PSYCHO-PASS - 03

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Following on from a character centric episode, this episode of Psycho-Pass takes care of its first case. And so the mystery/detective side of the story ensues.

Prior to the episode, I was wondering what kind of approach Psycho-Pass would adopt with its detective story. My experience with mystery series isn't extensive but from the first episode I was reminded of UN-GO's style of storytelling through each case. What the series accomplished was revealing the world setting through its cases - a very interesting take on a detective story - and whilst Psycho-Pass might have started that with its first episode, this episode didn't do the same. It remains to be seen if we'll get more of these one episode cases but if possible, I'd like to avoid seeing more of them, but for a third episode it works rather well.

Technically this episode continued to fill us in on the type of world where the story is taking place by having the case be set and resolved in a place that doesn't rely on technology. This was Shinya's episode for me; he was the centre of attention in an understated way and that in itself was enough to create a mystery for himself. As expected, Shinya is one of those characters in a mystery series who is burdened by something and masks it by being the animal he is......Sure it's not all that original but given the context, it's not a bad choice.

Funnily enough, without Shinya this episode doesn't do much for me. His involvement is what really made Akane and Ginoza's roles mesh in symbiotic manner, otherwise it would have been annoying to sit through a whiny idealist doing her own thing once more. On the other hand, I quite like Ginoza's character. Yes he's a drone working for the man and is a stickler for the rules but every detective story needs one of those! It's also interesting to see how little involvement he has had thus far, which I assume will continue throughout the series until defining moments.

A swift end to the episode was appreciated, giving Psycho-Pass' third episode a good end.