50 Fun Facts About Psycho-Pass

In Psycho-Pass, which hand-held weapons fire only when the Sibyl System approves the shot?

Dominators scan a target's Psycho-Pass on the spot through built-in scanners. Inspectors may even turn them on their own Enforcers if those partners become a danger.

What is Psycho-Pass's Sibyl System secretly made of, as Shogo Makishima learns after his arrest?

Human brains, taken from people the system cannot judge, are linked into one supercomputer network. Makishima is invited to add his own and kills the messenger instead.

Above what Crime Coefficient does Psycho-Pass's Sibyl System mark a citizen for arrest?

100 is the line: above it, Inspectors and Enforcers pursue the person, who is then arrested or killed. Even a kidnap victim's reading can climb through sheer trauma, as the first episode shows.

Which film villain did Psycho-Pass's director cite as a major inspiration for Shogo Makishima?

The Joker, as Heath Ledger played him in The Dark Knight, was the model. Both are lawbreakers whose way of thinking the audience cannot quite call wrong.

What do Shogo Makishima's rioters wear in Psycho-Pass to copy bystanders' low Crime Coefficients?

Helmets let the wearer borrow the reading of an innocent person nearby and slip past the scanners. Footage of the first killing spreads online and riots follow.

Psycho-Pass grew out of its studio's wish to make a successor to which earlier cyberpunk anime?

Ghost in the Shell and Patlabor, both Mamoru Oshii works, were what the studio wanted to follow. The chief director asked for nothing that could not be remade in live action.

Which country's Ministry of Culture blacklisted Psycho-Pass as one of 38 anime and manga titles?

China issued the ban in June 2015, saying the listed titles included violence, terrorism and crimes against public morality that could incite minors.

Which anime buzzword was banned from Psycho-Pass staff meetings to keep the show against the trend?

Moe was off the table because the staff admired dramas such as Mobile Suit Gundam and Patlabor, built on conflict between male characters.

Which veteran Enforcer in Psycho-Pass is revealed to be the father of Inspector Nobuchika Ginoza?

Tomomi Masaoka is a former detective whose distaste for the Sibyl System's absolute judgments wore down his own Psycho-Pass. Father and son rarely mention the tie.

Enforcers in Psycho-Pass hunt offenders for the Bureau, but what are they themselves classed as?

Latent criminals are citizens whose readings run too high, and Enforcers are drawn from them. They carry out an Inspector's instructions and may not move about freely.

In Psycho-Pass: The Movie, Akane Tsunemori leaves Japan to track Shinya Kogami to which region?

Southeast Asia is where a new superstate has begun importing Sibyl technology from Japan. Her search for a renegade colleague was modelled on war films such as Apocalypse Now.

Which screenwriter, also behind the anime Fate/Zero, wrote the first season of Psycho-Pass?

Gen Urobuchi insisted on a dystopia in the spirit of Philip K. Dick before work began. He has said that one of the central ideas of the series is fear.

What does Psycho-Pass call people like Shogo Makishima whose Crime Coefficient never rises?

Criminally asymptomatic people read as harmless whatever they do, so the Bureau's guns will not fire on them. Makishima puts it down to feeling that his crimes are normal.

What is the colour-coded part of a citizen's Psycho-Pass reading called, which clouds under stress?

Hue is the colour reading that sits beside the numeric Crime Coefficient. It is said to clear when a person's state improves and to cloud as it declines.

Which Philip K. Dick film adaptation did Psycho-Pass's director compare very closely to the series?

Blade Runner was the closest match for director Naoyoshi Shiotani, who also named Gattaca and Brazil among the films that shaped the series.

Which Japanese voice actress plays Inspector Akane Tsunemori in the Psycho-Pass series and films?

Kana Hanazawa has voiced Akane from the start, with Kate Oxley in the English dub. In the first film she delivers many lines in English, which one reviewer found her entirely comfortable doing.

Which joking young Enforcer in Psycho-Pass was marked by the Sibyl System when he was only five?

Shusei Kagari is the one who stumbles on what Sibyl really is. The Bureau's chief kills him to keep the secret and makes it look as if he escaped.

Which Psycho-Pass Enforcer played guitar in a punk rock band before the Sibyl System flagged her?

Yayoi Kunizuka loved Rina, a musician turned anti-Sibyl militant, and unwittingly helped the Bureau track her. She joined up so that others would not end the same way.

Whose gruesome murder cost Shinya Kogami his rank as an Inspector before Psycho-Pass begins?

Mitsuru Sasayama, the Enforcer working under Kogami, was closing in on a mastermind when he was killed in the same manner as the victims. Kogami skipped therapy to keep hunting.

Which engineered crop behind Japan's food supply does Shogo Makishima target in Psycho-Pass?

Hyper-oats are his target: ruin the harvest and Japan would be forced to open its borders for food. He kills the professor behind the crop to learn what he needs.

Which studio made the first Psycho-Pass series and returned for the third season and later films?

Production I.G wanted an heir to its earlier cyberpunk hits. Its president announced a second season himself at Anime Expo in 2013.

Which actor voices Shogo Makishima, then returns in Psycho-Pass 2 as Enforcer Sho Hinakawa?

Takahiro Sakurai said he did not know what fate awaited the villain until the finale's script arrived. One reviewer called his delivery creepily soothing.

Which rock band performed Abnormalize, the opening theme of the first eleven Psycho-Pass episodes?

Ling Tosite Sigure got the job when the staff, stuck for an opening theme, were handed some of the band's music. The group returned for the second season and the 2015 film.

Which duo, formed for Guilty Crown, sang both ending themes of the first Psycho-Pass series?

Egoist recorded three versions of the first ending so the staff could match each episode's close. The duo was back for Psycho-Pass 2 and the film Providence.

Which Psycho-Pass schoolgirl from Oso Academy later joins Unit One as a rookie Inspector?

Mika Shimotsuki lost friends to the academy's killer in season one. As an Inspector she looks down on Enforcers and often argues with Akane over procedure.

Which Psycho-Pass 2 villain can the Sibyl System not see because he is built from several people?

Kirito Kamui is in the end recognised by Sibyl as a collective mind rather than a single person. He also makes medication that keeps his supporters' readings low.

Which Public Safety Bureau chief in Psycho-Pass is really a cyborg controlled by the Sibyl System?

Joshu Kasei appears as an elderly woman, but the system speaks and acts through her as its avatar. She orders Makishima taken alive because his immunity interests her.

How does Akane Tsunemori stop Shinya Kogami from killing a kidnap victim on her first mission?

She shoots him, with her weapon set to paralyse rather than kill, and he wakes up in hospital. He later thanks her for stopping what could have been seen as murder.

With what does Shogo Makishima try to kill a trapped Nobuchika Ginoza late in Psycho-Pass?

Dynamite is his threat as Ginoza lies pinned under a container. Ginoza's father, a fellow member of Unit One, gives his own life to save him.

The first names of Psycho-Pass rivals Shinya Kogami and Shogo Makishima are opposite kinds of what?

Times of day set them apart: Shogo sounds like the Japanese word for midday and Shinya like the word for the dead of night, a contrast the director intended. Their clothes repeat it in white and black.

Which earlier anime by Psycho-Pass's head writer persuaded the chief director to seek him out?

Madoka Magica, in full Puella Magi Madoka Magica, fascinated Katsuyuki Motohiro, who wanted a charismatic scriptwriter for his return to anime and proposed working together in early 2011.

Which manga artist, creator of Reborn!, drew the original character designs for Psycho-Pass?

Akira Amano was asked for palatable, relatable faces to offset the dark setting. The world was built first and the cast second, and bright colours were avoided.

Which Fuji TV programming block first broadcast Psycho-Pass and its two sequel seasons?

Noitamina also ran café screenings, where more than 1,000 fans queued for the finale at a venue with room for only seventy.

Which Psycho-Pass analyst supports Unit One by sifting the data and evidence its officers send in?

Shion Karanomori works in the General Analysis Division, and in season three she is one of only two members left in the unit after a major overhaul.

Which former professor in Psycho-Pass gives Akane Tsunemori a crash course in criminal profiling?

Joji Saiga taught the Bureau's investigators until his lessons began raising their Crime Coefficients. In season one he lives in the countryside, away from Sibyl.

Which friend and right-hand man of Shogo Makishima dies trying to expose the truth about Sibyl?

Choe Gu-sung reaches the heart of the system during the riots, only to be killed there by the Bureau's chief. His death draws a rare sign of humanity from Makishima.

Which Oso Academy student in Psycho-Pass turns the bodies of classmates into grisly works of art?

Rikako Oryo heads the school's art club and kills under Makishima's guidance while he poses as a teacher. Once she is no use to him, another of his followers disposes of her.

Which near-total cyborg in Psycho-Pass stalks Shinya Kogami through an abandoned subway for sport?

Toyohisa Senguji lengthened his life by replacing his body, and hunts with a shotgun and canine drones. Kogami turns the tables and kills him.

Which Psycho-Pass 2 Enforcer, a former therapist, has the highest Crime Coefficient ever measured?

Sakuya Togane has already darkened the readings of Inspectors he served before. He keeps close watch on Akane, gathering data about her in his room.

Which risky procedure does Akane Tsunemori undergo to give the Bureau an image of Shogo Makishima?

A memory scoop rebuilds his face from her recollection of watching a friend die. She relives the trauma, yet her Psycho-Pass never reaches dangerous levels.

Which secret organisation in Psycho-Pass 3 uses a hidden AI to gamble on the outcome of real events?

Bifrost began as a secret debugging unit from the early days of the Sibyl System. Investors turned it into a way to profit from Sibyl's weak points.

Which rookie Inspector in Psycho-Pass 3 investigates with an empathic skill called the Mental Trace?

Arata Shindo was chosen by the jailed Akane Tsunemori as her successor. His partner is a childhood friend, and the two became Inspectors with a shared purpose.

Which Psycho-Pass film trilogy was made to fill the gap between the first movie and season three?

Sinners of the System tells three separate cases, each centred on different characters. The director also treated the trilogy as a trial run for making the third season.

Which North American licensor picked Psycho-Pass 2 as one of two shows to launch its weekly broadcast dubs?

Funimation launched its broadcast dubs in autumn 2014 with Psycho-Pass 2 and Laughing Under the Clouds, releasing English episodes weeks after Japan. It later gave the 2015 film a limited cinema run in the United States and Canada.

A 2019 Psycho-Pass film follows Shinya Kogami working as a freelance mercenary in which region?

The Himalayas and Tibet are where he rescues a busload of refugees. A girl among them asks him to train her for revenge, and he warns her off the path he once took.

In Psycho-Pass: The Movie, what are people with high Crime Coefficients abroad forced to wear?

Poison collars deliver a lethal dose to anyone who disobeys. A colonel explains that his country lacks the resources for the scanner guns used in Japan.

Which rogue paramilitary group do Akane Tsunemori and Shinya Kogami fight in Psycho-Pass Providence?

Peacebreakers began as a black-ops unit of the Foreign Affairs ministry that went rogue. They follow a fanatic devoted to an unseen figure he calls The General.

Which studio animated Psycho-Pass 2 in place of the company that made the first season?

Tatsunoko took over for the 2014 sequel, and Tow Ubukata replaced the original head writer. The season finished airing three weeks before the first film opened.

Which novel is Shinya Kogami reading on a boat at the very end of the first Psycho-Pass season?

In Search of Lost Time, Marcel Proust's novel, led fans to guess he had fled to France. The head writer would only say he might have travelled to different countries.

What do Psycho-Pass detectives call the unsolved murders that turned Shinya Kogami into an Enforcer?

The Specimen Case went cold three years before the series. Kogami later sees its shadow in new killings, but finds the copies lack the pointed social commentary of the originals.