Psycho-Pass 4: "No One Knows Your Mask"
Hey, it’s the The Nether episode!
A little over a year ago my friend got a group together to see this play—the very friend who’s been most ardently recommending Psycho-Pass to me for years. In addition, this was also where I met the friend who recommended Umineko (and Utena), so it was a pretty significant event in shaping my media selections over the past year.
The Nether is also a fantastic play, and I encourage you to go see it if it’s ever playing near you. Definitely rated PG-13 at least, though.
Tsunemori’s spending her free time online, where she’s managed to join an advice show run by The Great Mizuti “Talisman”.
She asks what to do about her subordinate/senpai Kogami. The black mage suggests that she’s forming impressions of what she’d like Kogami to be without actually trying to understand the guy, which is actually pretty good advice. Tsunemori—er, sorry, “Lemonade Candy”—seems to be taking it pretty well.
The show goes to commercial over some very deliberately chosen church-like organ music, as Talisman blesses the crowd.
Nice promotional skills, yo.
Tsunemori logs off to let the opening credits roll, then goes to visit Masaoka.
His place is reminding me a little of Starbuck’s apartment in the Battlestar Galactica reboot. I think it’s just the staircase and the act of painting.
Masaoka correctly guesses that Tsunemori wants to ask about Kogami, which seems like a bit of a jump. Then again, insights from scanty evidence are kind of Masaoka’s thing.
Um. “You’re strangely connected to him by fate”? Has Masaoka seen the opening credits too, or what? I didn’t think there had really been enough connection to establish this yet. Oh well, insights from scanty evidence and all that.
Masaoka tells Tsunemori that trying to understand Kogami will result in “her Psycho-Pass number [becoming] the same as Kogami’s”, which fits in very well with the theme of “it takes a criminal to catch a criminal”. His “ojou-chan” seems a little less condescending today, and he quotes her the line about staring into the abyss, which SMBC has something to say about.
In the context of this show, this is probably also good advice, but it also means Tsunemori’s going to end up there anyway.
Tsunemori gets a call: it’s investigation time. She joins Ginoza, Kogami, and Kagari at a small apartment, whose resident—an unemployed YouTube star—has mysteriously disappeared. I’m a little amused that the landlord realized this because the toilet is broken. They turn on the holo-decorations established in Episode 2
and Kogami explains how holo-decorations work to a room full of people who know how holo-decorations work. (This included me; the mismatched couches immediately set off Blue’s Clues shouts of “a clue! a clue!” after only a moment or two. But I guess it’s better than leaving it out and someone not getting it.)
For a moment Zork flashes through my mind as they move the couch and carpet, but there’s no hidden trapdoor, only a scratch on the floor. Kogami immediately figures out what happened: they killed the guy on a plastic mat, then put him down the garbage disposal piece by piece.
As has been established, Ginoza is reluctant to jump to conclusions. Kogami tells him to check the sewer pipes and complain later if the theory doesn’t check out.
(It does.)
Meanwhile, Kagari finally gets into the guy’s account and *gasp* it’s Talisman. The very avatar Tsunemori had been speaking to this morning.
They head back to the lab, and Karanomori has them pose for a nice shot of the whole team.
Predictably, they decide to go see what’s going on online…which means Tsunemori, as the youngest and most culture-savvy, is the one taking point. She gets to show Ginoza around the internet in her creepy floating girl avatar.
As a note, Ginoza’s coin avatar, seemingly modeled on a US quarter, says “LIVERTY”. I don’t think there’s any deep significance here, just an example of hypercorrection: Japanese doesn’t naturally have a “v” sound, so sometimes words with “v” in them are translated as “b”. (Example: ビデオ for “video”.) Someone probably saw リバティー and thought it was supposed to be “liverty”. Or something.
They follow Talisman as they leave their own forum (for lack of a better word), and find themselves in a popular anarchist forum…whose head immediately recognizes “Lemonade Candy” from school, and kidnaps her into a “private chat room”.
Fortunately, Spooky Boogie seems to mean Tsunemori no harm, and is even willing to help with the investigation. She’s also a popular online personality, and so she’s got influence. The plan: hold a real-life holo-masquerade party in Roppongi (hey, they’re in Tokyo) where she’ll challenge Talisman to a children’s card game duel of some kind.
Tsunemori explains the plan to everyone, and they’re pretty much on board. Ginoza points out again that “if his Crime Coefficient indicates him a target for enforcement, the game is ours”. The first time I heard this I figured it was a repeat of the theme I’ve been driving at, that they’re more about enforcing Psycho-Pass levels than actually catching criminals. Now I’m thinking that it’s really the other way around: if the person wearing the Talisman avatar has a normal Psycho-Pass level, they don’t have many options, even though there’s clearly something wrong.
Kogami asks where the place is, and Tsunemori takes the opportunity to shoot a badass look over her shoulder.
They set up. Kogami talks a little about his insecurities by projecting them onto the crowd. Tsunemori tries to explain
and accidentally says something about his Psycho-Pass. She realizes a second after she says it, but Kogami smiles and accepts it as advice. I’m giving the show another point for worldbuilding here: Tsunemori’s casual statement feels like something she’d just say to someone without thinking about the literal meaning. On top of that, I like the point about anonymity. People are anonymous for all sorts of reasons, and while a lot of bad can come of that, there are also good reasons for it too. If you’re not on board with that, you’re choosing to not be part of all sorts of communities.
Unfortunately, this discussion about the Internet doesn’t lead anywhere too useful. As soon as the plan gets put into motion, they’re spotted by the Mastermind With Sadly Obligatory Arm Candy Women.
*sigh*
Villain Boy throws off the plan by turning everyone’s avatar into Talisman. Masaoka and Kogami panic and try to catch the real one by running out into the party hall with their guns, which of course doesn’t work. Everyone freaks out and tries to run out.
Once again we see the flaw in this kind of thinking: it turns out a number of people from online are not exactly mentally healthy, at least not according to Sibyl. They shoot a handful of people and Kogami remarks that it’s turned into a raid.
Back on the nets, Talisman accuses Spooky Boogie of setting up the whole thing, which is pretty bad for her image as an anarchist. Spooky Boogie tries to defend herself but doesn’t do a great job, and so she decides to block Talisman from her forum. It turns out that in real life she’s actually Smug Anime Girl Wendy.
I’m actually a little glad it’s not Programmer Carmen Sandiego.
Unfortunately (and predictably) we’re getting to see her in real life because the Talisman killers have found her too. Like Talisman, they’re going to keep Spooky Boogie going, but meanwhile they’re going to make a tomato smoothie.
It did not escape my attention that the book Advent Child Head Villain is reading is Orwell’s 1984. That makes them an anti-Sibyl group, but an anti-Sibyl group that kills YouTube stars isn’t one that’s going to get my sympathy any time soon.
The episode ends, making this a two-parter (or more?). One last question remains: is this the same white-haired Villain as the teaser in the first episode opening credits? I went back and watched that again and the answer is “probably yes”. So while it seemed early to me for a two-parter, I guess it’s time to start prying into Kogami’s demons after all.
See you next time!