Looks like the opening animation was improved on with small details here and there–  the grain effects, the re-drawing of Akane and the others including some color filtering segments.  This was a vast improvement over what we’ve had the previous two episodes and I really like this new song by Ling Tosite Sigure.

The Sibyl System built around the idea that people can live peaceful lives without worry and without killing intent.  Season 1 took this inventive idea and used its antagonist Makishima to uncover the truth behind the system–  a giant network system that contains brains to improve society as a whole.  Only problem here and it wasn’t necessarily a bad thing for this anime to handle, was that he was a futuristic serial killer that took advantage of every situation without for the most part getting his hands dirty himself until the situations arose to do so.  Makishima failed however, because Kogami thought outside of the structure that society base their lives on, and here we finally get a taste of breaking down Sibyl in a completely different way than the first season.  The fact that the main antagonist of the first season was able to understand Kogami’s nature was evident enough that they were very similar when it comes to problem solving and the result?  Well, he didn’t want Kogami to waste his time with the system.  With the second season’s disappearance of Kogami, and without Makishima this show attempts at being just as solid as it’s first 22 episodes.  In fact the animation especially with this episode marks the first time I’ve noticed it looking a lot more like the designs from that, Akane looked more like her usual self than she ever did in the previous episodes of this new season.  Now onto talking about the episode.

To be accepted by the system, and clear criminals of their designated values in life– we see that with the tortured Shisui.  Interesting that it ends up being an inspector that is kidnapped and the reason here being that Kamui needs to break into Sibyl’s background to further his plans in disappearing everyone from the system’s grasp.  That first part could be mistaken for one of the disturbing scenes from the Oryo dismemberment case arc, every part of this scene here was timed so well, and the frightened Shisui evolving into a person saved from the system’s rules left me even wondering why is Kamui going this far?  This wasn’t even the only part of the story that was questioned here–  Togane having the highest crime coefficient ever on record and Kasei’s comment to Akane about reporting back to her often might illustrate that she wants to develop a new Makishima for Sibyl’s gain.

Mika was a lot better this episode and a bit less annoying than what we’ve previously seen of her–  her displeasure at seeing Saiga at the isolation facility, accusing Akane of making up the “WC?” marking was just the tip of the iceberg in her development.  We also got a good view of her style of justice when she apprehended representative Kotoku Masuda.  A young woman that witnessed a horrific incident from season one, that follows the rules, without thinking outside of the box just speculates that she could end up getting killed before all of this is over.  One problem I do have however, is if she knows of Saiga’s records AND she is hung up on Akane wouldn’t she have looked at her records and found out about how Makishima’s behavior had been during all those incidents in the past?  There is a pattern here that both Makishima and Kamui share that they negate the possibilities of Sibyl’s enforcement–  somehow I find it rather hard to believe Mika has been unable to catch wind of this.

Speaking of Saiga’s discussion with Akane about the “WC?” case is slowly starting to push forward to bring Kogami into the spotlight justly empowers the logical dilemma that the writer’s chose to use here–  “the devil’s proof”.  Kamui a man that clears others’ Psycho-Pass’ ultimately changing their hue points at tons of other elements to the story here.  Togane and Sho in particular.

Togane comes from a wealthy family and hurt by Kitazawa and a man that had the highest psycho-pass ever:  the writers may have tossed in a clue that he might have been saved by Kamui at some point in time.  We’ve also got Sho, the holo designer, as it would make sense for him to be helping Kamui in how he’s been able to evade the scan in the premiere, and turned from a woman to himself from the holofield.  With the logical dilemma introduced here, where is the proof this is the right or wrong answer?  With tons of questions raised and only eight more episodes left I hope that with the absence of Gen Urobuchi doesn’t affect this.  The director Shiotani I know can execute this well but with Tow Ubukata handling the story sometimes I wonder–  he did polish up a fairly strong story in the Murdock Scramble films, and novels.  So let’s see what he can do with this.

OVERALL IMPRESSION: 8/10

—