“For some reason, I can’t even imagine someone else besides me killing him.”
Summary
At the MWPSB, Gino’s Division 1 have been assigned the task of apprehending Kougami Shinya along with Makishima Shougo, being ordered to shoot the former on sight while capturing the latter alive. Meanwhile, Shinya travels to Saiga’s house in order to obtain advice on tracking down Makishima, and together they formulate a theory on Makishima’s next move, which turns out to be a country-wide collapse of the agricultural system.
Impression
A quieter episode of Psycho-Pass this week, but still significant nonetheless, thankfully with more consistent animation to boot! Division 1 don’t seem to be doing too well after having been asked by Kasei to handle both Makishima and Shinya’s cases, correctly guessing that Shinya won’t be too far off wherever Makishima’s hiding. At least they have a time frame from which to work with now – as Sibyl’s facial security system goes back on after 5 days, anything else Makishima’s got planned for society is probably going to be carried out sometime during those 5 days as a final “fireworks display” as Shinya calls it. Even though Gino and Akane are presented as fellow Inspectors, they display different emotional conditions in the wake of Shinya going missing. All this time, Gino’s Hue has been slowly degenerating, which is accompanied by an unstable Crime Coefficient even after his presumed counselling sessions. His doubts of the Sibyl System are rapidly approaching the point of no return, and in addition to that there’s all his stress over Shinya’s escape, and the hope that he’ll surrender before a Dominator is pointed at him. Gino doesn’t think this entire system is right too, but it’d make his entire rigid life so far working under the system completely pointless, and I doubt he’s willing to let go of that easily. In comparison, Akane’s gotten emotionally stronger, becoming a source of positive hope against Gino’s slow descent into latent criminal status, whose Hue still remains a pale turquoise despite everything that’s happened to her since she took up the job. Presuming that Gino’s in a dangerous position with his CC, it might be the case that a huge push to his emotional framework might be the last straw – the tragic death of Masaoka, perhaps?
Anyway, Shinya the vigilante ended up visiting Saiga, that secluded professor who can deduce many things about people just based on simple observations and deductions. I can actually imagine Makishima just turning up and having an intellectual conversation about their society and questioning them about their ideals – Makishima himself being a twisted sort of anarchist, who both denies the current system, wanting to build it up again yet is delighted by the chaos that unfolds while tearing it down. I’m glad that Shinya’s actually taking into account what Makishima told him over the phone about the Sibyl System’s true form, and that it’s not worth putting his life on the line for it – as well as the fact that the Ministry of Welfare made a proposal to Makishima that he’s clearly rejected. Of course, we know that Sibyl’s “true form” is a bunch of criminally asymptomatic brains, while the proposal made to him would have probably powered up Sibyl’s intellect by a great deal. I’m still not going to rule out the idea that Makishima will end up joining forces with Division 1 (or less likely, Shinya) in order to take down the Sibyl System – Makishima’s no saint, but he’s the lesser of the two evils when you consider the dystopian society Sibyl has complete control over. The OP shows him standing between Shinya’s handgun and Akane’s Dominator in what I presume is the final face-off – he’ll be involved in that somehow.
Ways to cause a complete collapse of Sibyl in 5 days, huh…it’s a damn good thing Sibyl’s eyes have escaped such an old anonymous forum, and I’m willing to bet that there are other threads in there that speculate on even more blasphemous ideas. Anyway, their system has somehow managed to make the entire farming system automated, with no agricultural workers left at all in that sector, all of them being relocated to presumably work in a factory or something. “Hyper-oats” are the main source of food now, with 99% of food being processed and made from this wheat. And as society would want to maximise their output, it’d make sense that you genetically modify crops to do so – but then they’re all identical. And if they’re all the same, then all it takes is a single flaw to wipe out 99% of Japan’s food source. Once Makishima causes the slightest bit of trouble – boom. There are food shortages, demand towers over supply, prices rise and so does the entire country’s Crime Coefficients. It’ll definitely cause a major issue…but to be honest, it doesn’t really seem grand enough for Makishima’s last bang. It’d cause a reasonable amount of damage to society, but the finale of a show with such an intricate setting being “causing a food shortage” seems rather anti-climactic to me, especially with the horrors Makishima has orchestrated before. We’ll see – it’s possible that this is all just a red herring for both us and Shinya to be led on by.
Finally, Akane’s been approached by an automated carrier, holding a solitary Dominator that can actually talk, claiming to tell her the truth about everything. To have control over a Dominator like that must mean that it’s the voice of Sibyl talking to Akane – or more specifically, one of the brains within Sibyl that’s going against the general consensus of whatever Kasei’s decided, offering to tell an MWPSB member the truth behind their whole system.
