PSYCHO-PASS 2 #1 -- Special Review

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• TERRA FORMARS *** TRIBE COOL CREW *** KAREN SENKI *** WORLD TRIGGER


• PARASYTE ***

Oooh… I haven’t been this genuinely excited over one given episode in a good, long while. So glad it met my expectations. Soooo glad.

Honestly, I couldn’t see how PSYCHO-PASS could continue after the season finale without obvious grabs at low-hanging fruit (more cases! The hunt for our bad boy inspector!). Now, I’m honestly floored. The staff has not only expanded the premise considerably, it’s also extended the social commentary to cut a lot closer to current affairs. When big pharma markets pills to make you smile more, or think less, then the notion of people taking drugs to chemically regulate their crime co-efficient sounds a lot less far-fetched, doesn’t it?

== TEASER ==

The show continues to play with this fascinating question about human experience, and how much of it can be measured by degrees. We so often see public apologies being scrutinized as ‘not sincere enough’ - - well, what if there actually were an index marking that with clear percentages? The first series put the good cop/bad cop archetype through a science fiction lens. Now, we’re seeing a similar treatment for that familiar set-up of a violence-weary officer who just wants to give a perp a second chance, for once. Here, it actually does come down to a tally.

And it’s not just all cold, heady ideas, either. Akane continues to demonstrate a very well-realized character profile that, impressively, centers on her just being a simple person. Clean thoughts. Honest intentions. She’s gotten dirty from the revelation about Sibyll last season but, true to the show, it’s only incremental dirtiness. She’s accepted that she can’t change the system, but is optimistic that she can still affect change on a small scale within that system (starting with this one suspect, whom she’d rather see being rehabilitated in a prison cell than sprawled out in a pile of smoldering ash).

I could go on, and I expect to go on, for every episode of season 2. Welcome back.

Watch this pilot and decide for yourself.

from Anime Vice Site Mashup http://ift.tt/1sI9wII