Psycho Pass Re-Edit Episode 11 [ Those Who Find Eternal Life] Final Impression

“Aging is quite similar to death. Some people stand up to death and aging as if it were nothing. They can do so not because they’re braver than others, but because they simply lack imagination. Only once people deny that which they love, do they become able to create it anew. Perhaps, the book I write, too, will die one day. Just like my body will. However, people have to accept that death is unavoidable. They will probably be gone in ten years. Their books will no longer exist in a hundred years as well. People accept this. Eternality is promised neither to books nor to humans. We live because we were born. If the system possesses the power of life and death over you…you’re no longer a human. You’re livestock. No matter how hard a rancher tries to pretend otherwise, they never recognize their livestock as their friends. It’s a mystery to me. . .how is it that these people, treated as livestock in this boring society, have not tried at all to destroy it? Nothing in this world is eternal. The only thing that truly exists is the splendor of the souls that atone for their sins.”

When this final monologue is given by Shogo Makishima, he sees a phantom of Kogami reading opposite to him. Passing by him as he reads are the phantoms of his old playthings, his old students.

“Unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world. . . will keep it for eternal life.”

Makishima Shogo’s life is in the balance of this episode. Either way he will die, or become a foil of the SyBil system. It’s important now to analyze who he was. Taking into account the monologue from above, it’s easy to see that perhaps Shogo Makishima has trouble viewing the people under the system as humans at all. They don’t feel, they don’t fight, they don’t have true goals or mindsets. They do as the system bids and make no decisions otherwise. In essence, all the people who killed for no reason other than senseless murder? It makes sense why he killed them. They aren’t interest in change, relating to people, atoning- they blindly kill to enjoy themselves.

Makishima isn’t blindly killing to enjoy himself. He never has in the series, and usually only caused deaths or provoked them in order to judge people as they truly are. He is even willing to love society in it’s darkest form if it will simply be a society: if this results in chaos he will be happy to see people as they truly are. . . in essence, the same acceptance that was denied him by this society.

The MWPSB has come to capture Kogami. Akane is now the figure for the SyBil system, but it is clear she is manipulating it in her own way to obtain the things that she wants. All she wants is for Kogami to make it through all of this and not allow him to become a murderer. This is what she focuses on to ignore the disturbing truth of the Sybil system. Yet she can’t prevent Kogami from getting a chance – to prevent the poisoning of Japan’s food supply she must turn off the power and give Kogami a chance to face Makishima.

Akane uses her full wit in this final showdown to find Makishima, but the major flaw is when they split up. Akane realizes this when she finds no one is at the location she picks to go, and if Kogami isn’t there then that’s likely not where Makishima will end up. Ginoza and Masaoka end up paying for this as the two of them discuss whether Masaoka truly believes in Ginoza. As they end up discussing this. . . Ginoza sets off an explosion and is trapped. Makishima corners Masaoka at this moment and in a sheer show of badass, Masaoka is capable of taking down Makishima. If it weren’t for the dirty trick he uses, Masaoka is the only man in the series who could kill Makishima without help or struggle. He wasn’t even trying to kill the guy! What a badass!

Unfortunately Makishima pulls out an explosive. . .and makes it clear he’s going to throw it at the trapped Ginoza. Masaoka struggles but let’s Makishima go, he cannot simply allow his son to die to catch this man. He tries to throw the explosive but manages to become fatally injured either way. Ginoza, in one of the more painful scenes of the show, destroys his hand escaping the rubble to get to his father. His father cups his face and says he really did have eyes like him, and dies. This is the worst because Masaoka was the ‘relic’ of the past and probably the most well intentioned latent criminal in the show. All he wanted to do was go on as a detective like he had before, and instead his son and wife suffered and so did he.

Kogami sees this scene and chases after Makishima, with Akane following suit soon after. Makishima and Kogami get into a fight and it is just as amazing as before, with Makishima managing to almost cripple and maim Kogami before Kogami gets a cut in. Makishima allows Kogami to charge him in a final duel. . .before Akane throws a stun grenade at them, which Makishima simply kicks up into the air to avoid that. The next piece of the episode is a heartbreaking final partnership between Akane and Kogami. .  .Kogami doesn’t hate her. He admires her view of the world and hopes for a day where everyone believes as she does.

The show comes full circle when Akane is the only reason Makishima does not escape. He takes a truck and manages to get away from Kogami. . .who watches as she clings to the back of the semi with his gun! Makishima sees her clinging there and . . . smiles. I believe this was a moment where Makishima actually managed to respect Akane, his polar opposite, as she shoots out the tires on the truck and sends them barreling. He takes her gun and steps on her head, meaning to kill her, as the first barrel has no bullet. Rather than keep trying he simply gives a passing statement and throws down the gun.

Kogami takes his gun back, and chases after the wounded Makishima. Makishima thinks about how everyone is alone, everyone can be replaced. You can see his desires were to simply force people to feel and be affected by things. Even if people hated him, it was better than the senseless replacement that life had become now. Every talent, every relationship, every person could be replaced.  He takes in the beauty of the mountains, the winds, as his blood spills out with every step and he can feel adrenaline pour through him and sweat drip around him.

Kogami reaches him and he asks him simply, “Will you find a replacement for me after this, too, Kogami?” Kogami says he hopes not in a sarcastic manner. But for Makishima this is what he wanted. This is the tragedy of this villain. He so badly wanted to be irreplaceable he became a monster. There was a love for people and life in him that became dark and twisted because he couldn’t be loved. So instead he would be hated. He smiles. . . and Kogami shoots him. He deserved to die. But that he had to become what he is? That’s the worst part.

Akane’s reaction to this is tears. All of her hard work is gone. She could have saved him, stopped him from becoming a criminal, but now Kogami is a wanted man and she can’t do anything about it. He killed a man. When reporting back to SyBil they admit their disappointment, but in a condescending manner they admit that they simply want to learn how to change the minds of people like her and need her for their advancement into the future where people love and accept SyBil as they are. She challenges them and says someday, someone will come to turn off the power to this room.

They laugh at her. . .and tell her to keep fighting.

Well that is Psycho Pass the Re-edit  , . .and it was a ride worth taking. I own Psycho Pass but I would honestly pay money right now to own this re-edit. The additions of perspective for the three main characters was simply so astounding and touching. I can’t get over each and every monologue Makishima had that enlightened me to him as not just a wildly charismatic man but to all of his flaws and the problems with his beliefs. He is the best kind of villain- one who deserves his fate but still elicits emotions from the viewer. I know Vantage did not care for Makishima like I did, but he was my favorite character. Even so, the show made him come off the way he should have been. Thanks to this I’m okay with his end and found in truth it was the better of the options- Akane’s fate would have been a hell for him. Kogami’s was both his just desserts and his freedom.

I hope to hell they dub this. I have a newfound respect for the sub because it was very beautiful in the last few episodes, but the dub of this show makes it better than anything. It’s so amazing to hear Alex Organ as Makishima and Kogami’s actor is SPOT ON as well. It made their arguments and contrasts even more distinct. Josh Grelle has such an amazing range as Ginoza it just supports the whole role. I hope the entire cast returns for a re dubbing of this, or simply to add on the additional lines.

The theme of this show is so astounding and amazing. The contrast between the three will probably continue with a new third next episode, that being the new recruit that shows up at the end of this episode. Now Ginoza has become an Enforcer and will have two new people to work with, but Akane’s new Inspector associate might provide a very interesting difference. After all, she will probably find it to be her duty to stop the rogue Enforcer Shinya Kogami, who we see on a boat at the end of the episode, whereas Akane . . .will she ever truly be able to point an Eliminator at him?

Shogo Makishima is dead. . . but Sybil lives on.

Until Season 2. [ October 9th, on Angry Anime Bitches ]

 

Oki