Looks like there are still anime out there that don't have a harem or only feature characters of one gender and actually have a story. Psycho-Pass is a sci-fi show that reminds me very much of Ghost in the Shell. Well, its done by the same studio, Production I.G.
The concept of Psycho-Pass is that in the future, this super computer system called Sibyl will be able to detect people's personality and mental state. What this means is that Sibyl can tell people's propensity to commit crime and their potential or abilities. It is an utopian Japan where almost everything is automated and everyone who exceeds the crime index is mostly locked up for the good of society.
Psycho-Pass is a rare anime that takes a high concept and runs with it all the way. No surprise that the writer is Urobuchi Gen who wrote Madoka. Expect violence, unexpected twists and of course lots of people dying. What was most enjoyable for me was the story exploring all sorts of themes flowing from its sci-fi premise such as happiness and free will. I'm not going to address the philosophical issues because there are too many things to cover and I would not be able to do them justice.
I really hated the main character Akane in the beginning because it seemed to me Urobuchi made her so incompetent as if she never had any training so as to be able to explain everything to the audience. Not to mention the incident with her friend but as I came to understand the world of Psycho-Pass more, I could understand why Akane started out the way she was; namely a person living in a society governed by Sybil.
It is so fun watching a mature anime that actually has a story to tell and not made to sell figures. It takes awhile, about 5 episodes for the story to get going for me but once it did, it was a thrilling ride to the end. I've only got two complaints; firstly there were some action scenes where characters are suppose to be quiet and they keep discussing philosophy without worrying about giving their position to the enemy and secondly, the music wasn't that good. There was an episode in the middle where I suddenly noticed some nice action music but generally its nothing memorable.
Thanks to Shane for recommending Psycho-Pass. I mostly get my anime news from Sankaku so its always famous anime that usually turn out to be crap. Must watch once you get past the early episodes and realise what the story is about.
9 comments:
Glad you liked it, thought you would ;)
Season 2 has been underwhelming so far (I'm about half way through). But I'm looking forward to watching the movie which just came out in Japan.
Fate and Hitsugi no Chaika are not harem anime? Not saying there are no good anime but the popular ones are usually the harem and Love Lives.
There are plenty of good jdoramas but most Japanese have never heard of Lady Joker.
If someone said jdoramas are crap because they are used to push idols and talentos, I would not say they are wrong because that mostly describes what is popular.
I can not forgive Akane for her friend's incident. Can you explain it for me?,lol. She can be the most harmful obstacle, with her naivete and stubborness. But I can still understand why she chose to obey Sybil, though, with her personality.
JCS: If you're looking at from from the Western anime fan's perspective, then its a different matter. However, its the Japanese fans that drive the content and we know what sells.
linhcu: I hated Akane for not shooting as well and wanted to stop watching but as the series went on, it became clear that this was an utopian society where there was hardly any violence and Sybil made the choices for everyone.
Cops like Akane were not trained to make tough decisions in the field. She had become so reliant on Sybil making decisions through the Dominator that she shut down.
i dont think you'll win the argument with him mike. hes too passionate about this with his claims of witch hunt and such.
well as for me as a long time anime viewer from the 90s and now, my view is that there has been a decrease in Original anime not based on mangas. and there has been more and more harem and moe like elements creeping into many shows.
also youre correct in your thinking of the japanese perspective on anime. their catering it to the otaku and thats what earns the money $$$ when they buy the merchandise. although one thing i did notice though when i was in japan last year, is that kuroko no basket was EVERYWHERE in all the gift shops i went too. even those gifts shops in temple tourist areas lol. thats a pretty mediocre manga/anime not as good as slam dunk and is only really popular because of all the bishonen characters and has a huge female following.
Damn, I wanted to watch this after your 1st review, now I'm not sure if I'm going to... knowing the 2nd one is not gonna be as good.
Anyway, gonna throw out two names which I feel *might* be right up your alley, Mike: Kiseijuu Sei No Kakuritsu aka Parasyte (as mentioned by jcs) and Imawa no Kuni no Alice (which just started airing this season).
i dont think youll change your mind and i wont change mine but heres a couple of random points.
anime has grown and plenty are produced in japan compared to decades ago. but with the mass amount of shows out there, people are having to pick and choose what they spend their money on (they earn through DVD sales and merchandising) and as a side effect some anime producers dont earn as much and have smaller budgets. and now they have to cater to certain audiences and have certain gimmicks to get viewers. Not all anime studios do this of course.
you still have your gundams but their gimmick is model kit sales
or you have your mainstream shonen jump shows that follow the mangas.
or the other popular mangas that get anime adaptation.
like mike mentioned, MAL isnt representative of what is being produced and whats popular in japan. western fansubbers get to cherry pick the good shows and drop garbage shows.
psycho pass is not something the general anime viewing public watches.
not all anime fans are anime otakus. just like jdramas theres plenty of shows out there of wide range of genres and quality. like jdaramas, theres sequels and remakes made by studios to make a quick buck.
theres shows that go for the sexual stuff.
not all otakus are males since theres plenty of fujoshis.
the people that are willing to spend a ton of money buying overpriced anime dvds in japan are the otakus (dvds are 40-50$ compared to the 15-20$ in NA) hence why they try to cater to these people.
an example of a bad anime from 2014 that had a harem, crappy animations where they just show the lips moving of characters and hardly let them move around since it would cost higher production values and pretty much is catered to guys with all the boobs boobs and more boobs is fuuin dai ishin shogun. terrible story and pretty much tried getting viewers by having plenty of female characters in tight clothes clearly showcasing the boobs.
a mech anime that has purposely an mostly all female casts doing yuri stuff in cross ange in 2015.
harem creeping to mech anime shows in knights of sidonia. (although to be fair since its not second season yet the harem is not large yet since its not at the point of the manga yet where the main character has 8+ female characters liking him with the stereotypical anime type characters like the tsundere female, the older more experienced comrade, to the younger kouhai, to the older sempai, to the cool collected boss. just to be clear the manga is one of my favorites lol).
4545, will give Parasyte a go sometime down the line.
it does matters what japanese people are watching.
anime producers create original anime shows that people will watch so that they will make money. they wont create shows that will barely garner any viewers which wont cover their cost and not give them any profit.
they will also pick and choose what light novel, manga, or game to make an anime adaptation of that they think will net them a profit.
sinces there are so many anime production companies out there making plenty of anime, they cater to their japanese audience to get their attention.
MAL and ANN barely has any influence on what japanese animes get produced. the japanese create their animes for an japanese audience. a japanese anime company doesnt think, hmm what do western audience like so
ill make a show on that.
japanese companies basically see the overseas markets as a bonus way to earn extra cash by selling their shows licence. the american companies that buy the licence for what dvds they produced here or what shows they stream here get all the profit for this market. they choose the shows on what they think the western markets would like to see from japan.
western otakus =/= japanese otakus.
the western fansubbers do choose what shows they like to sub and that doesnt necessarily mean its identical as japanese taste. and no, their not the normal people. normal people dont faunsub as a hobby. i think your just feeling defensive as a western fan thiking people are attacking you for liking moe and harem stuff when they think of an anime fan.
you think too highly of the impact of western anime fans' impact on what japanese anime content does get produced.
and just to be clear i am an anime fan not a hater. ive been watching for over 25 years and was just poitning out what ive been noticing.
ive been following tsutomu niheis body of work since he started, and sidonia has a harem chock full of steorotypical female archetypes i havent seen previously, and the show and manga is good enough that it shoudlnt even have to have it.
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