Psycho-Pass S2 – 10

This scenario just doesn’t seem likely to end well for him.

This week OC and I decided to do something a little different, watching the episode together on Skype and discussing it before exchanging emails with each other to put together the post. With all that’s happened these past few episodes, it was definitely a lot of fun bouncing our thoughts off each other about this season of Psycho-Pass which is now just one episode away from being over.

Why not make the most out of tag teaming and have 2 people do what 1 could not? You can’t do a conversational style post by yourself (not without looking moderately crazy). It lets us cover more ground and it’s super fun. Hopefully it’s fun for you guys too!

Kirito knows the most important part of being a revolutionary is looking gangster.

lvlln// I had a lot more fun watching this episode than any recent episode of this show. I must say I still enjoy seeing these cop-versus-terrorist plots play out. This wasn’t as much action-packed fun as episode 6 was, but at least it wasn’t the idiotic massacre of episode 4 either. And it gave Akane an excuse to be badass in her typical renegade way, reminiscent of her actions during the climax of season 1. The core idea of Kirito’s plot that was laid bare this episode is quite compelling: he wants to turn Sibyl’s judgment back on itself and through that expose the seams where this perfect system starts to fall apart. That’s a fantastic topic to make the centerpiece of this 2nd season, and it has helped to keep Kirito a good antagonist through all the abuse the writers have been giving him recently. This clash between Kirito, Akane, and Sibyl, each with his/her/their own concepts of justice, is what this dystopian science fiction story is supposed to be all about.

Overcooled// It is rather unfortunate that they chose to give Kamui a backstory about being the nightmarish fusion of 184 individuals. He honestly has some interesting goals that reveal fatal flaws in the Sibyl System. The issue is framed as being the real life version of the “omnipotence paradox” that Saiga explains to Akane. If Kamui were to point a Dominator at the collection of brains that is Sibyl, what would it say about itself? It’s a completely valid question, but it’s not something Sibyl wants to find the answer to. Instead, Sibyl takes the easy way out by not judging itself. This shows how imperfect the system is to begin with if it isn’t capable of doing so. Perhaps Sibyl cannot judge itself for the same reasons it cannot judge Kamui. Both Kamui and Sibyl are collective entities composed of different brains working together as one. If Sibyl cannot recognize and judge Kamui, it stands to reason that it cannot judge itself either. This second season has really been poking holes in the logic of the Sibyl System, and the only thing that really stops everyone from rebelling is how powerful the Sibyl System (including Misako and Togane) has become.

A nicely executed Eva reference.

lvlln// Yeah, the common theme of both seasons of Psycho-Pass seems to be Sibyl’s hypocrisy. Kirito’s shared attribute with Sibyl of being made up of multiple people is reminiscent of season 1 antagonist Makishima being a psychopath of the type that made up Sibyl. It’s a great step up as a villain in this world, and it’s really unfortunate that it’s based on such nonsense. If it had just stuck to the 7 brain transplants, we might be in okay territory, but it’s really hard to imagine how having one’s, say, foot donated from someone else would affect one’s Psycho-Pass level. I’m sure we could go back and forth for hours about how stupid this surgery back story is, so let’s try to avoid that.

Not just Eva but referencing Vividred Operation too?

I’m really curious about the fact that Kirito is a creation of Sibyl, a fact which was made very clear in this episode. I still have the same questions from before, like why they wanted this highly experimental, highly bizarre surgery, and how they lost track of him. Unfortunately, knowing that Sibyl is the source doesn’t help; if anything, it makes things worse. Since Sibyl has no interest in judging multiple people at once, it seems even less likely that they would create a human Voltron like Kirito or that they would lose track of him once they did create him. Combine that with the continuing mystery of Togane clouding Inspectors’ hues under Sibyl’s guidance, and none of the back stories make any sense to me. I don’t know if you had any better luck putting together the pieces.

Overcooled// I definitely didn’t find it easy to put all of these pieces together. We’re just missing too much information to really get a good grip on anything, and we’re stretched too thin between the back stories of Togane and Kamui. I wish they had taken the time to focus on Kamui’s motives alone instead of adding in Togane, who seems more like Psycho-Pass: The DLC. Maybe his ludicrous back story would be a little more digestible if they attempted to elaborate little more. This also would give us time to properly absorb things as his plan escalated from stealing Dominators to killing rich politicians and poor immigrants. I still think Kamui is an inherently fascinating villain who is just plagued by some spotty writing. He could have been a cool guy if they paid more attention to him, much like they did with Makishima.

I bet Togane just loves the Rolling Stones.

On the other side of the spectrum, we have Togane. He’s… not a very good villain. All he really does is ominously smirk in the corner and mutter about painting Akane black. His presence just complicates matters. Why have another mouthpiece for Sibyl when you already have Chief Kasei doing her fair share of meddling? You don’t need a specific character to try and taint Akane because she’s already going through hell with this investigation. That arc of Akane being stressed could have happened without Togane egging her on. In fact, he really hasn’t done much to taint her aside from killing her grandma – which is something that any thug in the show could have done. While I understand he’s supposed to be a vessel for exploring latent criminals and Sibyl’s various experiments, his presence seems almost as superfluous as Shou’s. Do any of you even remember who that guy is? I struggled to even recall his name. But on the bright side, Togane can physically confront Akane and Kamui in ways that Kasei cannot. That nail-biting gunpoint/knifepoint cliffhanger was one of those ways. So, if anyone’s going to die next week, who is it going to be?

lvlln// Ha yeah, I really liked that cliffhanger. Though I preferred the cliffhanger from the penultimate episode of season 1, which had that quick montage of all the characters at the Hyper Oats facility, including Makishima and Kogami getting ready to knife fight, Ginoza mourning his father, and Akane rushing to Kogami’s aid. That did a great job building up the anticipation for the climax. This one feels a little cheap because of how cliche it is to end on a gun Dominator shot at a person. Togane seems too major a character to die that unceremoniously, but I just don’t see how he can make it out of this alive when he’s going after Kirito with just a knife. I would be annoyed if the show copped out by having Kirito miss or Akane push either the Dominator or Togane aside; this would be close to the level of resurrecting the Princess after she got strangled in Aldnoah Zero (another show with Urobuchi origins. Hmmm). But maybe since, as you say, Togane’s role has been so superfluous, defined by his EEEVIL past and thoughts rather than actions, this sort of end is exactly what is fitting for him.

Akane was even more exceptionally beautiful this episode.

And you know what? That would give the finale the opportunity to deal with what’s really been fun this season, that is, the concept of turning Sibyl back in on itself. I loved Akane’s challenge to Sibyl this episode to evolve using Kirito. That’s a far more interesting thread to pursue than that of simply killing the bad guy. I do love action sequences, but they’re not what I watch Psycho-Pass for. The finale to the first season was so great not (just) because of Akane being a badass who takes down Makishima, but because of the final exchange of words between Akane and Sibyl afterwards. I hope we can see something like that to finish this season; I don’t believe it could redeem the season, per se, but it certainly could end it on a high note.

Overcooled// Agreed. This episode made me feel more optimistic about how the finale could pan out. It won’t erase all of the bad things about the show, but we might end up with something that isn’t a total trainwreck. As weird as it would be for Togane to die so abruptly, it would certainly allow for more focus on the things that matter. If they manage to pull away from all the crappy parts of the show (Mika, Togane, and killing puppies) and focus on the good parts (Akane and questioning Sibyl) then we’re golden.

Akane has always been one of my favorite parts of Psycho-Pass because she’s such a inspirational female lead. She does what she personally believes to be right, even if it isn’t the path of least resistance. Akane doesn’t fall into harmful patterns of behavior by blindly following Sibyl’s notions of good or bad. She constantly questions how certain situations match up to her moral code instead of just letting a gun tell her how to evaluate things. This is why even though it means risking her job, her life, and the lives of 500+ hostages, she still decides to go to the subway in person and settle things without bloodshed. Fighting rampaging robots by yourself is one kind of badass…but this is the kind of badass that really makes Akane strong in my eyes. Her clear hue is not because of being asymptomatic or having 7 brains, but because she just has incredible mental fortitude. There’s no secret ability or trick there. With my beloved Akane in the thick of all the action, I’m feeling ready to see how she works things out in the final episode. Now let’s hope they don’t mess it all up by killing everyone or turning them all into Enforcers.

A truly rare face for Akane. How will she handle the greatest amount of stress she’s encountered in her life? Akane as Enforcer in the movie…?

About Tag Team

We live, laugh, enjoy and strictly believe on "more the merrier". When together, we usually come up with very chatty, conversation-based episodics and interesting posts.