Psycho-Pass

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.

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.

This is an anime that will undoubtedly be among the best of the best in the near future with its excellent plot, character development and intelligence. It is expected by the viewer that he/she has a certain knowledge of classic literature like 1984 and Gulliver's Travels in order to fully appreciate the story. GITS SOC brings to the table the question about AI, Robotics and social disruption/cohesion. This delves much deeper into the issues about what is the absolute best political/social order? Is it like in Foucault's panoptican where you have as few guardians as possible who watch from their watchtower the entire prison/society? Or Weber's thought on the political elites who must be the most unbiased in the society in order to lessen corruption as much as possible?

This series will be appreciated by the viewer who searches for depth, suspense and action.

You like Blade Runner, GITS SOC, Neon Genesis? Then DON'T rob yourself of this.

Season 1 is very good, the second is losing coherence and quality. Yes, the second season has one of the best scenes in the series (The pharmacy and the hostages) but I'm not sure it makes up for everything that went wrong in the second.

Go for the first season. The second do not expect the same quality.

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!