Once in a while, there comes along an anime that claims to go against the industry's trend. An anime that claims to be unique in a time when the market is filled mostly with indistinguishable moe clones and so on. This is a very good marketing strategy for Psycho Pass if you ask me, especially given the gorgeous artwork and an exciting concept. In addition to this, it was touted as the 'next GITS'. Needless to say, I picked this up with VERY HIGH expectations. Expectations which were about to come crashing down faster than you could say 'psychopath'.
Let me commence the review of this miserable, god forsaken creation by explaining with the use of as few swear words as possible, the stupidity of this anime's excuse for a plot. The story is convoluted and too prententious for its own good. In short, its sort of like the sentence which began this paragraph. As I said before, the concept is exciting, thought provoking even. So it comes as a huge disappointment that, instead of analyzing the effects of such a system on society in an unbiased manner, this anime opts to make it seem altogether evil and oppressive. Just how ludicrous the system is can be understood by watching the first episode. We see a rape victim almost killed for..well, being raped. Why would anyone shoot at an innocent rape victim? Why is being passionate about something likely to make you a criminal? Why does such an oppressive system exist in the first place? Your guess is as good as mine because these and many more questions are never answered and are left to the imagination of the viewer. Instead, the show spends several minutes every episode explaining things that are totally obvious like how people are living with a false sense of security. Its almost as if Urobuchi didn't want to touch substantial questions about the setting with a ten foot pole. He seems to have the characters engage in needlessly long conversations about everything under the sun just to avoid discussing the aforementioned questions. But I suppose the stupidity of characters deserves a paragraph of its own.
One of the biggest draws for me in GITS were the characters. So, when they said this was going to be the 'next GITS', I was expecting a cool protagonist like Kusanagi. But instead of someone competent and emotionally mature like the Major, we get Akane. She is the exact opposite of what you would expect from a half-decent police officer. Even if she's newbie, expecting us to believe that someone in her position would burst into tears on a whim is nothing short of insulting the intelligence of the viewer. The rest of the team is also inexplicably over emotional. These lunatics are like a rag-tag bunch of immature teenagers drawn from some high school drama rather than a well organized team of lawkeepers. Pretty much the same description applies to the antagonist, Makishima, who is apparently trying to expose the absurdity of relying on psycho passes. At least, that's what the anime wants you to believe. In actuality, he comes across as an emotionally challenaged idiot who just uses people to amuse himself and cause destruction. What little character development there is occurs in sudden bursts and is the result of convenient writing than anything else. All in all, Psycho Pass fails spectacularily in this department as well.
This anime provides no food for thought to be sure. It does however, provide some awesome eye-candy. Production I.G has done an outstanding job of creating a detailed futuristic environment that fits the theme perfectly. The anime uses a wide array of colors to accurately convey the atmosphere in each scene. There are a few hiccups here and there, but these minor glitches are more than excusable given the overall visual quality. Character designs are similarly good looking. You will however come across a few shots in which characters look terrible, but these are far apart and pardonbly few in number.
I wish I could sing praises about the audio as well, but there is nothing that really stands out. Sure, the voice cast delivers aurally pleasing performances and Yugo Kanno delivers some catchy tunes. But on the whole, this department seems quite lackluster compared to the visuals. It is however, by no means, subpar.
psycho Pass is an amalgam of the great and the abysmal. Unfortunately, it fails miserably in crucial areas such as plot and characters. So much so that not even the spectacular visuals can make up for it. In fact, its almost saddening that such stylistic visuals are wasted on telling a story which has neither substance nor a clear sense of direction. Characters who behave like emotionally challenged teenagers and lack any credible development only serve to mar an already horrible series. In the end, Psycho Pass doesn't do anything interesting with its unique premise and remains a frustratingly shallow experience throughout. I think I finally understand Urobuchi's nickname. He managed to butcher the series quite well.
↧