600https://i.ur.com/ytyqM6t.png Spoilerfree review Review in brief: PsychoPass is dark brooding and surprisingly slow in its first season. It presents the viewer with a lot to reflect on both during and after each episode making it a fine show to discuss in a group but it sacrifices the quality of its story characters to do so. Combined with its questionable pacing direction PsychoPass is difficult to recommend especially if you want action novelty or a memorable story. Review in full: Is PsychoPass for you? For all that it is and does you need to know what PsychoPass isnt to figure that out. Dont watch this if you want lots of action substantial character growth any sort of novelty or an intense thrillride. Aside from the infrequent action scenes which are mainly just the climaxes for each scenario PsychoPass never so much as intends to possess any of those traits. Instead its primary goal is to be a dystopian scifi crime drama that takes plenty of time to analyze the nature of criminals stress and emotional instability within a society thats set up to eliminate these things before they even exist via the Sibyl system and what that means for said society. If youre still interested know that while this ride does reach its destination its creators missed many of the aspects that would have made it a memorable experience. Its better explained with some mind to the order each point became apparent in so this review will mix the good and the bad. Not a spoiler just potentially unsettling. This anime can get quite gory by the way. Something else to consider before jumping in. Despite what Ive said the first episode could easily fool you into thinking this is set to become a fastpaced actionthriller. It utilizes one of its simpler yet darker crime cases as a means to introduce the main characters and the Sibyl system which their jobs and lives revolve around. It also flaunts its visual design with plenty of action and gore more than a typical case in the season does anyhow. After that first case much more time is devoted towards piecing together why the criminals do what they do mainly as a reflection of the Sibyl system and the society it has created. Much of this is initially done through the investigation of many smaller criminals whose cases get about two episodes each though there are also a few episodes that focus on members of the investigation team instead. Eventually this leads to an overarching conflict with the main antagonist that spans multiple cases. This brings up one of the more questionable decisions made in Psycho Pass production: for all of the character driven plotlines flashbacks and monologues there is little in the way of character development or even definition for much of the cast. Most of the characters remain the same throughout the show and some hardly display any sort of character during segments focusing on them. Instead its nearly all used to flesh out the setting Sibyls society or present a dilemma/topic regarding the scenario the characters are in for the audience to ponder over. This is alright for many of the criminals as their dilemmas the crimes theyre committing often say enough about their characters anyhow but the recurring characters suffer for it. For instance the enforcer Yayoi has an entire episode revolving around her backstory and all we learn about her is that shes an exmusician who developed a taste for music Sibyl disapproves of. Learning that Sibyl holds such strict regulations over artistry helped flesh out the setting but definitely was not something that needed over 20 minutes to explain. That information doesnt ever play into Yayois role either its just background fluff and renders her as little more than background fluff to the story. As such PsychoPass generally slow pace isnt the product of a show that seeks to provoke thought or build a mystery around its setting despite the fact that it does those things. It is instead caused by its insistence to indirectly present itself from the perspective of oftshallow characters rather than directly focusing on its setting and criminal cases with the characters simply existing within the space created therein. Perhaps this inefficient method of storytelling was used to justify the awkward 22episode runtime which leaves some episodes segments including the aforementioned Yayoi episode sticking out like infectious growths from the anime as a whole. At its worst this causes this season to skip over what would appear to be important plot details in favor of providing dialogue leading to overcomplexity when raw exposition is inevitably needed to explain some things and even a few minor plotholes in its conclusion more on that later. 600https://i.ur.com/ORruNKz.jpg Not only does PsychoPass technology show up everywhere but its also consistently useful to the plot. Plain characters aside PsychoPass setting does end up well defined. A lot of information about the society built around the Sibyl System is given but slowly and evenly making it all easily digestible. Many details regarding everyday life in this world are briefly shown multiple times such as the use of holograms to decorate rooms structures and even clothing or the numerous cameras checkpoints where ones Psycho Pass is checked updated and used to determine access rights which goes a long way in cementing this world as its own society rather than just Generic SciFi City 43. Such interactions allow the few standout members of the investigation crew to display development and growth outside of dialogue as their reactions towards societal elements change over time. They also lead to later criminals leaving bigger impressions than earlier ones as the viewer can better understand the conditions that led them to their criminal intent and more clearly see which of societys roots theyve chosen to tear at. Its likely why the main antagonist Shougo Makishima is remembered fondly by series fans. While his actual character is rather simple what he does and why raises and answers major questions with many potential standpoints that lead to engaging dialogue both within the show and outside of it i.e. amongst the audience. Speaking of discussion PsychoPass loves to present moral quandaries and bits of philosophy to the viewers as bluntly as it can. While those who profess to be intellectuals may find the overthehead delivery of famous dilemmas and quotes from literature philosophical works dry or pretentious the laymen wont have to worry so much about understanding what the show is trying to tell them and will have a few sources of further reading on certain plot specifics should they wish to dig deeper. This is what makes PsychoPass better as a group watch versus a solo experience as the dialogue issues presented in each situation comes prearranged for discourse between people with different levels of expertise or sources of reference. 600https://i.ur.com/3Rebwfg.jpg Lots of quality wallpaper material but wallpapers alone dont make an animation. Whether the characters are having a philosophical discourse or gorily killing each other the visual artistry is of decent quality but for a strange reason. With a clear clean style befitting a scifi nations attempt at utopia chained to the basic expectations for Japanese animation and rarely more this anime can provide good wallpapers and some visually engaging static moments but doesnt manage to do anything out of the ordinary when in motion except for the OPs and EDs which have the highest production quality out of anything in this anime. Fortunately the sound quality is consistently both excellent and fitting. The soundtrack has memorable pieces and can carry the visually unimpressive moments while the voices are distinct clear and match their characters. Im convinced you could just close your eyes and listen to this anime while still understanding almost everything thats going on. Earlier I said that this ride reaches its destination but I would be remiss to say it reached a smooth stop. While the story around Shougo Makishima serves as an appreciable high point for the show even alongside the previously mentioned issues the final case is poorly executed in many ways. In this arc the characters involved make numerous awkward decisions often as though they know things they shouldnt if the story thus far is to be believed which makes some scenes appear forced and opens up a few plotholes at critical plot points. At the same time many conclusions the plot reaches are disappointingly predictable passive and shallow seemingly just so that the old conflicts would still exist in the sequel. This predictability also draws out the ending reinforcing the notion that this story never needed 22 episodes to be properly told. Verdict: All in all PsychoPass 1st season is a brooding generally enjoyable scifi crime drama but its also thin and lethargic in certain aspects and that keeps it from being a consistently good ride especially at the end. Still it does a passable job of doing what it set out to do while providing a neat sampler plate of intellectual topics to reflect upon afterwards.