A lot of studios got their start within Tastunoko Productions as over the years they have done a diverse collection of anime series.  Bee Train, Studio Perriot and Production I.G. all came from this studio around the late 70’s, 80’s and early 90’s.  Even P.A. Works established in 2000, was formed by Kenji Horikawa after he left Bee Train as an animator.

For Tastunoko to helm the production of the animation to PSYCHO-PASS’ second season still has me a bit worried as it’s not as fluid as the first season but I’m sure they can create a style that is for the most part concrete.  As for this episode, it was a lot better than the premiere in that it wasted no time in the Public Safety Bureau finding out about the Holo incident with Shisui.  Since this is 1-cour this might work out well with the story’s pacing.  I do want to point out one of the best parts of the first season being 22 episodes is that it DID have a fantastic story arc–  Rikako Oryo cutting up girls and replacing them as artwork from her drawings was very frightening and the futuristic system toyed with this gory theme very well.

We’ve got a couple of elements that were shown in the first season and here is where they are re-introduced–  the holo incident with Spooky Boogie, Akane’s transformation from Rookie to lead Inspector that now smokes cigarettes just as Kogami did.  I will say this that the scene where she lit up a Spinel cigarette and doesn’t smoke it illustrates still after all the time passed from Season 1 how much she misses Kogami.  Great correlation to the first season there.

However, there were again a few problems with the background here–  it’s trying too hard to be just like the first season.  Togane’s scene with Akane was just as similar to Kogami’s workout scene in an earlier episode of season 1.   Mika is a lot like Ginoza because she is by-the-book here.  The fact she doesn’t appreciate what Akane did in saving Kitazawa’s Psycho-Pass from a lethal eliminator to paralyzer AND the repercussions of her actions will push for Mika to distrust her even further.

As for the antagonist of the show–  I do hope that Kamui ends up being a well-developed villain in a different manner that Makishima was.  Considering what he said about Kitazawa towards the end of the episode, it looks as though he wants to dismantle the Sibyl System.   Makishima didn’t want Kogami to involve himself with the truth of Sibyl, but here we’ve got a rather mysterious individual that wants to break down this system with the help of others.  Is this in inside job within the bureau to collapse Sibyl what would Kasei do when she finds out, if this is the case that is.  And where is Kogami?

OVERALL IMPRESSION: 6/10

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