Psycho-Pass 2 is better than Psycho-Pass 1. Yes, the best of Psycho-Pass 1 is better than anything in Psycho-Pass 2, but what about the rest of it? Remember Spooky Boogie? Artsy murder girl? Hunter guy with robot dogs? Things didn’t kick into high gear until the end of episode 11, which was literally halfway through the 22-episode season. The ending of season 1, while satisfying, wasn’t as good as the arc that preceded it.
I was shocked to learn of a season 2, believing nothing good could possibly come of it. Sometimes I’m wrong.
Season 2 jumps right into the main plot. It’s all action from start to finish. There are no filler bosses. It’s (relatively) low on philosophical rambling. There’s one more lesbian. The violence is extreme and gratuitious. Sadly we live in a day and age when hyperviolence isn’t considered a good thing. What’s the first thing you saw in season 1? A cuddly mascot character THAT’S ACTUALLY A WEAPON! CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT SHIT?! Seriously novitaminA, you need to stop trying to make violence cute. We can do without another bomb that’s also a teddy bear. It’s neither cute nor violent.
The most impressive thing about season 2 is that it maintained the integrity of Akane’s character. I was expecting the season to take one of two directions: either Akane would turn into a Kogami clone or she’s revert into a helpless pussy who needed Kogami to come back and save the day. Thankfully, the show allowed her to be a badass on the detective front while maintaining her laid back personality.
Don’t get me wrong, season 2 is far from perfect. Lesbianism aside, Cunty McCuntington is one of the worst characters I’ve ever seen. The Sibyl System basically throws in the towel. The old lady’s actions were incoherent. Some of the early bad guys were pointlessly overpowered. There are probably some other points I’m forgetting, but I was supposed to write this post about 2 years ago, so deal with it.
I agree that the best thing about Psycho Pass 2 was Akane. That she stayed as a strong character, despite all the nonsense that happened in season 2. Despite faux-Kogami trying blacken her psycho pass, she did not give a shit.
Thinking about it, Akane being such an awesome character might be one of the problems. Scrappy keep screeching and yapping at Akane but it was all nonsense. Akane never took that seriously so we could never take Scrappy seriously. Faux-Kogami was trying to mess with Akane’s head but that barely bothered her either, so we couldn’t take him seriously either.
“The Sibyl System basically throws in the towel. The old lady’s actions were incoherent”
These really big problems here. The Sibyl System is a really, really important part of Pyscho Pass and they “fucked it up”.
Other than Akane, what was actually good?
It was action-packed, well-paced, and the plot was interesting, despite fizzling out at the end. Let me flip the question back to you: what was so good about the first half of the first season?
The first half did a lot of things. It introduced the setting and characters. It showed the good and bad things bad the Sybil system. It slowly introduced the bad guy as this evil mastermind. It built up to the second half. Maybe after watching it again it doesn’t seem that great but it was necessary.
The second season of Psycho Pass was actually similar to the first half of season one, except it doesn’t lead into a second, better half. Not to mention being terrible as well.
wtf man
Philosophy.
I actually kind of like philosophical rambling when it isn’t done too blatantly through out of place references, which the first season did way too much and made itself look slightly too pretentious. The second season was way more subtle – it had a different philosophical dilemma (individualism versus collectivism) but it wasn’t as blatantly spelled out. I still liked the first season’s best parts better, but second season definitely isn’t as bad as most people complain.
Now I get it. All these group-think whiners are only complaining because the theme of collectivism hit too close to home.
Great to hear that you enjoyed it. I also really liked it. I still prefer the first season like almost everyone else. I really love Makishima. He’s one of my all time favourite villains.
I should probably check out the movie too at some point since most people have enjoyed it.
And lesbians make everything better.
The movie was ok. It answers a few questions, and the action was good. But I’m not a movie or OVA guy in general, and this movie was no exception. They’re too short to delve into a plot the way a TV series can. Actually, that reminds me of another post I’ve been meaning to write…
I look forward to reading it next year.
Don’t tease poor Raptor.
Is it teasing if it’s true?
The way I found your blog was as an indication from Digibro, of My Sword is Unbelievably Dull, and he has a series of videos now on why he loves season 1 and why season 2 is atrocious, which he said would soon be collected into a single big video. I’m inclined to agree with you as I gave up on watching this show some 5 episodes in because nothing was happening. In any case, the police weapons being disguised as cute dolls made sense in this anime, whether it is a cliché at this point or not, to avoid worrying the population as the controlled life under the Sybil System coddled everyone, and ironically now the population is more susceptible than ever to be unable to deal with negative emotions causing them to more easily be targets for termination.
I remember Digibro posting his video series about this, but I chose not to watch them because I wanted to avoid turning this post into a reaction piece. Now that my pure, unbiased opinion is officially published, I may go back and watch his reviews.
I saw this a couple of weeks back. Now that I had time to not make a knee-jerk reaction, I would like to disagree. I can agree that there were parts in season two that are better than season one, but overall, the experience was ruined for me by having to deal with Mika Shimotsuki, the police partner and Sakuya Togane, not Kogami. I felt that these two characters, along with the feeling of inconsistency that Kasei and the Sybil system were showing, and that Kamui
also has the name Kiritofelt like a cheap remix of the first season villain dragged down the series potential greatly. I do have a question for thought. I complained that the villain was same-ish, but in what way new way can one challenge and show fault in the Sybil system outside of what they showed? Just curious.