Psycho Pass The Movie
Psycho-Pass: The Movie is takes place a few years after the events of season tow of the series. The movie is written by Gen Urobuchi returning after his absence from the second season and co-written by one of the series writer Makoto Fukami. The film goes for a more realistic feel as its set in a different place to show an area without the high-tech benefits and flaws of the Sybil System.
(Cyberpunk Karen stalks her prey as she pulls out the deadly words "Where is the manager?")
Production I.g returns to do the animation and did not disappoint. The mix of digital hand drawn cels and CGI imagery were top notch and resulted in a seamless viewing experience.
(She looks like a badass in this pic but in reality she often always finds herself in trouble)
Touting the success of its Sybil in fighting crime, Japan is now exporting this technology to other countries. The war ravaged South East Asian Union SEAUn is chosen as the testing environment for Japan to showcase the effectiveness of Sybil. The town of Shambala Float is the chosen site and authorities are hoping that Sybil will bring some security and peace to the region.
(This is a way better step up then in season 2 in terms of animation and art)
Inspector Akane Tsunemori is sent to SEAUn to investigate a guerilla group fighting the corrupt regime and the implementation of Sybil.
(Always a pleasure seeing this guy on screen instead of Cyberpunk Karen)
Shinya Kougami after being absent from the second season, finally returns and he now is a mercenary working alongside the guerillas to fight against the government and the implementation of sybil system from being in Southeast Asia. Her superiors believe that because of their past friendship, Tsunemori can bring Kougami back. After finding out that Shinya is now part of the resistance group, Tsunemori immediately realizes that something really isn’t right. Most of the movie focuses on Akane and Shinya so the rest of Division 1 is put on the backburner. Their relationship together is as strong as ever.
(In the future this is what cyberpunk karens will be doing calling the police on just about the most trivial of things to the point CAREN was created to make it even more illegal to do so.)
The influences of this movie range from Bayside Showdown Apocaylpse Now, Armored Troop Votoms, Patlabor 2, Saving Private Ryan, Gundam, and real-world despot like the Khmer Rouge. The movie explores militarism, how Artificial Intelligence (Sybil) is used to control and engineer human society. Southeast Asia allows latent criminals to go around free as long as they have collars and depending on the threat level, they are killed or neutralized in a non lethal manner. The action of the show is very gritty and heavily focused on gunplay.
(Kogami is honestly one of the best anime protagonists ever to be written.)
The relationship dynamic with Shinya and Akane in this outing was from Bayside Showdown and by now Akane has witnessed first-hand how dangerous Sybil is what could happen if Sybil took control. Shinya has mellowed out in some aspects as he’s not really vengeful like in Season 1 and he doesn’t others to suffer the same fate as he did. Akane is still learning and feeling her way around. She is too trusting when she should know better and is way too naïve.
(Akane may have that Karen hairstyle but Mika certainly takes the Karen behavior)
One of the most glaring flaws in this movie is that there is a good number of loose ends from the previous seasons that weren't tied up. There wasn’t any real conclusion to the movie. Shinya is still currently rogue and his character arc is dealing with unfinished business and that was mainly saved for part 3 of Sinners Of The System.
(She's really more willing to pull the trigger now compared to episode 11 in season 1)
It also doesn’t explain how he escaped from Japan and go into more detail why he’s now a guerilla. Shinya having hallucinations of Shogo really didn’t make any sense and adding psychedelic elements to a show that never had any in the first place felt really out of place. The villains are not that memorable.
It’s a good bounce back from the forgettable Season 2 but it really should have been a series finale.
(If anybody deserved the role to be a villain in the grand finale it certainly would be the sybil system and Makishima is the perfect anti villain to stop it)