Fridge / Psycho-Pass

Fridge Brilliance

• When Kougami warns Ginoza not to try to understand how criminals think, it seems like nonsensical advice to give to a detective whose job it is to track down and apprehend criminals... until you learn that Kougami was an Investigator who was demoted to Enforcer when his Crime Coefficient got too high, and you remember that just being involved with someone with insane or criminal tendencies can affect someone's own Psycho Pass hue and Crime Coefficient.
• Why was Masaoka allowed to get away picking up Gino and flinging him around? He's his father.
• Gino always tells Masaoka and Kogami to go with Akane. Given his connection with those two it makes a lot of sense.
  • Furthermore, consider that Masaoka and Kogami are the oldest Enforcers on the team, with the most experience not just as Enforcers, but as investigators as well. It makes sense to assign them to Akane, who is still a newbie.
• One of Akane's best friends is Yuki. The name Yuki typically means "happiness" or "blessing," so her murder is symbolically and literally the taking away of Akane's happiness. From that point on too, the series takes on a much darker tint.
• In episode 12, Yayoi is unable to shoot her former bandmate-turned-criminal because her Dominator is locked. This is not explicitly pointed out in the episode, but sharp-eyed viewers probably weren't surprised, as they may have noticed when Kougami gave her the Dominator, it did not give her the standard "you are a registered user" audio notification.
• The English word "Psychopath" is pronounced "Psychopass" in Japanese. Besides the obvious pun, the criminally asymptomatic brains that make up the Sibyl System are arguably psychopaths, if the examples of criminally asymptomatic people (Makishima, Touma) in the show are similar to the average criminally asymptomatic individual. Maybe the Sibyl System brains thought this to be a cruel joke, by implanting Psycho-Passes in everyone, everyone is a "Psychopath".
  • The name more overtly fits because like a "pass" Psycho-passes are presented in order to effectively be identified as legitimate members of society.
  • Also is the etymology, psycho- is a word forming element, it isn't an actual word (Calling someone a psycho is slang). Psyche-pass would probably be a more accurate rendering.
• The word Sibyl is clearly a reference to classical notions of a prophetess, the system is even referred to as female by others. However (intentional or not) Sibyl nearly sounds like "Civil" as in civil system or civil society, which makes sense given the role it plays.
  • According to the Psycho-Pass wiki: It's possible that the origin of the name "Sibyl" is based off a clinical psychology case study about Sibyl, a women 'diagnosed' with dissociation identity disorder (multiple personality), although she later confessed that she faked the condition to get attention from her therapist. There's a famous novel based on that case as well. So there's an overt meaning referring to the overt theme of possibly-self-fulfilling prophecy and a more obscure meaning hinting at the Sybil System's true nature as a "collective entity".
• Masaoka's has an Artificial Limb for his left arm. His son, Ginoza, loses his left arm at the end of the series.
• The Sibyl System works by judging the citizens' thoughts and intentions rather than their actions and results. When Akane learns of the Sibyl System's true form, she chooses not to expose it. She judges the system by its actions (keeping the populace safe) rather than its inner workings (which are the definition of criminal). In other words, by "accepting" the Sibyl's existence and choosing not to punish it, she rejects everything the Sibyl System stands for.
  • Counts as a double Brilliance because The Sibyl System correctly deduced that Akane would act this way, and used her own ideals against her in order to preserve itself. It also serves to show that the Sibyl System sees itself as being above its own rules. This is further compounded by the fact that the Sibyl system is made from the brains of psychopaths who didn't really care about society's rules in the first place.
• Near the end of episode 21 when Masaoka is dying, he tells Ginoza that his "eyes... look just the same as mine did..." In episode 22, as Tsunemori and Ginoza are returning from visiting Masaoka's grave, Tsunemori asks Ginoza if his glasses were just for show. Ginoza replies, "I don't like how my face looks, especially my eyes. But I don't care about that anymore, so it didn't seem to matter." Ginoza has come to terms with his and his father's identity.
• In the final episode, viewers who were paying careful attention throughout it & the previous episode knew Makishima would not kill Akane after the truck crash. Because that's a Smith & Wesson (M36), and you've had your five. The show does not draw attention to this fact, so it's up to the audience to remember the revolver holds only 5 shots.
• When Akane is talking with the Sibyl system in the last episode, they mention they want a way to inform the public of their true nature without causing a societal upheaval. Then I remember Kogami and Saiga discussing Makishima, concluding that his most dangerous asset is his charisma. It's no wonder they insisted on trying to re-capture Makishima, even after he refused to join them. —thatother1dude
• At one point, Makishima and Chou have a conversation that goes something along the lines of "This society is like a parody of some sci-fi dystopia"/"William Gibson?"/"More like Philip K. Dick". Not only is this a hidden Shout-Out to Minority Report, it also foreshadows that the Sibyl System is not in fact a computer but something far stranger.
• It's widely theorized among the fandom that Akane is criminally asymptomatic due to several incidents wherein her psycho-pass is incredibly resilient. She even seems to have realized this herself by the second-to-last episode, when she invites Masaoka to scan her. That itself is almost Fridge Brilliance, but it gets better when you combine it with the series's themes of free will and choosing to do good or evil yourself. Akane, unlike all the other criminally asymptomatic people we know of, chose good.
  • This makes even more sense with the ending of Season 2, where Sybil offers to let Akane join them.
• If you look closely at the logo of the Sibyl System, it looks more than a little like a brain.
• Why did Mizue betray the Sibyl system? She's just like the person on Episode 1! Essentially, she's got a CC so high, that it doesn't matter what she does. Society has already damned her, and when she discovers the main villain can 'save' her...she SNAAAPS. Furthermoe, CC is, in some instances, a measure of someone's tendency to snap. She just needed the right trigger...
• The use of lighting in the scene when Akane confronts Tougane in episode 10 is quite symbolic when viewed at from an animator's perspective. As explained on a forum:
  " Upon Akane's arrival we see Togane standing with a backdrop of light which hides his face, a classic technique in the noir genre that relays a sense that Togane currently believes Akane is on his side (aka the light, representing truth, innocence, and control of the situation) while subtly relaying that he has alternate motives (which is why his face is painted Black). this is followed up with a birds eye shot where we see the long dark shadows that stem from Togane to drive home the point that he is bad. moving on to the moment Akane reveals that she is aware that Togane is lying we see a new blue light appear behind Akane while a low angle shot moves the green light from behind Togane to in between the two characters representing a shift in control of the situation. As the scene progresses the light begins to gradually shift away from Togane leading to a final close up where he is virtually all black. Meanwhile Akane can be seen clearly regardless of where the source of light is, emphasizing Togane's failure to paint Akane black."
• Why did the Sybil System allow Akane to discover the truth about what it is? Because Togane is their agent and he has successfully eliminated Inspectors before.
• In the second season finale, Division 3 wipes out Kamui's group with little trouble and Shisui suddenly used a crossbow. Because they were using their Dominators to stun hundreds of people immediately beforehand and likely drained their weapons of energy. The sixth episode revealed that the Decomposer mode has a three-shot limit, so it stands to reason that both Paralyzer and Eliminator also have limits, and there has never been a situation where Dominators were used on so many people at once.
• The 2nd season's ending song "FALLEN", once one understands the lyrics, is about someone who was Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life. This person then started obsessively loving someone else, and after their lover's death, was desperately hoping to bring them back to create a bloody future to the point of self-destruction. It's all about Inspector Shisui (hence the title) and her Mad Love for Kamui even after his death.
• Why does Season 1's ending theme have mugshots of every member of Division 1, even the Inspectors? Because everyone is a potential criminal in the eyes of the Sibyl System.
• Word of God has confirmed Ginoza to be a "1000% virgin" because work is more important to him, but it could also be because the emotional fallout from a possible breakup could cause his Crime Coefficient to spike, something he's been trying to avoid ever since his father became a latent criminal. He also only flirts with Risa after his demotion to Enforcer, meaning he no longer has to worry so much about becoming a latent criminal because he already is one.
• Looking back on it all a few hours after finishing the first season I realized something. Makishima kind of sucked. Narratively speaking her was a super cool villain who always seemed one step ahead of everyone else but in reality every single thing he attempted ended in failure in someway. With each case at the start of the season he accidentally lets the protagonists find out more and more about him, culminating in them getting an accurate reading of his face. Then he implements his master plan with the helmets in order to attack the department of welfare building where everyone of his allies are killed and he gets captured. His partner whom he entrusted the job of taking Sibyl down didn't really even get close to the target since Sibyl had an android on hand. Then after he escapes he tries his hand at bio terrorism. He should have the biggest element of surprise here and it should be by far his easiest job yet the MWPSB shuts down his entire operation within minutes of arriving leaving the last two episodes to be about him fleeing for his life rather than tearing down society. Like I said for entertainment value he's a really fun threatening villain but in universe he's outdone at every turn. No wonder Sibyl weren't all that concerned with letting him go free, he never stood a chance against them in the first place.
  • Ignoring the fact that many of the above events were orchestrated as part of, you know, the scripted series, and that Sibyl was concerned about Makishima refusing to be part of the collective, it's worth noting that Makishima planned to achieve his goal through chaos. His allies didn't matter, nor did the short-term successes or failures, because the effects they had on Sibyl and society were part of that goal. Given that Sibyl is supposedly capable of pure logic and analysis, it's more likely that Sibyl came to the conclusion that Makishima would ultimately solve the problem himself, which he did when he allowed Akane to live and let Kagami kill him. As Sibyl said, it was confident that it would endure, no matter how many individuals died; after a point, it was probably easier just to ride out Makishima's spree and deal with the fallout later.
  • Sibyl is not capable of pure logic and analysis as it was revealed. They are humans masquerading as a scientific equivalent of a god, telling people that they should follow a social system and not their own beliefs. One of their main problems, if not biggest problem, with Makishima was that not only did he heavily suspect this but he found out the whole truth about them. Not only is Makishima the type of person to outright tell others about this but he collapsed the social order temporarily and got very close to collapsing their society in a way that they would have to reveal who they were to other governments and the public plus would make people lose faith in them (destroying the food supply). The only reason he was easily shut down was due to Shinya figuring out what he was up to and killing him. If one could argue Makishima is fallible, one could easily make the same argument for Sibyl as anyone could view anyone as fallable. In fact, Makishima's influence helped make Unit 1 among others lose faith in Sibyl to different degrees and to truly prove that even Sibyl is still just humans behind their facade; see the deaths of Touma, their inspectors and enforcers, as well as even numerous members of Sibyl including one of their founders (Misako Togane), all due to individuals such as Makishima and Kirito Kamui simply deciding to have faith in themselves and not Sibyl (sometimes even using Sibyl's logic against itself to justify killing people related to it, just as it does to anyone else). Overall, Makishima's biggest threat could be compared to Real Life revolutionaries like Maximiellian Robespierre (from The French Revolution), the people who realize how arbitrary social systems, morals and laws are, then give up on ones forced on them and decide for themselves as well as lash out against the current status quo (usually inspiring others along the way, further damaging the status quo).
• The Enforcers are repeatedly compared to dogs and even codenamed "Hound [number]". The Japanese word used for Enforcer, shikokan, sounds similar to shikoku, a particular breed of Japanese dog.
• The Sibyl System's more lenient behavior towards immigration policy in Season 3 makes more sense when taking into account what the movies have shown us about the state of the world. Logically speaking, one major reason why Sibyl has been able to thrive for so long was because so much of the world was engulfed in endless wars or were just plain unlivable shitholes, so the tyranny of the Sibyl System was an acceptable price to accept in exchange for a country that was safe and stable. However, both the 2015 movie and SS Case 3 show conflicts coming to an end. It is reasonable to conclude that as time goes on, the world is slowly stabilizing and the chances of the Japanese people being exposed to alternative means of governance are increasing. In order to keep up its Villain with Good Publicity status, the Sibyl System is loosening its incredibly strict policy of isolation to gradually normalize its existence to the world, which it was already doing in the 2015 movie, and give it a better chance of continuing its rule. SS Case 1 hints that Sibyl is already preparing for the possibility that the world will not accept its existence if the radioactive mining operation at Paradise is any indication, and it is stockpiling a reserve of nuclear weapons in case that happens.
  • Explicitly confirmed in Providence. Atsushi Shindou was the one who persuaded Sibyl to re-open Japan to immigration, and he outright tells Akane early in the film that "As the world pulls itself together, Japan gets left behind."

Fridge Horror

• When Makishima was killing Yuki, his Crime Coefficient dropped down to near zero. Since in this Crapsack World, a person's soul is measured by the Sibyl system, it's safe to say that Makishima is a Soulless Bastard.
• It's stated in episode 12 that it is very rare for someone who is put in a rehabiliation center to reassimilate back into society, so those arrested will most likely be stuck there until they die (by execution if their crime co-efficient gets too high) or become an enforcer if they are eligible and choose to do so.
  • This also means that in episode 1, it might have been better if Akane let the raped woman be killed, rather than spare her so she can be "rehabilitated".
• In episode 13 it's stated that there are rare cases where the result of the person’s cymatic scan do not match their criminal psychology, they are called criminally asymptomatic. Some cases of criminal behaviour cannot be judged by Sibyl see Makashima. But by the same merit surely there must exist other 'criminally asymptomatic' people who are judged as 'latent criminals' by Sibyl but aren't because their scan doesn't match their criminal psychology.
  • There's also a very heavy hint that Akane of all people might be one of those types like Touma and Makishima, what with her CC going down just as she decides to hunt Makishima by any means necessary.
  • Criminally asymptomatic people, that which Sibyl recruits and incorporates into itself to evolve, can commit crimes in the most intelligent, cruel and sadistic manners without a single bit of emotional attachment or regret that would risk their Criminality Coefficient. And these unempathic persons are what Sibyl incorporates into itself for perfection. In other words, Sibyl is composed of sociopaths
• In episode 14, why did nobody try to save the woman being murdered, instead watching and even video taping the crime? Because the system has made it so that they don't even know what crime is. To them, this is something that they have only heard about. If Sibyl has become their eyes, then they are truly blind to actual horrors. Really says something about the society the show is presenting.
  • This is also due to the Bystander effect, which was referenced on the main page. This doesn't make it any less concerning though, as it means that situations like these happen in real life as well
  • Of course in this case it's amplified due to how the Sibyl System has changed the way people perceive the world as a whole. In fact, no one even reports the crime, it's the alleviated stress level in the area that alerts the authorities. Shion notes the alarm but then promptly dismisses it in favor of showing the video of the murder floating around the internet...unaware that its this exact incident that sparked the alarm in the first place.
• Also in episode 14, The helmet wearer got the psycho pass of the person with the lowest rate nearby. When it was only Masaoka and Kogami near it got Kogamis at 280. Then what do Masaoka have?
  • Masaoka's only seems to be high because he hates the Sibyl System, as talked about between him and Ginoza once. The Sibyl System probably sees him as a bigger threat because Masaoka wants the Sibyl System flat out destroyed while Kogami just wants vengeance on Makishima (which although killing Makishima could be considered a good thing, due to his tendency to create murderers, it would still be considered a crime to kill someone).
  • Kougami's Crime Coefficient going up because he desperately wants to take down Makishima could be because murder is a crime...until we learn that the Sibyl System wants Makishima to incorporate with it. The System wants Makishima alive so Kougami is in the way and how to best get rid of an obstacle? Obliterated it.
• When Yayoi was in the mental facility, her order request for guitar strings was denied every single time. On one hand it could be because as Ginoza points out, artists have a higher tendency to cloud their Hue. The other reason (and the more horrifying in hindsight) is that they were seen by the facility as something she could harm herself with, like strangulation.
  • It's almost certain for the suicide risk; few *real life* mental hospitals will let patients have something like guitar strings.
• There's definite implications through the series that some people with high Crime Coefficients are merely unconventional and not any more likely to be criminals at all. Yayoi in particular also seems much less dangerous than the rest of the Enforcers. Combine that with Yayoi and Shion's scene from the final episode and... maybe just being gay can get you declared a latent criminal.
  • In Yayoi's case, she was involved with rebellion against her society through music and is implied to be into "violent, passionate things" according to Shion. We don't know much about Yayoi, but it's doubtful she was a latent criminal just due to being gay. Also, there's no real link between being gay and having darker emotions which is what the Sibyl System usually tells people makes them latent criminals.
  • However Crime Coefficiency seems to be connected to stress and having an out of ordinary sexuality can be very stressful and alienating especially in such a hetero-normative society.
• Season 2 episode 8 gives us enough information to figure out how the Sibyl System went From Nobody to Nightmare. The key piece of information is that the technology to rip brains out of criminally asymptomatic people is done entirely by Drones and has absolutely no human oversight to it... Drones which Sibyl controls. This is how Sibyl is able to perpetuate itself with nobody knowing. The worst thing is that the episode strongly implies that Sibyl originally began as a genuine supercomputer processing Psycho-Passes, and the transformation from supercomputer to Wetware CPU happened virtually overnight under Tougane Misako's supervision with no one else the wiser. And from this, it can be inferred that even the entire Japanese government is completely unaware of Sibyl's true nature.
• It is revealed in Season 2 that Kamui was Ginoza's therapist in the first season. Since Kamui has the ability to lower a person's Crime Coefficient, he could have easily saved Ginoza's hue from darkening, but chose not to do so. Arguably, this partly makes him responsible for Ginoza's demotion to Enforcer.
• In Season 2, when the Sibyl System is confronted by Kamui to judge itself as many beings living as one entity. Before Sibyl chooses to judge itself, Sibyl destroys many of it's own brains. We learned last season that Sibyl is composed of many criminally asymptomatic individuals, and an unknown number of non asymptomatic individuals added to the system when it was first created. When Sibyl decided to destroy some of it's brains before being judged, it killed off anything that would give it a high crime efficient/clouded hue; non asymptomatic brains. So basically Sibyl killed what little conscience it had left and is most likely composed of 100% criminally asymptomatic individuals. Additionally, you know that these individuals are the worst kind of asymptomatic, because they would have had to have done something incredibly horrible to even be noticed by Sibyl and invited to join it; the most notable example being Toma.
• The finale of First Inspector indirectly reveals another horrific detail about the Sibyl System: there is an age limit to when an individual can exhibit signs of being criminally asymptomatic, and it is rather young, as the System specifically states Koichi Azusawa is too old to manifest the signs of being such. Azusawa is in his late 30s or early 40s at the most. What this means is that, aside from maybe a few in their early 30s at most, Sibyl is made up entirely of people in their 20s or younger... and Arata's suppressed memories show he was already in danger of being added to the collective even as a prepubescent child! How many teenagers and children (which is also horrifying on another level) are in the System?!
  • The age limit is only the age at which one can begin showing signs of being criminally asymptomatic. There are plenty of people who may not be discovered and added to the system until well after they first showed signs of it, because most people wouldn't be looking for those signs in anyone or even know that they exist.