Film R

Society by in large is not perfect. Over the years of people writing science fiction, they have been those who tried to imagine a perfect world run by a perfect system. A world where the average citizen lives out their lives in relative peacefulness, without fear of things that we worry about today in our society. Psycho Pass focuses on one of those possible futuristic utopias in the form of a police procedural.
In this futuristic version of Japan, a breakthrough has been made in technology that can accurately determine any person’s mental state, their inclinations and their aptitudes. Leading to a society where your employment is arbitrated by complex algorithms that decide what job would suit you best for the benefit of society. This system known as the ‘Sybil System’ is also very proficient at deciding various likelihoods that you would ever commit a crime. This is where the ministry of welfare’s public safety bureau enter armed with sophisticated weapons known as Dominators. Inspectors of the MWPSP have the ability to directly connect with the Sybil System to determine its judgements of any specific individual. Sybil’s algorithms plot the individuals’ psychological data or ‘psycho pass’ – an assigned number. Have a high number and the inspector’s can paralyse you and bring you in for recovery. If your psycho pass is too high however, you will be executed on the spot.
In this world where the criminals are either executed or removed from the public eye, the story begins to focus on the eventual possibility of some criminals being able to bypass the system in some way, usually to commit murder. How does the system react? What measures does it have in place to deal with something like this, and are those people brought to some form of justice? This is what the show is about.
Over time the story turns into more of a self deconstruction. Gen Urobuchi, the show’s writer is very well known for one of the more famous deconstruction movie of recent memory ‘Madoka...