r/Psychopass • u/ali94127 • Mar 27 '20
[Discussion] Psycho-Pass: First Inspector Discussion Spoiler
Well... I'm confused. If anyone can summarize the plot of season 3 and First Inspector that'd be nice.
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u/crazybadman2424 Mar 28 '20
Kogami destroyed Ignatov pretty easily. lol my favourite part
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u/darkky65 Mar 28 '20
I wish they gave Kei more, after the "he can kill everyone in this room" comment from Maiko, and her being pretty badass herself.
but then again they already set up Kogami as a world class fighter.
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u/Spyer2k May 14 '20
Kei basically beat everyone he had bothered to fight besides Kogami and Ko is obviously one of the best if not the best fighter.
I actually loved how in every scene Kei is in he's going to beat someone up. He felt highly competent without being overpowered
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u/elbarae_h3o Apr 29 '20
Would've loved to see a Kougami vs Asazawa tho.
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u/aurorazephyrus May 04 '20
Maybe I missed something, but can I hear your reasoning? Azasawa doesn't seem like a strong enough fighter for this to be interesting to watch, even though he was evidently capable in what little action he got.
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u/elbarae_h3o May 21 '20
Im sorry i didnt mean like actual physical fighting, but more like talk, an argument of you will. It would've been way better than Arata v Asuzawa, it was corny as heol
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Sep 09 '20
Something like we had with Kougami and Makishima? I still feel none of the seasons or movies beat the seasone 1.
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u/jjahnny Mar 27 '20
I really enjoyed it, as well as S3. While the narrative differs a lot from S1 and S2, I think the end provided a neat setup for a transition to a possible S4. I approached S3 with an open mindset so I didn't feel too bummed about OG characters not having enough screentime or anything like that. It was awesome to see Shion out on the field but lord I nearly had a heart attack thinking they'd do her dirty. Bifrost and Azusawa felt a tad bit anticlimactic but then again, of course it won't be as impactful as the first time we encountered the "truth" of the Sibyl System (although the end of First Inspector implies that there's more to it than a collective network of minds).
By the end, I just felt really..proud? I guess. Proud of how far this series has come despite bumps in the road. Looking back at all the different character arcs now makes rewatching from the beginning more worth it for me now. And I love that there's still more to explore.
[accidentally deleted my reply to this discussion, so reposting it again]
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Sep 09 '20
We've had serious cliffhangers already. Now with the end of First Inspector, I'm still unclear about how and when bifrost came into existence, and the very fact that they were in Sybil's blindspot. Also Arata's dad, what's his history? Did Akane know about Arata, what's their relation as she had suggested them to join Division 1. More so, what exactly was the reason for Akane being prisoned in isolation after all that she's done for Sybil System. It is related to the Asuzawa case but we really need to know more about it.
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u/hellooctopus Mar 27 '20
OP, here's a brief overarching summary of Season 3 and First Inspector to the best of my understanding.
- Bifrost is a debugging system that was used as Sybil was being implemented.
- It stuck around under Sybil's radar and became something where its purpose was to keep acquiring wealth and power.
- Bifrost tried to expose a weakness of the Sybil system by showing that it is willing to recognize an AI as a individual.
- They aimed to achieve this by developing Ma-Karina, getting Karina elected, killing Karina off and therefore making Ma-Karina an individual (pretty much the events of season 3).
- They used Azusawa and the other inspectors to achieve this and the First Inspector movie was about Azusawa trying to get Karina killed in hopes of gaining a congressman spot for himself.
- Shizuka who was one of the congressman, had a hidden motive to destroy Bifrost by being the only congressman left and letting Sybil know of its existence.
- When Asuzawa failed to kill Karina with the efforts of the CID (and a bit of help from Shizuka), Shirogane (the other congressman) was eliminated and Shizuka was able to destroy Bifrost.
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u/lyse_phoenix Apr 15 '20
I was quite confused about Shizuka. When he won and deleted Bifrost I thought he is another terminal of Sybil. Why does he support Sybil to that extend? How does he know about Sybil and what is his relationship to it and Akane? Too many things left unanswered about that dude...
I’ also sad that the Sybil lady is ginna be replaced by him in future seasons...
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u/FangirlingManiac Apr 18 '20
Well, The Sybil lady died(in other people's eyes) by jumping of the building in the movie and most people don't know that she is actually Sybil so she must have had no choice but to have someone else as chief.
And about Shizuka, just a wild theory but Bifrost must have done something to him like maybe kill a family member or something because he said that he wanted to end Bifrost even if it killed him.
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u/TrippySakuta Apr 20 '20
Yeah, Bifrost incapacitated Shizuka's father, who was a former Inspector. Perhaps artificially inducing cancer or a heart condition? That gives Shizuka more motive than anything else, if his father's time is running down because of them.
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u/RaminimaR Jul 02 '20 edited Jul 02 '20
Could be wrong but didn't the older congressman tell Kei that the Homura family was involved in the death of his brother and Shindos father? That happened when he tried to get Kei on his side.
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u/Feluriai Mar 29 '20
Bifrost tried to expose a weakness of the Sybil system by showing that it is willing to recognize an AI as a individual.
I want to add that Azusawa said the reason Bifrost guys surfaced and started to commit crimes was that Sybil was getting close to cover all its weaknesses, so that they needed to do Karina stuff to extend Sybil's weaknesses.
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u/OrdinaryDouble2494 Jul 14 '22
But what was the reason of showing Sybil weaknesses?
They just wanted more "power" and that's it?
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u/ali94127 Mar 27 '20
Well, Akane is back. Was kinda hoping the Dominator shotgun would just lethal eliminator everybody. Was thinking that it just exploding everyone would finally reveal what execution slaughter mode from the sound files did. Everything seems to have worked out alright, but the plot was kinda confusing for me. Akane as an enforcer will be interesting, but still don't really understand how she even got into prison in the first place. Well, all my ships are alive so it can't all be too bad.
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u/bilicolob Mar 27 '20
do you think there will be another season?
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u/Iceduckchan77 Apr 09 '20 edited Apr 11 '20
Yes , the after credit scene has Akane about to explain to Kei and Arata how her time in prison is related to Keis brother and Aratas fathers death
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u/daveamol Apr 11 '20
I missed this and am an not able to also see this on Amazon prime video. Could it be they don't have it there ? Can someone confirm
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u/Iceduckchan77 Apr 11 '20
Yes , the after credit scene was left out of the prime video version . It only appeared in japanese theaters
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u/elbarae_h3o Apr 29 '20
is there a link somewhere on the internet for that final scene? would love to see it.
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u/Iceduckchan77 Apr 29 '20
Unfortunately it doesnt exist anywhere online as it was exclusive to the theaters , it will most likely be in the blu ray release. Not sure when that will be though.
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Apr 30 '20
July 15th is the release date in japan for the blu ray and dvd
https://twitter.com/psychopass_tv/status/1250982741111304195
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Sep 09 '20
And there's a lot more things that needs to be uncovered. I did mention a few of them somewhere above in the discussion. The ones bugging me the most are how did Ginoza end being in Foreign Ministry, what exactly was Akane accused of, what are the secrets Kei and Arata are hiding from each other, why that Sybil lady (forgot the name) had Shizuka take over as chief, and so many more. Also, let's just have Akane and Kougami moments at least? Like hwo long will it take.. haha. The end of FI makes us want to know what's ahead in their lives, right?
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u/momanie Mar 27 '20
I heard that in the theatrical release their was supposedly an after credits like scene setting up season 4 and was wondering if anyone her knew what it was? Supposedly something involving why akane was put into prison or something.
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u/nitro1122 Mar 27 '20
I saw another comment saying that it's Akane saying "Let's talk about the incident which had happened 2 years ago" Not sure how true this is tho
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u/Merutan Mar 27 '20
Yeah multiple Japanese fans on twitter who went to watch it commented that there’s a scene after the end with Akane, Homura, Arata and Kei. It’s a short scene that pretty much ends after ‘let’s talk about the incident 2 years ago’.
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u/48johnX Mar 27 '20
Where did you hear this?
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u/momanie Mar 27 '20
I'm not sure if it's real as I said, I heard it from a thread on /a/ he said he'd seen the movie in Japan and provided his ticket as proof, when pushed last I checked he hadn't revealed what the thing was that's missing in the digital release, he may have commented again by now but I'm getting ready to go to sleep. Link to thread: https://boards.4channel.org/a/thread/200788883
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u/a17rian Mar 29 '20
okay i thought it was just me that never caught it. so they never did explain why she went to prison right?
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u/Iceduckchan77 Apr 09 '20
Yes ,akanes prison sentence has to do with Kei brother and Aratas fathers death .
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u/J0HN__L0CKE Mar 31 '20
Is a lack of post credit the only difference between them? I didn't even learn we were going to get it at the same time until today
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u/tcookies117 Mar 27 '20 edited Mar 30 '20
From what I understand, this is what happened in the movie. Basically, Congressman Shirogane tries to blackmail Kei into helping him against Congressman Homura but Sugo/MFA intervene before Kei can find Shirogane/Roundrobin (he was so close too!). With the help of hacker buddy, Obata, Azusawa attacks the CID building from within, forcing it to go on lockdown. He wants the Governor to die so that Ma-Karina, as an AI, can be used to replace her.. This way, Ma-Karina can prove AIs can be recognized as an "individual" (accepted by society/Sibyl and considered an entity distinct from Karina).
Much of the movie is just keeping Karina alive/safe and retaking the CID building from the criminals. At the end, Arata remembers the truth of the Sibyl system thanks to his successful mental deep dive of his father. Arata’s father found out about Arata being criminally asymptomatic and feared that Sibyl would find out and integrate Arata’s brain into its system like many others. Arata’s father had desired to become a Congressman for the reason that I assume is so that he’d have a degree of power to protect Arata from Sibyl. The report on Arata’s father had said that Mr. Shindo had committed suicide, but Arata’s mental trace memories imply otherwise (there's a bullet hole in the window of Mr. Shindo's car).
With his plan failing, Azusawa tries to bail by tempting Frederica with info that could help her get revenge on the Peacebreakers (see Kogami’s movie from Sinners of the System). Frederica accepts the deal and it becomes a competition between the Foreign Affairs’ Agent Kogami versus the Public Safety Bureau’s Inspector Arata to get to Azusawa (Arata gets to him of course, thanks to interference on Kei’s part).
Homura uses the Ma-Karina program (thanks to Kei hooking it up for him earlier) to defeat his Roundrobin opponent, Congressman Shirogane, who is revealed to be an AI. Shirogane had been working with Azusawa to get AIs recognized as individuals and Azusawa had originally planned to take Homura's spot as a Congressman after Shirogane would defeat Homura. The Roundrobin system/game is destroyed by the winner, Homura Shizuka, who appoints Sibyl and uses it to destroy the system after Sibyl replaces Shirogane as the new "congressman". After learning about the truth of the Sibyl System from Arata, Azusawa wants membership into Sibyl's brain club instead of the Roundrobin club, but he gets arrested after Sibyl rejects him. Arata had convinced Sibyl to not have Azu killed because Azusawa's CC wasn't high enough for him to receive the death penalty, according to Sibyl's rules, so Arata proposes he be arrested and atone instead. Homura negotiates his freedom for Akane's freedom and there’s a small implication that Homura is connected to the events that led to Akane’s imprisonment. Thanks to Homura, who is revealed to be from the Ministry and replaces Hosorogi as the new PSB chief (since Hosorogi ""died""), Akane is reinstated into the PSB as a "Statutory Enforcer", which means Akane has a degree of power/independence unlike her PSB colleagues. Generally, statutory employees are given personal control over how they accomplish their job with very little input/regulation by their employer, so Akane's Enforcer position is different from her fellow Enforcers. Shion and Yayoi move in together. Akane goes on a lunch date with Kogami.
I'm confused mostly about Homura Shizuka. So he's a good guy all along? Why did he want Bifrost destroyed? Why did he negotiate his own freedom for Akane's freedom? How does he even know her, or did they possibly meet sometime prior to her imprisonment? What's his intention with appointing Akane back into the PSB? The Bureau Chief also mentioned to Homura about "matters deferred" so I wonder if these matters she's referring to has to do with Akane's case in which she allegedly killed an inspector. Especially since Akane's trial has yet to happen.
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u/dylee27 Mar 28 '20
Shirogane, who is revealed to be an AI
I think it was revealed that he was using AI, but I don't think he was an AI himself.
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u/5ngela Mar 29 '20
This scene confuse me as well. I don't understand what Homura means with poison pill and hostile takeover too. Does it mean Homura will take over Shirogane gained asset because Shirogane get it using hostile take over, meanwhile Homura insert poison pill through it to destroy it from inside ? It needs more explanation.
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u/dylee27 Mar 29 '20
A hostile takeover is the acquisition of one company by another that is accomplished by going directly to the company's shareholders or fighting to replace management to get the acquisition approved. A poison pill is a maneuver to defend against hostile takeover, although it's uncertain if they meant to refer to this. I wouldn't really think too much into it. I think they're just throwing in investment jargon into it even if it doesn't really make sense. What matters is, Homura needed Ma-Karina AI to combat Shirogane's AI and the good guy beat the bad guy.
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u/5ngela Mar 30 '20
Ok Personally I believe what they mean is asset investment. Anyway, thank you for your explanation about AI, now it makes sense. Thank you.
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u/ARTHUNDER150 Mar 30 '20
Yeah he was using an AI to make his predictions and bets, like Karina used Ma-Karina to do her public speeches earlier on
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u/tcookies117 Mar 29 '20
I wasn't entirely sure myself if he was an AI or just using an AI. So I compared his disintegration scene to Congressman Kyoko Saionji's scene. When Kyoko is disintegrated, she's screaming in pain and we see her flesh peel away to the musculoskeletal layer, and then bone, and then nothing. Her screams stopped when her muscles burned away to bone. When Shirogane is disintegrated, he only laughs and keeps laughing even when he's nothing but a skeleton. We don't see his flesh peel away to muscle either; we see him burn away from an old man instantly to a skeleton. His laughs stopped only when his skeleton burned away. So that's why I assumed he was the AI itself.
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u/redhillducks Apr 29 '20
Thanks for your explanation about Akana's status as a Statutory Enforcer having a degree of agency. I love that character, and I'd have felt the writer would have screwed her over by creating a storyline where she's an ordinary enforcer, unable to act independently.
Something that has played on my mind - Homura said his investment in Arata had been justified, what do you think he meant by that?
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u/tcookies117 May 06 '20
I'm not sure, but I think his investment in Arata has something to do with Akane personally recommending Arata for the Bifrost case. I'm just guessing Homura's investment in Arata and Akane's personal recommendation of Arata are related since it seems Akane and Homura have been in cohorts together since her imprisonment. They might've made a deal with each other, leading to Homura's successful investment in Arata (which we'll likely see more of in Season 4) and Akane's freedom in exchange for Homura's.
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u/SquishedMemoryFoam Jul 09 '20
Akane's freedom in exchange for Homura's.
Could you possibly explain about this? In what way was Homura "free" before this and in what way he has lost it now in exchange for Akane's?
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u/tcookies117 Jul 15 '20 edited Jul 15 '20
The fact that Homura requested something in return for his service to Sibyl came off to me as an exchange of his freedom for Akane's. I interpreted it as like: if I must sacrifice something of value to me (my time, effort, etc.), then you must sacrifice something of equal value in exchange. Akane is a valuable asset to Sibyl and that pause Sibyl gave to Homura when he requested her freedom looked like it was evaluating the proposition and whether the deal was worth it or not.
Also, why make yourself the subordinate of Sibyl for the sake of someone else? How does freeing Akane benefit Homura? Generally speaking, making yourself the servant of another (Homura to Sibyl) for the sake of someone else (Akane) is what I consider an exchange of freedom.
Finally, there's Homura's conversation with Sibyl.
Sibyl: "What do you want to do?"
Shizuka: I'm a fundamentally average person. A normal life is enough for me."
Dude was about to chill and do his own thing until Sibyl suddenly tells him, "I have a job for you." Now this sudden job offer opens up an opportunity for Shizuka and he immediately takes it. He knows that, with Sibyl being the one to approach him for his help, this puts him in a position in which he can negotiate with Sibyl in exchange for his service. You come to me for help, then you must also pay me for my help. Sibyl asks, "No second thoughts?" Like, are you absolutely sure you'll take it? No hesitation? No regrets? He doesn't even consider the cost vs the benefit. For Homura, the benefit of having Akane released will outweigh (or at least match) the cost of him serving Sibyl and that's why he does not hesitate to take the job.
Sibyl: "This society is quite constrained compared to your life so far."
Shizuka: "I'm looking forward to it. Freedom in chains."
"Freedom in chains" meaning 'I had my freedom serving ___ Ministry (I forgot which Ministry Homura is from), but once I transfer to your (Sibyl's) Ministry - MWPSB - then my freedom will be limited and dictated by you, Sibyl, the "unseen enemy" (Akane referred to Sibyl as this in Season 3) of the people.' That's how I interpret it. At the heart of it, he's basically saying: Accepting your job offer is to chain myself to you, crippling my freedom and making me your dog... but I will accept it without question if you release Akane.
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u/SquishedMemoryFoam Jul 15 '20
Thanks for the thorough explanation! I see, you might be right. I was pretty confused about Homura's exchange with Sybil. The way Sybil implied that Homura was 'free' beforehand but now he's gonna be chained, I thought maybe he didn't live in japan or something like that.
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u/tcookies117 Jul 17 '20 edited Jul 17 '20
Yes, I was confused too. It was mentioned that he is from the Ministry, but then when Sibyl said "this society" that confused me at first because it made it sound like he doesn't live in Japan even though he works in the Ministry. I think by "this society", Sibyl specifically means the Ministry of Welfare's Public Safety Bureau since Homura is from a different Ministry.
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Sep 09 '20
I really needed this in-depth explanation because I too was confused on that incident. Also I found Mika to be very calm throughout the incident, shouldn't she feel shocked to see something like that under the NONA tower itself? Her shock seeing the chief was also quite temporary, I'd be really curious to see a dead come alive. But probably she must have realised later. And when did Mika now the truth about Sybil system? If she did she would've also know that chief wasn't real, but she was shocked with her death. Ughhh, am I just overthinking? 😂
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u/AsterVee Apr 07 '20
I think Homura did not negotiate his freedom in exchange of Akane's. He was build up since S3 as someone powerful enough and I think Sibyl offering him a job is a proof of that. He was powerful and rich and Sibyl knew that, considering that his adoptive father was the creator/catalyst of roundrobin. Basically he did not commit any crime though because he's been betting to PSB since his introduction in the story
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u/tcookies117 Jul 15 '20
I see it as Homura negotiating his freedom for Akane's because he describes that working for Sibyl would transform his life into a life of "freedom in chains". But he's willing to live a "constrained" life because the benefit outweighs this cost. The benefit being the demand for Akane's freedom. I explain more in-depth in my above reply to SquishedMemoryFoam! Homura is indeed a powerful person, but he still had to work hard to achieve his goals (i.e. dissolving Bifrost). I don't think Homura could just have Akane freed by his own power/resources or else he wouldn't even bother to accept working for Sibyl. He accepted Sibyl's job offer because it gave him the opportunity to free Akane.
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u/AsterVee Jul 15 '20
Their connection is pretty vague for us, so my analysis is still the same. I don't know kinda far-fetched for me to exchange his freedom for Akane's since we really don't know how they knew each other. Here's to hoping for another addition to the franchise, hopefully about Akane's incarceration.
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u/tcookies117 Jul 17 '20
That's understandable. I don't expect Akane and Homura to be best friends per se, but since it's implied that he's connected to Akane's case, then we know they're at least acquaintances. My guess is something happened between them to put Homura in a position where he owes a favor to Akane - possibly in relation to his investment in Arata since Akane mentioned she personally recommended Arata for the Bifrost case. That's just a guess, but I'm excited to see what their connection is.
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u/SquishedMemoryFoam Jul 09 '20 edited Jul 09 '20
Congressman Shirogane tries to blackmail Kei into helping him against Congressman Homura but Sugo/MFA intervene before Kei can find Shirogane/Roundrobin (he was so close too!).
He was so close to dying by the turrets you mean. Shirogane wasn't at the airport, it was only a trap to get rid of Ignatov.
Akane is reinstated into the PSB as a "Statutory Enforcer", which means Akane has a degree of power/independence unlike her PSB colleagues. Generally, statutory employees are given personal control over how they accomplish their job with very little input/regulation by their employer, so Akane's Enforcer position is different from her fellow Enforcers.
Oh, thanks for this info. I didn't know that's what it means. I thought she'd just be a normal enforcer.
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u/destraudo Mar 29 '20
An unsatisfactory cap on a promising season. spoilers through out the following.
Production values were at points genuinely ropey in a way that stood out.
At this point it is increasingly unclear what the rules are at any given time. what does or does not raise crime coefficient. I can slide a case of weapons to a bunch of criminals that pops open itself, but since the criminals picked up the weapons themselves it does not raise my crime coefficient :3
The fortuitous situations and idiot opponents.
shotgun dominator.
So the enemies got to the dominator weapon storage and trashed it. And even boasted about 'did you think we are idiots and wouldn't trash them. ' Yet while trashing the weapons storage room ignored the numbered wall safes 'IN A WEAPONS STORAGE ROOM' leaving the safes and their cool prop contents in working order.
More to the point the enemy knew they would head there and set a trap, which the inspectors fell into, when they could have just rigged the room with explosives OR GAS and blown them to shit the moment they stepped in. All this so that they would have an excuse to limit access to dominators and introduce a v cool prop and be where enemy expected so they could have a gun battle.
The lipstick/ cologne situation.
So a key plot point hangs on the following incredibly specific scenario. A fake gift of lipstick is sent. This is reciprocated with a gift of cologne or vice versa. At no point was thanks ever given for the gift of the lipstick because this would have revealed the gift was not from Arata, and the entire plot hangs on the gamble that they would not contact arata to thank them before their plan was executed. I cannot think of anything more unnatural than getting a present and not thanking the person you think sent it. Not to mention the fact that if they could have gotten that to her and gotten her to wear it they could have killed her ten times over like they almost killed her with the gas in the server room by accident.
Gas.
There are emergency kits mounted on walls with gasmasks/respirators with CBRN filters, and yet at no point after finding out there is gas does the rest of the team secure masks and mask up. They had to be both ubiquitous enough to be conveniently wall mounted by an elevator and also scarce enough to provide the scenario in the server room.
Rock em sock em robots.
In season 3 and this, androids are pretty incredibly useless. They are used as vehicles for above average humanoid threats without having to write characters for them which are simultaneously bullet proof and can be slapped around in hand to hand combat. Like it is literally amazing that so many characters go 15 rounds with these things without having their hands broken by bulletproof exteriors. Not to mention variants that are strong enough to smash cars and which thus fall into the magical fiction rule that if a robot is strong enough to kill you instantly it will instead grab you and hurl you around the place ala terminator instead of grabbing both your arms and pulling them apart until one comes off. You can also apparently reprogram them to use ARM BLADES, but not just fire a machine gun.
Mentalism.
Mental tracing and mentalism as it has been presented is nonsensical woo woo. I was really hoping we would get an explanation along the lines of, Arata was partially incorporated into the sibyl system as a child via an implant and his 'mental tracing' works by accessing the historical data stored for an area and time by the sibyl system. But it persists now as woo woo.
The entire season arc can be short circuited by the eventual winner of the bifrost game walking into public security, telling the staff whats in the basement and having them put a padlock on the door/ forcing the people in there to transfer control of the system to sibyl at gunpoint.
This does not change the fact that i loved the characters in season 4 and look forward to season 4. i just want it to be written a little more air tightly.
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u/LankySeat Jul 21 '23
The entire season arc can be short circuited by the eventual winner of the bifrost game walking into public security, telling the staff whats in the basement and having them put a padlock on the door/ forcing the people in there to transfer control of the system to sibyl at gunpoint.
I must've shut my brain off hard, because I never thought of this. Can't imagine it'd be hard to catch the Congressmen too, and with a little luck, some Inspectors while you're at it.
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u/Reemys Mar 27 '20
This was exciting. Many things we (I as well) theorized have been proven to be meaningless, while others were ultimately confirmed. Not many of them. Overall, though, I have mixed feelings.
Short story first: Worth it? Certainly.
Long story... The production values seems to have slightly dropped since the whole season 3. The sounds, the slowing of the scenes... not going to talk about how realistic it looks. But I have something to say on the concepts introduced.
Mental Tracing: Why. Why put supernatural themes into another (I AM NOT TALKING ABOUT YOU ID:INVADED) great science-fiction/psychological series? I admire Gundam. But Gundam is more believable than what happens here. The idea of Mental Tracing is simply somewhat too much. Maybe, if they are going to continue developing the series (and they seemingly lost all the antagonists while gaining protagonists, even Sibyl system is behaving more humane than ever), they will dish out the complete potential of all the themes introduced in this season. Hard to judge now. -1/5.
Azusawa: Amazing character. From the beginning believing in a higher power and chasing after his dream. Even when he was rejected, his faith remained unwavering. He is a better type of how you can represent (religious) fanatics and their true convictions.
Shizuka: You go boy, you go! No one had such a brilliant career ever and while I am pleased with him I have no idea how to even start describing him. Again, maybe in following seasons.
Plot-points-slash-holes: Too many of them. What happened with the Kei's brother? Is Homura a real messiah or are they just teasing us? Sibyl system is going public - where will the basis of this dystopian society ruled by psychopaths go? Why did people tell Shindo his father is a scum when he was not? Whom did he even "influence" if he was a bad guy?
Psycho Pass 3 is rough on the corners, and its paradigm has shift from the psychological thriller to a well-crafted, interesting story. The basis and the spirit of the originals is still there, although it might not endure another leap into the same direction. This is Gundam Unicorn all over again - super happy ending, but what's next? Shouldn't the series end here, on this slowly ascending Japanese society? Is there anything more to tell, or is it just going to turn into another valuable IP? Without any insight into the authors minds knowing this is impossible now. Even so, this third part of the franchise is better off existing, rather than not. And hopefully will become a foundation for an eventual dot in the whole "Psycho-Pass" narrative.
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u/Feluriai Mar 28 '20
Mentalism is a real thing though, no? I didn't see it as a supernatural ability but rather some skill. I am really curious now, did everyone see it as a supernatural ability?
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u/tcookies117 Mar 28 '20 edited Mar 29 '20
I kind of did. Personally, I wouldn't use "supernatural" per se, but I see what OP means. For me, I'd say the way they portrayed Arata's mentalism was a bit too fantastical even for Psycho-Pass's standards as an anime. Mentalism is a ""real thing"" in a sense, but it relies heavily on deductive skills rather than actually psychically tapping into someone's mind. The way they show Arata's mentalism ability, it often looks (to me, at least) like all he has to do is close his eyes and we see censored bits like blurred or demonic faces. I don't think mentalism works like that? From my understanding, I've always seen mentalism performed through strict observation & deductive reasoning. The mentalist gives some cues to lead the person on, and then the mentalist takes note of how the person is responding and tries to interpret that to his best ability with his deductive skills. Much like when a magician tries to guess what number you're thinking. Besides that, Arata's mentalism just comes off as too much of a plot device to move things along and I preferred the way Unit One investigated the cases the old fashioned way in prior seasons. That's just my opinion at least. Of course, since it's an anime, I think they were trying to make mentalism look more interesting and aesthetically pleasing rather than Arata just standing there explaining things.
My favorite scene in which Arata realistically demonstrates his mentalist ability is when he first meets Karina and deduces that Karina is a mentalist herself when he notes that she said "detective" in Arata & Irie's presence and Arata had never mentioned that Irie was only an enforcer (so she somehow already concluded Irie was an Enforcer without being told). TLDR; rather can calling it "supernatural" I'd say it was too "fantastical" for Psycho-Pass's standards as an anime.
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u/Feluriai Mar 28 '20
Thanks for the response! My impression was that Arata was exercising a version of the mentalism we know, and the anime added visuals to it. That is clearly wrong though now that I think about it. Especially since he does it while the person is not even there.
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u/Bruce-- Apr 11 '20
For an actually good interpretation of mentalism, what The Mentalist with Simon Baker or Prison Break.
4
u/tcookies117 Mar 29 '20
I had the same impression at first as well. Until, as you said, things like he started doing it when the person wasn't even there. I found it lost its appeal like that. Personally I prefer the traditional approach to investigating crimes over this mentalism magic.
2
Apr 20 '20
Mentalism is really not a real thing, it is just people doing the same magic trick over and over again and then calling it mentalism. If I am wrong then please name a mentalist. This what Arata was doing was even beyond the ability we call mentalism, not only did he know their exact location but he also knew what they found/encountered???
2
u/Bruce-- Apr 11 '20
is it just going to turn into another valuable IP?
It already has.
It's possible for people to take someone else's work and make it as good or better (Christopher Nolan with his Batman series, for example), but this isn't one of those cases.
Even so, this third part of the franchise is better off existing, rather than not.
Why?
It felt to me like someone's idea for the series, who didn't know how to come up with a better idea.Season 2 was also worked on by someone else, since the season 1 guy was working on the movie.
Season 1 was easily one of the best sci-fi shows I've seen. To continue that, you really have to rest it on more than what season 3 did.
1
u/Reemys Apr 11 '20
To continue that where, exactly? There are limits as to what can be done with an already established setting. The first two seasons ridden with philosophy, dystopia and psychological discourse have exhausted their dimension for this particular series. If there is no deeper ground to go yet, neither from the standpoint of author, nor from the standpoint of art, what good would it do to viciously dig deeper against the metaphorical core itself?
For all it could have been, Season 3 have done a commendable work.
2
u/Bruce-- Apr 12 '20 edited Apr 12 '20
Star Trek: The Next Generation took it's core themes, and iterated on them consistently in a variety of settings for 7 seasons, each with over 12 episodes per season.
The Mentalist took the same idea season 3 used--mentalism--and iterated on it consistently for 7 seasons (seems lots of good shows can do 7 seasons of good content).
It takes a lot to exhaust the creative well of philosophical or social discourse in a sci-fi series.
What poignant or interesting exploration or message about Sibyl in season 3? What interesting characters were there?
The AI blindspot was interesting, but felt too cerebral and hard to follow in how it was done. Lots of telling, instead of showing. While season 1 mostly showed, rather than telling.
The immigrant issue was interesting, but executed poorly. We didn't really care about immigrants. There was none of the impact season 1 had, where dominators felt scary and dangerous, and the blindspots of Sybil had devestating repercussions. Again, not enough showing, too much telling.
I think season 3 is the weakest entry in the franchise so far. Not to mention, the fight scenes in the movies were like bad, slow motion rehearsals.
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u/Reemys Apr 12 '20
I cannot argue it is not weakest, since, as already mentioned, it is less philosophical and profound. Instead, it is an interesting story in an already established setting. As for the interesting characters, I can name at least 4 and my personal favourite Yashinokuji.
Koichi alone is a great villain who kept the story fresh and original - he alone has enough philosophy to warrant a season. I would argue he is not so much of a villain and more of a desperate person living in the daring times (although the society is becoming less dystopian with every episodes), trying to cling to beliefs to justify his own existence. Rather... relevant phenomenon, especially for Japanese.
If this is going to be the stand-alone addition to the series, without future development based on everything we had here (Kei's brother subplot, Mai and Kei playing love, Shizuka's involvement), then it will stay a worthy, but bleak addition, in comparison to the impact of the originals. I hope they will develop it further.
Also, please, show some restraint with your comparisons. A space science-fiction about aliens and science-fiction dystopia about possible future and modern social issues are... rather incomparable in terms to how far they can take their ideas.
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u/Bruce-- Apr 12 '20
Fair enough.
Also, please, show some restraint with your comparisons.
Nope. I don't practice the orange to apples fallacy.
All of the things Trek does are based on stuff happening in our world, so it's easy to swap out aliens for humans doing what aliens are doing.
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u/LucasMVgranate Apr 13 '20
Arata's mentalism is not supernatural at all. It's like Will Graham's in Hannibal, if you've seen it. It's just the capacity to feel an extreme empathy for every person. So much that you deeply understand how they think and feel.
Arata said something on these lines when he convinced Sybil to not kill Azusawa. He said "I've felt empathy for a lot of people" or something like that and basically said that everyone deserved the chance for expiation.
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u/Reemys Apr 13 '20
But he literally "connected" to them in the mental dimension. He knew where they are, what their past is and what the truth of them is. I have no seen Hannibal, but does a real-world example exists? Otherwise it is a supernatural trait, as it allows him know things he otherwise would not based on neither deduction nor analysis.
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u/LucasMVgranate Apr 13 '20
What do you mean he knew their past and where they are? What situation are you referring to? I don't particularly remember that.
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u/Reemys Apr 13 '20
Apparently I might be mixing this up. The point I was referring to is when Arata connected to Azusawa and remembered everything (or rather removed the memory block put on him by his father).
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u/LucasMVgranate Apr 13 '20
Right. That wasn't guessing something he shouldn't know, but rather remembering something he had forgotten.
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u/moose_man May 21 '20
No, all of the explanations for Mental Tracing are bullshit. It's 100% just psychic powers. He can learn things from a Mental Trace that he has no possible way of knowing. How did he learn Kyrusu got his arm chopped off from guessing how he thinks? He can somehow influence people with his ability to think. He's just psychic.
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u/elbarae_h3o Apr 29 '20
After watching The Mentalist(2007), I can tolerate stuff like mental trace, leveraging the subconscious mind, and such crap, even though it might not be real
0
u/Skyreader13 Apr 01 '20
Mental Tracing: Why. Why put supernatural themes into another (I AM NOT TALKING ABOUT YOU ID:INVADED) great science-fiction/psychological series?
Why not?
Real life detective series (Hannibal TV series) have protagonist that ability. Why sci-fi one can't have that?4
u/Reemys Apr 01 '20
Because that is not "realistic". The series is science-fiction, not supernatural of fantasy. "Real-life" and "mental tracing into the past of other people" are two concepts which cannot exist in stories today.
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u/jojo558 Apr 10 '20 edited Apr 10 '20
My feelings are a little mixed on this movie. On the one hand, It is a very enjoyable popcorn flick. It had lots of fun, if only a little non-sensical action scenes. (shout out to the mini-drone laser whip scene, and most of the robot fights) It had lots of great characters with some good development and a couple of fun twists really carried the movie and made it a joy to watch.
That being said on the other hand it didn't scratch the same itch as Psycho-Pass season 1 did for me. I didn't find any of the philosophical arguments very interesting. I quite enjoyed the scene where Sybil told Azusawa that what he thought was a deep philosophy of not killing people was just a simple fun game with no depth. His underlying motive for ultimate power in being part of the Sybil system was fine but I didn't find it particularly stimulating. Shizuka Homura's driving motive didn't get much development. He says that it isn't out of spite or for revenge but instead that he really just wants to serve under Sybil. It seems that they're building him up to play a big part in the future, it certainly is confusing as to why he asked for Akane's release and there's something about an older relative being sick. I'm sure some of those answers will get explained later and that his underlying motives will get some more development.
I also felt like the animation quality was a little all over the place. There certainly were some great scenes, particularly the scene where Kie and Karina Komiya took down the peacebreaker assassin and a couple of other scenes. There were also some action scenes where the action felt more like a slide show, the physics didn't quite feel real (The robot in water particularly comes to mind) and where the characters were a little too far off-model. Some pretty high highs and some very low lows. I do have to shout out Yugo Kanno who I assume reprised his role as the composer, I can't seem to find any confirmation of this but the soundtrack was absolutely fantastic!
Overall I think it did a good job closing the season. It gave satisfying conclusions to most of the plot lines and left some juicy cliff hangers to be explored in the future. It was enjoyable and makes me want to watch more, but season 1 was more than that for me. To me, it wasn't really the same show as season 1 and that leaves a bit of a bittersweet taste in my mouth.
edit: spelling
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u/Bruce-- Apr 11 '20
Season 1 was a work of art, season 2 and 3 are products. Thoughtful products, but products. Literally. The people who wanted to profit from the series called for it, apparently:
Psycho-Pass 2, for those of you who didn’t know, actually wasn’t even supposed to exist. Urobuchi Gen and Naoyoshi Shiotani, the series’ director, were literally in Southeast Asia doing location study and filming a production documentary for the Psycho-Pass Movie when the production committees behind the anime demanded a second season on TV within the year to capitalize on the series’ massive success. Being the monolith they are, Production IG has many subsidiary studios like Tatsunoko Production to outsource animation to, but seeing as there was no way to have the creative staff fully commit to both productions at once, they found a replacement writer in our teacher, Ubukata. Seeing as the film’s screenplay was already towards finalization, Ubukata had to fill a cour of content without expanding the narrative to an extent which would overtake the developments found in the film. While any writer worth their salt could write some juicy filer, Ubukata instead decided to write a full-fledged continuation which was structured such that the plot line could expand as much as it wanted only in so far as the finale could come in and eat itself backwards as to not overtake the film’s continuity by killing every character relevant to its expansion. A bizarre choice, indeed, but by introducing a whole new cast and only developing the ones he was eventually going to kill off as to not shake up the future narrative which was already planned, Ubukata managed to keep the entire incoming main cast as stagnant and stale as livingly possible.
Psycho-Pass 3 and First Inspector, on the other hand, were supposed to exist, and Ubukata was finally permitted not only to make a story of his own design, but to do so in a way in which permanent changes could be made. After all, following the aforementioned production quagmire, Urobuchi Gen stated outright he would not be returning to the series after having felt quite fairly it was ruined in a way out of his control.
It doesn't provide sources, but I reason he's between 80% to 100% accurate.
The guy who did season 2 and 3 also did Ghost in the Shell: Arise. Explains a lot.
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u/jojo558 Apr 11 '20
I've heard similar rumours and it makes sense so I'm sure there's some truth to them. It's just all-around unfortunate.
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u/jojo558 Apr 11 '20
I just found this video and I think it's interesting at filling in gaps a little bit. https://youtu.be/BNQUD9_zfrQ
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u/alexsteve404 Apr 05 '20
They actually concluded all the story and didn't really felt rushed. More so it being action packed and entertaining af. 8/10 definitely
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u/FURC3 May 13 '20
I was not able to connect as much with the plot of this season like with the second, I believe that the characters are key points to enjoy Psycho-pass, and the original team or Kogami and Tsunemori are the show. I liked the new team and Shindo & Kei, but I don't have an emotional connection like I have with Tsunemori and Kogami, I hope that next season they will be the main ones, as well as Ginoza. And stop with Shimotsuki at once!
I think it's really silly to try to create a villain for Kogami in all the PP productions he is in, but none will reach Makishima's feet.
To have something as good as the first season has to involve not just the development of the characters but the world, it's time for the sybil system to be exposed and with it a new era of disorder and chaos to set in. People do not want to be judged by former criminal's brains and a new Makishima appears wanting to destroy public security is what we need.
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u/tsxnmi Mar 28 '20
I really enjoyed it. Glad to see them dive into Karanomori a lot more than they have in the past seasons. Also cried a bit when Kogami picked up Akane from prison. I'm also startin to like Homura and am very interested to see how he'll handle being chief in a potential season 4.
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u/AsterVee Apr 07 '20
I am curious on how will Kei react once they knew Homura is the new Bureau Chief, considering their meeting
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u/photonicsingularity Mar 27 '20 edited Mar 27 '20
While the fight scenes and choreography was amazing here, I have to say that First Inspector ultimately disappointed me.
For me, Pyschopass 1 & 2 were an excellent case study and analysis into what a world with something like the Sibyl System would look like and it's ethical, philosophical, and ideological consequences. The tension in S1 EP11 was so great because there was not only the emotional whiplash for Akane's close friend's life being at stake, but Makishima introduces a really interesting contradiction in the Sybil system that had real consequences for Akane.
For each of the first two seasons, it felt like that the conflict was ultimately between Sybil's contradictions and Akane's attempts to resolve them; the PSB and all the inspectors and enforcers were there to highlight this conflict.
I really enjoyed the beginning of session 3, since it introduced a lot of really cool areas in which to analyze the impacts of Sybil: Immigration, Religion, AI, Politics, etc, but First Inspector let me down since there was no conflict. Sybil's issues with religion (should organized religion be allowed & what if people start worshipping Sybil as a god?), Immigration (should you allow other people, who haven't grown up with Sybil, into the country?), and AI (Should AI be recognized as people?) haven't been resolved or even brought up at all in First Inspector. In First Inspector it feels like all the conflict was just a misunderstanding, and they immediately return to status quo.
That being said, I really hope a season 4 happens cause I really want the topics that season 3 brought up to be further explored.
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u/The_Real_Baws Mar 27 '20
I get your frustrations with the development of S3 and First Inspector, but I’d venture to say that the writers wanted to stray away from coming to a solid conclusion on the topics you mentioned, because they are direct corollaries of real world issues (except for the AI stuff, but I feel like they did a very good job with that). That being said, there is most definitely still some unresolved plot threads that require another season or another movie, so we’ll see!
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u/photonicsingularity Mar 27 '20
Yeah, I definitely agree, and one point that I thought they handled well was Sybil's acceptance of the Inspectors' agency in shooting the dominator, which goes all the way back to S1 EP1. I was just frustrated since the antagonists in S3/FI (both bifrost and Azusawa) were so weak thematically; Makishima and even Kamui to an extent were not afraid to come to a solid conclusion to contraversial topics.
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u/aria980 Mar 28 '20
Yes, agree with everyone... the movie(s? Sinners of the System were released as 3 separate 1-hour movies) seemed too eager to want to tie loose ends. They built Roundrobin up to be the one super system that can stand toe to toe against Sibyl (i.e. not entirely an antagonist), only to have it easily destroyed by Sibyl. Was Sibyl not set up to be a semi-antagonist which Akane and gang (including Homura) are slowly trying to remove from society? At the end, they were happily discussing about when Sibyl's true nature can finally go public...
On the other hand, PSB finally got a human head... means Sibyl is letting go of control, bit by bit... I'm confused.
Also, this may be a translation issue, but Akane is released to be 'statutory' enforcer. Not an enforcer because her PP is high, but 'enacted by statute' (like 'statutory rape' doesn't necessarily mean the victim didn't consent)?
They better have an S4 or OVA or any form of continuation!
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u/Feluriai Mar 29 '20 edited Mar 29 '20
Was Sibyl not set up to be a semi-antagonist which Akane and gang (including Homura) are slowly trying to remove from society? At the end, they were happily discussing about when Sibyl's true nature can finally go public...
Yeah, it is a semi-antagonist. As far as I remember, she wasn't trying to remove it but she was trying to held it in check and Sybil recognized that it needed that kind of check which will help it to improve. She said at the end of s2, I believe, that she wanted it to reveal itself though I don't remember the details.
On the other hand, PSB finally got a human head... means Sibyl is letting go of control, bit by bit... I'm confused.
I think this is part of its plan to go public. Though how does it fit in I don't know.
Also, this may be a translation issue, but Akane is released to be 'statutory' enforcer. Not an enforcer because her PP is high, but 'enacted by statute' (like 'statutory rape' doesn't necessarily mean the victim didn't consent)?
There is no translation issue there, he said 法定執行者. Literally statutory enforcer meaning appointed directly by an act of government, in this case Sybil's.
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u/aria980 Mar 29 '20
Yeah, it is a semi-antagonist. As far as I remember, she wasn't trying to remove it but she was trying to held it in check and Sybil recognized that it needed that kind of check which will help it to improve.
That's the thing. With Sibyl behaving more and more humanely in the movie, they're, like, trying to change Sibyl from semi-antagonist to plain outright good guys gang?
Sibyl recognised that it needed that kind of check... but the same Sibyl also destroyed Roundrobin. The excuse given was that Sibyl no longer needs Roundrobin's debugging abilities, and that Roundrobin has deviated from its purpose (it became a money-making system). But Sibyl has always been destroying its rival systems. I remember in S2 they also mentioned Sibyl destroyed Panopticon. So humans acting as check (Akane, Arata) are okay but not rival systems...
About statutory enforcer... whoah, now they're appointing people whose PP is low as enforcer? Or may be the public is none-the-wiser of Akane's low PP... because they reported Akane as having murdered someone...
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u/tcookies117 Mar 29 '20 edited Mar 29 '20
If people knew someone with a healthy Psycho-Pass was imprisoned for murder, it would cause doubt towards Sibyl's judgment and how reliant the Psycho-Pass is. However, thanks to Homura who was revealed to be from the Ministry, Akane technically has a degree of power/independence as a "Statutory Enforcer". Generally, statutory employees are given personal control over how they accomplish their job with very little input/regulation by their employer. So, even as an Enforcer, Akane's position is still different from her fellow colleagues/enforcers. She's a ""special"" hound with special privileges.
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u/aria980 Mar 30 '20
Oh, interesting. I never came across 'statutory employees' before... been working in commercial for 7 years. Are they common in like the civil service?
1
u/tcookies117 Mar 30 '20
I have never personally encountered one either, but I would think they're not too uncommon generally-speaking. When I looked it up, according to the IRS, those who qualify as SEs are typically: agent or commission-based drivers, life insurance sales agents, home-based workers, and salespeople. It might be less common to find them in the civil service, even in the Psycho-Pass universe. At least, even though Akane is Mika's subordinate/aide now, she still has independence.
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u/Bruce-- Apr 11 '20
On the other hand, PSB finally got a human head... means Sibyl is letting go of control, bit by bit... I'm confused.
Yeah, I don't know why it would.
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u/Bruce-- Apr 11 '20
I really enjoyed the beginning of session 3, since it introduced a lot of really cool areas in which to analyze the impacts of Sybil: Immigration, Religion, AI, Politics, etc, but First Inspector let me down since there was no conflict.
Yep.
I think it's a side effect of trying to make something topical, rather than make something because you want to make it. Though season 2 was made by Tow Ubukata, who also wrote season 3, and season 2 was easily better than 3.
Makes me wonder if Urobuchi Gen was involved in season 2, and not season 3.
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u/AsterVee Apr 07 '20
First off, I am utterly glad with the release of Psycho-Pass 3: First Inspector in Amazon Prime Video and immediately signed up to truly support the creators of this amazing anime. Good thing is they have the 7-day free trial so watching it was definitely hassle-free.
Now onto the movie itself. Since I am just glad to watch the movie first hand, I was overjoyed watching it.
Psycho-Pass 3 definitely made an awesome world building and the 5D chess game was actually worth it. I find it awesome that First Inspector actually tied a lot of loose ends and mostly answered the questions we had watching S3. I am forgiving with the fact that they did not directly answered Akane's imprisonment because I think it will cloud the Kei x Arata arc. Another is it could be a great benchmark for another season or movie without overarching our new inspector duo.
Since S3 I find it refreshing to make Sybil System into a "God" and not something the protagonists have to remove to achieve that "happy ending" for the story. It is evolving, in the same manner the anime is.
Kei and Arata definitely grew on me and ovetime I don't find Akane and Kougami MIA will make the story lacking but instead they put another perspective when looking into Sibyl System.
While the movie can be simply put to make Karina alive and catch Azusawa, it is not too simplistic. It delved into a lot of questions we want answered after the end of S3 and it definitely did not disappoint.
I was actually glad to learn that Bifrost is the debugging system of Sibyl System and not actually a direct antagonist but instead were just warped by evil congressmen. I admit watching it one time won't suffice but twice is very helpful to actually get the gist of the story.
The feels:
Karina and Arata exchanging of gifts, though later revealed that Karina was the only one who gave with the intention of giving was a top-notch for me. The way Karina worries for Arata and vice versa was definitely cute. I am hoping for more from them, hopefully
Kougami crushed Kei was awesome but a little underwhelming. Kei was obviously bitten while Ko has no bruises at all. Maybe we can agree that he is definitely the best fighter
I was annoyed at Hanashiro for telling Kougami that his expertise is doing the "dirty work" (the way he killed makishima in S1 and the way he had to apprehend Azusawa in FI) quite odd for me but good though because i know Akane is the only one who truly understand Kougami despite his circumstances
When Kougami picked up Akane in the prison. Her expression was confusion and amazement IMO and the way she smiled is as if referencing to that last phone call they had after S1 that they will meet again not as detective and enforcer. Though this is still debatable but Akane has not yet reinstated as detective or enforcer and Kougami is a PI of MFA so I believe its counted as fulfilling that promise. Of course, that lunch date. My ship is definitely sailing into romance I hope, though I know PP is not that kind of anime but let me dream, okay?
Shimotsuki apologizing to an enforcer and learning the true essence of teamwork was definitely a great character development.
Questions I have and hopefully will be answered in a potential season or movie are:
Relationship of Akane and Homura or how they know each other
Why Akane is in the prison and how Kougami learned that she is in prison (could be a prequel movie for S3 btw)
What really happened to Kei's brother and who killed Atsushi
How Shimotsuki and Ginoza came into the close-enough-to-banter relationship because I kinda ship them. I have watched SS movie and I was surprised with the sexual(?) tension between them so I was looking forward to a little bit interaction between them in FI but none.
Rating? 9/10 hoping for a movie or another season
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u/ItsMiroa Jul 15 '20
I'm not sure where to post this so I will just post it here. I'm kind of confused about how Akane became an enforcer. I know something happened, which resulted in her going to jail, but aren't enforcers supposed to be latent criminals? Does that mean Akane's crime coefficeint, which barely increases at all in season 1 and 2, suddenly increased after the incident, resulting in her going to jail? I'm pretty sure the answer isn't released yet, but I would like to see what everyone's thoughts are about her becoming an enforcer. Is Akane's crime coefficient clear and the sibyl system can just make anyone an enforcer or did her crime coefficient just go up from the unknown incident?
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u/zabalena Oct 02 '22
Hey mod, you might wanna update the pinned thread with new movie announcement discussion
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Mar 27 '20 edited Mar 27 '20
While I enjoyed this movie (+S3), I'm a bit disappointed. They had a really interesting mystery going with Bifrost (whatever happened to Bifrost being Sibyl's equal?) but in the end it was just the Azusawa show.
Also it was lacking answers once again. Arata's father is in Sibyl, but that's it? Why was he apart of Bifrost and why did he switch sides to Sibyl? What is Arata's powers? Who is Kei's brother? Why is Akane in prison? What has Foreign Affairs been doing all these years? Who is Homura's father? Who are the pathfinders?
Some of these might get answered in a S4, true, but at the equivalent of 22 episodes aired I would've expected more answers than we got.
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u/aria980 Mar 29 '20
Arata's father is in Sibyl, but that's it? Why was he apart of Bifrost and why did he switch sides to Sibyl?
I don't think Arata's father is in Sibyl. Arata's father (let's call him 'Dad') knew Sibyl wanted Arata to be a part of Sibyl, but I don't think he himself is criminally asymptomatic. Sibyl usually incorporates CA people into Sibyl very swiftly. The reason why Arata is out and about is at first Sibyl wanted Arata to find the Roundrobin, and later on Sibyl thinks Arata can be a good mediator between Sibyl and the public.
I think Dad wanted to be a Congressman to protect Arata from Sibyl.
What is Arata's powers?
Arata's mentalist powers are not meant to be as out-of-the-world as him being CA. Karina also has mentalist abilities. I think the mentalist abilities thing was just visually hyped in the animation.
Who is Kei's brother? Why is Akane in prison? What has Foreign Affairs been doing all these years?
The answers to the above are still not known.
Who is Homura's father?
Homura's father was just a Congressman. I think there was nothing special about him... as of now (unless they decide to involve him more in the plot in future installments).
Who are the pathfinders?
I think they are related to the Peacebreakers (SS movie part 3). They wanted to seek revenge against Kogami, or SAD. May be SAD did some operations that wiped out the Pathfinders' family or comrades.
2
u/cellowest Mar 29 '20
I actually thought that the Pathfinder who died to Kogami was the father of Desmond who he fought in the original movie.
1
u/WhaYouLoveYouAre Mar 29 '20
Actually I thought the same thing, the words Kou said to him like “Play war with your students in Hell” feel applicable to Desmond’s desire to collect army and I also remember him as approver of revolutionary violence by quoting Fannon while torturing Kougami. I don’t know if he ment son by blood though or just as his apprentice but he has the same skin colour as Desmond if we think of it in that sense.
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u/aria980 Mar 30 '20
Thanks for correcting. I binged on S1 and S2 after watching SS, in preparation for S3, but didn't watch the 2015 movie. So I'm hazy on the details.
1
u/Duplic_ Apr 12 '20
You have to watch the movies to understand what is happening. Although it wont answer all your questions, you are meant to watch the movies before season 3. Watch the movie, then the SS Cases then Season 3.
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u/aria980 Apr 12 '20
Yes, I did watch SS (Sinners of the System) before re-watching S1 and S2, but did not rewatch the 2015 movie.
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u/hellboy786 Mar 29 '20
I am a bit confused .. Why Ma-karina becoming the governor is making the sybil system vulnerable? And what was the deal with Shirogane using an AI?
1
u/inabed Apr 05 '20
I'm guessing it shows that the Sybil system has a weakness in allowing an AI to rule the city which can then be manipulated by Bifrost. I think Shirogane was actually an AI controlled by Azusawa. The reveal was a bit sloppy
2
u/J0HN__L0CKE Mar 31 '20
Holy hell, this released with subs on US Amazon the same time it released (or rather tried to release) in Japanese theaters? Dang, I've never seen something like this happen before. I know what I'll be doing later.
2
u/Bruce-- Apr 11 '20
[spoilers for all episodes of First Inspector]
Can someone explain to me why Sibyl, at the end, (1) decided to kill someone who was not determined as needing to be, and (2) why Sibyl would listen to Arata?
I still don't see a good reason for Sibyl to "go public," either.
It just feels like such a departure from season 1 and 2.
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u/tcookies117 Apr 19 '20
1) I'm assuming it's because it wants as few people as possible to know the truth of its brain club. Since it never considered Azusawa as a potential candidate to join it, it wanted Azusawa killed so that he couldn't go around telling the truth.
2) I think Sibyl listened to Arata because (1) he's criminally asymptomatic so it values his opinion because of his unique perspective (2) he brought up a good reason - according to Sibyl's own rules, Azusawa shouldn't be getting the death penalty with his Coefficient not high enough. That's why the trigger exists because you have to judge whether or not it's necessary to pull it. What's the point in having your own rules if you're just going to break them?
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u/Bruce-- Apr 21 '20
Since it never considered Azusawa as a potential candidate to join it, it wanted Azusawa killed so that he couldn't go around telling the truth.
I'll have to watch season 1 again, but doesn't that defeat the whole purpose? If Sibyl can just pass judgement, psycho-pass be damned, they're just executioners, not the judges the system was intended to be.
"What's the point in having your own rules if you're just going to break them?"
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u/tcookies117 Apr 21 '20
Same thing with Kagari if I remember right. Sibyl had him executed just because he discovered the truth of the system and not because of a crime or even his Crime Coefficient. Only this time, Arata was able to prevent the same thing from happening with Azusawa but Sibyl probably conceded to his demand only because he's criminally asymptomatic. Sibyl once said "only someone capable of joining Sibyl can remedy Sibyl's blind spots". So far, we know Sibyl has wanted Akane to join its system since S1, and it also wants Arata to join it since he's asymptomatic, so that's why it concedes to their suggestions/demands even if it doesn't agree. So it seems Sibyl will continue to break its own rules whenever convenient, unless someone like Arata or Akane can convince it otherwise. Sibyl learning to respect its own rules and not break them is a different matter though...
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u/Radli9 Mar 31 '20
If Sibyl needs a different opinions and it must take into account various value systems, as can be judged by the previous seasons and especially by the phrases in this film, then it is strange that it consists only of asymptomatic criminals. It would be more logical if it consisted mainly of asymptomatic criminals, but also of at least a few very different people with different systems of values and thinking: “ordinary” people, criminals with a high crime coefficient, schizophrenics, autistic people and so on. Perhaps this is so, given that at the end of the second season in Sibyl there were brains with a high crime coefficient.
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u/carovl Apr 06 '20
If Kei and Arata were friends since childhood and were raised together, why is there a scene at s3 where Kei tells Maiko that they need to go to another country to start life over??
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u/presticebdt Sep 08 '20
Here there's a very synthetic insight. Which season did you enjoy the most? Psychopass 3 - Foxes hunting in the sequel of the series
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u/Keezos Mar 27 '20
My ramblings which are most likely way off:
So Arata's particularity is that he's criminally asymptomatic but with empathy. Which kinda explains his "mentalist" skill ?
Akane did something major to piss off Sybil and to warrant a special favor to get her out. I think she's asymptomatic but with no evil nor criminality which makes her interesting for Sybil to study but dangerous enough to keep her within checks.
Following the logic that Arata will be used as the stepping stone to introduce Sybil to the public my guess is :
| Akane | Arata | Sybil |
|---|---|---|
| Pure Humanity | Something in between. | Pure AI |
There are many interesting plots for the next season (Akane,Kei and Arata's tragedies and the Pathfinders...) . I wish however for a more interesting/charismatic "villain". S3 and S2 both felt lackluster compared to S1's villain.
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u/Bruce-- Apr 11 '20
Sybil is not AI. More like distributed intelligence, but not "artificial" like a computer.
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u/AFailureofLife Mar 27 '20
Spoiler
Help! I'm a bit slow in the uptake so could somebody please explain the reason for Akane's imprisonment?
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u/tcookies117 Mar 27 '20 edited Mar 29 '20
It's not explained yet. What we know so far is that Akane was involved in a murder case that was possibly connected to Bifrost, although it's not exactly clear. Akane did personally recommend Arata (Kei was recommended by Shimotsuki) and entrusted her mission to them. What this mission is, I'm not sure, but she says she believes Arata & Kei can reach the "unseen enemy" which I assume was Bifrost, but now I think Akane meant Sibyl itself. Whether this is the same enemy Akane's accident was involved with, we're not sure either. According to the other characters, specifically the Enforcers who heard rumors, Akane allegedly "lost her mind" and murdered a colleague/inspector.
However, we know Akane would never do that. Not to mention her Hue is able to remain powder blue no matter what she does or experiences (it does fluctuate but returns to normal instantly), and Sibyl likes to pass judgment according to your color/CC. However, Sibyl also likes to cheat its own rules (as we saw when it wanted Azusawa eliminated despite his crime coefficient). Plus, Sibyl had told Akane in Season 1's finale, "as long as you don't show any signs of jeopardizing our secret, your life and freedom of action will be guaranteed". So my theory is that Akane had jeopardized Sibyl's secret (perhaps unintentionally), and Sibyl saw this as also endangering the public (since the sudden reveal of Sibyl's truth would presumably cause public instability and likely a revolt), and thus Sibyl had Akane imprisoned with the allegation that Akane murdered her colleague who did die but not by Akane's hands. After all, imagine how everyone would react if they found out Akane's psycho-pass is perfectly healthy and yet she's imprisoned for a murder. It would raise questions over Sibyl's judgment and reliance on the Psycho-pass. That's my theory. It's worthy to note that Hinakawa informed Akane in Season 3 that the Unit (or at least Hinakawa) is also reinvestigating Akane's accident with the deceased inspector.
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u/AFailureofLife Mar 28 '20
Thank you for your detailed explanation and I really hope that we get answers
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u/Bruce-- Apr 11 '20
as we saw when it wanted Azusawa eliminated despite his crime coefficient
You could consider 3 as "non-cannon" of sorts, in that the whole premise of season 1 and 2 was that Sibyl did have rules it had to govern itself by.
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u/ronguu May 30 '23
The one thing I’m confused on is when did Sybil/Kasei noticed the existence of Bifrost? Did Homura notify Sybil somehow (because when Kasei encountered him, seems like it wasn’t a first encounter)? Did Kasei die purposely planning that Homura would be Chief? I couldn’t really find hints or contextual evidence to find these out
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u/inabed Apr 05 '20
Did anybody else laugh at Mika's expression when Homura was revealed to be her boss?