Psycho-Pass

Psych-Pass is a Japanese animated series taking place in the dystopian future of 2113. In this future technology has evolved enough to "accurately" determine whether or not someone is likely to commit a crime (based off of mental states, personality, stress levels, etc.), this is called a Psycho-Pass. The "perfect "system running the calculations is called Sibyl. When someones Psycho-Pass level exceeds a certain level they are then targeted for enforcement to prevent the (likely) crime they are going to commit. The people who do the enforcing are called Inspectors and are accompanied by Enforcers, who are Latent Criminals (people with an "unhealthy" Psycho-Pass). These investigators and enforcers wield Dominators, weapons that read the targets Crime Coefficient (part of psycho-pass predicting likelihood of committing a crime) and determines what action to take: stun, kill, or demolish (for non-living threats).
    The story centers around Akane Tsumenori, a new inspector in Unit 1. The first season focuses the apprehension of Shogo Makishima, a criminal who has masterminded multiple crimes. Shogo is Criminally Asyptomatic (a fancy term for "having a certain psychology that Sibyl cannot read), giving him the ability to commit crimes while being deemed "safe" by Sibyl, therefore the dominators will not work on him.
    The second season focuses on the apprehension of Kirito Kamui, a man who is completely resistant to Sibyl's judgement due to a defect in the system, making him rather hard to find. His goal is to force Sibyl to recognize him, but this would cause complications for the system.
    I found the animation to be rather good. Through research however I found that apparently there were several episodes with flawed drawing, I unfortunately didn't watch this version so I can't give my opinion on this. The settings were designed before the characters, so the environments are beautifully done.
    A large part of the content in the series was psychological, not only in concepts, but also in visual content. After watching for to long I found that I would get depressed (to a certain extent) because of all the psychological brutality. The series has a lot of good psychological content yes, but where is accels is the impact it has on the audience. What I though the animators did a great job in was creating truly gruesome scenes of violence, because unfortunately in this day violence is generally glossed over or romanticized (something I personally think is kind of stupid). This show was a breath of fresh air in that it did a great job of showing true violence and the psychology that goes along with it.

Warning!: I recommend anyone who watches this should do so with moderation. It will affect you adversely if you watch to much at one time.

Akane (investigaor): Right, Shinya Kogami (enforcer): Left

Dominator modes from top to bottom: 

Stun/Inactive, "Lethal Eliminator" (Kill), "Destroy Decomposer" (for nonliving targets)

"Bad" Anime

Recently I have been reawakened to the fact that some people consider anime as "bad". I thought I would bring this up because this blog will prominently feature anime, as well as some other foreign stuff. Interestingly enough I used to think of anime this way, it is only recently I have changed my stance on it. Now a definition on "bad": "bad" is quite basically anything a single person doesn't like, there are of course things that whole cultures consider bad (murder, thievery, etc), but when it comes down to it there are just some things people don't like. Something else you must know is that anime is really just like every other media, the only difference is the style. Now that we have all the technical stuff out of the way I can continue to the juicy stuff.
    The most common reason I have found people dislike anime is that the content that they have been exposed to really is (for a lack of a better word) shitty. This is usually due to them having seen one of the gigantic series (Naruto, Yu-Gi-Oh, etc). Now let me tell you something: most people who watch anime also strongly dislike those shows, this is because they are long, drawn-out, and ultimately don't have much meaning. I used to have a mentality similar to this, but then I came to a realisation: as it turned out I had been watching anime since I was 5-ish. I just didn't put the two into the same category because one was distinctly better than the other.
    I try to put top quality animation on this blog, but if I only did that it would get boring, so today I am going to review an anime that I consider bad. The name of the series I chose to review is Diabolik Lovers (you can probably tell from the title that its going to be bad). This series fulfills all stereotypes one can make about it. It is about a girl who gets her blood sucked by vampires, the end. The only other thing I can say is that there was no storyline for the first three fourths, and then at the end there was a weak storyline that honestly didn't really accomplish anything. I chose this one as an example not only because it is just terrible in general, but also because of the use of vampires (something that most people can acknowledge is usually bad).
  The message I have been trying to get across is this: if something is bad it's bad, but don't judge other things of similar likeness because of your experience beforehand.

And now some anime memes for your enjoyment.

   
   

C

    Also known as C: The Money of Soul and Possibility Control, this animation is about money. Kind of boring sounding right? Not really. Money is a very simple thing, yet it is very complex. Money is the stand in for something of real worth. It by itself it is useless, but because it is a substitute for gold it has enormous value (or at least we think it does). C takes advantage of this concept by presenting a world where things of no (or possibly great) value have enormous affects on the world.
    The story centers around Kimimaro Yoga. Kimimaro was raised by his aunt after his father disappeared, and his mother died. He is a college student who wants to have enough money to live a stable, normal life. One night a representative from The Bank of Midas named Masakaki comes offering a deal that could possibly increase his earning several times. All he has to do is let his future be held a collateral (something of great value (like gold?) for something of little value(money)). A short while later he is drawn into The Financial District where he must compete for his money, and therefore his future, in competitions called Deals. He meets many people in the financial district, and slowly realizes how much of an effect on the world money (futures in this case) has.
    Overall the animation is in what I like to call the "regular" anime style (not completely flat-faced, but the characters have distinguishing features. This series takes the concept of money to a completely different level. It uses the same basic principles of money, but uses it on something we cannot comprehend the value of. It is insightful (for someone who know little) about the way money works, and all the complicated matters that determine its worth. There is also a bit off clashing philosophies during the story. One involves that if the future is lost then the present has no meaning (losing a deal). The other one is basically that you have to work for your future. Both could be valid (but as many things are), no-one is always correct.
   This animation is juicy with mind-bending concepts and theories. The concepts used in it are well explained and shown. All content in it requires significant amount of thought to understand. This animation is for anyone who enjoys (or can process) complex ideas, and issues of right and wrong.

Masakaki: Left, Kimimaro: Right

Financial District