On the 8th of March in conjunction with the premiere stage greeting of the third Psycho-Pass: Sinners of the System trilogy of anime films, Psycho-Pass SS Case 3: Onshuu no Kanata ni, a third season for the series was announced with the title Psycho-Pass 3.
The new season is back with the director of the first season Naoyoshi Shiotani, taking lead once more and Akira Amano as the returning character designer. The animation production studio from the first season, Production I. G is returning as well! We can at least rest assured that Season 3 will be in capable hands of the creators of the praised first season.
The series also invites two new characters. They are Shindou Arata and Kei
Michael Ignatoph played by Kaji Yuuki and Nakamura Yuuichi respectively.
Shindou is a inspector officer of the Public Safety Bureau. He is an A-class mentalist that has the ability to track down a target that has transcend the mental borderline through the heightened sense of empathy. He has a bright and non-cowardice personality. Due to past incidents, he can only fall asleep inside his car parked inside his house.
Source: Psycho-Pass Official Japanese Website
Kei is also another inspector officer of the Public Safety Bureau. He is of Russian decent and a second generation immigrant granted citizenship through naturalization. He is a former military veteran who excels in both hand-to-hand combat and shooting while carrying a strong sense of justice.
The anime is scheduled for release in October this year under Fuji TV’s NoitaminA timeslot. They have released a trailer just recently but it does not reveal any more information than what we’ve already gathered. You can watch the trailer here.
Psycho Pass is a franchise that has garnered critical acclaim in its first season due to the great character development, well-paced story building, visuals and soundtrack, and an antagonist that was so well-written that it made the antagonist in the second season seem like a joke. The first season was well-received both in Japan and the West but the appraisal from both audiences did not last long.
The second season, released in 2014, went over poorly with fans for its uneven pacing, over-the-top use of gore, and a villain that was lacking compared to Makishima Shogo, the first season’s main antagonist. The weak storytelling in season 2 could be due to the change of the series key writer, Gen Urobuchi. The change of production studio also caused the visuals of the anime to drop, making the season worse than it already was.
The franchise overall had a rocky journey but the newly-released trilogy movie has been performing well in Japan, gaining the tenth place in the Japanese Box Office upon release. The third movie from the trilogy features Shinya Kougami in his vagrant journey in a small South Asian nation. He managed to rescue a bus of refugees that was under attack by armed guerrilla forces.
Among the refugees was a young lady by the name of Tenzin, who begs Kougami to teach her how to retaliate against the enemy. In the movie, we get to witness the actions of a man who has exacted revenge before and a girl that wishes for revenge as they gaze upon the edge of a inescapable world.
With the movie’s success, it should be safe to say the new season can be something to look forward to. However, I wouldn’t put my expectations too high for now, unless Gen Urobuchi is set to be the main key writer for the third season.
So, will the third season live up to the standard the first has set, or will it drop along with the second season? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section!
