Psycho-Pass - Episode 20 Discussion / Poll

[Kairin]

Welcome to the discussion thread for Psycho-Pass, Episode 20.

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[MisaoFan]

Spoiler for Episode 20:

As Shogo is now talking to the researcher named Kudama about the hyper oats thing before killing him, the Dominator reveals to Akane about the truth behind the Sybil System, as well reporting Kagari's dissapearance and Yuki's death. Then, Akane remembers those persons she hold in her precious heart while arguing against Shougo. When she's venturing into investing Kudama's death, Ginoza just begins thinking that she's now acting like Shinya even though the latter is talking about how he observes the crime through his voice data. In the end, Shougo is sneaking in the agriculture while waiting Shinya to come the day. I'm so pleased to see the dark side of Akane and how she unravels the Sybil System's dark secret with her talking Dominator. I'm also glad to see her actually investigating the crime instead of acting like a weak detective, not to say she's a bad Inspector. I really can't wait to see the showdown happening between Akane, Shinya and Shougo in the final two episodes, and no matter how good or bad it will turn out, I'm curious to see how the ending will be handled.

[ookamigirl]

Spoiler for plot:

Akane finally got to see the truth for herself.
Wonder if Makishima is doing a good thing or bad.
If we exclude the serial murderer thing, he's trying to show people the truth.
But still, he's too extreme in his actions.
I was surprised Akane managed to strike a deal with the Sybil system for Kogami.

[Kanon]

The story progressing nicely. We are slowly heading toward the climax.

Akane's introspective sequence indicates she isn't buying Sybil's bullshit. She even said she actually understands Makishima a little. She's only pretending to go along with it now, waiting for the right time to strike. Sybil was wrong to believe she places order above everything else. She values justice and morals more. And Sybil is neither of those things. She can't let a bunch of criminals rule society.

At least I freaking hope so. I would be extremely disappointed in Akane's character if she sided with Sybil. Not to mention this would be the perfect recipe for a major bad end, which I wouldn't put past Urobuchi of course.

Either way, her mind is made and there's no changing it. She's gone full badass and has taken charge of the investigation. She's putting what Kogami taught to good use. She's finally became a competent detective. So competent she reminded Gino of Kogami.

[Allium]

A pretty good prelude to the climax. So Akane's sided with the system, despite not agreeing with it at all; she took the wise choice of going with the flow for the moment. And she becomes real badass for the next half of the episode, to the point that Gino starts seeing her as Kougami.

Mostly an Akane-centric episode, but it was still interesting in all, just like any other P-P episode - especially the bits where she 'converses' with her friends, Kagari and Makishima. It'll be a bit of a shame if the show ends with

Spoiler for Possible spoiler:

Akane becoming one of Sibyl's brains, because that's just a bit too predictable, I guess?

[viperdk1]

Originally Posted by Allium

A pretty good prelude to the climax. So Akane's sided with the system, despite not agreeing with it at all; she took the wise choice of going with the flow for the moment. And she becomes real badass for the next half of the episode, to the point that Gino starts seeing her as Kougami.

Mostly an Akane-centric episode, but it was still interesting in all, just like any other P-P episode - especially the bits where she 'converses' with her friends, Kagari and Makishima. It'll be a bit of a shame if the show ends with

Spoiler for Possible spoiler:

Akane becoming one of Sibyl's brains, because that's just a bit too predictable, I guess?

Can't see your 'spoiler' happening, Allium - it wouldn't make any sense in the context of the 'conversations' she had with her friends, Kagari and Makishima. Her experiences in life (i.e. the system considering her to have talents for all aspects of life in this world) led her to make choices akin to a normal human life (reality) rather than being shepherded into a role by Sibyl - which, if you note, she seemed to prefer (rewatch the 'chat' with Kagari). She even asks Yuki in the final conversation as to whether she (Yuki) liked letting Sibyl run her life, or make those choices herself.

Becoming a part of a system that she absolutely detests (considering the essential implication that the lunatics are running the asylum) would go against everything she considered, as I doubt she would want to make life decisions for the people of this world. In all honesty, I feel she's only going along with the Sibyl system at the moment because there is no discrete way of getting rid of it - to bring in a system where people have the freedom to make their own way in life.

Moving away from that, I only have one further thing to say about this episode.

Wow.

I'm willing to believe this is going to be my favourite anime of all time.

[Kazu-kun]

Originally Posted by Kanon

At least I freaking hope so.

Well, maybe Akane's just like Sybil describes her: weak. Too weak to even imagine a world without Sybil, even though she knows it's pretty much the representation of all evil.

If Sybil is right, and there's a good chance it is, this made Akane the perfect collaborator, since despite her disagreement, she'll never betray the system.



Sybil lied to her though. When Touma revealed himself to Shougo you could tell the "system" has a megalomaniac desire to rule the world, while it showed itself as dispassionate and basically devoid of ego to Akane. Then again, even if Akane knew, I don't know if that would change her decision. Maybe she's just that weak.

[Entravity]

The Sibyl System did show her the truth and, Akane's reaction is just like what I thought.

That Makishima smile. Things are looking good, the climax is upon us now.

[merakses]

When Touma spoke with Shogo, he wasn't connected to the other brains in Sybil, so I don't think we should assume that he was representative of the whole. We don't even know how many members of Sybil were forced to join (as they plan to do with Makishima), and sticking a universal "rule the world" desire on all of them would be generalizing from a very incomplete set of data.

Anyway, I think that this episode had a very serious plot hole: Why did the professor retain his security clearance to the lab after he had been retired for very long time? They try to explain it with him being in charge of the project back in the time, but even so, it makes no sense. Clearances are revoked unless needed by the individual in order to perform his/her duties. Especially concerning a facility of national importance (it is the control centre for the 'good virus' that keeps the hyper-oats disease-free, so if it is tampered with...) - why weren't it's scanners updated with modern technology? And more importantly, why didn't they revoke the clearance from all personnel after their jobs were done? They could reissue them later if they were needed again, so it seems really odd to me.

[HandofFate]

wow. Awakened Akane is hardcore as hell.
The middle felt like an Eva style reflection lol.

[Mad Pierrot]

Inserting obligatory image in demand to the ending.

It killed me when Makishima made that incredibly happy face before the end.

I wonder how is the story going to be end in two episodes considering Makishima is alone. Who will Urobuchi kill.

[Ultramarinus]

Probably the worst protected dystopia ever conceived for a work of fiction.

Why would somebody retired ages ago have full clearance on such a critical facility that is the lifeline of Japan?

Why would such a facility be devoid of scanners?

Why do the security droids amount to scarecrows?

Why do the cameras not have facial recognition at the very least since scanners are absent?

Why is NOBODY working in the ENTIRE food stock of the country?

Why do Sybil think it is a good idea to reveal themselves just to maintain hold of an understaffed one division?

Why does Akane believe their word when they could just kill her and Kougami for the lulz when they get Makishima?

This is going to turn out being the anime with best first and worst second season at this rate..

[Mad Pierrot]

CAUSE I FEEEEEELLL!!!

[Eater of All]

Originally Posted by Ultramarinus

Why would somebody retired ages ago have full clearance on such a critical facility that is the lifeline of Japan?

Anyone who has even the mindset capable of planning to sabotage the facility will be deemed a threat by cymatic scanners early in their life. Only criminally asymptotic people like Makishima can pull off something like this, and even then, most criminally asymptotic people don't make it their life's goal to overthrow the system anyway.

It's no doubt more secure if all the clearance were revoked, but it really isn't that big of a deal in practice.

Originally Posted by Ultramarinus

Why would such a facility be devoid of scanners?

What good would that do? Scans are useless against Makishima in the first place.

Originally Posted by Ultramarinus

Why do the security droids amount to scarecrows?

What else do you want them to do? Makishima has all the right identifications.

Originally Posted by Ultramarinus

Why do the cameras not have facial recognition at the very least since scanners are absent?

When you get to the level of biometric identification, there isn't much of a difference in terms of security between retinal scanning and facial recognition. Worst case, Makishima brings the entire head along.

Originally Posted by Ultramarinus

Why is NOBODY working in the ENTIRE food stock of the country?

Why would ANYBODY need to work there? Everything is completely automated, and it has been running perfectly dandy for the last decade or two. You must need a pretty strange aptitude for standing-around-staring-at-wheat-fields to be the perfect job for you.

Originally Posted by Ultramarinus

Why do Sybil think it is a good idea to reveal themselves just to maintain hold of an understaffed one division?

One argument might be that they find Akane to be a very valuable pawn for locating Makishima, as well as for holding back Kogami. They judged the risk of revealing the secret to Akane to be "infinitely small". Of course, this is debatable.

Originally Posted by Ultramarinus

Why does Akane believe their word when they could just kill her and Kougami for the lulz when they get Makishima?

It's not like there's anything else Akane can do at the moment. Until she actually hands over Makishima though, she has the upper hand (or else Sybil would've never contacted her in the first place).

[Izayoi]

Originally Posted by Ultramarinus

Probably the worst protected dystopia ever conceived for a work of fiction.

They have thought-police that could literally read your mind 24/7. Why bother with security system when crimes are prevented before they occur? If it wasn't for Sybil System's narcissistic obsession with people like themselves then it is probably the most protected system ever conceived simply because of the theme "danger of technology" that is ever so prevalent in these type of dystopia genre.

Originally Posted by Kazu-kun

Sybil lied to her though. When Touma revealed himself to Shougo you could tell the "system" has a megalomaniac desire to rule the world, while it showed itself as dispassionate and basically devoid of ego to Akane. Then again, even if Akane knew, I don't know if that would change her decision. Maybe she's just that weak.

She never said she sided with the Sybil System. What did you expected her to do? Yell no and start smacking the brains with her gun handle? Take out a camera and start taking pictures? It is obviously the best decision to play smart and evaluate what card your opponent is holding in his/her hands before making rash decision. Right now she still can make trades and take advantage of the Sybil system's obsession to get what she wanted. Currently I still don't see her taking a side yet.

[Reckoner]

This episode pretty much proved everything I argued about the Sibyl as a collective. I bet people will still deny it though .

Society under Sibyl is peaceful, but society under Sibyl doesn't allow the splendor of the human soul to shine. That seems to be Gen's argument against Sibyl. He is a proponent of chaos. Life just isn't as fun when a system decides everything for you. Gen likes free will, or at least the illusion of it .

----

Oh and amazing episode. Akane was quite badass again in it.

[Ultramarinus]

They are well aware for many years that asymptomatic people exist, constantly assuming that such criminals will just kill a couple people here and there and do NOTHING ELSE is flat out retarded. Who is to say that a serial killer will not decide to rack up their kill count by attacking a facility which is the nutrition backbone of the country? Heck, even normal people can still run around and kill stuff, it takes time for law enforcement to reach them.

But again and again, security measures are somehow devoid where Makishima decides to operate. It happens too frequently and too conveniently.

It does not matter if scans would be helpless or not, why is such a facility less protected than a simple mall? It makes no sense at all.

Identification that could be stolen anyway, a card amounts to nothing if it does not match the carrying person. I honestly cannot believe that the writer expects us to believe security technology in 2100 is behind 1950. Oh and of course, there is no human around to see he is just showing cut fingers and eyeballs to enter deepest reaches of the facility. I guess they never could expect such barbarism!

Then do the worst case! Makishima practically walks into anywhere he wants during the course of entire series, does not matter if it is the ministry, whole food stocks of the country or whatever. I will not be surprised if he walks into the bureau and kill all divisions singlehandedly next to be honest. He has become a Mary Sue of a villain really.

Why would not anybody work there to oversee the operation? What do those people do for a living anyway? Everybody should be unemployed if such a critical facility is deemed unworthy for a couple of people to look over.

Infinitely small, heh. Yeah well, they were aware that Kougami was the only person who could locate Makishima and they still tried to kill him. Makes no sense whatsoever when they could have just sent some droids or whatever to follow him around and just zap him down when he found him, then just arrest Makishima. Instead they reveal themselves to some gal whose only competence is following the explicit instructions that Kougami left behind..

Oh well, 250 brains and they all do not amount to one intelligent person!

Akane could just go public: Whole system collapses, Makishima and other criminals in the system are dealt with, safety of Kougami and her is ensured, justice prevails and so on.

I guess it will go worse towards the finale from now on... Sigh...

[CJ_Walker]

Originally Posted by Ultramarinus

*WOOSH*

That is all.

[Ultramarinus]

Thanks for your meaningful participation in the discussion, you could explain what was going on inside your mind rather well.

[Izayoi]

Originally Posted by Ultramarinus

Akane could just go public: Whole system collapses, Makishima and other criminals in the system are dealt with, safety of Kougami and her is ensured, justice prevails and so on.

Well the episode spent 5-10 minute talking about why the system believes she wouldn't. Not sure what else you missed.