Psycho-Pass – 13
After seeing this, my crappy day doesn’t seem so bad.
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Okay, so now we get to find out what happened to Akane after Makishima made her friend’s throat reinact a bloody Niagara Falls. Finally! She didn’t appear in the last episode at all, and she makes a nice comeback here. After watching episode 13, you cannot deny that this woman is not a moeblob but a tough as nails detective who earns her keep on the police force. |
Unfortunately, I have to start with the bad before we get to praising Akane. Her Psycho-Pass is incredibly resilient and even after watching her friend die before her eyes – twice – she maintains a healthy rating. She is doing better than someone like Ginoza, who is stressing out over paperwork while Akane went toe to toe with a mass murderer. On one hand, it’s good that she’s so persistent and that adds strength to her character since she’s not very physically useful in terms of fighting. However, most of my thoughts about her quick recovery were negative. I was expecting this to be a huge turning point for Akane. I wanted her to start questioning herself, her decisions, and her role as a detective as her hue became cloudy. She didn’t have to veer into Enforcer territory or anything extreme, but I thought that surely such a traumatic event would have a lasting effect on her.
She just shrugged it off like a bathrobe.
We see Akane a few days later, and she’s perfectly fine. Cheerful, even. I’m sure she was depressed for a few days, but we never see it. We don’t get to see those couple of days where Akane is at her lowest, so it seems like she simply just wills herself to be okay. Once she has committed herself to catching Makishima, she is somehow able to shut off her sadness. People don’t really work that way. Just because she has a goal to focus on doesn’t mean her heart will listen and shut up about the pain of someone dying before her very eyes.
Personally, I like seeing characters struggle. I want to see them fall before they stand back up, and I’m especially tickled pink by seeing a character go through mental trauma. It’s just the sort of thing that interests me. Call me a sadist if you like (most people already do). I was robbed of that with Akane’s almost untouched Psycho-Pass. D: I have to ask…If this doesn’t rattle her, what will? Is Urobuchi planning something even worse for her, or will she bounce back every time?
Not everyone likes seeing cute girls wallow in misery, so I may be alone in this. On the bright side, Akane does pull off a rather impressive stunt when she goes through the memory scanner and still remains sane. This still makes me sad that she gets over everything so easily though. The difference here is that this second instance of Akane resisting hue darkening shows us that she is one hell of a gutsy detective. She not only risks becoming an Enforcer to get a picture of Makishima for her and Kougami’s sake, but afterwards she shakes it off like a champ. It kinda pisses me off that she was fine, but at the same time…damn..you go girl!
Can you imagine Masaoka trying to give a tiny Ginoza “The Talk”?
Aside from Akane’s memory dive, it was mostly a quiet episode with a lot of talking. Yayoi got her own episode, but Ginoza and Masaoka have more than enough of their past revealed in just a short span of time in this episode. Ginoza serves as a contrast to Akane, where Masaoka is more like an (unsuccessful) analogue of her. Ginoza obsesses about his mental health because he doesn’t want to become like his father, which may in fact be a large reason why his hue is so cloudy in the first place. It’s a vicious cycle of becoming stressed, worrying about that stress, and thus causing more stress. Akane avoids this by adopting a “whatever happens, happens” sort of attitude where she does what she wants without stopping to fret over if it will affect her Psycho-Pass. Once you worry “If I watch this movie, would my criminal coefficient raise by 1.3 points?” then you are just creating more issues for yourself.
Akane competently addresses the pitfalls of being a detective with an omniscient gun that makes decisions for you, and figures out a way around it. If she can use her unbiased judgment about what she thinks is right or wrong without relying on thoughts about Sibyl’s ratings of good and evil, then she will be able to persist as a detective and catch Makishima. However, Ginoza isn’t quite able to accept that Sibyl is flawed and that he has to make his own decisions. He still relies heavily on those little numbers to do everything for him, and trying to throw away that line of thinking is hard for him. It’s almost like what I thought Akane would go through after trying to save her friend is happening to Ginoza. He regrets not being able to stop Makishima because of the Dominator’s rating system, but he also is terrified of making his own judgments and being held responsible for them. Just was does it mean to be a detective? I’m not sure he knows the answer to that at the moment.
As Ginoza questions his job, he’s starting to show the same patterns of thought as Masaoka. Ginoza is having a hard time switching from Sibyl to his own judgments where Masaoka had a hard time switching between his own judgments to Sibyl. Being an older gentleman, he was around to see the inception of Dominators and he actually remembers a time when they didn’t exist. This hatred of the new system made him cloudy. Akane and Masaoka share the same pure, optimistic view of a detective as an agent of justice, but Akane is more able to adapt to the changes presented to her. I doubt the next time she sees Makishima she will falter. She will be able to make the decision to kill him herself, even without Sibyl’s blessing.
Yeah, I peel off the stickers so I can always solve my rubix cubes too, lady.
On a side note, I found it interesting that the boss lady (no, not Kyokai) reacted the way she did to Ginoza’s response. I pegged her as the type to blindly obey Sibyl to an extent where she was basically a drone, but she’s actually just incredibly pragmatic. She knows what will benefit the most amount of people and how to achieve it. She is fully aware that Sibyl has drawbacks, but she knows that society will fall apart if it becomes privy to even the slightest flaw in the system. All in all…it works. It’s not the kind of society I’d like to live in, but given that the rate of anomalies who can dodge Dominator readings are so low, it’s hardly a big weakness. We now know that Makishima can’t be judged by the Dominator not because he has a lower crime coefficient, but because his cymatic scan doesn’t accurately reflect his mental state. In reality, he probably would have a criminal coefficient that’s through the roof. It’s just that the gun is somehow unable to read him like it would any other person. That makes more sense than his explanation about his will being the determining factor of his pure hue. He doesn’t have some special power or anything, he’s just lucky.
Basically, having one or two people that can dodge the system isn’t enough to instill panic into the hearts of civilians. It’s better to stay quiet and secretly capture Makishima. Now the real chase begins! After the ED song (which ditched the naked bodies theme for a skyline…not sure how I feel about that yet) there’s a scene where Ginoza’s boss seems to have located Makishima, so we may see him again really soon. My only question is…how did she find him while lying still in a trance? Is she a cyborg? Or is that just her “srs internet browsing face?”
Better watch out, Makishima. They’re coming for you!
Akane is fine, but everyone else is gonna need serrriiooous therapy
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
Maybe it’s just me being biased, but I thought that this episode confirmed a lot of things I thought about Sibyl. I was surprised that Makishima wasn’t as unique as he was, but given that, it’s even better that they already know about people like that. And while it’s kind of one of those odd secrets, it’s probably correct that they keep the idea that Sibyl isn’t perfect *itself* away from most people. The point made by the boss lady is that the system can’t be perfect, and that putting the judgment of people into the system helps move it toward ‘perfection’ (a goal that cannot be reached).
Akane is able to let things roll off of her. I was glad to see she wasn’t someone with the same superpower that Makishima has, that she reacts to things normally, and then is able to deal with it. Some people can deal with things, they just have that ability. Masaoka gives a nice insight on how she does it, that she accepts things and deals with them the way they are. It’s so true that what you worry about will get you more of that. And it’s also good that Ginoza did go talk to his dad, although I’d totally been thrown off of Masaoka as his dad.
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
It makes more sense that Makishima isn’t just ~magical~ and that other people have the same thing going on. It makes sense to hide this small detail away since it’s rare enough to not cause too many issues with Sibyl, but frightening enough that is could make citizens panic. Plus, the media always go for sensational headlines, so they’d blow it wayyy out of proportion if they thought it would get them more viewers/readers. Sibyl will never be perfect enough to be totally automated, so it needs people to make certain decisions…I like that message.
I really hope she doesn’t have the same ability as Makishima, because that means she might not actually be mentally strong…and that’s what makes her such a respectable character.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Yes the next episode has arrived. Did anyone notice a little change toward the end of the OP with Kogami pointing and shooting off a gun? Finally we get to see Akane’s condition after Makishima went Sweeny Todd on Yuki’s throat. Geez, I can still see that happening in my mind. She drowns herself in work to cope with her sadness. I’ll give her credit, she’s strong willed.
We don’t need to call you a sadist. You already are one. What I’m getting from this is that Akane and Makishima are generally immune to the Sibyl system’s judgments like a loophole in a contract. But the reality is where there are at least two anomalies, there could be a lot more that have yet to surface.
Ah,
Reverse SeishinGinoza is still bottling things up. If he keeps holding it in, he’ll explode if he doesn’t talk to someone and I doubt it’ll be anything good since he’s so quiet in nature. No surprise that Masaoka turned out to be his father given that he talks about Ginoza like he knows him on a very personal level. Being next to him knowing he’s the one responsible for getting his family labeled must have been part of what’s been affecting his Psycho-Pass. Hell, I’d be hating him, too had I been in his place. What worries me is that he’ll fall and become a latent criminal before all of this ends.As for Ginoza’s boss at the end. She was talking about Makishima in a familiar manner, calling him by his first name. And by her appearance that looks close to his, what are the odds they are both related? That would be quite the dilemma. One that is protecting an ideal and the other is out to destroy it.
POWUH: Meta Resident and Metanorn's Hime-chan~ with 1758 comments
Yeees! When I saw it I was like “Hey, that isn’t a dominator, that’s a handgun…” and then remembered that this little bit wasn’t showed in the last ep.
Yes, that familiar tone the boss lady used and the thing she said about the second chance. Add the physical similarities like eye/hair shape and color, they look like a mother and a son. Well, we shall see if she really is a bad cookie, but I’m pretty sure she is anyway.
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
I thought I just remembered the OP wrong when I saw it…lol. Interesting little change though, thanks for pointing it out!
At least Ginoza talked to his dad a little bit. It’s probably hard for him to talk about his Psycho-Pass since it makes him feel weak and vulnerable. I’d feel like a bit of a black sheep complaining about a high criminal coefficient since it means I’m not good enough at maintaining my mental health. Ginoza would be a terrible Enforcer as he is now, so I hope that never happens. I can’t see him hanging out with the bad boys and doing all the dirty work.
Related? Or maybe she knows him? Hmm, never noticed their physical similarity and first-name calling. It’s hard to tell any physical similarity since she’s so old though. But hmmmm I wonder…
POWUH: iLurker with 2 comments
I think you’re missing the obvious conclusion that they’ve been hinting at for a long time with all the references to how resilient Akane’s psycho-pass is. Like Makashima, she’s asymptomatic. Sibyl probably knows this already, and decided to make her a police officer in order to catch asymptomatic criminals.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
She’s definitely not asymptomatic. If she were, she wouldn’t have had an increase during the memory scoop, or even when it initially happened. But she did have what was considered a normal reaction, if much smaller in amplitude than other people. And she recovered quicker than most people would, but still had a reaction. I liked that they talked about both things, in that she isn’t a superpower like Makishima.
POWUH: Meta Resident and Metanorn's Hime-chan~ with 1758 comments
I’m not really sure if she is like Makishima at all, but consider this – at first, in episode 11 his coefficient was about 79 or something and then gradually returned to zero.
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
I’m not really sure if she’s like Makishima or not. It’s still kind of up in the air. She seems to show fluctuations that match her mental state, whereas Makishima shows a criminal coefficient that matches the OPPOSITE of his mental state. It’s hard to tell, but I really don’t want her to be asymptomatic.
POWUH: Meta Resident and Metanorn's Hime-chan~ with 1758 comments
I loved this episode. And you’re not alone in the ‘loving to see pretty girls suffer’ thing, I like to see some personal drama too. Seems like Akane does have serious balls, but in a way that was a bit much. They should have shown those couple days, when she was depressed but then came to a serious conclusion and decided to be strong. That would make the situation a lot more realistic and bring up Akane’s ‘likeability’ a notch. But nooo. She’s just gutsy by nature, that’s all. Though I have to say, that Akane deserves the title of a strong female lead, which is very rare in anime.
I hate that lady, she’s not trustworthy. Judging by that familiar type of speech in the last scene, she didn’t just find Makishima somewhere. + that she said “there will be no second chances” come on! I think she’s also up to something, but I’m not gonna write any wild ideas, or you will count me crazy and overreacting, even more than I am not. But heed my words – she is up to something not good.
I knew it!!! I knew that Masaoka was Gino-chan’s father, I knew it !!!! I don’t know why, but that made me happy 😀
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
You wanna see those couple of days too, right? They made things realistic by explaining that she got better only after grieving a few days, but then didn’t actually show us. It makes her seem almost…too strong.
Very suspicious indeed. However I’m sure she’s still on the side of the police force, she just has a more personal grudge against him.
Haha, they revealed he was the dad so nonchalently. I was happy I guessed it right as well though. :3c
POWUH: Meta Resident and Metanorn's Hime-chan~ with 1758 comments
Yeah, I think the best part was that they didn’t make a huge story about Masaoka being Gino-chan’s father.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
It was so obvious that there was no need to spend any time or money on that part of the story. The resources should stick to tracking down Makishima. The way he’s doing things, the guy is an anarchist. A white haired Joker.
POWUH: Meta Resident and Metanorn's Hime-chan~ with 1758 comments
I wouldn’t say it was plainly obvious.
Oh, I’m hoping he will give the bureau some REALLY hard time! I like that type of villains, so amazing~
POWUH: 500-599 with 519 comments
I really did like this episode and dang, Akane is strong willed overall. 0_0 However I wonder if she is like Makshima in a way, like Sybil can’t read her properly since her Hue is ridiculously clear. Maybe she is shaken up inside but doesn’t like to show it in front of others? It’s been a while since I saw this episode but I don’t think there was a scene where she was by herself in her room or something. Maybe she cries there?
As for boss-lady…I’m guessing she knows Makshima somehow? Maybe it’s her kid since they both have gray/white hair. That seems a bit farfetched though.
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
She might be like him, but I’m assuming that she isn’t. I hope she isn’t.
I totally ignored the old lady at the end, I’m glad so many people are pointing this out. Yes, she is very suspicious and she knows Makishima at the very least. Being related to him is another option, although probably a bit less likely.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I dunno, I’ll be pretty surprised if she actually knows more about Makishima than just ‘he’s a guy who confounds the system’. Seemed more like just a cop drama thing that she was saying at the end.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Oh, and “He was working with that Touma guy before.”