I am really glad that Psycho-Pass received a second season and a feature-length film, but when I had initially heard the Gen Urobuchi would be out of the writer’s chair for this one and had been replaced by Tow Ubukata I was perplexed. A few of the episodes from this season were decently animated but now it’s gone downhill again. Also is Yuugo Kanno afraid of doing more orchestral productions with his score here; the first season’s soundtrack was amazing but what the heck is this? If he was going to switch his style and move towards an electronic sound with this season he should have taken notes from Ken Arai and what he’s doing with Kiseijū’s music.
What in the world is Tow Ubukata trying to do to this series? Akane discovers a plane crash that occurred 15 years ago carrying 184 kids– all of which were killed EXCEPT for Kamui. How convenient. I feel like this would have been a lot stronger if it was woven into a two or three episodic arc similar to what the first season did with the Holo incident regarding Spooky Boogie and Talisman. The Oryo arc of season 1 was an incredible three-part arc that transitioned a science-fiction show into straight up horror very well that I was hoping this season could gain from. It’s too bad this show suffers from competing with the excellence of the first season and heck even Shimotsuki was more engaging with a minimal role in that portion of the series than she was here as a main cast member!
The backstory for a killer that is supposed to be this season’s villain and rivaling Makishima? This doesn’t make a whole lot of sense and we are already half-way through yet we’ve not seen a single bit of Kougami nor Kamui’s motivations for killing inspectors and enforcers, stealing dominators and hacking into video games. It was great to see Kougami in a dream sequence even if it was just Akane disillusioned by Togane’s behavior, seriously why is this guy even reminding her of Kougami even now? I understood it when he pointed the gun at Kamui on the boat in the previous episode but come on now, Ubukata could have done much better than set this up as Akane missing Kougami by using one of the biggest romance tropes in anime ever.
As bad as the last episode was this was bad enough because Akane’s grandmother is put into the picture for the sake of illustrating Akane’s perfect color and point out foreshadow. Poorly executed here. I cannot help but sense that Togane is a part of Kamui’s endeavors somehow considering Chief Kasei must be his mother from the pictures Shimotsuki found. Shimotsuki discovering that the surgeon whom operated on Kamui after his accident being tied to the Togane corporation throws this idea out to us in a huge way. Can’t say that I like where this is going because it seems all too predictable and that the revealing from the Public Safety Bureau finding out that Kamui has 185 followers behind him develops that he’s more connected to those kids than that incident. Really isn’t a good way to develop a villian.
Perhaps the reason why he was unable to be recognized by Sibyl is for two reasons here: He is the original lab-rat in the creation of Sibyl and secondly he is somehow a part of those other children that died physically and mentally. It’s about time we see more of Yayoi and Karanomori since this season has neglected its original cast for choppy scenes that portray brand new characters. BUT I will say it again like I have before: this season is trying way too hard at being like the first one, hope that Tow can come out of the mess he’s put himself into crafting this because this was horribly written. Surprising because his three-film collection of Murdock Scramble turned out very good and had some solid direction.
OVERALL IMPRESSION: 3/10
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