7.8 | / 10 |
Users | 2.5 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 3.6 |
In a futuristic world where criminal intent is analyzed by the Sybil System, a new top of the class recruit, Akane Tsunemori, joins the police force; however, she always puts her own sense of justice above the judgment of Sybil. Police are helped by Enforcers (latent criminals disposed to high criminal intent), one of which is a former inspector who supports Akane's method of action.
Starring: Tomokazu Seki, Kana Hanazawa, Kenji Nojima, Kinryû Arimoto, Akira IshidaAnime | 100% |
Foreign | 96% |
Sci-Fi | 16% |
Psychological thriller | 3% |
Thriller | Insignificant |
Crime | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.78:1
English: Dolby TrueHD 5.1
Japanese: Dolby TrueHD 2.0
English
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Four-disc set (2 BDs, 2 DVDs)
DVD copy
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A, B (locked)
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Note: For content specifically about Part 2, skip down below the first screenshot. This introduction gives some
general background information on the series which was included in the Part 1 review. For those wanting to catch up on
the story so far, there's information in our Psycho-Pass: Part 1 Blu-ray review.
People who aren’t able to sublimate their emotions are often accused of wearing their hearts on their sleeves, but
imagine for a moment what life would be like if your general emotional state at any given moment were a quantifiable
data stream that was being measured by the government, just to make sure you were staying on the straight and
narrow and weren’t about to go off the deep end and do something stupid like commit a crime. Psycho-Pass is
built on just such a conceit, a sort of anime version of Minority Report, where a sort of “precog” entity known as Sybil is constantly measuring each
and every individual’s emotional temperature, scoring it, and then deciding if the Public Safety Bureau’s Criminal
Investigation Division needs to take action to prevent any imminent crime. The actual anime starts somewhat in
media res, slowly bringing the viewer up to speed about this dystopian future society. The focal character is a
young
woman named Akane Tsunemori, a rookie cop in Unit One of the Criminal Investigation Division who is thrown headlong
into a hostage situation which deprives her of any typical “rookie training” at the hands of her supervisor Nobuchika
Ginoza. Instead new Inspector Akane is quickly briefed on Enforcers, so-called “latent criminals” whom the Criminal
Investigation Division utilizes to track down bad guys in a sort of “it takes one to know one” gambit. The Inspectors act
as watchdogs over the Enforcers, making sure they don’t do anything untoward as they close in on their prey. Both the
Inspectors and the Enforcers come equipped with a high tech weapon called a Dominator, a sort of combination Star Trek
tricorder-phaser that instantaneously measures any given individual’s “crime coefficient” (meaning the likelihood they’re
about to commit a criminal act) and then amps up an appropriate blast which can vary from a kind of quasi-“stun” which
paralyzes the perp to a much bloodier level which basically makes the bad guy explode.
If you've seen any of the many Ghost in the Shell releases, you'll know pretty much exactly what to expect from Psycho-Pass' AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. This is a dystopian future society that is one part Blade Runner, with neon signs seeming to "melt" under nonstop rain, and one part, well, Ghost in the Shell itself, with dark, shadowy environments which occasionally burst into brightly lit daytime environments where things seem relatively "normal", if only for a moment. A lot of this anime is intentionally on the soft side, with objects seen through glass or other intermediary objects. However, when the animators give us a close-up or a brightly lit sequence, it becomes obvious how sharp line detail and color are. There's a slightly desaturated look to long segments of the series, especially in the nighttime, outdoor sequences. It should be mentioned that a lot of Psycho-Pass is intentionally very dark, to the point that it is sometimes difficult to make out exactly what's going on, but that seems to be stylistic choice meant to mirror the troubling world that Akane finds herself in.
Psycho-Pass features an English dub in Dolby TrueHD 5.1 and the original Japanese language track in Dolby TrueHD 2.0. The English dub is (expectedly) much more aggressive, with quite a bit of nice immersion with regard not just to things like the Dominator in action, but also more subtle ambient environmental effects of the urban cityscape. Dialogue is very cleanly presented and the show's score is also noticeably more fulsome in the 5.1 rendering. Fidelity is excellent on both of these tracks and dynamic range is quite wide as well.
Fans of anime know that Fuji Television's noitanimA block has been a hit or miss affair, but Psycho-Pass certainly is one of the better entries in this "short form" set of series. Some may (perhaps rightly) see Psycho-Pass as a kind of B-movie knock off of some of the ideas (and especially the style) of Ghost in the Shell, but the series offers some really interesting characters and a compelling, if somewhat derivative, concept. The series is at times quite exceptionally gruesome and graphic (and so is most definitely not an anime for younger children or the easily squeamish), but it deals with some nicely nuanced issues in an unexpectedly adult way. While the supplements on this second set pretty much mimic those on the first in their own way, the technical merits continue to be very good. Highly recommended.
2014
劇場版 サイコパス
2015
Anime Classics
2011-2012
Essentials
2014
コードギアス 反逆のルルーシュ / コードギアス 反逆のルルーシュR2
2006-2008
2014-2015
2011-2012
2011-2012
2012
Classics / Desu Paredo / デス・パレード
2015
Anime Classics
1998
ノーゲーム・ノーライフ / Nōgēmu Nōraifu
2014
Classics / エルゴプラクシー
2006
2010
2013
2002-2003
Essentials / 涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱
2006-2009
Evangerion shin gekijôban: Jo
2007
Essentials
2012-2013
化物語 | Limited Edition
2009-2010