A few months ago, I was wandering around anime/manga goods stores in Tokyo and, I could hardly help noticing the pony-tailed woman in a black suit with the intense gaze in the sections of Psycho-Pass goods. I have excellent gaydar, even for anime and manga, and I instantly got the vibe with her. I looked up the series and found myself confronted with a number of incredibly bad synopses to chose from, none of which explain anything at all about the story. (I understand that the Japanese companies send terrible copy over, but dear ANN and Crunchyroll, get someone who can write a friggin’ coherent synopsis, please. Synopses, at barest minimum should look like this:
In a setting, a protagonist finds him/herself in a situation cause effect. An adjective genre media by director/writer/famous name associated with the series.
Just like a Mad Lib, replace the italics above with the specifics and viola! coherent synopsis.
In a future where a global computer system determines a person’s fate – even so far as their capacity for crime – using their “Psycho-Pass”- new Inspector in the Public Safety Bureau, Tsunemori Akane finds herself tracking down a serial killer whose “Psycho-Pass” remains unstained with criminal intent. A thrilling new suspense anime written by Urobuchi Gen and novelist Fukami Makoto.
See, it’s not that hard!*
Anyway, so I get home from Japan and Katherine H of Yuri no Boke tells me I really should watch it, Yayoi is awesome. But the synopses I read made the story sound so meh, I resisted. (Sorry, Katherine, I should have listened to you.)
Why the heck didn’t anyone tell me it was also written by Fukami Makoto? Sheesh, people, if you had just told me that, I would have watched it right away. I don’t give a hoot about Urobuchi Gen, but Fukami wrote Vertigo. Anything Fukami is involved in is sure to have lesbians who don’t suck.
Anyway, once I realized Fukami was involved, I started watching Psycho-Pass, which is streaming for free with registration on Funimation’s website. (Region blocking will apply.)
And it was really very good. It is indeed a “suspense” genre with a serial killer, so if you hate that crap (and who could blame you?) avoid it. They never go explicitly gross, like Suicide Club or anything. It’s suspense, not horror, but the implications can get really grim.
Yes, there’s Yuri. In the first half of the series, one of the characters involved in an arc set in a elite girl’s school is not above seducing underclassmen for a little sex and gruesome murder.
But the reason one might watch the series is the aforementioned black-suited “Enforcer,” Yayoi. When we first see her, she has just finished a light snack of Karanomori Shion, an analyst for the PSB. In addition, a full episode is dedicated to Yayoi’s backstory that does not shy from her orientation. If anything it gives a wholly functional look to the slightly ruined life of a woman who loves women. (Something Fukami is good at.)
Yayoi makes a very decent series excellent. ^_^
There’s one other really excellent thing about the series – the character designs are totally atypical for a Fukami project, so none of the women have absurdly large breasts as they did in Vertigo. And Akane, who clearly would have been moe in any other anime series is shockingly not, here. If anything, her design looks a little droopy-eyed, rather than childish. I really like the character designs, they say “We want to become a live-action movie one day”. ^_^
A good watch, I look forward to the second half. My only complaint is the bad guy. I hate the handwave of the psycho killer who law enforcement canNOT track/find/identify for blah blah reason. Other than that handwave, it’s quite excellent.
Ratings:
Art – YMMV, but I say 8
Character – 9
Story – 9 It’s all shark jumping, all the time
Yuri – 8
Service – 7 Fans of creepy horror violence against women are creepy
Overall – 8
I like the fact that “Psycho-Pass” is a homophone for “psychopath” when said by a Japanese speaker.
*Actually, writing synopses must be hard, Funimation doesn’t even bother on their website for the series.
In volume 1 of Kanojo to Camera to Kanojo no Kisetsu, (彼女とカメラと彼女の季節) we met typical high school student Akari, atypical highschool student Yuki, who is a photographer and asocial outlier in class and sports hero student Fukuyama, Yuki’s childhood friend, who is interested in Akari.
