Psycho-Pass 2 is the second season following the original Psycho-Pass, but reduces the number of episodes to only 11. It is set in the distant future of approximately 2113, directly after the events of the first season. In this future, a type of complex software called the Sibyl System can continually perform "Psycho-Pass" assessments of all people through scanners set about in the city. These assessments reveal a person's crime coefficient which is their aptitude for likelihood to commit crimes. Having a coefficient higher than regulation means that they will be captured before they can commit their crimes. Their coefficients are also affected by the person's feelings. The result is a society where theoretically, there is no fear of crimes since people will be apprehended before they can commit any serious sins.
All the characters from the first season return, and once again, it stars Akane Tsunemori who is now the lead Inspector of Division 1 of the Criminal Investigation Division. Akane is responsible for bringing the latent criminals in before they can cause any significant damage to the population. To aid in her job, she has Enforcers under her who does all the dirty work, since they're already latent criminals with no way of recovering. They are provided weapons called Dominators which can quickly determine a target's "Psycho-Pass" and determine whether they need to be paralyzed, killed or protected by locking the trigger. A slew of new characters are introduced to the team, including the rookie inspector Mika Shimotsuki. Unfortunately, Mika is a dislikeable character who is the complete opposite of Akane in terms of ideas and personality.
With Mika, you might think that she only acts that way in the beginning and will slowly warm up to Akane's methods but she remains this way the whole way through the season. Mika blindly follows the system without questioning to the extent that it becomes a fault. Mika ends up being the character that is a hindrance to Akane's job. Naturally, there is a new villain and mystery. We have another "ghost" villain who isn't affected by the conventional detection methods of the Sibyl System and most of the season is spent uncovering how they are managing this and what their motives are. However, it continues to explore the concepts introduced in the first season and goes very philosophical at times when considering the psychological effects of such a system. If you felt that the first season's feelings of helplessness were frustrating then Psycho-Pass 2 is even worse.
During this season, there are people who doesn't need the helmets to keep their crime coefficients low and their "Psycho-Pass" clear, so they aren't able to be stopped within the normal means. These perpetrators hunt other people with the police not being able to do anything since they're so tied to their Dominators. While there are plausible explanations provided on why the Dominators cannot just be overriden, the helplessness is so overpowering. There are various scenes which are quite gory and demented, even more so than the first season with a lot of horrifying scenarios. At least the main villain isn't as twisted as Makishima from the first season but there will be plenty of times where you wonder how the villains are justifying their actions and what the point was.
Once you get past the episodes where the characters are as clueless as the viewers and the investigation gains traction, it is hard to pull away from the series. The revelations are big and it gets intense. Thanks to the lower episode count, the pacing is much quickly with the final two episodes where everything finally comes out, including the true motives of the villain, makes it a satisfying ending. There were times where you wonder whether the series could resolve all the plot points it had introduced but it manages to do just that, leading them together into the one conclusion, making it a pretty epic ending. Overall, Psycho-Pass 2 continues the same heavy and philosophical themes of the original, which is to say, an engaging anime. While the villain may arguably not be as memorable, there were plenty of fantastic moments of revelation and other moments of not-so-great scenes of helplessness and death.
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