Psycho-Pass Season 2: Inferior sequel series.

 

I love Psycho-Pass. It's easily one of my favourite anime series of all time. I think that the first season is pretty darn close to perfection. The closest one could get without quite being there. However, I put off watching the second season for quite some time after I learnt that it had both a difference in writers and animators. No Gen Urobuchi involvement was a big sour point for me personally after the great work he did on the fantastic first season. Not to mention the fact that the second season has not really been received all that well, especially amongst fans in the West. When I finally sat down and watched it, I had extremely low expectations. Thankfully, it wasn't dire. I found it to be a pretty good watch, but nowhere near the heights of the prior season and overall, it seemed to be rather inconsequential in the grand scheme of things.  

The plot was essentially a rehash of the first season, except with a lesser villain, less interesting characters and at the end of the day, ended up being rather pointless. It did a great job of building suspense and tension for the first six episodes, but didn't ever hit the highs of season one. 

Akane Tsunemori, the main protagonist was once again excellent. In the aforementioned first season, we saw her as the bright, idealistic, shy and somewhat naïve rookie Inspector, new to the job and learning as she gained experience. That changed by the end as we saw her gain confidence, becoming much more efficient at her job and she'd matured in several ways. This season saw her suffer the death of her grandmother, the closest we've got to seeing her hue grow cloudy and yet, she held strong to her beliefs. Her back and forth, cat-and-mouse style co-existence with SYBIL was a highlight, like always. I did love the fact that she had a pack of the brand of cigarettes smoked by Kogami, that was a nice touch.

Nobuchika Ginoza was back, albeit demoted to the rank of Enforcer, after previously having been an Inspector. His development was handled quite well with him becoming an extremely likable character. In contrast to the prior season in which he often scolded Akane and was highly critical of her instincts and detective work, this season showcased his admiration and respect for her. He was also kinder to Enforcers, which was an improvement as he kind of treated them like dirt when he was an Inspector. I actually rather liked his new design. Gone were the glasses and the face-covering hair, instead he allowed the eyes which were like that of his father, to be seen. I dug the prosthetic left arm too, that was cool.

From the very end of the first episode, we are introduced to the main antagonist of season 2, Kirito Kamui. He's a serviceable villain and I much enjoyed his overall fate, that was cool to witness, but he lacked the aura, menace and presence of his predecessor. Episode 5 references the eerie similarities between season 1 antagonist, Shougo Makishima and Kamui. It's like the different writers of the second season knew that the two would be compared and that Kamui would be seen as something of a copy-cat of Makishima. Both are able to charm or rather, manipulate others into doing heinous acts and crimes in order to challenge and expose the SYBIL system as flawed and imperfect. There are a couple of key differences. Makishima was criminally asymptomatic, whereas Kamui was unrecognisable entirely to the system. Kamui being a ghost to the system was due to him having grafted parts of the victims of a plane crash onto himself. As far as Akane is concerned, Makishima often expressed disappointment at her unwillingness to cross certain lines, whereas Kamui ultimately accepted her clear hue and conviction in upholding justice. It's rather unfortunate that Kamui had to follow Makishima as the latter outshined the former in every area. Makishima was not only intelligent, with him having similar goals as Kamui, but he also had the physicality to back his talk up. Not only that, but he had a tremendous foil in Kogami. 

Amongst the characters newly introduced in the second season, the most interesting by far is Sakuya Togane. He's the man whom registered the highest number recorded by the SIBIL system when to comes to crime coefficient and possibility for committing a crime. He was also a therapist prior to becoming an Enforcer for Division 1 and working with Inspector Akane Tsunemori. He became obsessed with Akane and more specifically, darkening her clear hue, attempting to raise her crime coefficient number. He had done this to previous Inspectors. He seemed cool and mysterious at first before more was revealed about him and maybe his character had wasted potential. I think if he was handled a bit differently, he could have actually been the main antagonist instead of Kamui. It would have at least made things more interesting rather than having a lesser version of Makishima. 

The worst character in the season had to be Mika Shimotsuki. in the prior season, her childhood friends were murdered. That was no excuse for just how poor her characterisation was in this second season. Her constant whining and complaining about Akane when the latter was pretty much always right, was incredibly annoying. She believed she was right, even when she very clearly wasn't. In fact, it could be argued that she was another antagonist, considering her role in Akane's grandmother's death at the hands of Togane. Her becoming a SYBIL fangirl and fanatic was also disappointing and lame. 

Another disappointment was the music. Somehow, despite having two talented bands in EGOIST and Ling tosite sigure, the team managed to choose possibly the worst songs out of their respective catalogues. Granted, it comes down to personal taste, but I really didn't like either of Enigmatic Feeling and Fallen. Fallen was far too electronic and overproduced for me. Swing and a miss for both the opening and ending songs. 

Overall, I didn't think that it was a terrible season or anything, but at the same time it was definitely far below the first. It was palatable, but nothing majorly significant or anything truly happened that I'd classify as must-watch to be able to enjoy PSYCHO-PASS as a whole.