Review of Psycho-Pass: The Movie

It’s been over a year since I first watched Psycho-Pass, and in the time since then, I’ve only become further convinced of how damn good it is. It’s a searing political commentary on the nature of free will and sociological predestination, exploring countless fascinating (and severely fucked) dystopian concepts while backed by a fantastic, character-driven narrative and one of anime’s most iconic bad guys. It’s possibly Gen Urobuchi’s best work, with stronger characters than Madoka Magica and far less, well, Fate-ness than Fate/Zero, though they’re all of such similar caliber in my mind that I wouldn’t feel comfortable ranking them against each other. But thefailure of Psycho-Pass 2 to re-capture its brilliance couldn’t help but raise the question of how much of a franchise there really was to this franchise.

See, part of what makes Gen Urobuchi’s work so great is how complete and self-contained his stories feel. You come to the end of any of this shows and all emotional loose ends will be tied up, all characters will have reached the natural endpoint of their arcs, and the story’s themes will have been analyzed and dissected to completion. Some writers excel at creating expansive, varied universes you just want to spend endless time in, but Urobuchi’s signature touch is getting in, saying everything he wants to say, and then cutting the cord not a second later. He’s a remarkably efficient writer in that regard, crafting wonderful self-contained mobius strips of darkness that leave you with countless thoughts to endlessly mull over. But because of that, his work just doesn’t naturally lend itself to sequelization. Despite the ambiguity of his endings, his work doesn’t leave behind any dangling threads to pull on if you want to tease out new ideas from the same universe, which means you have to throw entirely now playing pieces into the mix that just might not gel with the tightly crafted clockwork contraption they’re being shoved into. Sure, Psycho-Pass 2 not having Urobuchi on the writing team (as a result of him working on this movie, no less) was a big reason it was of such lower quality, but even when Urobuchi does work on the sequels to his own projects, like with Rebellion, you can’t help but feel like the focus isn’t as strong the second time around. As much as I love the dude’s work, the more of it I see, the more convinced I’ve become that it’s just not really possible to sequelize him without losing the magic that made it work in the first place.

Thank god, then, that the direct movie sequel to the first season of Psycho-Pass has arrived to put those doubts to rest.

It’s some time after Kogame killed Makishima and went rogue, and Akane is in the process of getting used to working as a superior officer under the Sybil System. But things get dangerous when a successful sting operation reveals connections back to an unstable South Asian nation called SEAM. Outside Japan, the world is a chaotic battlefield of warring nations and insurgencies, and the seeming stability of the Sybil System is beginning to attract many to want to adopt it as well. SEAM is holding a trial run on an artificial island created to house clear and clouded Psycho-Passes alike, turning those deemed dangerous into closely monitored slaves. But because the Sybil System is literally the worst and stomps on the unlucky under the guise of being “fair and balanced”, the citizens of Seam are suffering, and a guerrilla army is attempting to overthrow the chairman to stop the adoption of Sybil. And it just so happens that among that rebel army is non other than Kogami himself. At her request, Akane is sent in alone to try and bring him in, and once there, she becomes embroiled in the political scheming and chaos as she attempts both to track down Kogami and unravel the roots of the unrest plaguing the country… and what Sybil might have to do with it.

The best way I can describe this film is that it’s an epilogue to the first season, and somehow just as good a stopping point for the story of Akane and Kogame as the end of the first season. We do catch glimpses of the new characters from season 2, but they’re firmly in the background, which is for the best, because in case we forgot, none of the new characters were interesting. The focus here is on Kogame and Akane, as they come to terms with the people they’re both turning into and whether or not the paths they’ve come to follow are the right ones. And whenever the camera’s on them, it’s like we never even left. The friendship and conflict between these two characters was the true heart of Psycho-Pass, and this movie is a chance to give that bond proper closure, allowing them both a chance to determine how they want to keep fighting against the pain the Sybil System brings. And man, I can’t believe how fucking much I missed them. Their chemistry, the way they bounce off each other, the respect they hold toward each other, the newfound sadness as they try to make sense of the companionship they can never fully restore… god, it’s really fucking good. And without spoiling anything, by the time the movie’s over, it really does feel like a proper farewell to the old status quo. It’s possibly the most outwardly hopeful ending in Urobuchi’s entire oeuvre, a promise that for as hard as the world seems, thing are, and will continue, to get better.

That said, I’d be lying if I tried to pretend the Psycho-Pass movie fully escapes the Urobuchi sequel curse. Once again, now that the story has to expand beyond the tightly constructed parameters it set for itself, it has to start tacking on new additions that threaten to bloat the proceedings down. The politics of the new setting are all very well-realized, and it makes for a nice sort of “bottle episode” feel, but there are definitely a few too many new characters to comfortably fit. There’s a squad of cybernetic mercenaries, in particular, that feels like they’re only here to expand the runtime and give Kogami someone new to fight hand-to-hand. But the gadgets and gizmos they fight with aren’t interesting enough to make them stand out, and the one woman on the team wears the stupidest fucking fanservice outfit with her oversized tits just about spilling out of her shirt, so it just ends up feeling more stupid than anything else. It’s the one part of the film that feels like the second season in a bad way, a sloppy, juveline aping of the first season’s maturity, mistaking shock value for genuine darkness and tension.

But you know what? For all those complaints, the fact of the matter is, this movie accomplishes what the second season couldn’t even come close to: it felt like Psycho-Pass. It felt like a proper story set in the world of the Sybil System, with the same pitch-black-yet-doggedly-hopeful dystopian edge and an actual worthwhile addition to the franchise’s overall picture. It’s got great character work between its central players and provides proper closure to the first season’s ambiguity. It’s full of nasty, fascinating technological advances that raise dark questions about the possibilities of future societies. And while I’m still not the biggest fan of the franchise’s aesthetic- Production IG’s early-2010s washed-out bloom look is never not gonna make me have PTSD flashbacks to Guilty Crown- it still takes advantage of its movie budget to pull off some spectacular, evocative setpieces that hit hard and spray dizzying litres of blood across the pavement. It’s also got proof that CG elements can actually blend almost seamlessly with 2D shows, as long as they’re drawn in the same style and actually animated at full frames per second instead of like stuttering dial-up connections. Seriously, I was really damn impressed by how well the big 3D machines and robots integrated with the hand-drawn backgrounds and characters. Never let it be said that this franchise lacks for artistry.

In the end, what I most come away from this movie with is a sense of hope. Not just for the surprising optimism of its conclusion and what it means for the people living in the world, but for the franchise a whole. Urobuchi’s work is hard to sequel, but the Psycho-Pass Movie proves it can be done. It’s still possible to draw legitimately worthwhile follow-ups from his closely woven narratives, to find stories still worth telling even after the curtain falls. Whether or not the Sinners of the System films and third season can make good on that potential remains to be seen, but at the very least, I know this franchise still has life. And that's an achievement worth celebrating.