What They Say
Invitation from the Abyss – While Kogami recuperates from his injuries after the attack by Senguji, Akane decides to undergo a Memory Scoop, a procedure that will extract Makishima’s face from her memories, even though it requires her to relive watching her friend get killed.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
This week opens on a therapy session between Ginoza and his counselor. Since the Makishima incident, Ginoza’s Criminal Coefficient has gone up seven points, putting him at the cusp at 90. His therapist mentions that at 90, he would have to report it, and at 100 Ginoza would certainly be labeled a latent criminal himself.
It is in this dangerous state that Ginoza makes his report to his superior that the dominator did not work correctly on Makishima. Couldn’t Akane have been to blame, she asks? Even though Ginoza doesn’t care much for Akane (or is it that he cares far too much?) he can’t find any reason that the fault should lie with her. The as-yet-unnamed woman that Ginoza reports to asks Ginoza if he really intends to question Sybil’s judgement, when he lives in a society whose prosperity depends entirely upon that same judgement? Ginoza doesn’t back down, and stands by Tsunemori.
Because she has such a high opinion of Ginoza, her subordinate, she intends to let him in on a secret. The opens a classified file, showing the fate of one Touma Kouzaburou, the man suspected of being the specimen killer, until his disappearance. He was “voluntarily” taken in by the police without measuring his criminal coefficient. The reason for this is, because much like Makishima, Kouzaburou was “criminally asymptomatic” and was able to commit murder while the Sybil System judged him harmless. Section 2 of the police “disappeared” him and covered it up to prevent questioning of Sybil’s judgement.
Ginoza is charged with two tasks: Bring in Makishima quietly without doing a Dominator scan of him beforehand, and re-write Tsunemori’s report to somehow get Sybil off the hook. Ideally, it would be best if Akane will sign on to the new report, but it’s clear this isn’t completely necessary.
It’s unfortunate, then, that as Ginoza must find a prime bit of real estate in Akane’s back to bury a knife in, that she would behave so heroically. Those expecting her to mope or flee will be disappointed, as Akane’s mental resilience comes through for her again. She will stay and go after Makishima is captured once and for all. Akane states that she doesn’t even care if she has to become an Enforcer to do so. To aid in the investigation, she offers to undergo a Memory Scoop to get a picture of Makishima. To do this, she will have to relive the memories of Yuki’s death, a procedure that risks the stability of her PSYCHO-PASS. She willingly undergoes this, and the look on Ginoza’s face as he realizes he will have to somehow convince her to take the blame for Yuki’s death is full of despair. In the future, it’s clear that dominators ought to be equipped with cameras.
We also get confirmation of something we’ve suspected for a while: Masaoka is indeed Ginoza’s father, and this accounts for their strained relationship. Acting as superior to both his father and his former parter appears to put an awful strain on Ginoza, and he tries opening up to Masaoka a little, for the sake of his ability to continue functioning in society.
A sequence after the ending credits confirms to the audience that there is much more that the Ministry knows about Makishima than it’s letting on. Who is he, exactly, and what is the true fate of Kouzaburou? Is he still alive? We’ll have to wait until next episode to find out.
In Summary
For a show with such seemingly weak character writing, the characters come through and deliver a stellar episode. With no action or new sci-fi concepts, the episode relies solely on the relationships between Akane, Ginoza, and Masaoka. Clues about their personalities slowly parceled out over the first season finally bear fruit, and we can sympathize with the impossible situations all of the characters have been placed into. Knowing that it’s an Urobuchi work, we can be fairly certain not everyone will get out of this alive. When I find myself hating to see even an unapologetic ass like Ginoza get hurt, I can’t help but think the PSYCHO-PASS team has created something special.
Grade: A
Streamed By: Funimation
Review Equipment:
Sony VAIO 17″ HD screen
