Psycho-Pass - 19

"Transparent Shadow"

I'm starting to lose track of all the literary and philosophical references in this series.

There's no doubt in my mind that I truly enjoy this series, but sometimes I do get the feeling that Urobuchi Gen is trying to force ideology down my throat, and while not a bad thing in and of itself, it is a bit mentally exhausting. This is rich and difficult material to think about, all the more so because episodes like this have almost nothing to do with the actual characters involved. I've mentioned before that Psycho-Pass is made of type characters, and that still stands; there is very little depth to the people depicted here, outside of their philosophical views. So when you get those characters sitting down together to discuss those views, you essentially remove the personalities and are left with the debate itself to ponder, rather than with what those views have to say about the individuals in the story. Again, there's nothing wrong with that, but it does become a bit more difficult to feel emotional attachment, especially when a good deal of this series seems to exist for the sake of lauding criticism on human societies.

Still, I think what Gen sets out to do, he does well, and this series is no exception. I'm particularly struck this episode by the blatant criticism on Japanese foreign policy and nationalism. For anyone who's studied Japanese history, it's easy to see the parallels between the Japan in Psycho-Pass and the Japan in the real world; both are isolationist, obsessed with meticulous and detached control in politics, and proud of it all to boot. Being as homogeneous as they are (remember, "the nail that sticks up must be hammered down") is clearly something undesirable in Gen's eyes, and the hyper-oat itself is a perfect allegory to this conundrum. After all, the loss of diversity within a strain of crops will only make it more vulnerable to disease, and it's only a matter of time until the perfect disease comes along to devastate it. There's certainly some irony in the fact that Makishima would go after this method in the literal sense to directly affect the greater metaphorical reality.

As it stands, it seems that Akane is finally going to enter onto the stage built for her, after more or less yielding the spotlight to the remarkably similar (to one another, that is) Makishima and Kougami for so long. We all knew that there must be some greater role the Inspector would have to play in the resolution of this tale, but it hasn't been apparently evident when that would happen. Now that Sibyl has focused on her for its next target, however, it seems like we'll be watching two parallel but interconnected plot lines unfold. On the one hand, Makishima and Kougami head toward their face-off of ideals, while Akane herself presumably battles off Sibyl and all it stands for once she discovers the truth behind it and what that implies for her society. What will ultimately come from both clashes could go either way; regardless of the outcome, however, I don't think we can expect to see a bloodless resolution, and I can see either Kougami or Akane, or both, dying for the sake of changing society.