I actually enjoyed the discussion on Masatake Mido, our current culprit, and what he has done with these online avatars that he collects like some sort of enthusiast of simulacrum. What’s really his motive? He seems to idolize the idea of these idols enough that he’s constructed an AI for each of them. More importantly, these AIs don’t just imitate Mido’s victims perfectly, they do an even better job at it than them. What we have here is the hyperreal, a persistent concern in postmodern thought that society will find it increasingly difficult to discern the difference between the real thing and the simulacrum. For example, take Disneyland. Obviously, Disneyland is a fantasy world made real, but no one would ever think that the world resembles Disneyland. On the other hand, there is the worry that Disneyland now reappropriates the ideal, i.e. this is what reality should be. You’ll find that this example correlates rather well with what we see in PSYCHO-PASS.
Again, Mido’s AIs are doing “a better job than the real owners of playing [the] idols fans expect to see.” The culprit hasn’t merely imitated his victims to perfection. He’s created hyperreal versions of each of them. If we accept Shinya’s theory that fans are partly responsible for these avatars’ popularity, which seems plausible enough to me, then what we have here is a clear warning of the dangers of idolatry in a futuristic context. We have had charismatic leaders in the past, and at times, these charismatic leaders have led their people astray. In the world of simulacra, the obsession is no longer directed at something real and tangible. Idolatry can now build up around what is essentially empty. Whether or not this is a real concern for society or just thoughtporn for postmodern thinkers, however, remains to be debated.
Anyway, take notice of the methods our culprit employs to avoid arrest. Last week, he made everyone’s avatar resemble Talisman. This week, he’s hacked a hologram device to distort the appearance of his apartment, which thus allows him to hide from the MWPSB. Both of these methods involve the distortion of reality, i.e. making it difficult for the good guys to discern the real from the hyperreal. What’s interesting is how the hyperreal holograms can fool the Dominator system as well. Why is this? Does this provide a clue into the Sibyl system’s nature? It’s also unclear why activating the sprinklers would also dispel the holograms. Is there a failsafe system in place to turn off the holograms if the sprinklers are activated? Or is this actually a metaphor for something deeper regarding the nature of simulacra, i.e. we’re washing away the impurity? This isn’t just some random thought born out of nothing. I’ve wondered a while now why the Dominator causes its victims to explode so violently and needlessly. Is it just to give us cool-looking gore? Or is the gun, to some extent, literally exorcising the evil from criminals?
In the end, a new villain enters the picture and gives us a very familiar critique of Mido’s obsession with simulacra:
“You can play any character, and yet, in the end, it turned out that you yourself are nobody. Your core personality is null. It’s empty. You don’t have a face of your own. Since you lacked a face, you were simply able to wear any kind of mask.”
Ultimately, simulacra “bears no relation to any reality whatsoever.” From Mido’s own words, it seems he used to rely upon these avatars for guidance. But as they are not real, his improvement in life rings equally hollow. What is the overall point that PSYCHO-PASS wants to make though? Masaoka namedrops Rousseau early on in the episode to talk about how communication is nothing more than a man-made construct designed to strengthen our social nature. After all, man stands to benefit most from cooperating with one another, so strengthening our social nature makes sense. But are we reaching a saturation point in which advances in communication no longer aid us, but can actually serve to alienate us from our very own social nature? Mido slays his fellow man to elevate, in his mind, an ideal. Technology has become so perceptually realistic, i.e. hyperreal, that those like Mido will prefer to construct their own social nature rather than build upon what already exists — what is actually real. Well, that’s just cyberpunk, isn’t it?
Plot summary: Again, our heroes rely upon Shinya’s intuition to track down the culprit, whose motives are rather atypical. Before they can apprehend the suspect, however, we meet the shady Makishima for just the second time in the story. At the end of the episode, Akane learns that Shinya used to be an inspector and, more importantly, Ginoza’s friend.
Notes:
• We begin with Akane apologizing to “Spooky Boogie” for their failed attempt to arrest the fake Talisman. Obviously, she is unaware of the fact that the culprit has gotten to the real Spooky Boogie too. This is a major problem I have with this current arc. Akane has made no attempts to verify Spooky Boogie’s identity. How can a law enforcement official trust some online avatar so easily? According to Akane, “Well, she was just someone from the same class. I don’t even know who she is, so…” So even more reason to have verified Spooky Boogie’s identity! Akane’s discussing classified information freely online! For a police procedural, this seems like a major flaw.
• “Gino, don’t try to understand the mind of criminals. You’ll be taken in.” This sounds like a ridiculous thing for a character in a show like PSYCHO-PASS to say. Hell, the entire premise of the show is that we can quantify a person’s propensity to become criminals, but the head inspector shouldn’t try to understand the motives of a killer? What?
No, I understand why Shinya said those words. Within the narrative, he’s the rogue with a mysterious, painful past. Don’t hope to understand other criminals, ’cause you definitely won’t understand him! It’s also apparent he and Ginoza used to share a different working relationship than what we now see. Unfortunately, this bravado makes no sense within the context of the overall story.
• Old fart Masaoka chimes in to tell us how he doesn’t understand anything about the Internet. Okay, old fart, why don’t you just go take a nap or something? You’re getting kind of cranky.
• Masaoka: “As expected, you’re good at explaining things. You’re like a teacher.” If only I had an emoticon for irony.
• Quoting Rousseau, huh? Man, aren’t we just so intellectual?
• Shinya’s carefully listening to a recording of Akane’s latest conversation with Spooky Boogie. Ah, leave it up to Mr. Intuition to discern that there might be something fishy about talking to an unverified online avatar. Miss High Marks is too book smart for that.
• Isn’t it rather convenient that Shinya can pull up countless logs to show that Spooky Boogie rarely uses the word ‘police?’ It’s a little unclear where these logs came from. Are they just pulling from Spooky Boogie’s blog, tumblr, or whatever thingamajig they use in the world of PSYCHO-PASS, or has the government been actively spying on popular online avatars? I’m inclined toward the former interpretation, but I’m not too sure.
• I wonder if Talisman uses a TOR-like network…
• One of the bad guys has strange, artificial-looking eyes:
Transhumanism is a popular topic to invoke in the cyberpunk genre. Should be interesting to see how PSYCHO-PASS approaches it.
• Another problem with Akane’s inability to verify Spooky Boogie’s identity not just at the start of this week’s episode, but from the very beginning of their working relationship: any law enforcement body, I’d imagine, would have offered Shoko, i.e. Spooky Boogie’s real life identity, some measure of protection just in case the raid on Talisman had failed. The MWPSB seems to have considered no such thing; they appear almost irresponsible and incompetent, especially when you remember how Shinya and Masaoka recklessly charged into the party and randomly fired their Dominators. Masaoka says that capturing Talisman is “the only thing we can do to enable the victims to rest in peace,” but considering how he’s at fault here, his “sage” wisdom rings hollow.
• “From his daily routine, he’d pick routes that allow him to avoid street scanners.” Y’know, for a government that will prosecute you before you even commit a crime, I find this hard to believe. Why would the government allow there to be gaps within the system, knowing fully well that criminals would do their best to hide? I also find it very hard to believe that a guy can go four years between his hue checkups. Why wouldn’t the government insist that everyone undergo a checkup every few months if preventing crime is their utmost concern? You wouldn’t implement the PSYCHO-PASS system if that was really the case. It’s entirely possible that the government is just incompetent to such a degree, but these failures seem more like convenient narrative excuses for criminals like our current villain to exist.
• So why create AIs for these avatars anyway? Mido mentions something about Plato’s idea, so I have to assume his motives have something to do with his mistaken belief that these online characters represent some Platonic ideal. In the end, however, this just makes him sound like some crazy person rather than a true philosopher who has unfortunately taken his ideas to the utmost extreme.
• Even though we’ll have wrapped up this current arc, I wonder if the the anime has at least introduced a recurring villain for the overall series. This would help to tie everything together since it’s easy to see how the story can feel episodic and thus disjointed if the cases continue to be so short.
• Ginoza tells Akane that she did well this time, but I’m not exactly sure what she really contributed this week.
• Akane continues to debate whether or not Shinya can be considered a good person. Sure, he can easily identify criminals because he supposedly thinks like them, but he has, we’re told, shown a good side to Akane though I’m not entirely sure if the anime has effectively portrayed their budding relationship. Perhaps all this simulacra talk boils down to this: is Shinya’s goodness real, or is it just a shell concealing his true nature?
• The revelation that Shinya used to be an inspector, however, doesn’t seem like much of a surprise to me.
I get the impression that the whole CommuField system is operated by the government, or a company that’s completely cooperative with the government. How else would they be able to look up anyone’s IP address instantly and even have searchable text transcripts of everyone’s past conversations. No need for subpoenas or warrants.
It isn’t that hard for the FBI now to trace someone’s IP or request such info from online companies. It’ll take a bit longer if the suspect is accessing the Internet through some TOR-like routing, but it isn’t impossible either. You can just imagine that in the future, the process is potentially even easier.
The recurring villain is going to be Makishima (the guy with the white hair and crazy mullet). He appeared in the opening sequence of the first episode and is in a lot of the promotional art. It seems like Shinya’s gonna have some beef with him, maybe involving his past.
Yes, I know he was the mullet dude at the very start of the story, but he hadn’t been around till now. I guess what I really wanted to ask was whether or not the story will now feature him more. I’ll be disappointed if he just disappears again until they finally decide to move on with the main plot.
again. another pleasant review. you really get into the anime mind.. so rare? as for the antagonist i pretty much narrow it down a bit..
>Are they just pulling from Spooky Boogie’s blog, tumblr, or whatever thingamajig they use in the world of PSYCHO-PASS, or has the government been actively spying on popular online avatars? I’m inclined toward the former interpretation, but I’m not too sure.
Well, considering that the U.S. government, with its Patriot Act and other “national security” laws, is monitoring trillions of emails and telephone calls, I wouldn’t be surprised that a dystopian-technocratic society like Psycho-Pass’s has logs of every online conversation that they can.
See:
http://www.democracynow.org/2012/4/20/whistleblower_the_nsa_is_lying_us
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/top-secret-america/
Also, all world-building inconsistencies and stupidities aside (like the incompetence of Akane’s unit and the strange insistence on not diving into the minds of criminals in a world based on predicting crime), I thought that this was the show’s best episode so far. Although, to be honest, that’s not saying a lot, considering that every other episode so far has been disappointingly bad.
Five episodes in, and I’m already bored. The producers stretched what could one two episodes of substance and material and dragged it out into five episodes. It shares the same problem with most other two-cour shows, in that its plot has to be stretched out to fit into 24-26 episodes. This is why I hate standardized broadcast schedules. As a result of the cour system, so many shows are either too short or too long. For instance: I thought that the 12-episode Sakamichi no Apollon could have been way better at 17 or 18 episodes. But due to standardized systems of television broadcast, the producers behind that show either had to choose between 12-13 or 24-26. It’s annoying. And it’s happening with this show too. Everything that they did from episodes 1-5 could have been condensed into 1-2 episodes.
It’s the classical problem of Procrustes’ bed, with shows being stretched or sliced-up to fit into an incredibly restrictive standard.
This is where we disagree. There are apparent problems in the narrative, but I haven’t been bored yet. Of course, I always enjoy a dash of cyberpunk and a pinch of simulacra even if PSYCHO-PASS currently breaks no new grounds on either front. The show isn’t always satisfying, but it nevertheless beats the humdrum narrative plaguing most shows: friends having fun in high school.
Being somebody who reads a lot of manga too, I don’t hate this slow approach at all. It’s just five weeks. Some manga even took half a month before having any real plot.
:-D
Well, there you. You see, this is what I call a good review/criticism. Even when I’m not agreeing to everything you postulated, at least it was well-argumented and the reasoning had a high degree of logic. You clearly put effort into it, and did not just leave it at some jibes or ‘not liking’ it argumants. For instance, the fact that they wouldn’t impose a regular yearly check-up in such a society where the psycho-pass is all-important, IS, indeed, highly unlikely. A perfectly logical and reasonable comment, thus.
Your comment drips with condescension.
You are being too negative. I’m stating you put effort into this, and yet you deem it condescending.
See, your comments are duplicitous. In saying that I’ve actually put effort into this, you imply that I have not put effort into my other posts just because they don’t live up to some level of logic and objectivity that you deem worthy. That’s patently ridiculous. Has it ever occurred to you that I don’t always write in order to provide “in-depth analysis?”
“See, your comments are duplicitous. In saying that I’ve actually put effort into this, you imply that I have not put effort into my other posts just because they don’t live up to some level of logic and objectivity that you deem worthy. That’s patently ridiculous. Has it ever occurred to you that I don’t always write in order to provide “in-depth analysis?”
And are you now claiming you put as much effort in every post as the next? In a former post, you seemed to agree you also have a varying degree of quality in your writings – which would be only normal as a human. Why, then, are you offended when I say it. Yes, I repeat: some of your criticism is really good, and others a lot less. What is there, to be offended by?
Yes, you can write for other reasons and not use logic or be consistent; but from a person valuing consistency and logic, is that not a valid reason to find some better than others, then? Surely you must be capable to see the logic in it, with the setting/context in which it is used?
For instance; I, in turn, have no trouble acknowledging that your posts, where they are devoid of logic and consistency, could well be superior to others in other respects – like being more humoristic, or more well-written, or closer to how you subjectively feel about the anime, or whatever. But they’re not more worth when it comes to logic and consistency when they lack it more, obviously.
However, it is not ‘patently ridiculous’ to give worth to arguments based on their logic and consistency. In fact, I think it’s the prime method to know if the arguments given make sense. Even if you write the blog for other reasons than in-depth-analysis, the fact that you DO give such analysis sometimes, and the fact that you often DO use arguments with logic and consistency, opens it up to be given a certain worth in regard to these factors. Calling that hilarious makes no sense; then why did you use it in the first place? It’s as valid a measurement as anything else, and, in regard to the determination of the validity of the arguments, I would even say it is superior to anything else.
This is stupid. I don’t always succeed, and of course the quality of my writing is not always consistent, but that doesn’t mean I put in less of an effort when I do misstep. Quality =/= effort. Why is this a difficult concept for you to understand?
You question my effort just because you see less “logic and consistency” in certain posts. I don’t care if you dislike my posts or not, but as I’ve repeatedly said, you’re making attacks on my character simply because you find certain articles — articles that were never meant to be serious critiques in the first place — lacking.
Actually, I’m done with this discussion. This is a waste of time. You claim to be fair-minded, but all you’ve done is attack my character.
“You question my effort just because you see less “logic and consistency” in certain posts. I don’t care if you dislike my posts or not, but as I’ve repeatedly said, you’re making attacks on my character simply because you find certain articles — articles that were never meant to be serious critiques in the first place — lacking.”
I don’t see where I attacked YOUR CHARACTER.
It’s quite simple: viewed from the context of logic and consistency, I say your criticism is not always as good. I think that you’re putting less effort into some than in others. In fact, you have said yourself that you don’t put much logical arguments in comments about ‘lesser shows’. Thus, and please try to follow the ratio of this: it is not unwarranted to claim, nor an attack on your character, that you, indeed, made less effort *IN PROVIDING LOGICAL ARGUMENTS AND CONSISTENCY* in all your posts.
You’ve basically acknowledged that already.
The error you make here, is to generalise. Indeed, I find certain articles lacking – lacking in logic and consistency. I repeat; how is that a personal attack? Where the logic and consistency of arguments is involved, it’s clear you put less effort into some than others. That’s what you implied yourself also, with the lesser shows you just criticise in an ‘entertaining’-fashion, without getting serious.
I find it a bit pity you’re taking this so personal and negative, while I was actually being mildly positive about the blog.
This whole time, I was clearly talking about the logic and rationality in the arguments and the reasoning used in your posts. therefore, the lack of effort is in that department too. I’m not talking about your effort in general to provide entertainment or the number of posts or the length or eloquence of your writings. Just that providing the effort in logical argumentation isn’t always as strong. That not all of your articles were meant to be serious critique is a valid counterargument, but it also means that, indeed, so put less effort in that department than with others.
No doubt you’ve made an effort on another level with those posts, but that wasn’t the point I made.
But, ok, I gather you seem to want to stop with this particular discussion. (Is that why the reply was sometimes gone? I was doubting if it was a technical glitch or not, but if you’re so keen on halting this topic, it was enough to just ask; I’m not one to impose a debate where it’s not wanted, though I do deem it important to make things clear so there is no miscommunication).
I’ll focus on the actual articles again, but bear in mind that when I’m talking about a post being weak, I’m only talking about the logic of it, not of anything else, nor attacking your character. It could well be that the post is the next best thing since sliced bread in a lot of other area’s and using other variables factoring in, but I’m just talking about the logical strength and validity of the given argument.
I really enjoyed the discussion of hyperreal in this episode. The logical explanation that I can see about the case of the dominators is that the guns rely on the optical perception of its wielder and with the sense of sight of the wielder distorted, gun can’t detect the suspect properly.
Mido creating AIs fro the avatars I think, is his obsession for being a ‘poor man’s philosopher’ among society’s rejects. Previous episode dealt w/ the demonization of the hikki’s and social outcasts and that society doesn’t want to help them in the hikki’s eyes and with Mido’s obsession of the idea not being tainted (thus killing the originals when he deems that they’re not doing their jobs) by normal social conventions (spooky boogie suddenly teaming up with Akane, a memeber of the police, thus an extension of society, thus spookie was axed by Mido), Mido felt that it was the ideas [of the originals] were the key to helping him and fellows (hikkis and social rejects) like him. The thing is that instead of becoming the savor that he thinks he is, he went way overboard and became the personification of the worst of what society is rejecting.
I did notice the little loopholes such as dude escapes his hue check-up and the holes in the detection system; It seems that even in the future, technology still has to deal with the little holes it is dealing today(holes in detection, etc). I think that it is a metaphor that technology no matter how advanced, is still far from perfect. Or may I’m just over thinking this.
Every show has to follow some character conventions, I guess… (Shinya being mr. instinct, Akane the by the book MC, Masaoka being the tech unsavvy old dude) It makes viewing easier for most people.
How does it know what the wielder is seeing?
Your theory about Mido seems plausible, but I wish they had fleshed out his previous victims. We can understand his beef with Spooky Boogie. The way she easily did an about-face and cooperated with the authorities showed how she betrayed her own ideals. She is, however, only one example. If they had developed the other two victims, this would at least establish a trend. Instead, the anime leaves it up too much to speculation.
Yeah, I don’t know about that. If one of the characters would question these gaps in the system, then I’d agree that the show was trying to make a broader point. No one, however, seems to have batted an eyelash at the fact that Mido eluded a checkup for four years.
On the other hand, if this is the case, it feels like the writer is unnecessarily dumbing down the story. I think people can understand slightly more complex characters than what we’ve been given.
After discussing Rousseau in my feminist theory class, I think he is the last person I would ever find myself quoting in real life OR in a work of art (animation, comic, manga, or what have you).
You never know what makes it to the East.
This sounds stupid, but the Dominator is probably using human-like optical recognition, when you target it around, instead of using a ‘bit’ more advanced, like laser or infrared?
:-D
There’s another flaw too, it seems as if they have closed the case with the glasses guy labeled as the sole criminal. This is so weird, don’t they think he most definitely has accomplice when they raided the offline meeting place like amateurs? Can’t they fiddle with his computer equipment after his death? Can’t they retrieve all his files? Can’t they check who he talked to before his death? Oh, probably all of them have been shredded. This show is about noob policemen versus super hacker, it seems. Fuuuun.
:-)
Oh yeah, too bad there’s no nude Shinya fan service this week.
Even if our heroes had somehow considered this, I’m sure they would’ve just made up some silly excuse for the idea to fail, i.e. Makishima instantly erasing any trace of him ever communicating with Mido in an instant.
Gotta be fair so nude Masaoka fanservice to come.
I wonder if the opening 5 min of ep.1 was some kind of a flash back before Shinya got demoted to Enforcer? Later on the viewers see him at this desk with all the photos pinned up, it could be pointing to the original unsolved case before he lost his status.
Also, I noticed many of the criminals tend to be men, who usually fell out of society’s “standards” either becoming some kind of online recluse or basically bullied in a work place. I imagine it would be difficult to enough to live in a highly surveillanced world and then be forced to deal with society too w/o raising hue colors.
It’s possible, but the opening also had Akane narrating. If it had really been a flashback, why would she be aware of the events?
Yeah, last week we got into a discussion of these guys as lumpenproletariets.
“It’s possible, but the opening also had Akane narrating. If it had really been a flashback, why would she be aware of the events?”
Time to re-watch the first ep. 1 again, I might have skipped over that part .__.
I remember that she chimes in near the end of the scene when Shinya and Makishima stare each other down. I could be misremembering, but I don’t think so.