Psycho-Pass - The Movie

It's the year 2116 and Japan is more or less the only stable country in the world thanks to the introduction of the Sybil System, a bio-computer surveillance system built to pacify the country and replace the police. The system is now subtly taking over various less notable roles of the government one at a time as well due to its unmatched rationality and effectiveness. For the first time since its introduction, the Japanese government has agreed to export the Sibyl System to another country. SEAUn or the South East Asia Union is a neighboring territory torn by a long-running civil war. The strongest of the armed factions has managed to set up a military government but now needs help with restoring order and defeating the rebels and the Sybil System should be able to help with both. This experiment will show how well the Sybil System can be implemented outside of pacifist Japan. Meanwhile, a small team of armed rebels from the SEAU manages to enter Japan in secret, but is then intercepted by Inspector Tsunemori, the protagonist of the TV series the movie's based on, and her team. One of the rebels is caught and forcibly brain-scanned. His fragmented memory reveals that Shinya Kogami, Tsunemori's former enforcer who went rogue and disappeared three years ago is now one of the rebel leaders. Tsunemori asks to be sent alone to Shambala Float, the current capital of the SEAU, where, as an experiment, the military government has already introduced the Sybil System, to find and apprehend Kogami. Her boss agrees. The official reason for her visit to Shambala Float will be the inspection of the implementation of the Sybil System. Tsunemori is about to leave Japan for the first time and visit a place where violence is an everyday occurrence. As she begins her investigation, a mercenary group is sent to take Kogami out of the picture and if Tsunemori comes in their way, that's an acceptable collateral damage.

The movie overall is something that could easily have been adapted into one half of the next Psycho-Pass season and if that were the case, it'd probably have had more time to develop the setting and the problems that this new situation of Sybil expanding abroad has created. Still, everything that Psycho-Pass fans want is still here, if to a lesser degree, and we finally get to see what happened to Kogami after season 1. The idea for the plot is excellent and it's the next logical step after the events of the first two seasons. However, the plot is also more or less rather predictable even for someone who's never seen the show before. The visuals are great as usual (it's more or less the same quality of animation drawn for the show) and the movie features a few neat visual moments just like the show frequently does, although again, there's a certain fine lack of ambition here as well, which you notice during those neat moments when the visuals kick it up a notch. There's a surprising amount of Japanese-spoken English in the movie (Japanese actors talk in heavily accented English), since the two countries in the movie use English to communicate with one another when their automatic translator isn't on (yes, there's an automatic translator almost as efficient as the one in Star Trek). There are also tidbits of philosophical debate sprinkled here and there in the dialogue.

Overall, while season one of the show is still the best part of the series and season 2 more or less successfully adds new shades of gray to the world through new issues, conflicts and characters, this movie is a decent "sidequel" addition to the franchise nonetheless, and if you view it as a single extended episode of the show that's primarily focused on a single new world-building issue, instead of some epic event for the show, you won't have too much problems with it (other than that gnawing sense of lackluster ambition).