What They Say
Devil’s Crossroad – Before Yayoi Kunizuka became an Enforcer, she was in a rehab facility, trying to purify her Hue so that she could return to society. Then, one day, Inspectors Ginoza and Kogami asked her to help them in an investigation.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Some viewers may feel cheated that we don’t find out what happens to Akane and her PSYCHO-PASS after the death of her friend Yuki. I was pleased however, as the long-silent and long-ignored Yayoi Kunizuka finally gets her chance in the spotlight. And that spotlight is a literal one, as we find out she was once a musician.
Apparently in the future Sybil even decides which artists have the talent and temperament to succeed, preventing hopeless cases from spending all of their time on a dream they’ll never reach. But there exists a tension between artists that are sponsored by “the man” and those rebel artists who perform without Sybil’s imprimatur. Yayoi was in a band that was sponsored by Sybil, so she had to endure the derision of others in the art district of Tokyo.
How exactly Yayoi’s hue became cloudy and she ended up in prison isn’t detailed here, but through her eyes we see the detention centers the show previously touched on in more detail. Sort of a cross between a mental hospital and a prison, latent criminals are kept isolated to work on their attitudes and try to return to normal society. They’re able to shop and request items, it seems, but Yayoi’s request for guitar strings is denied repeatedly, though whether this is to deny her passion, or to prevent her from committing suicide or using the wires as a weapon isn’t really made clear.
One day she’s given a chance to leave the facility early if she decides to work with detectives Ginoza and Kogami to help apprehend some anti-Sybil activists in the arts district she was once familiar with. Sybil has marked her as a potential Enforcer, but Yayoi is somewhat reluctant to turn on the world where the once found her home. A somewhat ironically smug Kogami seems to underestimate how degrading it might be to be an Enforcer. Regardless, he’s eventually able to coax her out of her cell by telling her the longer she stays institutionalized, the more her hue is likely to degrade, and by bribing her with some guitar strings.
It’s quite interesting to see a younger Ginoza and Kogami, and here we see Sasayama as well, just as reckless and irresponsible as Kogami described him. The sting on a bar in the arts district goes awry due to Sasayama’s overreaction, and the suspect, a friend and former lover of Yayoi’s makes an escape. Yayoi corners her former friend with a Dominator, somewhat surprisingly, making it seem Sybil’s judgement may not be so terrible after all. Unfortunately, because she’s not authorized to use it, her former friend escapes, certain to get in further trouble down the line. Perhaps to help her friend out at that unknown time in the future, Yayoi joins as an Enforcer.
In Summary
PSYCHO-PASS continues to be engaging as it introduces ideas that it doesn’t really go into with much depth, but are nonetheless impossible to ignore. Here the tension between art and commodity and the role of authenticity are made explicit with the introduction of Sybil into the artists’ community. We’re also given a glimpse into the mental health institutions the Sybil system has birthed, and it’s uncertain whether they exist to help, or just exist as a kind of holding cell for people who can’t simply be executed without public outcry. What would Foucault say? Let’s hope Yayoi gets more focus in the episodes to come.
Grade: A
Streamed By: Funimation
Review Equipment:
Sony VAIO 17″ HD screen
