The Morality and Philosophy of the Sibyl System

[Roger Rambo]

Originally Posted by Dengar

What I'd like to know is WHAT is the exact problem with taking a potentially dangerous individual into custody? And let me stress this again: They got the right guy.

Well the main problem is that it conflicts with the sense of justice that we have in a modern society. That people aren't "punished" for crimes they have not yet committed. The guy in question hadn't actually committed any crimes.

Of course that wouldn't be a very good argument to make to people in the Psycho-Pass universe. They'd argue that law enforcement in their universe isn't about punishing people for crimes. It's about crime prevention. And they've taken it to its scientific conclusion, using profiling to determine who has the most potential to be a criminal.


I'm very well of the rather terrifying implications of how authoritarian a state like this could be. The only plus side I can see for the system at this point, it seems less interested in enforcing ideological purity, so much as enforcing mental health. So far we haven't see any evidence that a non criminally inclined, mentally healthy political activist is suppressed by the system that cybil has created, though that could change. As is, the only *victims* of this police state apparatus are the incurable criminals, or people who try to violently resist treatment.

[Shadow5YA]

Also I'd like to add that by disposing Kanehara, they are doing exactly what the factory manager wants them to do. The manager wanted someone to become the disposable sacrifice, and Kanehara was disposed of in the end. Despite Akane and Shinya opposing the bullying, they gave the factory workers exactly what they wanted.

[blackwhite67]

Sometimes mental health is is only possible under the condition that you are free to feel and believe what you want. That includes criminal thoughts. Psycho-pass might very well be the cause of a person being a latent criminal like with that poor sap in the first episode.

I have a bad feeling about where this show is heading with this latest episode. It could be that Kogami's threats pushed the man into becoming a criminal when he wasn't the REAL criminal. The REAL criminal might be the factory manager, which they might find out in the next episode when they scan the Hue Assessment with the Sibyl System. Of course, this would mean Kogami pushed an innocent man, and by innocent I mean a man whose psycho-pass had not overstepped regulations, into becoming one.

[Roger Rambo]

Originally Posted by Kanon

Spoiler for Episode:

The criminal had a crime coefficient of over 265. Oddly, the dominator didn't switch to lethal mode this time, even though the criminal was clearly attempting to murder the enforcers. That doesn't really make sense, since I recall both the criminal and victim in episode 1 had a CC lower than that. Plothole or am I missing something?

The dominator has a third mode, Destroy Decomposer, which is seriously overkill. I'd be curious to know the reason it switched to that mode. The criminal was already down and it's not like the machines have minds to scan. Does the dominator have another way to assess threats?

Obviously the Dominator has a number of ways to do threat assessment. Remember that the dominator only went into kill mood in episode 1 after it was used, and unable to restrain a suspect. Since the suspect in this case got immediately shot and incapacitated, there was no need to use kill mode on him.


And the third mode was hardly overkill considering the size of the construction bots trying to kill them. I'm guessing the system was smart enough to realize the robots were hostile, and based on their size, authorized it to go to antimaterial mode.

Originally Posted by Shadow5YA

Also I'd like to add that by disposing Kanehara, they are doing exactly what the factory manager wants them to do.

Noooooooo. The factory manager wanted them to write this off as an accident. Having it be known that the way the factory ran drove someone nuts enough to murder is something he doesn't want happening. Especially when he's the one who ran the factory.

Originally Posted by blackwhite67

I have a bad feeling about where this show is heading with this latest episode. It could be that Kogami's threats pushed the man into becoming a criminal when he wasn't the REAL criminal. The REAL criminal might be the factory manager, which they might find out in the next episode when they scan the Hue Assessment with the Sibyl System. Of course, this would mean Kogami pushed an innocent man, and by innocent I mean a man whose psycho-pass had not overstepped regulations, into becoming one.

That's extremely unlikely that the guy in this case was somehow an innocent guy pushed over the edge. Remember. These robots AREN'T programmed to kill people normally. If someone wanted to use these robots to murder people, they'd have to have made programming for it ahead of time. Remember the Johnny Memonic USB port he stuck into the robots? Are you saying the innocent guy just *happened* to have a USB port on him that would let him turn the drones into killbots? Or are you saying he made the killbot programming in five minutes?


I think the system in Pyscho-pass potentially has allot of things wrong with it. But I'm not sure people are being entirely rational when they push this meme that every single criminal we've seen has only had hue problems because of the evil gubmint come to get them.

[miroku2192]

I honestly think a lot of people are missing some key points.

The one thing I would like to highlight out in this episode is the whole Chief-scene.

Where we get the initial sense that the bullied victim actually has a lowered Psycho-pass as a result of him committing a crime and killing someone...

Now that's messed up, and another sign, from a different perspective that this system has loopholes and problems.

All these episodes are giving us little tidbits about the loopholes and roundabouts one can use to "combat" the Sibyl system, not solely telling us about the problems with the gun.

1) We know that a victim can be pushed over the threshold.
2) We know people can negate the effects of the psycho-pass reading (From Ep1, and from this episode --> If the area blocks of radio waves, if the person is "wired" in the sense that he lowers his psychopass by killing, etc.

And I can go on more but don't feel like using my head at the moment.

Episode 3 was fun.

As for the whole chief-dynamic thing, I'm betting the old "hunter" or w/e they're called, (as we were hinted in episode 1 as well), was a detective like Chief, they might've worked together, etc. However, he started listening to these hunters more and soon tried to become a "better detective" in finding out criminals/potential criminals, and like he said himself, became labeled as a potential criminal himself, and so he's now one of those hunters...

Hence the whole "You can learn from history, or be a fool, i hope you're not a fool". He's seen the example of a fool, the old detective-turned-hunter guy.

[Roger Rambo]

Originally Posted by Lenneth4

Yeah it's interesting and i agree with you

But he couldn't have been an innocent person that got pushed by Kogami into committing a crime. He'd already had a data storage device that could turn the drones into killbots.



See that? That's a murder weapon. And not just any murder weapon. It's a personalized, custom made murder weapon. He couldn't have made that in 5 minutes. He'd had to have it already in his possession.


Possession of a data disk that can make make robots murder people...in a factory that's been suffering freak accidents where robots brutally torture people to death...naaaaaw, must be a coincidence.

[FlareKnight]

In the end they really haven't solved the key problem. With this guy going to jail the factory will just go back to it's previous policy. You signal out one guy to be the bullied victim, people relieve their stress by beating him up, and when he starts getting cloudy then you transfer him out so his stress will go down.

Certainly does show some problems with this whole system. Seems like certain people could commit criminal acts and yet look fine one the scanners. The fact that the bullies improved their psycho pass each time they picked on someone shows a real problem. You could have the world's greatest serial killer go on a rampage and yet never get arrested because the system would read him as being fine.

[Roger Rambo]

Originally Posted by FlareKnight

In the end they really haven't solved the key problem. With this guy going to jail the factory will just go back to it's previous policy. You signal out one guy to be the bullied victim, people relieve their stress by beating him up, and when he starts getting cloudy then you transfer him out so his stress will go down.

Considering that the Inspectors have a law and order duty to ensure mental health, I think work place conditions that resulted in something like this is something they could use to penalize the work place. Remember we didn't find out what happened to that woman in Episode 1 until the second one.

I think in the future we'll be hearing more about this.

Originally Posted by FlareKnight

Certainly does show some problems with this whole system. Seems like certain people could commit criminal acts and yet look fine one the scanners. The fact that the bullies improved their psycho pass each time they picked on someone shows a real problem. You could have the world's greatest serial killer go on a rampage and yet never get arrested because the system would read him as being fine.

Indeed. Mind, this seems to have been an exceptional situation, mainly because this was an isolated system from Sybils intense observation. But you're very much correct. The fact that the system can read a normal hue from someone serial killing does tell you there are holes in this system that someone can fall in through.

Originally Posted by blakstealth

Anything that's labeled "Johnny Mnemonic" should be deadly.

Seriously!

[TinyRedLeaf]

Originally Posted by FlareKnight

You could have the world's greatest serial killer go on a rampage and yet never get arrested because the system would read him as being fine.

I think there are at least three different systems that each have slightly different functions: the Hue check, the dominator (Psycho-pass) and the Sibyl System. If I understand correctly, the Hue check reveals an individual's stress levels, which likely fluctuate in response to environmental stimuli. The Sibyl System appears to be the grand-daddy mainframe that does exhaustive profiling, taking into account not just Hue readings but also your biological data. Such profiling understandably takes a lot more time, a luxury that field officers do not enjoy, hence the use of dominators, which as Masaoka (the grizzled gumshoe) claims, shortcuts the entire profiling process through the Psycho-pass system. So far, it seems that "crime coefficients" get mentioned only with respect to the dominators, so the number is perhaps specific only to the Psycho-pass system?

My feeling is that, yes, you're right, a serial-killer who gets his kicks out of murderingpeople would likely not be flagged by the Hue system. But it's more than likely that Sibyl Judgment would have marked him as a latent criminal. Certainly, Shinya showed in the latest episode that he enjoys the thrill of the hunt and he clearly shows no hesitation in resorting to violence to get his prey — the identifying traits of a criminal, as defined by this alternative world.

If I'm right, and if the Sibyl System works as it is supposed to, all potential serial killers are already marked. Hence the label of "latent criminal". Whenever a crime takes place, any latent criminal in the vicinity would automatically become prime suspects.

[Dengar]

Crime Coefficient and Hue seem to be clearly different things. A cold blooded murderer would still have a high Crime Coefficient, if I understand this correctly.

You know, this Sibyl system. We've seen bits and pieces of it over the last few episodes.

In the first episode we see the system advises a course of action depending on a combination of CC and circumstance (going to lethal mode after paralysis shot failed to work).

In the second episode, it is mentioned that the Sibyl system does more than just determine Crime Coefficients, it actually analyzes a person's aptitude for various jobs. It gave Akane a high aptitude for being an Inspector, and she shows an ability to empathize with the Enforcers, and make certain decisions that others wouldn't.

In the third episode, we get to a further emphasis on the difference between CC and Hue. The culprit's Hue was below the danger zone because the murders lowered it. The Sibyl system did assign a rather high Crime Coefficient regardless of this.

All of this makes it seem like the Sibyl system is in fact, not the problem here. It's the people who make use of the system.

[velocity7]

From what I gather from this episode, hue <> crime coefficient. Someone can have an extremely high crime coefficient like Kanehara, but have a decently stable hue that no one could suspect he was the killer unless he was checked using the Sibyl system. That's not to say that a hue wouldn't influence the coefficient though; I imagine what Kogami did probably pushed Kanehara from 120 to something close to 300.

On that note, if the factory manager is aware that Kanehara has been doing this and has been letting it fly in order to keep hue levels low, isn't he also committing a crime himself? They should check him to see his crime coefficient.

Also in regards to the Dominator's response to mobile weapons... if it is able to detect threats to the point of using another elimination mode, then I imagine that the fight in episode 1 reflects a helmet that tells the Dominator the crime coefficient was less than 60, as opposed to being an inanimate object with a chainsaw (which would have been read as a mobile weapon).

[Dark Wing]

Originally Posted by KleenexGhost

Exactly. Shusei may have been at risk but what evidence is there that he was actually gonna be a criminal?

Well remember what Ginoza said about the difference between learning form experience and history?

Maybe they've had examples of children with unusually high Psycho-pass readings end up turning to crime despite treatment and now make no exceptions as a result.

I'm not saying it's okay to lock a 5 year old up for life but I can see why they went that route.

[Kirarakim]

Originally Posted by TinyRedLeaf

But it's more than likely that Sibyl Judgment would have marked him as a latent criminal. Certainly, Shinya showed in the latest episode that he enjoys the thrill of the hunt and he clearly shows no hesitation in resorting to violence to get his prey — the identifying traits of a criminal, as defined by this alternative world.

Personally I think Shinya was marked as a latent criminal not just because of his behavior in this episode but because he is most likely willing to commit a crime to reach a goal he talked about in the previous episode.

However the question is just because you are marked as a latent criminal doesn't mean you will commit a crime. It's judging you for what you could do, not what you did and there are a lot of issues with this.

Let's say the system is wrong. Even if it is right most of the time, is it always right?

[TinyRedLeaf]

Originally Posted by Kirarakim

Let's say the system is wrong. Even if it is right most of the time, is it always right?

Would you say the Sibyl System was wrong about Akane? As the apparent prime beneficiary of the system, she does not doubt the Sibyl System. That, in itself, suggests that not all is wrong in this world.

I think we have to remember that, as viewers, we are witnessing episodes where the system is being pushed to its limits. We're seeing the people who have fallen through the cracks. Because we're shown scenes of the system at its worst, we as viewers become, in effect, biased observers. We've come to view the Sibyl System as something hopelessly broken.

Imagine if I were to visit a highly developed, First World country, like the United States, for example. What if I limited my tour to only the towns and cities that are failing economically because of the ongoing financial crisis? Let's say I see only homeless people slumming in public parks, druggies in dark alleys and rampant unemployment sapping young graduates of hope, even as they struggle with crippling student loans.

Am I not likely to come to the possibly mistaken conclusion that the American capitalist system is hopelessly broken and in dire need of fixing? Indeed, those who took part in the Occupation movement earlier this year quite probably felt that way.

Hypothetically, I don't think it's necessarily wrong to flag someone as young as five as a potential threat, given his biological/psychological profile, which is, in this world, supposedly backed up by implacably objective and hyper-reliable Science^tm. It's how society responds to that threat that makes the difference. If, after isolating the individual, the state provides the necessary treatment to curb his biological tendencies, would you say it's wrong? If, through such treatment, the individual is "cured", wouldn't the state be doing a kindness in the long run?

Much of the unease expressed in this thread stems from how latent criminals are dealt with. I can see where the misgivings come from, but I wouldn't be so quick to blame the technology nor the system. I think, rather, that it's the society and its values that are the root problems, not the technology nor the methodology of its profiling process.

[Shadow5YA]

Originally Posted by Azuma Denton

So Cybil system can aslo detect a thread coming from non-living object such as machine. Wow. What a great system.

My only complain is that the factory supervisor is not getting any punishment after he deliberately left someone to be bullied. Even after it is proven in the ending. But maybe he'll become a recurring character in the next episode.

The factor supervisor couldn't be apprehended anyway. If he's inside the factory, the Sybil system can't evaluate his Crime Coefficient. He is also calm enough for his Psycho-Pass to be a clear color.

And actually, he couldn't be prosecuted on the grounds of supporting the bullying anyway. His role is far too indirect. Even assuming that their court system is the same as ours, there is nothing to prove that he directly participated in the bullying.
If there was some way to prove that he directly persuaded the workers to bully Kanehara or that he was the one who provided Kanehara with the Johnny Mnemonic program as a murder weapon, then it would be a different story.

[Mentar]

What I really like about the Urobutcher's storytelling is that he avoids endless infodumps and rather gradually explains the setting in a way that makes the explanation relevant right here and now.

This episode was not about creating a brilliant surprising murder case - it's about the fundamental conflict between merely accepting the Sibyl system and not caring (see glasses' guy "The wise learn from history" viewing himself as a handler of dogs/enforcers) and Akane's more idealistic view "The fool learns from painful experience" who sees enforcers rather as colleagues and acting accordingly.

Akane finds out that her view might be a bit too rose-tinted, since Shinya did seem to enjoy the violence in the end. Was it worth it? The show is ambiguous on that - they DID succeed in identifying and apprehending the culprit, but it sure wasn't done in a way Akane was comfortable with. Unpleasant experience collected.

Other notables: So it seems that in order to create a "lawless" spot, you merely have to block out Sibyl radio waves. And somehow the thought of having places "without net uplink", creating places of isolation and ignorance, where violent abuse isn't merely turned a blind eye on but openly accepted, is chilling me to the bones. Utopia THAT ain't.

[Quadratic]

Originally Posted by TinyRedLeaf

Would you say the Sibyl System was wrong about Akane? As the apparent prime beneficiary of the system, she does not doubt the Sibyl System. That, in itself, suggests that not all is wrong in this world.

I think we have to remember that, as viewers, we are witnessing episodes where the system is being pushed to its limits. We're seeing the people who have fallen through the cracks. Because we're shown scenes of the system at its worst, we as viewers become, in effect, biased observers. We've come to view the Sibyl System as something hopelessly broken.

Imagine if I were to visit a highly developed, First World country, like the United States, for example. What if I limited my tour to only the towns and cities that are failing economically because of the ongoing financial crisis? Let's say I see only homeless people slumming in public parks, druggies in dark alleys and rampant unemployment sapping young graduates of hope, even as they struggle with crippling student loans.

Am I not likely to come to the possibly mistaken conclusion that the American capitalist system is hopelessly broken and in dire need of fixing? Indeed, those who took part in the Occupation movement earlier this year quite probably felt that way.

Hypothetically, I don't think it's necessarily wrong to flag someone as young as five as a potential threat, given his biological/psychological profile, which is, in this world, supposedly backed up by implacably objective and hyper-reliable Science^tm. It's how society responds to that threat that makes the difference. If, after isolating the individual, the state provides the necessary treatment to curb his biological tendencies, would you say it's wrong? If, through such treatment, the individual is "cured", wouldn't the state be doing a kindness in the long run?

Much of the unease expressed in this thread stems from how latent criminals are dealt with. I can see where the misgivings come from, but I wouldn't be so quick to blame the technology nor the system. I think, rather, that it's the society and its values that are the root problems, not the technology nor the methodology of its profiling process.

In my dark opinion, I think human behavior as a whole can be boiled down to a numbers game. Intuition is nothing more than invisible math in your head but is biased towards your own experience.
The system would obviously have more numbers than each individual so it lacks bias.
In the end, all the characters are playing a numbers game, but who's numbers they're relying on (the system or their own) is what's causing the largest conflict.

It's already been established that despite having such a system, humans still commit crimes, and even find ways to circumvent the system. Same issues, different MO.
The issue boils down to, are we willing to allow hundreds or thousands of crimes to happen, just because one potential criminal doesn't actually commit a crime?
I believe the majority will say yes, because we want to live in a world where everyone's given an equal chance, even if the outcome may prove to be worst from a distant view.

Anyway, I think the main flaw with the system is whether it stunts the growth of society as a whole.
We've already been given the idea that people are chained to a whatever path the system has chosen for them. They have zero chance to do better.
There is also an increasing reliance on machine, rather than themselves (well, it's debatable whether that's a good thing or not).

Spoiler for Puella Magi Madoka Magica:

Good ol' Gen Urobuchi. Honestly, I'm hoping the story considers the system nothing more than how Kyubey was considered "evil". That was fun times.

Akane's definitely got a rocky path ahead of her. Unlike the rest of the world, she's been given choices: saving the victim by shooting Shinya, choosing her career, choosing sides between inspector vs enforcers.
What I hope will happen by the end of the series is that it's not a matter of right or wrong choices, it'll only be about consequences to every action.

Side note: For some reason, I'm getting hung up on the weather report from ep 2 (morning clouds giving way to sunny skies. 0% chance of precipication). There's nothing wrong with it, was there?
Or are are we suppose to analyze it deeper, like 'hey, they're still predicting the weather, shouldn't they solve that before moving on to humans?'

[Kirarakim]

Originally Posted by TinyRedLeaf

Would you say the Sibyl System was wrong about Akane? As the apparent prime beneficiary of the system, she does not doubt the Sibyl System. That, in itself, suggests that not all is wrong in this world

But you clearly missed what I said. I didn't say the system was wrong. I said what if the system was wrong sometimes, heck even 1% of the time.

People's lives are being pigeonholed because of this system.

[Kanon]

Originally Posted by Shadow5YA

They may have apprehended the criminal, but I have a feeling they didn't solve or prevent the crime.

The factory originally had a system to prevent the factory workers' Psycho-Passes from clouding over by reassigning the workers to different locations, but that practice ended a year ago. Why?

It's obvious that someone (most likely the manager) stopped it to encourage bullying. The bullies clear their Psycho-Passes by picking on someone, while the bullied clears his Psycho-Pass by retaliating in secret like Kanehara did. If the victim's Psycho-Pass does not become clear over time, the manager can let the authorities remove him.

Yes, I suspect the murders by Kanehara were also a part of the factory manager's system, considering how he can see everything with the security cameras. There is nothing to prevent another factory worker from becoming the next Kanehara.

I also suspect that the factory's isolation from the Sybil System is not just to prevent hacking, but to prevent the manager from being exposed as well. If the police do not have the Sybil System, they have no Crime Coefficients. Naturally they would go after the person with the worst Psycho-Pass, which would be the bullied-victim-turned-vengeful-murderer like Kanehara. The police would be distracted by Kanehara, and the calmer, more conspiring criminal such as the factory manager would slip under the radar everytime.

That's an interesting theory, but I think you're thinking too much.

Bullied workers were reassigned when their psycho-pass started to reach the limit. The reason Kanehara stayed longer than any other was because his hue never crossed that limit. In the eyes of the manager, he seemed to respond better to the bullying than other people and was therefore a valuable asset. There was simply no need to remove him since he was seemingly handling his "job" well.

The system as it was described in the episode is far more efficient than what you're proposing. They only have to reassign the bullied person every year or so, only one person gets hurt in the process and no personnel is lost. It's pretty simple and straightforward. However, what you're suggesting is more complicated to put in place and resulted in the deaths of 3 workers and the loss of another one. I seriously doubt these are acceptable losses for the factory. Not to mention, the manager is most likely going to get into trouble since this incident happened under his watch. The ministry won't let that slide. In the end, the murders did not benefit anybody.

Originally Posted by jeroz

The read value for the guy in ep1 shot up to 300+ before he was gone. No contradictions here

I went over the first episode again but couldn't find that number. That guy's case was special anyway, since the paralyzer had no effect on him, they had no choice but to use lethal mode.

I thought the victim's CC was given when the gun switched to lethal mode but after checking again, that wasn't the case. I suppose it could have been over 265, and therefore there are no inconsistencies. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt for now.

Originally Posted by TinyRedLeaf

I think we have to remember that, as viewers, we are witnessing episodes where the system is being pushed to its limits. We're seeing the people who have fallen through the cracks. Because we're shown scenes of the system at its worst, we as viewers become, in effect, biased observers. We've come to view the Sibyl System as something hopelessly broken.

Imagine if I were to visit a highly developed, First World country, like the United States, for example. What if I limited my tour to only the towns and cities that are failing economically because of the ongoing financial crisis? Let's say I see only homeless people slumming in public parks, druggies in dark alleys and rampant unemployment sapping young graduates of hope, even as they struggle with crippling student loans.

Am I not likely to come to the possibly mistaken conclusion that the American capitalist system is hopelessly broken and in dire need of fixing? Indeed, those who took part in the Occupation movement earlier this year quite probably felt that way.

You seem to be misunderstanding us. Nobody is arguing that the Sybil system is helplessly broken, we're just saying it is not as perfect as the characters appear to believe. The system being flawed does not mean it's complete garbage.

As for your example... it just proves the capitalist system is as flawed if not more than the Sybil system. If it were perfect, these areas wouldn't even exist in the first place.

[Triple_R]

Originally Posted by TinyRedLeaf

I think we have to remember that, as viewers, we are witnessing episodes where the system is being pushed to its limits. We're seeing the people who have fallen through the cracks. Because we're shown scenes of the system at its worst, we as viewers become, in effect, biased observers. We've come to view the Sibyl System as something hopelessly broken.

But doesn't this beg the question of why are we witnessing episodes where the system is being pushed to its limits? Why is this what the author has chosen to focus on? Why not focus on episodes where the Sibyl System comes off looking better, where the criminals caught are largely unsympathetic figures where the viewers would be comfortable in seeing them brought to justice?


In the first episode, we see a rape victim get further victimized by the system. In this third episode, we see the victim of extreme bullying, who has basically snapped for that reason. And he too was thoroughly victimized by the system.

The murderer in this episode isn't the problem, he's merely a symptom of it.

The problem is the occupational system itself, in which you have all of these people who are working here (likely because the Sibyl System gave them no other options, or only this option and even worse ones), and they're cut off from any conventional method of entertaining themselves, so they turn to bullying for amusement. The system itself created these powderkeg conditions, and so the system itself has created this problem.


Honestly, I don't know how Gen could possibly make this system look any worse than what he has, short of having it be cartoonishly dystopian (I'm thinking of the last few episodes of No. 6 here). Putting aside the obvious, let's look at the subtler condemnations of it.

We have the opening scene where Mr. Cool Dude Shinya gets a minute or two of looking impeccably cool and manly. We're clearly meant to like this guy. And this same guy makes an unambiguously critical remark about the Sibyl System (and it was delivered so perfectly too!).

Meanwhile, I don't think we're meant to like Ginoza. I think he's meant to come across as something of an uncaring control freak. And guess who's the primary defender of the Sibyl System in our main cast?

Then there's Akane. Akane might not be questioning the Sibyl System yet, but she sure as heck is questioning a lot of the outcomes of it. A few more episodes like the last three, and Akane may well start questioning and doubting the system itself.


Again, I think Gen is tipping his hat in a big way here. He's restraining the crime-fighting scenarios just enough to keep them somewhat plausible and realistic, but there's no question in my mind that we're meant to be disturbed by what we're seeing. I mean, "rape victim" and "bully victim" are two of the oldest and most powerful "shock and disturb the audience" tricks in the book. And Gen has already used them both in only three episodes!

At a meta-level, the direction this anime is taking towards the Sibyl System couldn't be more clear.


Now, I don't necessarily think we're supposed to see it as entirely bad. But the narrative is clearly aiming towards the system being, at least, in severe need of serious reform.