Psycho-Pass has concluded it’s third season on Japanese broadcast and Amazon Prime Video stream. The third season was a major improvement from the previous season of Psycho-Pass. It’s clearly better written with more substantive content in each 45 minute episode, which is longer than standard anime episodes. You can expect to see new themes at play with subtle foreshadowing and an evil organization operating an underground network that commits large scale crimes.
Warning: Minor Spoilers ahead
After the events of the second season, it isn’t surprising that new Public Safety Bureau inspectors, Arata and Kei, are introduced in the first episode. Arata is a special A class profiler with empathic abilities, meaning he has the ability to cross a mental borderline to become another person. Arata frequently uses this “mentalist” skill to get leads on cases that would be difficult to solve otherwise. However, there is an obvious downside to using the mentalist skill. After experiencing the negative emotions of another person, your hue gets clouded and become more likely to be a target for enforcement. Our second protagonist is Kei, a Russian immigrant that is naturalized as Japanese. One of major underlying themes in the third season is the treatment of immigrants in Japan. Kei experiences multiple incidents involving Japanese prejudice against immigrants, which will impact a crucial decision he makes at the end of the season. Later on, we learn that Arata and Kei are childhood friends so they have great teamwork and will frequently stick up for each other.
The story arcs in the third season explore real life situations we have already experienced in our lifetime, such as a crime similar to events that led to the 2008 stock market crash. Subprime lending, real estate speculation and housing market bubbles. Other themes explored in subsequent story arcs involve a political election with unique candidates who would be considered outsiders in today’s society as well as a debate about religion. It sounds boring but it was great way to introduce how effective our new protagonists overcome obstacles and solve crimes. Of course, the larger elements in play revolves around the organization called Bifrost and their involvement in every crime committed.
Bifrost is organized in a three tiered structure. At the lowest level, there are “foxes.” Foxes are civilians that are unaware they are being used to commit crimes. Next, you have “inspectors.” Inspectors are responsible for carrying out orders from Congressmen, the leaders of the organization. Congressmen play games with society by manipulating how events will play out. They have control of the economy and politics of Japan with their henchmen and capital resources. Although not much is known about the true motives of the organization, we do know how their existence continues to challenge Sibyl’s authority after the events of the third season.
Unfortunately, the anime concluded with a cliffhanger that will leave a lot of questions unanswered. In fact many events involving key characters were not fully explored in the third season. It’s clear that the Psycho-Pass producers intend to string everything out for future anime episodes and movies.
Even if you lost interest in the series due to the lackluster second season, you should definitely give the third season a try. You’ll enjoy watching the new characters and even get to see Shinya and Akane again. It has everything you would want for a sequel minus a conclusive ending. Luckily, the events of the third season will continue in a new movie to be released next year.
