Forum - View topicREVIEW: Psycho-Pass episodes 1 - 11 streaming
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danilo07
 Posts: 1580 |
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I disagree with you on that one ,I dont think there was one episode in which there wasnt a discussion on a sci-fi on the setting.Almost every character has personality which is created due to some system.Whether it is internet,opposition of Sybil-system,and reassurance in Sybil-system.I can bring you up examples if you want to but that would really tedious.The one that seems to be getting the biggest spotlight though is free will vs determinism.Should we make our decision based on what system we have been indoctrinated to believe in tells us or should we trust our instincts?But if we trust our instincts and we do something horrible what then?Iam expecting this will get all of the attention in the second half,ha we will see. |
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daichi383
 Posts: 313 Location: England |
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I don't know about you guys but i just enjoy having characters spout philosofical bullsh*t at me. It's even better when i understand the themes they are discussing. Makes me feel smart
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yamata no orochi
Posts: 137 |
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I could probably spend a couple of paragraphs arguing this, but thankfully somebody else on the internet did a much better job than I ever could summing it all up here! It's a bit long but it's definitely worth reading. As for the whole "torture porn" thing, I'd like to say that Madoka Magica managed to avoid that mainly because the plot was so tightly constructed that just about all that sadness and death was essential to Madoka's final choice and the culmination of the main plot (though others certainly felt differently!) What I'm hoping is that Psycho Pass's ending similarly manages to bring everything together in a way that everything becomes justified, if that makes sense? Judging from episode 11, the show's future pretty much hangs on how it handles Akane's state of mind. That said, when the main trick in the author's arsenal is breaking innocent or naive characters, and most of those characters who are broken or injured or killed in horrifying ways happen to be women, it makes me more than a little worried. Urobuchi can certainly write great female characters (Madoka's mom, even Akane herself at times) so I'm not sure why he keeps leaning on this problematic crutch? Psycho Pass definitely has merit, I just find it frustrating how the show is really bringing out the worst in someone who to this point has been a pretty good writer (in the same way that last year's Fujiko Mine revealed Mari Okada's limitations). |
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ikillchicken
 Posts: 7272 Location: Vancouver |
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Oh man...this is just too perfect. 
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Juno016
 Posts: 2397 |
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Since Madoka, I have been going back and reading/watching a lot of Urobuchi stuff, including practically every interview or story involving him, to try to get into his mind on how he writes and what his intention is. Fortunately, he's quite open about it--enough that I have been able to predict exactly what this show was going for--at least, so far. I don't mean this to be boasting, but... let me explain.
I do not think this is just a show meant to comment on possible future technology. Urobuchi frankly doesn't actually care that much about technology in general, unless it has an effect on the human mind. I also do not think this is copying Minority Report. The parallels and even themes seem very similar, but there is a fundamental difference between the point of the two. Where Minority Report touched upon the prevention of crimes and criticizing that outright with a possibility outlook, Psycho Pass is not judging the SIBIL system's point or its actual effectiveness. It has to touch upon them, much like Minority Report touched upon its own similar themes, but Psycho Pass seems to be going for a statement about present issues with judging who are "criminals" and who aren't based on how we judge people to be criminals today. In Minority Report, they treat the psychic abilities that predict crimes to show that people are going to commit a crime. That means a person is already predicted to become a criminal (pretty much to avoid a kind of flawed system like the SIBIL system). The point of Minority Report was to criticize that kind of system of judging, anyway, because it wasn't perfect. Yet... while psychics are sometimes used in law-enforcement today, they aren't the norm by far. Psycho Pass, however, touches upon something closer to us today. In this case, Urobuchi is pointing out the fears people have about dangerous criminals and how enforcement have been dealing with those fears, alongside the important reasoning behind it. On the state of one's mind, he often writes stories about characters going insane. The interesting point he makes with these stories about insane people, though, is that it can happen to anyone. People aren't born sane or insane. They go from one to the other because things affect their state of mind. The things we don't want to acknowledge about the darkness of the world creep into our beliefs and cloud them, making us paranoid and turning us into potential criminals. The reason Tsunemori was chosen for the job was NOT overlooked. She's not just a bumbling, naive idiot chosen for the job because she's necessarily that good at detective work or chasing down criminals and keeping her subordinates in line. Rather, she was chosen because in order to keep watch over a group of enforcers who have been judged borderline criminals because of their Psycho Pass levels, one needs a strong immunity to this clouding. Tsunemori is the perfect choice BECAUSE she is just naive enough to not let the clouding of others affect her own judgement. So how the heck does a system like the SIBIL system pass all those uncanny valleys and become implemented here? Well, because people are afraid of the unknown. To keep people safe, this SIBIL system judges those who have the potential to disturb the harmony as potential criminals. Much like how people today have been blaming the criminal activities of many killers on the existence of mental illnesses rather than anything far more likely, such as that person's upbringing or surroundings. Rather than acknowledge that we humans can all potentially commit crimes and put other humans in danger, we shrug it off and label these people with mental illnesses and treat them as "different." If that person isn't actually mentally ill, we go further to justify their criminal activity against our own potential by putting up ugly pictures of them on the news, or even just telling ourselves that the person was evil from the beginning. We don't want to acknowledge our own potential as killers or simple criminals. Here, in Psycho Pass, this is fundamental to the point of the story and, of course, the SIBIL system. The criticism isn't so much against the system. Unlike in Minority Report, the system here, however it works, is flawless. It judges a person's mental stability and stress levels and puts a number to it. It has yet to make a mistake in this regard. In a way, it is quite the effective danger prevention system. The spoiler[rape victim] from episode 1 was so afraid of the situation she never expected herself to be in, she spoiler[poured gas over herself and almost proceeded to light herself on fire]. She's not necessarily a criminal, but she was going to put the lives of so many people in danger because she was about to spoiler[kill herself], due to her own level of momentary stress. She was judged as extermination-worthy because she was just that dangerous. Make no mistake. To the person here who said they didn't believe the system as soon as she was deemed a threat, despite her victim status--that kind of thinking is exactly what is far too naive in the dark reaches of this world, and is the reason WHY the system exists. It doesn't necessarily exist to put a stop to crimes. It exists to stop the darkness of this world from leaking out in order to keep the masses happy. And it is this notion that Urobuchi is trying to criticize. This is the whole point of the show. To further support my thesis, I point to Urobuchi's other works. They practically all say similar stuff. Saya no Uta even says this all outright with one of its endings (the one starring Kouji). And now, with episode 11 of Psycho Pass, we are finally starting to see this theme come out in full force within the main cast, or more specifically, the main character and the main antagonist. Episode 11 was a brilliant confrontation between the two. Sure--I agree that the usage of rape, the murdering of women, the creepy murder art, and other such antics that the show uses may be over the top, like a bad cop drama out there for shock value, but are they not effective? Can you think of anything better? The rape incident was a perfect example to introduce the concept of spreading one's crime coefficient onto innocent people. The online community episodes were a perfect example of supporting exactly what the public believes--that those with mental/social problems have high potential as criminals (in order to acknowledge and showcase the reasoning behind why people believe this before criticizing it). The arc with the art murders was there to give us a slight background on the history of the SIBIL system as it explained its implementation, while introducing the motives behind the main antagonist and the building up to the heart of the halfway point, which was to point out that there is a bridge between sanity and insanity--something we all have--and sometimes we value our own sanity enough to reject reality and common sense to keep it safe. My analysis stops here, though. I cannot predict what it is Urobuchi plans to do from here on, now that it seems he's done introducing and exploring his general themes. He almost always does something to add to his old themes, but he could also just be intending to continue to support them, too. I can't predict his conclusion in this case and the only thing I can guess is that he will do something more drastic to illustrate the effects of spreading the psycho pass in order to further help the audience understand what he's getting at with this whole "reality vs. bliss" thing. As a personal hope, I really wish to see something new out of him, as well as some exploration of the other enforcers in the show. I guess I'd be fine with the latter, though, if he found more interesting ways to explore his own themes without just repeating the same stuff he already did in the show. -------- tl;dr - Read it or forever be a derp. -------- So yeah. As usual, I respect any and all criticism/questioning of my analysis. Feel free to discuss. =3 |
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Veers
 Posts: 1197 Location: Texas |
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Juno, I haven't done the amount of extensive research I know you have on Urobuchi, but I think your comment about Saya no Uta kind of makes a pretty key point. That being that Psycho Pass is really about the mental realm and the influence that not only outside stimuli have but also internal ones--specifically fear and how it influences people. I think if I hadn't read Saya no Uta (which was brilliant) last summer, I would not have had the insight into Gen's writing in this show to allow me to pretty much instantly get what the point of the show was, because he's doing something different from what we see in some of his more well known titles like Madoka and Fate/Zero (even though there are many similar themes, and they still all "feel" like Gen). He's doing something more "real" here, despite such an unreal setting.
I'm not saying on needs to read Saya no Uta to understand Psycho Pass (though I would recommend reading Saya no Uta, anyway), but in my case I think if I hadn't seen that gripping, vivid, and simultaneously repulsive yet sympathetic depiction of the descent into insanity, I probably would have had a reaction closer to that of those who are focusing on the system itself. Madoka is about a system and how it influences those caught up in it, while also dealing with psychological elements. Psycho Pass is about the mind and how it influences how people develop systems to try to find ways to keep things like fear away. I haven't stayed current with Psycho Pass, but that's mostly because even though I got what the story was going for, I find the cast and script itself to be pretty dull. This review is a good reminder to get caught up on it, though. Last edited by Veers on Wed Jan 02, 2013 11:19 am; edited 1 time in total |
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jl07045
 Posts: 1527 Location: Riga, Latvia |
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Tell me, Juno, how many people do you know that actually believe in this thing you think Urobuchi is criticizing? If there are any, are their arguments worth even listening to and thus criticizing? We don't live in Middle Ages. Even after these frequent (in USA) shootings is there an idea to round up all the insane in hope that all will feel safer? I'm sure people fear of them, but not enough for something like the Sybil system to emerge. That would most likely require society to regress to time with no decent education and blind belief in baseless ideologies and power-hungry authorities. People talk more about gun control and the importance of support systems for the troubled. What is more, most people who do crime are considered sane and relatively normal even if immoral and that is common knowledge. This all stinks of typical Urobuchi exaggeration and cynicism.
I can accept this if he is again dealing with some Japanese culture-flavoured stupidity, but it doesn't feel intellectually relevant to me. Last edited by jl07045 on Wed Jan 02, 2013 11:33 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Mr. Nescio
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Nekusagi
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Did you miss the part wherespoiler[ Akane shot her coworker because she didn't want the rape victim to die?] The whole point is that Akane's a normal, reasonable person in a seriously messed up society, working for an equally messed up institution. |
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Snomaster1
 SubscriberPosts: 2828 |
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As I read the review and the following posts about it,that "Minority Report" came up a few times. I think it's particularly apt considering how similar both "Psycho-Pass" and "Minority Report" seem to be. They both have similar themes and it's interesting to see how others deal with that theme. I don't know if "Psycho-Pass" will even come here but it will be interesting to see anyway.
Last edited by Snomaster1 on Wed Jan 02, 2013 5:10 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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tuxedocat
 Posts: 2183 |
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The blogger's argument seems to be that the emotional context and dialog disqualifies the show as cyberpunk. --which is just not true. There is no such rule. I think you should avoid getting your information from poorly written student blogs. Try Wikipedia's definition (at least they base it on the William Gibson criteria, and he is considered one of the founders of the genre)
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dizzon
 Posts: 338 |
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The basic setup of cyberpunk is near-future dystopia where technology controls/rules society/humanity and that's also the basic setup of Psycho-Pass. There's no need to over-think it. 
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daichi383
Posts: 313 Location: England |
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Glad you liked it
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tuxedocat
Posts: 2183 |
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It is a literary genre. The linked blog post was written by a person who has obviously not read much, if any, cyberpunk fiction, and based most of his criteria on a movie adaptation (Minority Report). Psycho Pass actually follows the original criteria of the genre very well, problems with its storytelling aside. It has all the stuff you listed plus the hardboiled detective angle. I gotta love all the naysayers, who were the same bunch that were upset when Motohiro said "No Moe". All of a sudden, they are experts on the subject of cyberpunk fiction.
animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2012-10-11/psycho-pass-chief-director/word-moe-is-banned-among-staff |
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TD912
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The series is pretty good, except for the times they're a bit too blatant with the philosophy and literary references. I like thought-provoking shows, but having characters suddenly directly quote Shakespeare in some of the episodes is a bit too much, imo.
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