Psycho-Pass Episode 9: Paradise Fruit

“It’s said that humans are created in the image of God. Isn’t it time for us humans to be a little more like God?”

Summary

The investigation is underway, with the MWPSB investing resources towards discovering more of Makishima’s identity and trying to pick up on any trails he’s left behind. Shinya decides to take Akane to a man called Saiga Jouji, who is a psychological expert and gives Akane a crash course in profiling, but is unable to come up with a former student of his that meets the criteria Shinya sets. Meanwhile, Makishima decides to leave Shinya to his cyborg friend, who seems to be very excited in encountering him…

Impression

A bit of a transition episode today, in which the next arc is slowly set up, characters are introduced, and intellectual questions are raised! One of them was the idea of whole body cyberization, which is another futuristic concept that 21st-century scientists will perhaps take steps closer to in these coming years. It’s clear that even in their society, opinions on it are divided, and not everyone is happy with the possibility of becoming nearly a full robot. Despite being a robot, I wouldn’t say that was necessarily better than being human – I don’t believe flesh and bone are limiting to humans at all, and artificially tampering with what our current capabilities are (instead of letting evolution take its slow course) can never result in anything beneficial in the long run. By removing flesh and bone, it’s not just that the human limiter is removed, it’s that the concept of humanity is removed entirely. Perhaps it might be a viable option for those who are suffering from fatal diseases or those who have experienced loss of limbs (Masaoka has a cyborg arm for example) and in that case it’s a great medical advancement – but I don’t agree that it should be used for a reason such as overcoming ageing, and living beyond the current brain lifespan of 150 years.

However, it’s the target of a certain man whose name escapes me – the guy whose entire body is robotic, apart from his brain and nervous system. That’s probably why he looks so creepy…anyway, I’ll remember his name eventually, as he turns out to have been the hunter who shot Rikako last episode, and someone who seems to be on equal standing to Makishima rather than having the latter order him around. Bringing about the era of immortality seems to be his desire, and to do so (or at least improve himself) he’ll make others suffer – though perhaps making smoking pipes out of Rikako’s bones is going a touch too far. Makishima seems to have “assigned” him to mess around with Shinya for a bit, which confirms that the whole cyberization issue and the guy appearing on TV to the MWPSB was not a mere coincidence that should be forgotten about. Some of the points he made during that interview were true, such as the over-reliance of today’s humanity on technology, but to advocate cyborgs to such an extent…

Another interesting character was also found in Saiga, a clinical psychologist that has expert analysis skills of someone’s body language to the point that it’s almost like he can read your memories o.O What wouldn’t I give to have that kind of ability xD Through just Shinya’s words of describing Makishima as having a unique charisma and being an intellectual criminal allowed Saiga to find out so much about him – that he’s an eloquent speaker, he has the charisma of a hero and makes people attraction in the first place seems to describe him perfectly, as does Shinya’s assumption that he conducts many crimes from afar. I can almost imagine that someone who has all aspects of charisma is also a recipient of Saiga’s lectures when they were still listened to in the past, but somehow that sounds as if it’d be a bit too easy. We don’t even know whether Makishima has a decent Crime Coefficient or has found some way to bypass checks or a rise in his stats – which may be crucial to his eventual hunting down by the MWPSB.

The line separating Enforcers and Inspectors was blurred once again, and we have Akane taking the side of Shinya and reprimanding Gino’s treatment and view towards Enforcers in what I believe is the first time I’ve seen her seriously angry – it’s good to see that there’s something Akane has a passionate view on. Aside from that, Masaoka’s deep knowledge on the system in the past that’s affected Gino as well as the past discrimination surrounding latent criminals and their families makes me really consider the possibility that Masaoka is actually Gino’s father, who might have run away as to not have others prejudge his family.