Psycho-Pass premieres with a psychotically modest first episode – nothing is particularly spectacular on an individual basis, yet everything is certainly respectable, and serves to make an immersive experience.
Sights and sounds account for the first impression when starting the episode – and all goes well in that respect as both are definitely above average, yet that’s accounting for the fact “average” means little to nothing in today’s standards. Nonetheless, Psycho-Pass certainly proves itself solid in both respects – utilizing the two sensory realms quite unusually. Being of a notable higher quality, they’re delivered in such a manner that one can recognize their general aura of excellence – however, the series seems to explicitly refrain from going all out.
Indeed, whilst an opening chapter of an animation may often boast all to its name in order to set an example of expectation – Psycho-Pass seems to simply keep itself leveled and operating on the fate that it has enough to engage viewers elsewhere, and it admittedly does. The series makes its appeal through a “best has yet to come” approach.
The fair aesthetics and audio are integrated with what is a similarly reputable plot – and interestingly, the story is unveiled in an unconventional manner as well. This episode provides us with nearly zero in respect to the main premise – yet it does introduce us quite heavily to the various characters and their respective personalities.
First we’re given a single point – a scene is shown to us which while seemingly irrelevant and disjointed in some ways, is quite integral and successful in giving a certain character, our male protagonist, a prominent role before the rest of the episode unwinds. It’s a display of the male lead standing in a heated encounter with the white-haired antagonist – although no calamity unfolds, merely tension.
Subsequently, the remainder of the episode from here is an introductory one-time event which makes no contribution to a grander plot – the whole scheme feeling oddly much like a tutorial level in a videogame.
A cute bishoujo is new on the job of law enforcement and she’s given her objective, equipped with a firearm, and endowed with the authority to go after a criminal as she see fit. Joining her unit, a few “latent criminals” who are said to be restricted to doing nothing else besides catching other “latent criminals” – individuals supposedly no different than themselves.
One of these “criminals” explains the basics of her new occupation to her – guns measure Psycho-Pass, and are made to be used solely on a certain transgressing few whom the gun identifies as having a certain level of psyche. Geared with knowledge, our heroine experiences first hand the gristly world she lives in – and it truly pushes her spirit. The cost of saving one seems to be inevitably at the price of another – and she’s, in fact, nearly left with no choice in this regard.
Her colleagues are seemingly apathetic – yet our heroine is quite intent on the basis of heroism, and this leads to conflict of interest. Unfortunate as such occurrences may be however, this is what takes us to a defining moment – or actually, two whole separate aspects accounting for such impact. The first being that, if necessary, our heroine will take responsibility for one life at the expense of another as one will see – and secondly, the tear in her heart from the fragility of these lives she wishes to protect will certainly show.
In respect to our heroine firing her gun, the outcome is ultimately minimal – although it does seems to leave her recognized as no ordinary newbie amongst her workforce. That said, her relationship with coworkers and criminals feels more so the start of something which isn’t truly threshed out just yet of course – and this is merely an entry into angles of story to be developed as we continue on, now with an enhanced idea of the sort of person our heroine is.
Physical events aside, it is our heroine’s reactive appearance which marks the true awakening into Psycho-Pass – prior to firing anything at anyone, it will be impossible not to notice our heroine’s expression. She looks as if trying so difficultly to grin – forcing a friendly smile from underneath a river of anxiety on the verge of flooding.
At that point, Psycho-Pass asserts its powerful storytelling capabilities, that it present emotions so complex, in but a single moment – and so it garners our attention to another level. The first episode doesn’t show much, and it doesn’t make the effort to – yet it does do all with no notable flaw, and to a degree appreciable. With that alone, it wouldn’t have much definition – although that is where the heroine’s final act and expression come in, they’re unshakable and linger on the mind, leaving one to realize, this series has managed to captivate with one hardly realizing it.
Assuming the series capitalizes on the promise of this opening encounter, escalating the main story whilst further building characters, success is essentially inevitable and guaranteed.
Oct 12, 2012 @ 5:57 CDT
This is an awesome anime, you can already see from the first episode, that the world settings are very unique and awesome for a great story.
The animation is beautiful, one of the best from the new season, with top-notch voice acting.
Oct 12, 2012 @ 6:04 CDT
“that the world settings are very unique”
I disagree, from what this first episode shows alone, it’s certainly a more unorthodox stage than the norm – although it’s nothing transcendental. There are a few original elements, although for the most part, a nighttime post-modern city is nowhere near being “very unique”. It does certainly seem to have the potential to become that way however assuming the tale develops favorably.
And similarly, the animation isn’t as glorious either – it’s respectable, but nothing particularly stunning.
Oct 12, 2012 @ 6:10 CDT
I loved the first episode, although I agree that the animation looks respectably average, but the backgrounds, although nothing transcendental, look really stunning. Plus, while the story is slowly building up, was promising. Hopefully, it needs some good twists, otherwise it’d end up being the next “Guilty Crown”.
Oct 12, 2012 @ 6:16 CDT
“but the backgrounds”
I call these also average because there’s too much of a lack of detail in most scenes – they use pitch black to cover for this a bit too extensively, although it works.
Oct 12, 2012 @ 7:50 CDT
Although going at a slow start, I hope that this show has a lot to offer. The animation wasn’t Guilty Crown amazing, but it was certainly above average. Also, the character designs so far are running strong, and I am a huge fan of the guns, with their Paralyzer and Lethal mode, and also a fan of the Psycho-Pass itself. Plus, the music is also seemingly going to be on Guilty Crown level.
Oct 12, 2012 @ 9:01 CDT
The gun modes and their functions are certainly a few of the more reputable aspects of this series.
Oct 12, 2012 @ 8:03 CDT
A good anime. It’s nice to see an anime with a dark setting this season. Since most of the new anime are romance, comedy, and action. The only thing that this anime need (for me) are good plot twists like in Code Geass and a few good actions scenes, maybe like Fate/Stay quality?
Oct 12, 2012 @ 8:05 CDT
I’m starting to get hooked to this show already. I found their music to my fit my taste, and it sets up the proper mood for the scenes. The concept episode itself is just pretty ok, just like you said; it felt like a tutorial. The animation were just above average, but the CGI of their inanimate objects were gorgeous(just please let it stay away from living things). I’ve got mixed feeling about the background, I think it’s only good when they want it to be good. Whenever the focus on the background was invertible, it looked beautiful but when characters would put the focus on themselves, the background would slip(or it was just too dark). The characters and plot, I’ve got no comment for now. The plot isn’t introduced yet and I need a better look at the characters, judging them now feels lacking. What truly got my attention is the potential it has, the concept is there and the character can make use of that potential.
Oct 12, 2012 @ 9:17 CDT
Oh my god, I feel I seeing Reborn each time I see this anime, the main girl looks like Haru and the man looks like Xanxus. But no surprise since Akira Amano is the character designer.
In another note, it looks promising.
Oct 12, 2012 @ 11:35 CDT
“forcing a friendly smile from underneath a river of anxiety on the verge of flooding.”
I noticed it too… though I think her smile became genuine when the victim calmed down
Oct 12, 2012 @ 11:59 CDT
Genuine, albeit still drowned in other feelings. That was by far the most impressive and spectacular moment of the episode because to express such a visage is certainly no small task – and it’s rarely done to such lofty caliber as well.
Oct 12, 2012 @ 14:33 CDT
I thought so too; a single expression shows a vast array of complex emotions. Unlike a certain series that dares use the word “art” in its title.
wow, SAO bashing never seems to get old, does it? Nor does GC bashing, now that I think about it
Oct 12, 2012 @ 18:26 CDT
Well she was afraid if she didn’t try to come off as a friendly they’d shot her with the gun, not to mention she just shot one of her “coworkers” with it to try and help the lady”.The was she was a waving that lighter around could have turned dangerous.
Hopefully she won’t be in too much trouble for going outside of protocol.
Oct 12, 2012 @ 21:29 CDT
The dreary…gloomy..twisted feel is what i got from this episode…the cruelty of the world…the urge to kill….redemption…salvation…all thoughts hit you on watching this episode. Coming from Gen Urobachi you expect it to be full of emotional upheaval. The dark color fits the style of the anime and adds to the serious and dreary atmosphere. Nice original concept too.
Oct 12, 2012 @ 22:18 CDT
Based on this introductory episode, I find this series to be very interesting. I definite keeper on my watch list. I can feel the sense of injustice and what might be a morally corrupt world.
The guns’ Paralyzer and Lethal Mode is another interesting concept. On paper, having these features would give someone a sense of security, of relief, that “oh, you won’t actually KILL someone if you accidentally shoot them, so go ahead and wave your gun around with your finger on the trigger. you’ll be able to kill someone that the system ‘says’ should be killed.” This episode reminded me that despite the ‘safety’ feature of the gun, these guns are still weapons that can cause death at any time.
About the guy that found the suspect first, I’m really curious about his true personality and character. He has that typical hairstyle that screams “happy-go-lucky-shounen-fun-guy right here!” and yet when he found the criminal, he didn’t immediately stun him like a hot-blooded shounen character would do. But he’s a latent criminal himself, so everything is still a mystery.
Based on other media forms, sometimes having a rookie officer around a senior one would rekindle the older officer’s feelings or goals that they’ve forgotten when they were young, but from what I’ve seen so far, I don’t think that will happen anytime soon with Mr. Glasses.
I wonder if Tsunemori will be able to keep her initial sense of justice when this series end. Will she be forced to kill someone that she firmly believes has a chance of salvation? Since this is a Gen Urobuchi work, anybody can die at anytime.
Time to take bets on who’s gonna die in the most horrible way possible.
Oct 13, 2012 @ 11:36 CDT
I’m also interested in that shounen gogo character.
Oct 13, 2012 @ 12:31 CDT
I’d hate to see him go, but because of Urobuchi, I won’t keep my hopes up. Damn, now I’m curious as to how he became a ‘latent’ criminal, as well as the others. Did they all descend into madness and despair at one point?
I also forgot to mention how the information displayed through a person’s eye when using the gun totally reminds me of HUDs in video games. You’ve got your cursor, your map, area name, firing mode, and the may-not-be-helpful computer voice.
Oct 13, 2012 @ 12:37 CDT
I don’t like to make comparisons to other series too often, although much of this stuff:
“the information displayed through a person’s eye when using the gun”
Was like a replica of Ghost in The Shell – the various interfaces et al.
Oct 13, 2012 @ 0:56 CDT
As expected at a story from gen urobuchi, psychological issues are already apparent, the concept of the psycho-pass is really innovative, as you can be deemed a criminal at any time , based on your mental state, and can get worse as you are being chased, so basically, it is inevitable for most deemed latent criminals to be labeled as one who has to be killed, as exampled by the hostage
i will keep up with this series to see what else of mindfuck will it show