[Triple_R]

Originally Posted by Shadow5YA

I just finished watching this, and when I saw Shinya's "unfinished business", I thought "is that you, Spike Spiegel?"

Also, I'm going to laugh when Akane goes rogue and starts a revolution to bring down the Sybil system, and no one can stop her because her Crime Coefficient won't go high enough for the Dominators to work on her.

You know, that makes so much sense, that I think you may have just spoiled the ending to the show, lol.

Yeah, I can definitely see how Akana's "Crime Coefficient won't go high even when she's in a bad mood" could become a very important characteristic later on down the line.


And actually, I'm already seeing striking similarities between this show and Madoka Magica (albeit that some of these are predictive in nature). I'm going to allude to them in the spoiler space below.

Spoiler for Psycho-Pass/Madoka Magica comparison:

Sybil system = Incubator/Puella Magi system - Victimizes some for the perceived good of the whole, and becoming emotionally unstable is what does you in. Initially comes across as a basic crime-fighting system designed to eliminate threats to innocent people, but something darker lurks underneath...

Akane = Madoka - Drastically reforms the system from the inside-out. Has a sort of incorruptible nature that makes her ideal for this role. Deemed to have unusually high potential by the system itself.

Shinya = Homura - Takes a quick liking to the system reformer, due to her displaying much care and consideration towards him/her that s/he is not used to. Destined to be the most popular character of the show due to the "Cool" and "Badass" characterization s/he receives.


These three I'm already pretty confident about, although I could be wrong of course. The next one I'm more iffy on, but I'm going to throw it out there anyway...

Tomomi Masaoka = Mami Tomoe - The smooth and reliable veteran that plays a central role in introducing the system reformer to the system, and seems to be in a pretty good lowkey mood and takes on a bit of the image of the hunter. The system reformer feels inadequate compared to him/her, but s/he reassures the system reformer that she is doing a good job and can handle it. And... I just noticed how oddly similar their names are. Yeah, I'm pretty convinced of this comparison too now.

In fact...

I'm calling it now. Tomomi Masaoka is going to die, and his death is going to seriously shake up Akane and play a role in her questioning the system. That's a prediction I'm making.


ThereminVox raises a very interesting societal aspect to the Sybil system that I honestly hadn't considered myself. Yeah, I can see "Psychological Beauty" in this show being held in the same sort of esteem that physical beauty is held in the real world.

Originally Posted by ThereminVox

I'm going to take the Sybil system at face value until Urobuchi gives me reason to think otherwise. I assume it's a completely legitimate and effective system of measuring what information it has to work with, but...

I don't doubt that the Sybil system is at least somewhat accurate. I think it provides two things:

1. Pretty accurate "snapshots in time" (more on this in a bit)

2. By doing 1 constantly, it's good at determining which people have the firmest mental stability (i.e. the "snapshots" can add up to paint a very precise picture over time).

With Akane, what I think the Sybil system is picking up on is a fundamentally good person who is sort of incorruptible. It's not so much that she is immune to bad moods - It's that she has a strong personal sense of morality and justice that would prevent her bad moods from ever causing her to completely snap, so to speak. So even when plagued with self-doubt and lack of sleep, she doesn't give off a bad reading.

For most people, though, their Sybil system rating changes with their moods and state of mind, because most people can snap. I think that a Sybil system rating accurately reflects where a person is at this exact moment of time. The problem, I think/suspect, is that it doesn't account for how likely the person is to recover from that heightened emotional state. It just flags people in the sense of "This guy/gal is on the verge of an emotional breakdown; take him/her out, or she might do something crazy and criminal".

The thing is that Akane's method in Episode 1 should probably be standard operating procedure. In other words, you try to talk people down and you don't "Shoot first, ask questions later". And in fairness, maybe that's all the Sybil system was used for at first, at least within a law enforcement context: To help ascertain who needs to be "talked down" and who needs to be shot if you're unable to talk them down.


Anyway, as critical as I've been of the Sybil system, I am finding this to be an extremely thought-provoking and pretty enjoyable show. Perhaps fittingly, it has intellectually engaged me in a way that no show really has... since Madoka Magica.