Psycho-Pass

I enjoyed both the seasons, well made, very cleaver in using paradox's to build up the superb plots. The mind game between the police and criminals along with the justice theme reminds me of Death Note, just instead of magic we have technology this time around. The series is based on a future where technology has progressed so much that by a Psycho scan the state of mind of an individual can be predicted and action can be taken to prevent them from becoming criminals. Further to maintain the sanity of the detectives, they are encouraged not to do the killings, instead latent criminals who are already considered to be criminals do it for dirty work and are called enforcers. Psyco Pass got a lot of philosophy with deep meaning underlining the plots. Philip K. Dick, George Orwell and Jonathan Swift work are mentioned and discussed. The series start slow, building up pace gradually as it moves forward and by the end we are entertained with an excellent plot, realistic characters and gruesome scenes.

In a dystopian Japan, the so-called "Sybil System", an autarkic omnipresent surveillance framework, controls the lives of the country's population in the pursuit of optimal happiness. It monitors aptitude, potential, and psychic health of its inhabitants. By means of the Psycho-Pass, an individual psychological fingerprint, stress levels are measured and preemptive measures are taken, should a citizen display anomalous behavior such as depression or the intent/latency to commit a crime. The latter finds expression in a number called the "Crime Coefficient", a characteristic showing the latent criminal potential of a person. Once this number surpasses a certain threshold, this person is branded since there is virtually no chance of reducing this number again. Set against this background, a crime unit investigates into a series of murders that set the stage for what I find to be one the most compelling and complex Anime series in recent years.

What begins as a well-executed alteration of Orwell and Dick, soon turns out to touch so many additional topics that I was actually surprised and happy to see that the shear audacity to put all this into one show did neither ruin the flow nor the arc of suspense. On the contrary, all the references to literature, the philosophical discourse, the sociological aspects are woven astoundingly well into the plot. Name it, it's there: Kantian ethics, Max Weber's sociology of domination, Sartre's existentialism, Foucault, etc. All this is combined with contemporary phenomena such as the loss of privacy, alienation in urban areas, and the boundlessness of human beings that are overwhelmed by an overly complex reality.

The show is action-packed and VERY graphic, has brilliant character development and is emotionally very demanding to say the least.

Watch it and be blown away!

I've been doing a marathon for this series for the last couple of days and I had to take a pause for a second and write a review.

The Animation, the writing, the voice acting (ok, for Japanese version) are all top notch. Production IG, the animation studio that made this, is at the top of their game, and I knew them from watching Ghost in the Shell: Stand alone complex (I highly recommend as well). The writing is superb if not genius, and before I knew it, I was attached to all the characters (on both sides). Although the main theme have been done to death (future worlds where AI's run things and judge us, and so on) the show definitely made it feel fresh and had me diving in episode after episode. I'm actually on episode 19.. I can't express how excited I am finishing this!

Watch it!

If you're on the fence about pursuing this endeavor don't be, it's such a well thought out anime. It's almost as good as Erased, combining action and mystery seamlessly. I am saddened that I didn't get to it until 2018 but better late than never.

Well little to say here except that this series is by far the best of 2012(anime).

The plot is: In the near future, it is possible to instantaneously measure a person's mental state, personality, and the probability that a person will commit crimes with a device installed on each citizen's body called the Psycho-Pass. When this probability, measured by the "Crime Coefficient" index, is too high in some individuals those individuals are pursued and apprehended—with lethal force, if necessary. This task is performed by a special team of potential criminals called Enforcers, who are supervised by police officers known as Inspectors; the Inspectors ensure that Enforcers perform their duties within the constraints of the law. Enforcers and Inspectors employ special weapons called "Dominators" that are designed to fire only on those with a higher than normal Crime Coefficient. The story follows Unit One of the Public Safety Bureau's Criminal Investigation Division.

I give it a 10/10 for story/animation/characters/and even soundtrack. I recommend this show to all of those people that liked animes like death note.