Dhruv Sharma
Quite a lot of anime shows these days are predominantly driven by shallow storylines that are better suited for an audience with a very short attention span. And thus, being confined to a 20-minute runtime works quite well for many. But ‘Psycho Pass Season 3‘ defies this norm, and surprisingly, its 45-minute runtime brings in a sense of satisfaction for you as a viewer because of the quality that it consistently offers with its content.
There’s a lot going on in Season 3 and the mere depth of its characters and incredibly complex multi-layered storyline are enough to keep you glued to it; regardless of how short your “attention span” is. With that said, Episode 4, as always, does not cease to impress with its links with the previous episodes, and along with that, it also adds a tinge of some amusing action scenes.
Psycho Pass Season 3 Episode 4 Recap:
The previous episode ended with a post-credit scene where Yayoi was introduced as a temporary replacement for Kei. Yayoi proves that despite being an ex-enforcer, she still has it in her and explains to the Agents how Lee’s killers were put in a state of suspended animation before being smuggled out of Myogadani. Being in a suspended state, their hues remained undetected and since the one smuggling them did not know what their cargo possessed, even they remained well under the psycho pass limits. After getting insights from Irie, Arata goes to the Akihabara Abandoned Zone where Kojo had secretly rented an office.
Upon arriving in this office, Kei finds an AI robot that tells him all about Kojo and his secret inventions. The robot tells them how Kojo had developed an AI version of Karina, named Ma-Karina, which was specifically designed to use receptive speech patterns to manipulate people. From this, it becomes clear to Arata that one of Karina’s supporters had plotted to kill Kojo before he could reveal her little secret. Before the Agents even realize the weight of the things around them, Karina gets publicly attacked by Haruki’s men, who publicly expose her and then abduct her.
The Agents of Unit One arrive at her rescue and a fierce battle ensues between them and Haruki’s bodyguards. After they’re done rescuing Karina, Haruki realizes that he was nothing but a pawn being used by the BiFrost for their own benefit, and after Karina ends up becoming the Governer, it becomes clear that they had been plotting this all along. Mika decides to end Kei’s suspension and he finally returns as an Enforcer in Unit 1.
In the final moments of the episode, Karina arranges a secretive meeting with Arata where she explains it to him how Kojo always percieved Ma-Karina as his surrogate daughter who had passed away in the Helmet Riots. Later, Arata drives himself into another mental trace and ends up getting unconscious. Meanwhile, Sibyl and Mika seem to be plotting a bigger plan where Arata and Kei will be, in Mika’s words, “Flushing out the foxes.”
Psycho Pass Season 3 Episode 4 Review:
As a whole, if you look at the entire ‘Psycho Pass’ series, including all the movies, it seems like almost all the installments are self-contained because of their distinctive storylines and protagonists. But in the grand scheme of things, everything draws a deeper picture of the Sibyl System, which in turn, makes the entire world-building of the show a lot more intricate. It also surprises me how Season 3 just casually draws connections with its previous seasons.
An example of this in episode 4 is where, during the brief banter between Karina and Arata, Karina makes a reference to the Helmet Riots and explains how Kojo had ended up losing his daughter during those. The whole “cause and effect” approach of this season does indeed remind you of the brilliance of Season 1.
Speaking of which, even the narrative structure of this season is starting to look a lot like that of Season 1. While Unit 1 is seemingly working on several independent cases, all of them somehow come in tandem with each other, and along with that, there’s also a bigger conspiracy that adds another layer to its storyline. This conspiracy is only subtly unraveling itself without disrupting the present events of the anime. With each episode, the intentions of the BiFrost become clearer and you can’t help but deduce your own theory around it. Undoubtedly, the season’s climax will have a lot to do with BiFrost’s master plan which will also help us draw insights on all the individual cases.
This episode also had a slight shift in tone compared to its predecessors as it was more action-centric. While the action scenes were, as always, visually spectacular with the perfect choreography and camera angles, the acts of certain characters seemed rather mindless. In the previous seasons, a third mode of the Dominators was introduced where they could also be used for attacking non-organic entities. For some reason, none of the Unit 1 Agents thought of using it against Haruki’s robotic bodyguard.
Also, it’s funny how the robot initially establishes its goal of killing Karina but then easily gets distracted from it and starts fighting Irie. But these are just minor plot holes and the Season may or may not address these later; it anyway does not matter. Overall, ‘Psycho-Pass’ Season 3 has me hooked, and at this point, there’s clearly no turning back from this season.
Read More: Psycho Pass Season 3 Episode 3 Review
