PSYCHO-PASS
Mar 4, 2015*My reviews are free of spoilers*
Psycho-Pass is intense, with enjoyable characters and excellent animation. The story is suspenseful, but slightly predictable and the setting is so believable that you might question whether it is really a dystopia. Overall, it is definitely one of the best dystopias/crime dramas I have ever seen.
Recommended for: Any fan of horror, crime drama, dystopias, and action series.
Overall: 9.25/10-Excellent.
Story: 9.5/10-Excellent.
Creativity/uniqueness bonus points +1.5: While it could be considered a general dystopia, I feel that it has a lot of unique flair and believability that most dystopias lack. By the end, it even has you questioning who is in the right.
Humour bonus points: None.
General Plot and Structure 3.75/4 - The plot is quite good, although I did find it to be somewhat predictable. There is plenty of suspense and the technology and society is developed extremely well. This is a society that you could really believe is possible.
Pacing 1.75/2 - Pacing is generally spot-on. If anything, it might move just a little too slow and allow you too much time to predict what will happen next, but I have a nack for predicting plot and solving mysteries so take that with a grain of salt.
Emotional impact: 2.25/3 - You could definitely feel for a lot of characters, particularly the main character. There are some sections that are quite disturbing.
Conclusion .75/1 - Althought it is not over, I did quite like how they completed the first part.
Annoying/mindset-breaking negative points - None
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Animation: 9/10-Excellent
Artwork 2.75/3 - Extremely well done in general. You definitely get a feel for the city and setting.
Character Designs 2.75/3 -The characters are well-differentiated and nothing stands out as being an excessive caricature.
Action Animation 2/2 - Action scenes flow smoothly and look believable. They definitely have intensity.
Other animation 2/2 - Smooth and natural.
------------------------------ ------------------------------ ------------------------------ -------------------
Characters: 8.5/10-Very good
Personality 3/3 - Characters, including most side characters, have well-defined and rounded personalities.
Development 2.5/3 - There is definite development in the main character, the others have some limited development.
Uniqueness 3/4 - The main character is unique and interesting, side characters vary but many of them are also quite unique.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sound: 8/10- Very Good
Voice Acting (Sub) 3/3 - The sub voice acting is spot-on and well-expressed. The dub, not so much. The dub also had the issue of being inaccurate to the original script, opting for swearing and intimidation over the original, somewhat more intelligent dialogue.
Music 4/6 - I really enjoyed the first opening, the second has a lot of engrish phrases that don't make much sense. Endings are decent. Music during the show is good, but nothing really stood out.
Sound Effects 1/1 - Excellent.
You must be logged in to leave comments. Login or sign up today!
Okay now that I have time I'll give you some feedback!
The review itself was very well written and you gave a lot of detail as to the positive and negative aspects, and despite clearly enjoying the series, you showed very little bias, which is great, as too many reviewers are biased to all hell.
As for the actual content, I do agree with you on most things. I agree that the plot is fairly predictable, and there were a lot of times where I guessed what would happen next almost perfectly. However, unlike you, I found the story to be quite episodic at times, which kind of sucked me out of things a little. There was still an overall thing going on, but I felt it was very "case of the week" in structure until the halfway point and that kind of killed my immersion a little.
As for the Universe of "Psycho-Pass" I agree it is very well thought out. It reminds me a lot of Sci-Fi movies I used to watch when I was younger. It's a weel written universe, something rare in an Urobutcher show.
The ending for me was alright. It wasn't particularly special, but it wasn't bad either. I predicted the whole Sybil thing ages before it was revealed though. It's been done in so many other shows, so the concept was predictable and wasn't all that unique for me.
Characters wise, is where I'd disagree more with your review. I found Kogami to be pretty awesome and bad ass, and his whole arc and story were interesting, as was his character, but I disliked Akane quite a bit. She was a fairly developed character towards the end, but as is typical of Urobutchers writing, she was a massive plot device, and she was an excuse to infodump things to the viewer. Kind of like Kaneki was in "Tokyo Ghoul". I'm not a fan of directors using their characters as plot devices, so I was kind of irritated by this. She also had a kind of bland personality, although that improved as the show went on. Secondary characters were pretty fun, but a lot of them served very little purpose. Villain was awesome, and I loved him. He made the show interesting. I disliked the pretentious quoting though, another thing Urobutcher does that makes him irritating as a director.
Animation wise, things were fine, I agree with you a lot there too. It could have been better though, especially since it was Production I.G that did it. They've done far better. Still did its job and was very nice though.
Sound was pretty solid. Voice acting was good. The dub wasn't as nice because Akane was pretty weird in it. Music was fine, but not memorable. Openings were fine. Endings were fine. Sound effects were awesome.
So yeah... There's my feedback. I agree and disagree in different areas. But overall, it was a very nice review, and I'm glad someone else is reviewing things good on here! Mine will be up shortly, feel free to check it out when it's up!
See ya! :D