Review of Psycho-Pass: The Movie
After an agonizing eight months after its debut in Japanese theaters, the Blu-Rays and subs for Psycho-Pass: The Movie are finally released and I can move pass that abomination of that second season. I'm very happy to say that the movie has met my expectations and is a fantastic addition to the franchise. Picking up after six months of the conclusion of the Psycho-Pass 2, a group of foreigners invade Japan with the intentions of committing an terrorist attack against the Sybil System. From that point on, Akane is sent off to a war-ravaged country, where the Sybil system is trialed, in order to find Kougami,who has some sort of connection to them. As this is a movie with a limited running time, the amount of action has been greatly increased to compensate the few new ideas that the movie brings to the table. This is where the second season has its greatest connection to the movie as the assault dominator and the bipedal mini-gun trotting killer robots are used to light up the screen with tons of bullets. Fights that go beyond the scale of the two seasons frequently occur with grandiose explosions and it makes up for whatever philosophical depth the movie may have lost in transition to the big screen.
Story
Building off of the themes from the two previous seasons, the movie expands its horizons by exporting the Sybil System into a country that is already embroiled in a civil war and violence is very much a way of life. The first season focused on judging the individual while the second season was about some nonsensical thing about collective identity and the Sybil system having to judge itself which then leads on into current situation within the movie.
Gen Urobuchi, as the primary writer, does a good job in keeping its focus on the new ways that the Sybil system is adapting itself to an outside world and its various implications. I really did like the message that movie gave off in the end as it is up to actual people, not systems, to decides whether to have freedom or security. Although the conclusion was a bit abrupt and had little impact on the primary cast as the all the important characters basically return back to the status quo, I felt that the cat was out of the box and was an appropriate setup for some major conflicts in future continuation of the Psycho-Pass series. Having a Sybil System that casts its net across the globe is something that is truly frightening to comprehend.
Characters
When it comes to characters, Psycho-Pass: The Movie has its sights on who made the series great by focusing squarely on Akane, Kougami and the Sybil System. Akane, having come so far from being a greenhorn inspector with native ideas about justice, continues to be the star of the series. Sporting a bulletproof vest and even carrying a 9mm pistol, she is takes a page from Kougami playbook in building herself up to be deadly without resorting to the technical marvel of the dominator. Far away from hyper-advanced Tokyo metropolis, it was immensely satisfying to see Akane be outside of her element and dealing with the brutal reality that most of the world faces.
Kougami remains the badass that he always is so it is like meeting up with an old friend that you haven't seen in a while and having both him and Akane together again is living up to a large part of what Psycho-Pass is. Ignoring Kamui of the second season, Makishima Shougo is back once again even though his physical body has a bullet hole in the middle of his head. A figment of Kougami's psyche, he is relentless in arguing his point that he and Kougami are of the same nature and that both of them will arrive at the same point.
Sadly, the real antagonists are little more than two-bit thugs armed with some serious firepower and are even weaker than Kamui in the previous season. They do have some fancy toys in their procession like giant-walking spider tanks, jetpacks and armored bio-suits but I don't think the movie could have crammed developmental time for the villains especially when there is so much awesomeness going with the main cast and gunfire tearing up the landscape . As a result, the supporting characters don't receive a lot of screen time and they don't show for the majority of the movie. Interestingly enough, Mika Shimotsuki is far more tolerable as a character even though there are more than enough hints of growing tension between the her and Akane. Knowing the full truth behind the Sybil System, she is far more ruthless and ideological harden than her former self, who was fumbled around in the dark while annoying the audience. For future installments, I can see this rivalry exploding when the stakes become even higher in a world that craves the promises of the Sybil System.
Animation
Production I.G. is in charged with once again with animating the entire movie and they do not disappoint. Unlike the work of Tatsunoko Productions, which clearly was not a first-rate studio and had some serious production issues throughout the second season, everything is skillfully animated and looks gorgeous. My only gripe with the visuals is the rather bland textures on some of the 3DCGI models like the Honda CRV in Akane's opening scene.
Music/Sound
Ling Tosite Sigure gives a wonderful opening titled "Who What Who What" that feels like a natural continuation of the second season opening and there is a spiffier version of the Psycho-Pass main theme.
There was one thing that really irks me during the movie and that was amount of Engrish being thrown around. The occasional mangled English phrase or sentence spoken by native Japanese voice actors is something that can usually be overlooked but hearing entire blocks of philosophical statements being spoken like that is more than cringe-worthy. Overall, the audio aspects are what you expect of a high budget anime movie but the Engrish is a black mark against an polished entertainment product.
Conclusion
Psycho-Pass is one of my favorite series in all of anime with its distinct lack of moe, cyberpunk sci-fi setting, thought-provoking mature subject matter and some really great characters, both protagonists and antagonists. The movie only affirms my love for the series with its lovely visual, bold new setting and some unsettling plans that Sybil System has as it go beyond its native Japanese borders. If you are a fan of Psycho-Pass, then there is absolutely no excuse in not watching this movie and I wouldn't hesitate in recommending this show for those who are old or new fans of anime.
8.5/10