To my great delight, 2 days ago, I saw that this anime was added to Netflix in both dub and sub. Yay! Now, I meant to hold off this series for a while because of the upcoming second season, but I just thought, "Eh, why not?"
Psycho-Pass takes place in 2113 Tokyo, where the "Sibyl System" controls the city and monitors the people. Inspectors, as they are called, and street scanners measure people's "Psycho-Pass" to determine their mental state and how likely they are to commit a crime. If their Psycho-Pass is over 100, they must be taken in by Inspectors and their Enforcers (latent criminals given a second chance) to be given therapy. However, if the person's Psycho-Pass is too high, the Dominator (the weapon of Inspectors and Enforcers) and the Sibyl System deems the "criminal" be executed on the spot, in a rather gory and unceremonious way.
To be honest, my first impression was that for an anime that takes place in 2113 Tokyo, not much has changed except for the Sibyl System. I guess it's just me being part of a young generation that I would expect something like this to exist within 50-75 years from now.
Now, the reason I was able to give such a detailed synopsis up there is because in any fantasy/sci-fi setting, the viewer must be given more information than usual. Psycho-Pass doesn't necessarily do the "info-dump" from a narrator, but the information is given by the characters, because we are introduced to a rookie Inspector Akane Tsunemori in the very beginning of this episode. So, it feels like they were trying to avoid the info-dump, but ended up doing it in a not-so-subtle way.
The way the characters and potential conflict are set up, I do see some potential, but not a whole lot, only because the anime states that this society is so rigid. (Though I've heard that changes a bit later) There is a possibility for at least one of the characters to be an anti-hero, which, as you may know, takes a lot of writing skill to pull off well. With Gen Urobuchi behind the script, I'd say that is probably what might happen, though I don't think any character is going to be particularly likeable, kind of like my experience with Madoka Magica.
The animation was done by Production I.G, and the character designs were done by Akira Amano, the manga-ka to Katekyo Hitman Reborn. While the animation does look nice, the setting just looks a little too close to today's Tokyo. Not to mention the design for Akane, which if I want to be nice, I'd say is unique, and if I want to be honest, I would say looks kind of weird. I mean, I've seen 2 reviews saying Akane looks like she's permanently stoned. Everyone else looks good, but just a bit generic in terms of style.
For the dub, yes it's kind of a SFF dub, but there aren't too many of their "regulars" in this dub, shout out to Robert McCollum for voicing Shinya. While I do have a few gripes about pronunciation, I do like the dub script a lot. As for the music, the OST didn't leave that big of an impression on me, and neither did the opening or ending themes. Which is kind of sad, actually, for a series of this caliber.
I actually didn't enjoy this episode as much as I thought I would, considering its hype, but I will watch this eventually, and things should really look up, especially considering there's a second season coming this fall.
Cheers,
~Selena
Last Updated: 27 August 2014
Originally Published: 8 August 2014
I thought the anime got better as it went on, there's some good character development for Akane and the music, while varied, fit the tone and mood where it was placed. I ended up binge watching it towards the end.
ReplyDeleteOooooh, sounds good!
DeleteI don't know when I'll pick this up, just because there are WAY too many things on my to-watch list. Oh, and thank you VERY MUCH for commenting!