Psycho-Pass 3 Review: Incredibly Underhyped.

4 stars
I love the first season of Psycho-Pass.
It is a riveting anime with an amazing story, characters, and themes that just gets better every time I watched it.
The second season is, well, none of that.
The only thing I can give it credit for is that it succeeds in being the most disappointing follow up to a great season I have ever seen.
So, when the third season of Psycho-Pass was announced, and with new characters taking the leader, I was naturally concerned.
Sure, the original director was returning, but that did not guarantee quality.
And this was all I heard about the season for a while, until I saw one of the reviewers I had subscribed to on YouTube reviewing the first episode.
It was a definite, “wait, this came out moment?”, for me.
It felt like there was almost no hype behind this season, which is a shame because it is a vast improvement on the second one.
Yes, it is not as good as the first season but it was never going to be.
You just can’t top the level of quality in that season, especially with the great chemistry between the two main characters Akane Tsunemori (Kana Hanazawa) and Shinya Kogami (Tomokazu Senki), and the antagonist Shogo Makishima.
However, the characters of Psycho-Pass 3 are still excellent and, given more time, they could become just as beloved as the original cast of inspectors and enforcers.
I will start with the two lead inspector characters, the quirky Arata Shindo (Yuki Kaji) and immigrant Kei Mikhail Ignatov (Yuichi Nakamura).
The season follows these two as, under the Sibyl System, they investigate the mysterious organization known as Bifrost.
The two’s friendship, and how it progresses throughout the season, is perfectly handled and I am anticipating to see where it goes.

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Arata and Kei’s bond only gets better as the season progresses.

As for the new enforcer characters, they are just as great, especially Tenma Todoroki (Akio Otsuka) and Kazumichi Irie (Junichi Suwabe).
I really came to respect these two characters, just as they came to respect Arata and Kei over time.
Then there are the old characters who are present, yet working in the shadows rather being active participants in the plot.
They are all integrated pretty well, which leads to my biggest surprise of the season, which is that I found Mika Shimotsuki (Ayane Sakura) tolerable.
I absolutely hated her in the second season because she was an absolute jerk for no reason.
Here, we can see why she is acting the way she is, which allows us, as the viewer, to sympathize with her.
She’s not just trying to backstab Akane because she doesn’t agree with her for no reason anymore.

tolerable Mika.png
The most surprising thing about Psycho Pass 3 is how tolerable Mika is.

Although, I will say that this change in Mika does make it feel like we missed some character development from her, which is unfortunate.
Another unfortunate thing is that the villains did not really stick out for me this season.
I knew they could never be as fantastic as Makishima but I was still disappointed in how they failed to stand out compared to the main characters.
But, hey, at least they were not awful like Kirito Kamui from season two.
Along with having great characters, for the most part, the third season of Psycho-Pass also has a great story with a fantastic usage of themes and political commentary.
One feature I was very impressed by was how the season reflects and comments on how many celebrities are getting into politics nowadays and how this would work within the Sybil System.

Psycho Pass provides great commentary through one of its main players being a pop idol who is trying to become Governor.

However, not everything was so amazing because there are some things that bring the season down slightly.
The biggest of these issues is easily Arata’s mental trace ability, which allows him to view crimes from a criminal and victim’s perspective in a supernatural way.
Now, I have never been a fan of the supernatural in Psycho-Pass, as evidenced by my extreme dislike for Kamui.
So, when Arata was revealed to have this ability, I hoped that they would give it some kind of scientific explanation.
But, no, they just have to implement some kind of supernatural ability when it does not fit in with the themes and commentary at all because why not?
Thankfully, Arata’s Mentalist ability was not enough to derail the season for me.
Psycho Pass 3 is an almost return to form, despite a few hiccups, and I am interested to see where the story goes from here, as well as how these new characters continue to grow and the world of Psycho Pass along with them.

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