The Japanese do like their wordplay, so it's no coincidence that the name of this show, Psycho-Pass, also sounds like "psychopaths". Right from the get-go there are a number of them to be encountered.

What's different about this show is that in this particular dystopian future, everyone is scanned with what are called "cymatic scanners" which are then evaluated by something called the Sibyl System to identify potential problems or criminal tendencies. Even just having a Psycho-Pass "crime coefficient" above a certain threshold makes you a target for enforcement of some kind, but that's almost a complete reversal of what you might see in something like Judge Dredd for example - in this show it's the guns that make the decisions, based on the Sibyl System's evaluations, and the Inspectors or Enforcers holding them are almost just there for show.

Of course, in this show it's the guns that make the decisionsno system is perfect, and even from the start you begin to see the flaws developing, and the show does a really good job of examining what the consequences of that sort of occurrence might be. It's also nice to see a show that can still manage to be cyberpunk without taking it down Ghost in the Shell's full-on "the net is vast and infinite" route.

One slight down side is that some of the later episodes (particularly episode 18) have suffered from poor animation, though it's not known why this happened and we're told that it will be fixed for the Japanese disc release. No Western disc release has been announced as yet.

PSYCHO-PASS is currently licensed for streaming in North America by FUNimation. Please support your local anime industry by subscribing or purchasing it from your local anime streaming or distribution companies when it's licensed in your territory.