The Psycho Pass series have been by far one of my favorite series so far. Season 1 and season 2 have left me in my seat screaming at the wonderful execution of both plot and character. So, without a doubt, the announcement and release of the movie had my body buzzing with excitement. I managed to finally see it, and well, here are my thoughts.
Before I get into the rundown of the movie, my likes, my dislikes and the overall mood I have towards it, here's just a brief synopsis of the movie itself. Psycho Pass the Movie begins four years after the events of PP2. The world outside of Japan is in troubled and civil chaos. In the middle of a civil war, SEAUn (the South East Asia Union) has brought a prototype Sybil System to a coastal town of Shambala Float, which experiences temporary peace and safety. While investigating foreign terrorists in Japan, our beloved Akane Tsunemori runs across Kougami Shinya's presence in the warring country. Determined to catch him after his disappearance, Akane is brought to Shambala Float where a much larger truth is revealed.
While my synopsis is vague, I do hope that you have all watched the movie itself before venturing even further into this review because I can't hold myself back with spoilers.
Like with any of the Psycho Pass series, the execution of character, the fluidity of animation, and the pacing of the story were phenomenal. Set 4 years later, we see how our characters are fairing and while they're still relatively the same, you notice the effects of last season (or in Kougami's case season 1) on their characters. For example, Akane stepping through the holographic Sibyl System structure for Shambala Float while she talks to Sibyl via Chairman Han. She is literally crushing Sibyl's vision under her feet. She has developed a firm backbone against this system. She's much more confident and well a badass--something we can only truly understand and fully appreciate after the events of season 1 and 2. The movie has actually solidified my motion to petition for a change in the series name as: AKANE TSUNEMORI HBIC (head bitch in charge if you're not used to internet lingo).
Besides Akane being the star of the series and likewise for the movie as well, Kougami took the second spotlight. Wait, let me correct that statement. Kougami Shinya, the person, took the third spotlight while Kougami's tight as hell shirt that exposed every curve and definition of biceps, pecs and abs was the second runner-up after our lead girl. Honestly, I don't mind too much that Kougami's presence was actually more for fanservice than anything. Kougami as a character could have been easily switched out with anyone else if you really thought about it. But, no one could take out those abs and that ridiculously tight shirt and Kougami being shirtless well throughout the movie.
But on a much more serious note, I enjoyed the more subtle development towards Kougami and Makashima being opposites of each other essentially. We see this through Akane's eyes as she visits the community he is staying with. Kougami has always been charismatic underneath that poor facade of a lone wolf detective.
While all of that was great, the movie did have its downs such as the rush ending and how everything magically panned out for a happy ending. While I didn't want anyone from the main cast die, persay, I wasn't sure I was a fan of Ginoza & Co. swooping in at the most perfect moment out of nowhere. Similarly, the mercenaries felt like stock villains, granted a lot of the villains are stock villains. I wasn't quite sure if their ensemble offered anything more to the story than pointing out that the military of Shambala Float is corrupted. We get it, we don't need these guys. Well, I take that back, it did offer that one scene where Kougami and Akane had to part and I'd be lying if I didn't scream from a fangirl's perspective. If all the characters were given more developed background, maybe I would have felt that these villains should be there because they draw out something we haven't seen before in the first two seasons of Psycho-Pass. Instead, I just felt like I was watching a cut down, condensed less fleshed out version of the series.
While those were my issues with the film, I still very much enjoyed it. I loved it so much I wanted to write an ode for Kougami's shirt, but I'll just casually thank the art director and the artists that worked on the film to bringing that onto a screen.
P.S. For U.S. fans, good news! Psycho-Pass the Movie will have a U.S. release coming soon so keep your eyes peeled for that.
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