Psycho-Pass has been a real treat this season that breaks from a lot of current trends dominating the scene. As always it presents its own unique world that is both engaging and fascinating, something that I have come to appreciate with time. I remember the first season I personally struggled to suspend disbelief, as the world presented didn’t quite lock in my engagement. This season we break away from from the lead we have been following for the past two seasons, Tsunemori Akane, and launch into a new adventure follow two new characters Shindo Arata and Kei Mikhail Ignatov. Their own adventures have been entertaining to follow and have their own level of mystery waiting to be uncovered. So far there has several shout outs to the past in a world that is far more scientifically advanced than we currently live in, including both old school crime lords and the Subprime Mortgage Crisis, making the world built in Psycho-Pass more relatable and tangible in the process.

For a world that is as advanced as the Psycho-Pass world is I found it interesting that there are parts of that world in which the Sibyl System doesn’t have full and total control of everything, allowing for a small gang of criminals to exist in a universe that should have in theory zero crime. Lapses in full control by the Sibyl System allowed for a small gang to kill a perpetrator of a crime that Shindo and Ignatov were after. In a showdown with the crime boss Ignatov and his enforcers, we get to have a a clash between cops and gang members that is fairly satisfying to watch. The gang even possessed fire arms that are all but primitive in the face of the weapons carried by the inspectors, the dominators. Psycho-Pass does a phenomenal job of contrasting an advanced society in comparison to the world we currently live in making the universe built more believable.

In addition to bringing in crime elements common in today’s world, Psycho-Pass even brings up complex economic models that created the not too distant past of the Subprime Mortgage Crisis, also known as the Housing Crisis of 2008. While not expected the show does a great job breaking down how greed and speculation without regulation brought society to its knees. Millions lost their jobs and their homes as it sparked the great recession that had effects worldwide. When the value of homes suddenly collapsed and the bubble burst those involved were all left with the crippling debt that was invested into the fallible economic model. Granted Psycho-Pass does not tell you it is explaining the Subprime Mortgage Crisis, but for the keen eye recreating a crisis of the recent past made the show more interesting to watch and easier to relate with.

By drawing contrasts with the past Psycho-Pass does a good job of building a credible universe, making it the audience more willing to suspend disbelief for what is to come. A futuristic society needs to have futuristic problems as well to keep it interesting. My current engagement with the Sibyl System and the society created by it are at an all time high. I hope Psycho-Pass continues in its current direction, as I am at the edge of my seat craving more. By recreating the past Psycho-Pass makes itself relatable and tangible to the audience that lives in the current world and gives itself leverage into making even the future world it creates far more believable.