Psycho-Pass 3

Title:Psycho-Pass 3
サイコパス 3
Overall:Buy
Keywords: , , , , , , ,
Notables: Animation - Production I.G.
Centered around two rookie inspectors of the Ministry of Welfare's Public Safety Bureau (MWPSB); Arata Shindo and Kei Mikhail Ignatov. These two inspectors are confronted with an ever changing society under the jurisdiction of the all knowing and impartial system of collective consciousness known as Sibyl and a contradiction that exists solely to evince the imperfections of the Sibyl system. Contending with an increasing anti immigrant sentiment, political intrigue, as well as peculiar individuals who exist solely to test the Sibyl system, these two inspectors are confronted with two choices, which are to either follow or overturn the system.
(Summary Courtesy of Anime News Network)


8-episode TV anime that premiered on October 24, 2019.
Animated by Production IG.
[edit] The Psycho-Pass franchise:

OverallArtAnimationCharacter Design MusicSeries StoryEpisode StoryReviewer
Buy 10 9 9 6 8 8 Ggultra2764 [series:4368#1552]
This third season of Psycho-Pass features the Public Safety Bureau getting entangled in crimes involving acts of anti-immigration terrorism as the Sibyl System opens up Japanese borders to allow in immigrants fleeing their war-torn countries, while a secret criminal organization exploits the anti-immigrant sentiments to stir chaos within parts of Japan that migrants live in for their personal benefit. At the same time, the Bureau gets new Inspectors in the form of Mentalist Arata Shindo and Russian immigrant Kei Mikhail Ignatov.

The focus on immigration with this season of Psycho-Pass offers some interesting world-building exploration within this season of the franchise. The film follow-up to Psycho-Pass 2 dabbled into the Sibyl System wanting to extend its influence outside Japan and this third season explores the effects this has on Japan with immigration getting divided reception among the country's populace since Japan was initially isolated from the world following the Sibyl System's formation. This gets explored through the actions taken in political and religious circles within Japan in some of the cases the Public Safety Bureau get involved in. The mysterious criminal organization, Bifrost, exploits the hostilities between the Japanese populace and immigrants through manipulating factions within Japanese society and appears to make bets on the outcomes of schemes that they plot to stir up chaos. The anti-immigrant sentiment is also explored through Ignatov's character as he and his wife deal with some of this discrimination and being roped into Bifrost's plots later into the series.

Arata's character makes for an interesting contrast to how many in the Public Safety Bureau perceive their situation with his lively and carefree personality considering how dark story developments often can get in Psycho-Pass. But a unique trait he brings into the series is his ability to do a Mental Trace, where he makes use of his high empathic mental state to cross into another person's state of mind that proves beneficial to solving cases throughout the season often at the cost of physical and mental trauma of the person utilizing the ability. This usually adds an element of suspense to the series as Arata's Mentral Tracing often has him experiencing the physical and mental trauma of criminals and victims within cases he is investigating and he'll usually unconsciously make use of the ability when off any cases. This usually leads Kei or other Enforcers to have to rein in Arata to keep him from risking self-harm from his tracing.

Outside of the main plot, Psycho-Pass 3 also takes some time to explore how characters from earlier seasons of the franchise are faring away from the Public Safety Bureau, with Yayoi getting a good deal of focus as a supporting character at points. It was a bit concerning to see what had happened with Akane considering her character's resolve from earlier seasons and the series not devoting much time to exploring how she winded up in said circumstances with the developments she underwent. Hopefully, there is some sort of movie or OVA that could be made at some point to explore what led to such a fall from grace for her.

Besides Akane, I do have some other gripes. There isn't much dabbled into too deeply regarding elements of Bifrost's formation such as the technology behind their manipulations, how the organization formed in spite of the Sibyl System's presence, and how their members came about with wanting to be involved with the organization. Plus, this season does end inconclusively with Bifrost still at large and the loyalty of one major character being in question. But this would be minor considering there is a follow-up movie for Psycho-Pass 3, First Inspector, that I plan to dabble into at some point to see how things progress with the anime's story.

In short, Psycho-Pass 3 makes for mostly solid continuation of the franchise with its dabbling into immigration how this affects some of the major characters within the series. It has some issues with properly fleshing out elements to its story and character developments. But I admit the storytelling from this season still interests me enough where I'm tempted to get into First Inspector at some point.

Last updated Friday, September 10 2021. Created Friday, September 10 2021.

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