Psycho-pass

[roriconfan]

Originally Posted by Krozam

You know what I find ironic? The older guy explaining how theory and logic have nothing to do with real police work... while the Psycho-Pass system that they're so reliant on must be pretty heavily based on theory and logic.

That's because you indeed don't need them if someone else does it for you.

[Damias]

Episode 1

This was an impressive start... just to get this out of the way, I like Akane, in terms of appearance. Must be them eyes, so captivating... I also like her because of what valondar said... never thought of her from that perspective.

she may also become this show's moral centre.

I like the premise, like Itoukaiji01 said...

This looks like it could be a great cyberpunk series with some moral complexity.

It's intriguing for someone like me who is new to this sort of setting. Though the thing that makes me a bit hesitant is the psychological moments that will occur in future episodes. It's either I won't understand the situation they'll be put in or I do understand but can't find the words to elaborate. Regardless, I'm going to be using my thinking cap to the fullest when watching this.
What I also like about this episode is how Shinya handled the situation with the victim. Shinya realized that she was mentally scarred, knowing that the police sees her as a criminal, so what does he do? He took a damn paralyzing bullet from a fellow co-worker, displaying that Akane can be trusted and that she wanted reassure her that she is safe and protected. Good moment.
What I don't like about that scene was how that other police guy just went and shoot her down. I mean c'mon, shes the damn victim. She went through 10 levels of hell and you treat her like a criminal. What I also don't understand was why did she suddenly became a criminal. Because the gun said so? That's preposterous. Just because her state of mind had changed, doesn't necessarily mean she's gonna go deranged. *Actually in some cases, it would but in this case, it's unlikely gonna happen. She was willing to cooperate with Akane and the police... Bad moment.

[Fargo]

All I got to say is that this is a fucked-up and interesting premise that I hope will turn out to be a great mindfuck anime.

[renorxukuth]

It reminds me of Minority Report.

[kargarus]

Episode 1.

Really like the setting so far. Some great shots of the cityscape which definitely emits those cyberpunk vibes.

The premise is also quite intriguing and hopefully will bring plenty of thrills. Those guns were so lovingly framed on multiple occasions, how could one not think that they’re the coolest weapons ever?

Its certainly set up for a larger mystery involving those all knowing all seeing guns and the system they’re a part of. Who controls the guns/system and why? What are the motives behind the people/systems in control?

And as you guys pointed out - there are some juicy moral dilemmas at play here (a system which decides/predicts criminal activity – ‘latent’ criminals?) In the future, Big Brother is a gun. Here’s hoping it’s all explored in an interesting manner.

I’ve never liked the naive rookie type character however. Bringing to the situation their ideals and newbness. But oh well. Seems we’re to learn the painful truths of this future via this protagonist so I’ll just have to bear with that.

I think the last time I saw criminals used to hunt criminals in a cyberpunk setting was Cyber City Oedo which was a fairly entertaining show.

Originally Posted by Krozam

The gun bothered me as well, though for a different reason. Was it really necessary to make the lethal mode so messy? You'd think with such advanced technology they could make a weapon that kills without exploding the victim into a bloody pulp. Seems like nothing more than gore for the sake of gore, though I'm hoping there is some kind of an explanation.

It probably was

gore for the sake of gore. Which is perfectly fine by me.

That moment reminded me of Tetsuo's horrid experience at the ending of Akira.

Originally Posted by Damias

What I don't like about that scene was how that other police guy just went and shoot her down. I mean c'mon, shes the damn victim. She went through 10 levels of hell and you treat her like a criminal. What I also don't understand was why did she suddenly became a criminal. Because the gun said so? That's preposterous. Just because her state of mind had changed, doesn't necessarily mean she's gonna go deranged. *Actually in some cases, it would but in this case, it's unlikely gonna happen. She was willing to cooperate with Akane and the police... Bad moment.

The gun 'treats' her as the criminal. Therein lies the problem.

As for the other police guys - seems they're your typical jaded and world weary types. They may have had the option to deal with the situation how the newb chick did but didn't because they know its already futile. But we'll see how that pans out.

[coffeebreath]

The premise sounds neat on paper but this episode didn't thrill me. It should have been far more interesting. And the characters were... really bad... no showcase of interest at all.

The gun is my biggest issue because it 'scans' for someone's psychological state. I figured this would be neat if people were legitimately evaluated by human means and testing before being deemed beyond rehabilitation and therefore worthy to eradicate. The guns purpose should be to recognise people and bring up their profile from a database. The gun doing all the work is a bit farfetched even for cyberpunk? Oh well. The biggest intrigue is from the hints of a struggling population, whether it be in numbers or incapacity, possibly the psycho-pass system is ending up like genocide with too many people being killed to prevent crime. Makes me wonder if the anime will argue that everyone has the capacity to do evil/criminal acts because the mind will always break under psychological pressure. The appreciation of individualism and free will seems completely abandoned. The gun assumed all cases will end the same - with crime.

[valondar]

Originally Posted by coffeebreath

The guns purpose should be to recognise people and bring up their profile from a database. The gun doing all the work is a bit farfetched even for cyberpunk?

My understanding was there was basically a judicial AI making snap judgements about these people. It's noe like the gun has an opinion of its own - any one of these guns would tell you the same thing about a given person's psychological state.

So we have basically a really intelligent computer which is given complete control over the judicial prcoess (and iirc, the episode briefly mentions specifically over this town - possibly other towns have their own judicial computers, maybe they're connected in some network, whatever).

[coffeebreath]

I think I got that part. I just thought it was more

the gun 'read' people's state of mind and determined if their psychological state made them incapable of moral rationality? Either way, I just find the idea of a gun 'scanning' for something that is basically intangible really confusing. Which is why I thought it'd be cool if the gun simply read information from a database and made decisions based on that information, as opposed to actually finding out the info for itself. If that makes sense. It's possible I didn't pay complete attention as I had to get the characters up.

[roriconfan]

Originally Posted by kargarus

I think the last time I saw criminals used to hunt criminals in a cyberpunk setting was Cyber City Oedo which was a fairly entertaining show.

Vampire Hunter D is much later and interesting

[kargarus]

^ For sure. The original was decent, I did also really like Bloodlust as well, great movie.

Originally Posted by coffeebreath

I think I got that part. I just thought it was more

the gun 'read' people's state of mind and determined if their psychological state made them incapable of moral rationality? Either way, I just find the idea of a gun 'scanning' for something that is basically intangible really confusing. Which is why I thought it'd be cool if the gun simply read information from a database and made decisions based on that information, as opposed to actually finding out the info for itself. If that makes sense. It's possible I didn't pay complete attention as I had to get the characters up.

From what I recall it was something along the lines of what valondar said. But I wasn't so sure exactly how it does make these decisions (and the show hasn't elaborated upon it yet anyhow). Is there a sort of sensor in the gun that detects brainwaves or something? Does this information get transmitted to the database from which the AI system relays a decision back to the gun?

Even if/when this is directly addressed, the idea in itself is fairly nonsensical as you kind of alluded to. What the heck is measured to ascertain if you're at risk of committing a crime? How angry you are? And how reliable is this measurement anyway?

But perhaps the situation is a little shifty. Maybe the populace has been convinced that these guns are acceptable and reliable when in fact they are just being used as a means of oppression and control. What's happened to a society that's allowed something like a gun to be the final arbiter on one's criminal intent? And when did intent equal crime?

We'll see what happens. In the meantime, beware the thought police..