Psycho-Go Windfall
2019’s
In stark contrast to what we had previously come to expect from the anime, Psycho-Pass 3 offered a status quo. The majority of the primary cast were missing after joining Frederica at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and even more shockingly, Akane, the protagonist of the entire Psycho-Pass plot, was not only missing from the group but also in prison. The series, however, chose to focus on the Bifrost conspiracy and the efforts of new inspectors Arata and Kei to crack the cases involving the deaths of their father and brother, respectively, rather than on how all of this came to be. The mystery surrounding Akane’s detention and the breakdown of her team persisted even until the end of Psycho-Pass 3: First Inspector, which takes us to this movie.
Psycho-Pass Providence fills in the gaps that connect the two stories, taking place two months after Sinners of the System ends and almost three years before Psycho-Pass 3. Every loose story thread has been secured. Not only do we find out what transpired to lead to the CID shakeup, but we also witness Arata’s father and Kei’s brother passing away in person.
Atsushi, Arata’s father, is the subject of a large portion of the movie. We discover in Psycho-Pass 3 that he is not at all the upright police officer he represented himself to be—not just because he is a Bifrost inspector, but also because he is somehow connected to several of the crimes featured in that series. He frequently employs his mentalist abilities in Psycho-Pass Providence in ways that would astound his kid. He is an expert manipulator who will do anything to get his objectives. Is he ultimately pursuing noble or self-serving goals?
The main emphasis of the movie is, of course, Akane and what caused her to serve several years in prison without ever facing formal criminal charges. She is one of the few people who is aware of the Sibyl System’s true nature and the sinister mysteries underlying its development. However, she has opted to work inside the system and promote reform rather than openly revolting. After all, she has determined that it would be reckless to eliminate Sibyl without having a successor to protect the lives and happiness of common people in light of the status of the rest of the world.
But it doesn’t mean she approves of the way things are right now. Akane has had to take a stand against the darker schemes of the Sibyl System throughout the seasons. She has either referred to the principles that guided its formation each time, or she has placed it in circumstances that push it to see its flaws and fix them.
She finally snaps due to Psycho-Pass Providence, which, surprisingly, is not all the Sibyl System’s responsibility. The general public has grown more confident in the system over time. The Sibyl System now performs duties including matching people with the most compatible jobs based on their personalities and fostering love relationships instead of only evaluating dangers to public safety. It has gotten to the point that some in positions of authority are thinking of doing away with the conventional legal system, essentially handing moral judgment over to it.
Akane is aware that the Sibyl System is far from ideal. The threat posed by the Peacebreakers is merely the most recent illustration of the many blind spots that still need to be filled. To the vast majority of people, their society is already a utopia. And unlike Akane, they are unaware of how frequently these security flaws have led to innocent people dying since the system has always promptly covered them up, preventing them from ever really affecting the population at large. What Akane needs to do is demonstrate to the Japanese people that the system is flawed in a way that cannot be ignored and that, should the need arise, there must be both a safety net to catch those who take advantage of loopholes in the system and a procedure for judging the Sibyl System as a whole. And you can tell that played out exactly as planned given that she is still mentioned in news reports years later—even though she had to give up her reputation and personal independence to do it.
Psycho-Pass Providence meets the series’ previous installments’ generally high standards in terms of visual quality. The cyberpunk setting is expertly portrayed, and the combat are fluid and expertly choreographed. This time, the artwork is highlighted, and we also get a close-up look at a location that was frequently discussed but never seen in Psycho-Pass 3: the Dejima foreigner exclusion zone, where Kei and Arata spent a large portion of their formative years. While the music didn’t particularly stand out, it did its normal job of supporting the necessary emotional beats and enhancing the cyberpunk theme of the episode. The movie also has a brand-new Ling Tosite Sigure and Egoist song at the conclusion and beginning, which, while expected by this stage, is nonetheless a nice touch.
Overall, Psycho-Pass Providence is a movie that only aims to wrap up the loose ends of Psycho-Pass 3’s plot. And in doing so, it even alters how you later see Psycho-Pass 3. The character interactions and action set pieces more than make up for the mystery’s lack of depth and complexity, despite it being far from comparable to those in earlier franchise versions. However, the most significant aspect of this movie is that it completes Akane’s storyline, which started in the first Psycho-Pass. Even though the finale is, at best, bittersweet, there is still some hope. After all, even if Akane is imprisoned, some people still genuinely care about her and will follow her example.
