt, and all-around nerd. You'll either find me in my lab or curled up in my rilakkuma kigurumi watching anime.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I don’t think that guy was Shougo’s henchman. I think he was more Shougo’s equal, someone considered to be as powerful, and twisted, as Shougo is. Hence the ability to hold a human hunt.
I wonder what Oryou had done to avoid having her hue checked or a PsychoPass reading taken. 472 is huuuuuge (hasn’t 300 been mentioned as the threshold for enforcement, with something like 375 the lethal enforcement level?). I do think they were unfair about Oryou’s message tho. There was a message, it was just not a message to the police or some other ‘power’. It was more the continuation of her father’s work, even though she didn’t have the same nuance. The message came through loud and clear to those who could see it, such as the guy who tipped them to Oryou’s father’s work.
I did like that scene with Yayoi that you included the screenshot of. I really like that the show is making the effort to humanize all of the enforcers, when it would have been so easy to dehumanize them, like Ginoza tries to do. And we finally see what happens with people who aren’t deemed fit to be Enforcers, or at least one possibility. I wonder if there are other options for them, including assisted suicide. The comparison to Shin Sekai Yori comes immediately to mind, with their high rate of child culling, and I wonder which treatment is more moral.
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
“Henchman” was a bad choice of word, my mistake. He’s almost on equal footing to Shougo, which is why he’s not the least bit afraid that he’ll get bored of him.
I think 472 is the highest we’ve seen so far! Either the school tried to cover it up (they even tried to stop Kougami from shooting her) or Shougo did some special hacking and used fake records.
I was a bit surprised how much they were ragging on Oryo for not having a message after she clearly explained what her message was. It might not have been a cutting commentary on society like what Kougami was used to, but it certainly had more meaning that just stabbing someone with a knife and leaving them there to die.
Yes, that was rather striking to me as well. I actually forgot she was an Enforcer in that moment, and had to consciously remind myself. Pretty much all of the Enforcers haven’t shown any signs of misbehaving. The closest is probably Kou baiting the guy in the factory with verbal threats, and he was still in control there. Then again, normal psychopaths are supposed to be exceptionally good at making people believe they are “normal.”
Hmm, I wonder if they’d even let them make decisions about assisted suicide or if they’d all be forced into prison. Compared to Shinsekai Yori, I think I might prefer the system in Psycho-Pass since I at least get the choice to live. I’m a bit behind on episodes, but I wouldn’t like being whisked away without a word oneday…
POWUH: 700-799 and Parkouring Fanboy with 776 comments
Somehow there always has to be a man behind the man, it seems. I guess people like to have the consistent villain who can fight our heroes over the long haul, and it can cause interesting villain vs. villain dynamics like the hunting in this one. I wouldn’t have minded a more world-focused approach, like The Wire, where there were no real protagonists or antagonists. Psycho-Pass takes place in such a fascinating world that exploring it through the mundane life of a cop could’ve been interesting. Not that the crazy fucked up shit like in this arc aren’t welcome.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
If it’s done right, the meta-arc can work a lot better. Especially in something like this show, where to become these suitably monstrous criminals, people like Midou and Oryou need someone to enable them, otherwise they would have been caught and treated long ago. And a lot of times, the meta-arc can go really bad, like my opinion of Medaka Box. But in this one, I think it would have been a lot harder to keep interesting things happening with mundane criminality and hue checks on the bad guy of the week. That also might not have really fit with what people think Urobuchi is trying to do with the series, although I am going to take a lot more convincing that the Sibyl system is as fundamentally flawed than other people seem to accept.
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
I really like the villain funding other villains thing. It gives the police one bad guy to focus on who is super hard to catch since they kill all his clients, and like Highway says, it makes it more believable for these criminals to not just be picked up immediately by regular Hue Checks.
I’m having a hard time picturing Psycho-Pass as a world-focused story with no real bad guys. Although I guess there are a lot of moral gray areas to make it work, and it’s definitely a cool enough world to explore. That might be cool too! I’m also perfectly happy with what’s going on now though.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
So the artistic lady-killer has met her end, in a rather ugly manner, though. It would have been poetic justice if she ended up turned into a “piece of art”. I mean, her dying is purely karma at work but does anyone else think Rikako got off easy with a simple headshot whereas she terrified, tortured and killed her victims before putting their bodies up for display? A headshot is basically an instantaneous death when it should have been much slower. But it’s strange for me because I actually felt a little sympathetic towards her. Why did that happen? She was sick in the head. Her Psycho-Pass reached “472” while appearing emotionless. It would have been an interesting scenario if Rikako went after Akane or Yayoi before she died.
Makishima is one cold, sadistic, backstabbing bastard especially when he openly admitted that he liked Rikako. Makes you wonder what he’d do to those he doesn’t like. Quoting poetry while she was running for her life was insult to injury. Not even an hour has passed and he’s found a new target. But going after someone as smart as Kogami is playing with fire.
Kogami once again sets the record for investigative badassery. Who better to get advice on a criminal than talking to one? In retrospect, he went against what he told Ginoza about not trying to understand the criminal mind.
On a side note: With this, I’ll have reached my 1900th comment. 100 more and I make a milestone for myself. It’s hard to believe how far I’ve gotten since I first came to Metanorn. To make things interesting, I’ve set a deadline on my birthday February 1st 2013.
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
Unfortunately, there’s no one who knows how to make a piece of art out of her. Plus, she’s not worth it anymore. Shougo has Kougami now. I definitely didn’t feel bad for her. How nice of you, always thinking of the psychos!
Kougami is already an Enforcer, so it’s fine for him to talk to fellow criminals (even he’s not as crazy as them). I think Ginoza was mostly advising Akane about trying to understand Kougami, or else she might get a cloudy hue as well. That doesn’t apply to anyone who already has a cloudy hue.
Wow! Thanks for supporting Metanorn so much! Make sure that on your 2000th comment you let us know so we can all congratulate you on this milestone! 😀 …I hope it’s on one of my posts hehe.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
I think I’m sympathetic to psychos if they’re female. Like a certain pink haired girl getting her face crushed by a tractor, which was a dreadful end or another pink haired girl who had a few screws loose while she was stalking her weak hearted target during a survival game. That said, I kind of liked Rikako.
Rikako’s Psycho-Pass was the highest we’ve seen in the anime. The last criminal had about 335 and she had 472. How her school missed a rate so high is beyond me. For that, they fail at security and it cost them the lives of students.
Yayoi told a friend of one of Rikako’s victims to cry while she can or her Hue will get cloudy. So that means suppresed feelings are also determined and affect the Psycho-Pass evaluation. I’m guessing that’s what got Yayoi red flagged and her reason for becoming an Enforcer. If that’s true, then living in the Sibyl society is like walking on thin ice where absolutely everything is under the microscope.
Thanks! It’s awesome here and I’ll do my best. I started on one of your posts so hopefully I can reach 2000 on another. Wish me luck!!!
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Go BB, you can do it! I think you’ll probably get 100 a lot faster than that, tho.
For me, I keep looking at that list on the sidebar and wondering who will get to 1000 first…
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Thanks for the words of encouragement, Highway. I’ll make sure that I rise. With a little luck and continuous conversations from other posts, I’ll get there.
DESHI DESHI BASARA BASARA! LOL
POWUH: and Athenaeum Châtelaine with 2212 comments
Well she’s dead now. Still don’t see what the big deal was, BB.
It’s kind of sad that the thing that makes profilers profilers today, is sneered upon here. This entire story is full of the not at all subtle theme of what is living and how much this society has lost that. It’s really kinda sad that everything got to this point.
Also, I’m betting the older Enforcer is Inspector Gino’s dad. Also what are the odds that Makishima either has the worst coefficient in recorded history, or that his coefficient is actually completely normal? Psychopath feel that their own behavior is perfectly fine after all. It’s everyone else that’s off…
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Hmmm… I’m surprised you’re not fazed by how morbid Rikako’s method of killing was. I find it both heartless and depraved. Flirting with her classmates to lower their guard and when she’s done having her way, kills them, dismembers their bodies and turn them into grotesque art structures as some kind of tribute to her late father, whose artworks influenced her in the first place. Dementedly inventive, I’ll admit. She was indeed a true psychopath behind her refined façade. Among Makishima’s many pawns, Rikako stood out the most for me.
POWUH: and Athenaeum Châtelaine with 2212 comments
As long as it’s not torture porn, has excessive amounts of gore, isn’t psychologically torturing the victims for long periods of time, or spends a whole lot of time on the victim facing their horrible, inevitable murder, I’m pretty much okay.
I was an avid fan of Criminal Minds for 7 years and they had serial murders that were on par with this, and I saw Se7en which was definitely worse than this (and a movie I will never see again…) so yeah, as long as it’s not worse than this, I’ll be fine.
She was an okay psychopath, I’ve seen better though. She never fooled me, there was always something off about her.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Oh, so that’s why. You were already broken in by shows like Criminal Minds. That makes sense when it’s put that way since I’ve recently got into watching it.
Because it seemed off that what Rikako was doing didn’t get under your skin. The MAL discussions for episodes 7 and 8 were packed with commentators who were dreadfully appalled by her style of murder.
Every time, before the process was finished, she’d drain their blood and sever the limbs. The last thing I think any girl would want is to find themselves propped up like a life sized porcelain doll.