Director: Katsuyuki Motohiro.
Starring: Kana Hanazawa, Tomokazu Seki, Akira Ishida, Kenji Nojima, Kinryuu Arimoto, Kate Oxley, Robert McCollum, Alex Organ, Jason Douglas, Josh Grelle, Linda Leonard.
Running Time: 528 minutes
Certificate: 15
Psycho-Pass may dump a lot of exposition at our feet within a very short period of time in its opening episode, but thankfully this gets a lot of messy stuff out of the way allowing us to enjoy the series instantly. This is exceptional sci-fi action that relishes its opportunity to create a vast world of cool visuals, intelligent ideas, and engaging characters.
The show introduces us to a world where human beings have what is known as a psycho-pass, a reading that informs enforcers of your mental state and whether you are dangerous to society or not. Stress, anger, hatred, etc. can all contribute to this reading, and in a MINORITY REPORT style form of justice, those deemed as a threat can be removed from the picture preemptively. Like all great sci-fi worlds this flagrant abuse of power asks some pretty interesting questions. The destruction of freedom of thought results in safer streets, and the characters themselves constantly battle over rights and wrongs.
Psycho-Pass works so well because most of the episodes are single contained stories, some of which extend to two parters, but each one always adds to the main themes of the universe created. Nothing is simple here, and we even get time to see some of the characters outside of work with friends not usually associated with hunting down the “bad guys”.
The action is superb throughout and it’s very easy to forget you are watching an anime of any sort. With rain swept streets, long trenchcoats, and people with many flaws, there’s a traditional noir feeling to the whole package that evokes memories of BLADE RUNNER and other great 80s efforts. The strong vocal casts bring to life their characters in a world you can’t help but imagine yourself in. For a show that’s easy to dip in and out of, while being intellectually stimulating if you so wish, Psycho-Pass has ideas and execution.
[usr=4]Psycho-Pass is out on DVD and Blu-ray now.
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