BLOGGING PSYCHO PASS - Virtual Perfection
(Episode 5: Nobody Knows Your Face)
Just humor me. Spooky Boogie. Say it. Good.
Now… This episode I appreciate for its complexity. It really does approach a practical concern of most people in a fascinating almost alternate universe: how little you know about the person behind the screenname or avatar or whatever. You can identify with it. I find it so puzzling how passionate people can be about the virtual world so that reality does nothing for them. Or perhaps that’s what propels them into virtual worlds in the first place. But this guy - Mido - is definitely extreme. Even with his passion, how does he warrant killing people because he doesn’t like their acting skills?
Nevermind any of that though. This episode totally solidifies the fact that clearly Kougami and Ginoza run things in Unit 1. Officially that’s supposed to be Akane’s job but a lot of the series she just stands there staring at everyone. Kougami cannot repress his detective even as a dog. Which kind of addresses Akane’s observation of him in the last episode. He really is a tainted detective. It’s always intriguing to see how totally on point he is with a theory. And he’s highly confident in voicing his opinion whether or not it’s exactly his “place” to do so.
Akane is bringing me down with all of this moping business…
Another thing - they never seem to make a clear implication as to what happened to Melancholia’s… eh, owner? Operator? Whatever. They say the boy died in an accident but is this an accident they should be investigating or is it simply a random accident? I wish to know!
So since I’m taking a humanities class, it did not escape my notice when Mido told the avatars that they were the closest to Plato’s ideal Forms. If you guys aren’t familiar, I’m sure you can google it but this is my best summary of Plato’s Ideas. (See also The Allegory of the Cave.) Basically he believed in absolute perfection somewhere in the cosmos, but that it is not something man can achieve or create. Examples would be Love, Justice, Beauty, etc. Though they cannot be achieved, they do exist in that we can imagine or picture the Idea of them. We can define it even (think of perfect circles or infinite lines in math, etc.) but again, cannot create it. If you don’t (or have not) read the Allegory of the Cave, the point of it is this: we see only a dim shadow of the real thing.
And tying all of that into what Makishima told Mido before Kagari, Yayoi, and Ginoza arrived to kill him… I loved how Makishima revered Mido as being a brilliant actor, a fascinating specimen. He could take on many faces and forms and still be a nobody. Worse than a nobody. He was devoid of his own personality or life outside of the characters he played. The avatars were Mido’s attempt to attain to perfection, and see how easily it could all be taken away from him. And how far away from perfection he really was even though he felt so close. All of this philosophy just took my breath away this time though I hardly remember watching any of this last part before. (reading subtitles can be really demanding when they have a lot to say, lol). But yeah, I LOVED this part so much. Consequently I hate how much I love Makishima. :(
I was barely surprised to discover that Kougami was actually once an Inspector. Especially considering all of his detective work (in this episode in particular). It was just a matter of “when is somebody gonna say it?!”
Just humor me. Spooky Boogie. Say it. Good.
Now… This episode I appreciate for its complexity. It really does approach a practical concern of most people in a fascinating almost alternate universe: how little you know about the person behind the screenname or avatar or whatever. You can identify with it. I find it so puzzling how passionate people can be about the virtual world so that reality does nothing for them. Or perhaps that’s what propels them into virtual worlds in the first place. But this guy - Mido - is definitely extreme. Even with his passion, how does he warrant killing people because he doesn’t like their acting skills?
Nevermind any of that though. This episode totally solidifies the fact that clearly Kougami and Ginoza run things in Unit 1. Officially that’s supposed to be Akane’s job but a lot of the series she just stands there staring at everyone. Kougami cannot repress his detective even as a dog. Which kind of addresses Akane’s observation of him in the last episode. He really is a tainted detective. It’s always intriguing to see how totally on point he is with a theory. And he’s highly confident in voicing his opinion whether or not it’s exactly his “place” to do so.
Akane is bringing me down with all of this moping business…
Another thing - they never seem to make a clear implication as to what happened to Melancholia’s… eh, owner? Operator? Whatever. They say the boy died in an accident but is this an accident they should be investigating or is it simply a random accident? I wish to know!
So since I’m taking a humanities class, it did not escape my notice when Mido told the avatars that they were the closest to Plato’s ideal Forms. If you guys aren’t familiar, I’m sure you can google it but this is my best summary of Plato’s Ideas. (See also The Allegory of the Cave.) Basically he believed in absolute perfection somewhere in the cosmos, but that it is not something man can achieve or create. Examples would be Love, Justice, Beauty, etc. Though they cannot be achieved, they do exist in that we can imagine or picture the Idea of them. We can define it even (think of perfect circles or infinite lines in math, etc.) but again, cannot create it. If you don’t (or have not) read the Allegory of the Cave, the point of it is this: we see only a dim shadow of the real thing.
And tying all of that into what Makishima told Mido before Kagari, Yayoi, and Ginoza arrived to kill him… I loved how Makishima revered Mido as being a brilliant actor, a fascinating specimen. He could take on many faces and forms and still be a nobody. Worse than a nobody. He was devoid of his own personality or life outside of the characters he played. The avatars were Mido’s attempt to attain to perfection, and see how easily it could all be taken away from him. And how far away from perfection he really was even though he felt so close. All of this philosophy just took my breath away this time though I hardly remember watching any of this last part before. (reading subtitles can be really demanding when they have a lot to say, lol). But yeah, I LOVED this part so much. Consequently I hate how much I love Makishima. :(
I was barely surprised to discover that Kougami was actually once an Inspector. Especially considering all of his detective work (in this episode in particular). It was just a matter of “when is somebody gonna say it?!”