Plot Summary:
The MWPSB discover that Spooky Boogie became victim to the same hijacker that took over Talisman. After Shion discovers another similar case in another CommuField, Shinya analyzes the data of all three CommuFields together, (Talisman, Spooky Boogie, and Rainy Blue), and identifies the culprit, who was an active fan of all three "idols". The MWPSB then proceeds to eliminate the hijacker. Although the hijacker's intentions for committing his crimes are revealed, the intentions of the puppet master, Makishima, remain hidden.
Plot Details:
A crack has formed in the relationship between Akane and Spooky Boogie due to the raid of Club Exoset. Spooky Boogy states clearly to Akane that she will not work with the police or even her as a friend any longer.
Talisman continues give advice in the "Talisman Saloon", which is continuously packed with users. Talisman's actions confuse the MWPSB because he is socializing with other users as if he doesn't care about getting caught by the police. Thus, Talisman's goals are extremely unclear; if his goal is to make it seem as if Kimihiko Hayama is still alive, he would not have left his bank account untouched as well as ignore the record of him not leaving the apartment over two months. Moreover, if his intention was to hijack Hayama's avatar just for fun, it would seem unlikely that such a person would commit murder in order to do so. Things get even more confusing when we bring up the fact that the hijacker obviously prepared for any kind of retaliation from the police beforehand, which was shown in the events of the last episode. It is clear that the hijacker spent extra time to hack into the Holo-Cosplay system in Club Exoset in order to avoid any kind of mishap such as a police raid.
The hijacker's confident and seemingly careless actions cause Shinya to think that simply tracing his access routes would most likely be meaningless, since the hijacker is most likely confident in covering his steps. Instead, he looks for another way to trace him.
While Shinya goes over the chat between Akane and Spooky Boogie, Mazaoka and Akane have a brief philosophical chat regarding the usefulness of the internet.
Shinya discovers a clue in the chat log between Akane and Spooky Boogie; Spooky Boogie uses the word "police" instead of "MWPSB", which indicates a change in her word choice after the previous chat. Checking Spooky Boogie's past logs confirms that the change in word choice is not a coincidence. This leads Shinya to believe that Spooky Boogie is being operated by a different person; a hijacker.
Meanwhile, Ginoza, Kagori, and Yayoi locate Talisman's hijacker and raid his place of operation. They are met with a booby trap. A bomb explodes, slightly injuring only Ginoza.
Shortly after, the hijacker receives a call under the name Chloe Gu-Sung, who asks the hijacker if he would like to continue with his actions. The hijacker replies saying that it is his duty. Gu-Sung replies saying that he is not surprised, since the hijacker is Mr. Makishima's favorite. After he hangs up, it is shown that the hijacker has injecting himself with some sort of drug.
Shinya, Akane, and Mazaoka discover Spooky Boogie's identity by looking up Akane's classmates and narrowing the possibilities down to those who had an affiliate income. The identity is confirmed to be someone by the name of Shoko Sugawara after visiting her place and finding her body parts in the sewer.
Akane becomes depressed and blames Sugawara's death on herself, since she believes she herself got Sugawara involved with the case. However, Shinya comforts her, saying that it was in fact not her fault .
Shion discovers another strange case within the internet. A large and active CommuField named Melancholia's Rainy Blue was owned by an 88-year-old man who lended the room and his avatar to his 14-year-old grandson, Yuichi Tokito. Shion discovered that the grandson died in an accident half a year ago. Yet, his avatar is still active. It is confirmed that the grandfather was not using the avatar since he did not even know how to enter the social network. Moreover, he thought the affiliate income he was receiving was his pension.
Akane comments that she is astonished by the acting abilities of the hijacker, since he or she is able to not only control so many avatars at once, but able to control them "better", since the popularity of all the hijacked avatars has increased after their original user's deaths. Shinya replies by saying that it is actually only natural by the definition of an idol that a fan would be able to act as the idol better than the idol him or herself. This then leads Shinya to suspect that the hijacker is a fan of all three of the hijacked avatars.
Shinya narrows down the culprit by first asking Shion to draw a graph of the time spent in the Talisman Saloon. by the top 100 active fans per day. After Talisman's reputation went down, many of the active users shown went down on the graph. However, when Talisman's reputation went back up, only a few of the active users did not go back up the graph, (did not start spending time in the Talisman Saloon again). It is only natural that the culprit would be one of these people, since he did not need a regular guest avatar to visit the Talisman Saloon anymore, (because he was operating Talisman).
Shion finds only one person who fit the same activity pattern in Talisman's CommuField within both Spooky Boogie's Commufield and Melancholia's Rainy Blue. The culprit is identified as Masatake Mido, a 27-year-old man who works at a virtual sports manager company. Mazaoka confirms the culprits identity by checking his last Psycho-Pass Hue Check, which was 4 years ago at an annual checkup. This means that Mido spend 4 years avoiding street scanners on a daily basis. Shion traces his access records, and finds out that his last access to the internet came from a budget hotel in Roppongi, Minato Ward. She then looks up his home address, which is Motoazabu, in the same ward. Ginoza commands Akane, Shinya, and Mazaoka to raid the hotel room, while he, Kagari, and Kunizuka raid Mido's home.
Shinya, Akane, and Mazaoka raid the hotel room, where Mido is hiding. Mido activates a booby trap created by hacking into the Interior Holo which distorts everyone's vision in the hotel room as well as in the hallway. Mido uses the oppurtunity to run out into the hallway and escape.
Mazaoka, who came prepared for such an incident, uses Shinya's lighter to spew fire on the ceiling sprinklers with a bottle of alcohol that he brought. The activated sprinklers causes the Interior Holo to shut down, revealing Mido in the hallway. Shinya quickly shoots Mido with his Dominator, but only destroys his arm. Mido runs quickly away regardless, since he has been taking pain inhibiting drugs.
Mido runs back to his home to meet his avatars. After briefly comforting himself in their presence, the avatars are taken over by Makishima, who reveals that he lent his power to Mido because he was interested in Mido's own personality. However, Makishima concluded that Mido, in the end, had no personality of his own, and could thus never create his own ideas that weren't borrowed from others. Just before Ginoza, Kagari, and Kunizuka arrive at the scene, Makishima shuts down the Interior Holo and avatars, leaving Mido alone in his room in a deranged state. Regardless, they proceed to mercilessly eliminate him.
Afterwards, Akane and Ginoza have a chat on a balcony back at the headquarters. Akane states that although Shinya is a latent criminal, he is certainly different from other criminals like Mido. Ginoza simply replies by saying that she should separate herself with a fine line from the Enforcers. He then gives Akane his reasoning for having such an ironclad rule by sending Akane a file from the Personnel Department. The file reveals that Shinya used to be an Inspector working beside Ginoza. However, his CC increased after an unsolved case, MWPSB Special Case 102, ended. During and after that case, Shinya refused to received treatment therapy, causing his CC to increase to the point where he was demoted to a latent criminal, and thus, an Enforcer.
Philosophy of the Internet
The following is a rough translation of the conversation between Akane and Masaoka.
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MASAOKA: I can't really figure out stuff like avatars and virtual worlds. I mean after all, it's our bodies that actually breathe, sweat, and eat, right?
AKANE: Mr. Masaoka, I think people like you are an endangered species. Isn't using the net just like using knives for cooking or using paper to write things down? It has nothing to do with good or bad. It simply exists, so we accept it and use it.
MASAOKA: As expected, you're good at explaining things. You're like a teacher.
AKANE: Really?
MASAOKA: Do you know Roseau?
AKANE: You mean the philosopher?
MASAOKA: Yeah, and his work, "A Discourse on Ineqaulity."
AKANE: Hold on a second, please. I'll look it up.
MASAOKA: You don't need to. It's recorded in my brain. For example, suppose there are two hunters in a forest. Should they hunt for rabbits separately, or should they work together and go after bigger prey? Which decision do you think is correct?
AKANE: Of course the latter is! That's the basics of game theory. You work together to catch bigger prey.
MASAOKA: That's right, humans are social by nature. Languages, letters, currencies, telephones, all the communication tools that exist in the world are there in order to strengthen that social nature. Do you think the net has the same effect, missy?
AKANE: Yes... I think it does.
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So, Masaoka proposes this important question,
Does the internet strengthen our social nature?
Of course, he's implying that it is possible that the internet doesn't improve our social nature, as language, letters, and telephones might. But could this really be true?
To begin, we should first look at where Masaoka's way of thinking is stemming from, which he admits to be Rousseau's A Discourse on Inequality.
If you would like to understand Masaoka's way of thinking on a deeper level, I suggest you read A Discourse on Inequality and study it yourself, but I will briefly summarize it here.
In A Discourse on Inequality, Rousseau discusses primarily the origin of moral inequality, which he claims to be unnatural. The following is my definition of moral inequality from Rousseau's perspective.
moral inequality - differences of unnatural political power between different men, e.g. wealth, status, and class; in which one man benefits at the expense of another.
This definition of moral inequality as well as his observations of humans led Rousseau to believe in a phenomenon he calls Amour Propre. The following is my definition of Amoure Propre from Rousseau's perspective.
Amour Propre - acute awareness towards oneself in relation to others, i.e. comparing oneself to others.
Amour Propre is considered by Rousseau to be a harmful psychological deformation in the civilized humans, because he believes that the truly natural humans, (we'll call them "true" humans), who existed before the rise in moral inequality, only knows how to "be", and not how to appear.
Is comparing oneself to others truly a psychological deformation that is only harmful? For the sake of argument, let's just say for now that it is. After all, it goes without saying that because of Amour Propre, many humans go about their lives not only lying to others, but lying to themselves about who they really are; all because they wish to be a "good" person when comparing themselves to others. We see this especially more than ever in today's society; all we have to do is turn on the TV for surf the internet.
Now that I've briefly summarized Rousseau's concept of moral inequality, how does Masaoka connect Rousseau's philosophy with the internet? What would Rousseau say about the internet if he were still alive?
Let's look at the initial question one more time.
Does the internet strengthen our social nature?
Does the internet have the same effect that other communication mediums like language, letters, and telephones have?
Akane would say it does, given her initial response in the beginning of the conversation.
Akane's point seems to be sound; the internet is a tool that exists only beecause humans created it for a function that would serve them by enhancing their communication. Thus, it cannot be said to be good or evil.
But why does Masaoka believe that this point is wrong, (or not completely correct?)
Masaoka and Akane both agree on the basics of game theory, which explains that humans must socially cooperate with each other in order to become stronger. (Rousseau agrees with this as well). But does the internet have the same effect as Akane would say it does?
Well we certainly know the positive effects of the internet, which include the ability to send and receive data more quickly than any other communication tool. In this sense, the internet is a fantastic tool that undoubtedly allows humans to become stronger, since it allows them to socially cooperate with each other and solve problems that seemed impossible to handle before its creation.
For example, because of the internet, humans have achieved the feat of communicating with each other world-wide, sharing cultures and ideas with each other in order to learn more about the universe they live in!
However, the story does not end there, or rather, that's not all there is to do the story. What else is the internet providing its users to do?
When Masaoka started the conversation, he mentioned the key term avatars. I think that the root of the problem Masaoka has with the internet lies in this very term.
What is an avatar?
The following is a definition collected from Wikipedia.
avatar (computing) - the graphical representation of the (internet) user or the user's alter ego or character.
The key term is this: graphical representation, i.e. appearance.
What does this term imply?
What it implies is appearance, as opposed to being. According to Rousseau, the "true" human can only be, and not appear. Therefore, if the internet is a tool that allows humans to no be themselves, then it is a tool that allows humans to deviate from being a "true" human; and thus, become "less" human. In this sense, the internet is a tool that in fact, does not strengthen our social nature, but destroys it, since it causes humans to socialize with others without being our true selves.
Now you might be saying, "But that's because humans made that decision to lie to themselves on their own! The internet did not force them to do anything!" And this would be true. However, it depends on how you look at the question. Does the internet strengthen our social nature? Well, the answer to that question is that it both can and can't, depending on the individual's decision. In the end, i believe that both Akane and Masaoka are right. Of course, you can be a smart human being and know how to use the internet in a way that will strengthen your social nature, but let's get realistic. Most people aren't like that, and Masaoka knows that all too well. In this sense, the internet is something that inhibits our social nature from growing.
The majority of people will in fact abuse the internet due to Rousseau's phenomenon known as Amour Propre, but of course, that's only what I believe. You may have a different opinion. This is a very touchy topic after all.
I hope that Urobuchi goes more in depth on this topic throughout his further episodes.
The Philosophy of Guilt and Blame
The following is a rough translation of the conversation between Akane, Shinya, and Masaoka, when Akane becomes depressed over the fact that Sugawara was killed because of her involvement with the police; an involvement that Akane believes she initiated.
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AKANE: Because of me... [Sugawara] got dragged into this. It was my fault... because of me...
MASAOKA: Missy...
SHINYA: Did you use Spooky Boogie as a decoy?
AKANE: No...
SHINYA: Did you force her to cooperate?
AKANE: No...
SHINYA: Did you leak information from her about the enemy?
AKANE: No....
SHINYA: Then what exactly is your fault?
AKANE: That's... But she actually got...
SHINYA: Yeah, if we had caught the culprit last night, Sugawara Shoko didn't have to die. The responsibility for that lies with all of us. For now, just think about fulfilling your responsibilities. Let's catch this guy.
MASAOKA: In short, that's the only thing we can do to enable the victims to rest in peace.
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Many of us have probably heard similar conversations like this before either in daily life or other stories in general. So it shouldn't be anything new. Still, it's good to clarify where we think our philosophy lies regarding guilt and blame.
With that said, let's quickly try and answer this question,
Is Akane at fault for the death of Sugawara?
According to Akane, Sugawara's death is her fault since she is the one who initiated the conversation between Sugawara and herself, introducing the MWPSB's affairs to Sugawara.
While it's obvious that Sugawara might never have been murdered if Akane hadn't conversed with Sugawara about the police's affairs, it doesn't mean that Akane was the cause of Sugawara's death. This is because it was only logical for Akane to investiage Sugawara's CommuField due to the nature of her job. However, Akane ignore this logic.
Besides going to Sugawara's CommuField, which she did only by the nature of her job as an investigator of crime, Akane did not do anything to involve Sugawara within the MWPSB's affairs. As Shinya clearly stated, she did not use Spooky Boogie as a decoy, she did not force her to cooperate whatsoever, and she did not leak information from her about the enemy. Thus, Akane cannot be at fault for her initial involvement.
HOWEVER, Akane, as well as the rest of the MWPSB did in fact fail to handle the raid in Club Exoset in a professional manner, which otherwise could have prevented Sugawara's murder. Thus, it can be said that the entire MWPSB is at fault equally among each other. But there is no reason for Akane to blame only herself.
I feel like a lawyer here.
The Definition of "Idols" and "Fans" and their Relationship Between Each Other
The following is the roughly translated conversation between the Inspectors and Enforcers when they gather to discuss their next move.
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GINOZA: Is it even possible to operate several different Avatars at the same time?
SHION: It's not impossible for heavy users, right?
AKANE: What's abnormal here is the acting abilities of this culprit. Not only are these hijacked avatars not incurring suspicion, they're more popular than when their real owners operated them.
GINOZA: Why is it then that tens of thousands of users don't notice they're fake?
SHINYA: Because it's not a matter of real or fake. These avatars are idols on the net. In other words, icons. Icons cannot exist solely through their own will. Neither Hayama nor Sugawara established their status on their own. They were able to become Talisman and Spooky Boogie because their fans idolized them based on their own distorted perceptions. The idols' true feelings and their true colors are not the same as the ideals their characters represents. It's not surprising that a fan could do a better job than the real owners of playing the idol fans expect to see.
MASAOKA: Are you saying that the culprit is one of their fans?
SHINYA: Melancholia, Talisman, Spooky Boogie, he knows those three characters very well and can imitate them perfectly. The real culprit is someone whose levels of activity matches that enthusiasm.
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Shinya puts a very nice definition on the word "icon" that I do not hear very often.
The following is my definition from Shinya's perspective.
icon - a being whose ideals are based on the various perceptions of its audience.
This view on the word "icon" is particularly interesting because whenever I think of the word icon, I think of someone whose original ideas were so great that he inspired many others to believe in the same exact ideas.
However, I've now come to understand that this is actually a misconception.
You might be saying, "Well what's the difference?", but I think there is a big difference, and Urobuchi clearly thinks so too.
Look again at what Shinya says about idols.
This is the main distinction between the two definitions. This is why the first definition is actually a misconception. It is not that an audience has taken in the same exact ideas of the icon, but it is that the audience has perceived the icon's ideas as something of their own, i.e. in their own way. And what this means is that it is actually impossible for the original idea of an icon to transfer to its audience. Due to subjectivity and variations in thought and personality between any two human beings on earth, every original idea will be twisted or just simply different in some way between every person.
With that said, the original ideas that an icon might project to its audience may be taken differently by the general audience. What this means is that while an idol may think that his or her audience is perceiving his or her ideas in its generally whole form, it may not be the case. Moreover, if a fan within the audience understands how the audience is perceiving the idol's original ideas more than the idol him or herself, then it is more than possible for that single fan to do a "better" job at being the idol than the idol him or herself.
And this is the very case presented in Psycho-Pass, where the hijacker of all three "idols" understood the idols better than they understood themselves.
Those Without Personality
The following is the roughly translated conversation between Mido and Makishima, who speaks through the hijacked avatars.
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MIDO: You guys are eternal... You were released from the chains of a physical body and polished by collective intelligence. You're the souls most close to Plato's "idea". No one can look down on you. I won't let anyone destroy your nobility. I will... I will protect it at any cost. Once I was guided by you... Now, together with you, I will guide people and the world! You are eternal!
MAKISHIMA: But... couldn't you have done a better job, Mido?
MIDO: Wait a second... what on earth....?
MAKISHIMA: There's something that I've been searching for that I want to know. For that purpose, I did whatever it took. Say, have you read Shuji Terayama?
MIDO: Huh? Terayama?
MAKISHIMA: You should read his play, "Saraba, eigo yo." It seems like everyone is an agent for someone. And further, those agents have their avatars communicate in place of them.
MIDO: Are you... Makishima?
MAKISHIMA: You have thorough knowledge of various avatars and imitate them perfectly. You can become anyone, so I was very interested in what your personality was like. That's why I lent you my people and my assistance.
MIDO: Stop it! Give them back to me! Don't speak in their voices!
MAKISHIMA: But... I now see matters coming to a close. At least for the end, instead of using a borrowed idea, why don't you come up with an idea of your own to close the curtain?
MIDO: You bastard...! What are you doing-!
MAKISHIMA: You can play any character, and yet, in the end, it turned out that you yourself are nobody. Your core personality is null, empty. You don't have a face of your own. Since you lacked a face, you were simply able to wear any kind of mask.
MIDO: Shut up! Stop it!
MAKISHIMA: It's about time to say goodbye, Mido Masatake. The hunting dogs that bring death have arrived.
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This scene has to be one of the most intense scenes I have ever seen. The music, animation, voice acting... they were all perfect. However... when you add all of that to the grave philosophy and social commentary that lies beneath it all... all I can say is that I get chills down my spine whenever I think about it.
The philosophy behind this scene also is a direct follow-up from the conversation between Akane and Masaoka regarding the internet, and whether or not it is actually promoting the social strength of humans. (It also relates to Shinya's definition of an "icon".) Perhaps we can find Urobuchi's opinion on the matter by analyzing Mido's character in this scene.
Let's begin processing this scene by looking at Makishima's question, or challenge rather, proposed to Mido.
Can Mido do such a thing? Is it within Mido's capabilities, within his personality even, to come up with an idea of his own?
We discussed earlier about the social significance of the internet and the problem of avatars regarding Amour Propre. By controlling these avatars, humans are pressured into comparing themselves to others due to Amour Propre. And because of this pressure, (of keeping a good appearance), humans tend to create avatars, i.e. characters of themselves that don't truly represent themselves.
Mido is such a character. As a fanatic fan of Talisman, Spooky Boogie, and Melancholia, he completely disregarded his own being for the sake of his idols. He cared more about these icons than himself, and dedicated his life to bringing these icons to life.
But why the dedication? Why does Mido care about these icons so much? They're not even human! Let's try to understand what Mido finds in these icons that are so powerful; powerful enough to give up his own life for.
We should start by analyzing Mido's statements about the icons at the end of Episode 5.
It can certainly be said that avatars are eternal in a sense... especially when compared to the life span of a single human being. Unlike a human, an avatar exists for as long as the data and collective intelligence that holds it together exists, (just think of an avatar as a robot, except it exists only over the internet).
But this isn't a new concept; we've heard about robots for long time now, and we understand the basic concept of robots being able to outlive humans, since they don't require a healthy physical body which degrades over time no matter what. However, what's most interesting about Mido's statement is his comparison of his avatars to Plato's "idea".
For those of you who don't know about Plato's "idea", it is fairly simple. The "ideas" Plato and Mido are talking about are basically the elements, or truths of this world. Plato believed that in this universe full of transient things, there has to be some things that aren't transient. We can support this assumption by looking at math for example; 2 + 2 will always equal 4 no matter what world we travel to. Therefore, that math equation can be considered to be a truth. It is this kind of truth that Plato and Mido are searching for.
So why is Mido referring to his hijacked avatars as things that are closest to Plato's idea? Well for one, we already know that they can be considered to be eternal, (as stated three paragraphs up), and a truth or "idea" must be eternal.
However, being eternal itself is useless. There has to be some way in which an "idea" affects how we live in order for it to be important to us. This is probably where Mido finds the beauty in his avatars; look at his statement again.
And so, Mido states his purpose behind all of his previous actions, (and crimes).
Mido's wish is to lead the world with his avatars, or "ideas".
Why would Mido want the world to be led by avatars? I can only assume the reason why he would want this is because he has lost his faith in human reason, which has clearly proven to be mainly evil and corrupted throughout the course of history. I believe that as a solution to such corruption, Mido wishes to make avatars as the leaders of the world, instead of humans.
Why would avatars be a solution? Well, if Mido is correct in stating that his avatars are the closest possible things to Plato's "ideas", then it would only seem logical for us to accept guidance from them, since an "idea" is equal to truth. It is as if we would be allowing the very truth to guide us; doesn't that seem like a splendid idea?
But are Mido's avatars indeed things that are closest to Plato's idea? And if they are, would we really want to be guided by them? I could state arguments from both sides but that would take a whole other philosophical essay, so I won't right now. Hopefully Urobuchi will touch upon this subject again in another episode.
Now that we understand Mido's intentions, let's look at what Makishima thinks about him. Because clearly, Makishima is very interested in Mido.
Unfortunately, I cannot relate Shuji Tereyama to Makishima's thoughts about Mido right now because I do not know of Shuji Tereyama or his work. (If someone could tell me what the English name of his play is, it would help a lot!)
All I know is that Makishima mentions the concept of everyone seeming to be an agent for someone or something else, and that agent creates an avatar to communicate for him or herself.
It's easy to understand the concept of every person being an agent of his or her own ideas and philosophies, but what about the concept of every person creating his or her own avatar?
Once again, Urobuchi is referring to Rousseau and his idea of Amour Propre, (one's awareness of himself in comparison to others.) I believe that the "avatars" Makishima is talking about refers to appearances, or "masks" that people set up for themselves when they go out in public or browse the internet.
With that said, Urobuchi is making a social commentary on the effect that the internet has on humans, which I actually already covered before when I was discussing the philosophy of the internet. But I will briefly discuss it once again here.
Basically, Mido represents the typical human who is socially affected by the internet. By using the internet as his tool, Mido created, (whoops, I mean hijacked, but the concept still applies), different avatars, or appearances for himself. And as a result, he has forgotten who he is himself.
I think I can confirm now that Urobuchi has a cynical opinion towards the internet, and how it affects humans socially. But I also believe he makes very good points to support his position, which is a position I support as well.
Although I agree with what Akane said earlier, I also believe that the internet is in fact, impacting humans as a whole in a more negative manner. I see it in every day life; people these days, (at least in the US), seem to be more obsessed with material possessions and things that are rather shallow, instead of the things that are unseen as well as the things that tend to mean much more. And when I try to analyze the personalities of a lot of these people, (try to look at these people behind their "avatars", or "masks"), I usually don't see much.
But let me stop myself before I go on a rant about all the social problems of our society. If you would like to speak more of the subject, please send me a message or comment below!
Episode Flaws
The following are my opinion and my opinion only!
1) It is never ruled out by the MWPSB that there could have possibly been more than one hijacker acting in a team, which is clearly unrealistic. What made them assume for the entire two episodes that there was just one hijacker taking over all three avatars? In fact, before this episode, I myself thought that there was a team of hijackers acting under Makishima as his puppets.
2) After Mazaoka disables the Interior Holo during the hotel raid, Mido is seen standing in the same spot in the hallway staring at Shinya as he was when he first began running about a good 20 seconds before. If this were more realistic, he would've already left the hallway, since he was given a 20 seconds to escape.
3) When Mido is shot in the arm, only his arm is destroyed. Yet, when the criminal from the first episode was shot in the arm, his whole body exploded! You might say that this inconsistency was due to the drugs that Mido was taking, but those were only supposed to be pain inhibiting drugs and nothing else. You can also say that he was running away and that the criminal from the first episode was just standing there, but I really doubt that the incredible power of that gun can be inhibited by simply flailing your arms...
Episode Overview
Overall, Episode 5 of Psycho-Pass is a very good episode! I seriously have not seen such a tight episode in a long time. Within a simple 20 minutes or so, Urobuchi managed to discuss with us at least 4 different topics of philosophy that I find extremely intriguing. Moreover, it really makes me excited for the future episodes, because I really wish to see more of what Urobuchi thinks about today's modern society.
Not many Animes or movies or TV shows in general are tackling the same subject that Urobuchi is tackling. And even if there are some out there, (and yes, I am aware of them, like Ghost in the Shell and Minority Report), they are not as recent as Psycho-Pass is. A lot has changed in the years leading up to 2012, along with the internet. So if you're looking for an Anime that discusses the philosophies of the internet as of 2012, Psycho-Pass is definitely your Anime to watch.
The MWPSB discover that Spooky Boogie became victim to the same hijacker that took over Talisman. After Shion discovers another similar case in another CommuField, Shinya analyzes the data of all three CommuFields together, (Talisman, Spooky Boogie, and Rainy Blue), and identifies the culprit, who was an active fan of all three "idols". The MWPSB then proceeds to eliminate the hijacker. Although the hijacker's intentions for committing his crimes are revealed, the intentions of the puppet master, Makishima, remain hidden.
Plot Details:
A crack has formed in the relationship between Akane and Spooky Boogie due to the raid of Club Exoset. Spooky Boogy states clearly to Akane that she will not work with the police or even her as a friend any longer.
Talisman continues give advice in the "Talisman Saloon", which is continuously packed with users. Talisman's actions confuse the MWPSB because he is socializing with other users as if he doesn't care about getting caught by the police. Thus, Talisman's goals are extremely unclear; if his goal is to make it seem as if Kimihiko Hayama is still alive, he would not have left his bank account untouched as well as ignore the record of him not leaving the apartment over two months. Moreover, if his intention was to hijack Hayama's avatar just for fun, it would seem unlikely that such a person would commit murder in order to do so. Things get even more confusing when we bring up the fact that the hijacker obviously prepared for any kind of retaliation from the police beforehand, which was shown in the events of the last episode. It is clear that the hijacker spent extra time to hack into the Holo-Cosplay system in Club Exoset in order to avoid any kind of mishap such as a police raid.
The hijacker's confident and seemingly careless actions cause Shinya to think that simply tracing his access routes would most likely be meaningless, since the hijacker is most likely confident in covering his steps. Instead, he looks for another way to trace him.
While Shinya goes over the chat between Akane and Spooky Boogie, Mazaoka and Akane have a brief philosophical chat regarding the usefulness of the internet.
Meanwhile, Ginoza, Kagori, and Yayoi locate Talisman's hijacker and raid his place of operation. They are met with a booby trap. A bomb explodes, slightly injuring only Ginoza.
Shortly after, the hijacker receives a call under the name Chloe Gu-Sung, who asks the hijacker if he would like to continue with his actions. The hijacker replies saying that it is his duty. Gu-Sung replies saying that he is not surprised, since the hijacker is Mr. Makishima's favorite. After he hangs up, it is shown that the hijacker has injecting himself with some sort of drug.
Shinya, Akane, and Mazaoka discover Spooky Boogie's identity by looking up Akane's classmates and narrowing the possibilities down to those who had an affiliate income. The identity is confirmed to be someone by the name of Shoko Sugawara after visiting her place and finding her body parts in the sewer.
Akane becomes depressed and blames Sugawara's death on herself, since she believes she herself got Sugawara involved with the case. However, Shinya comforts her, saying that it was in fact not her fault .
Shion discovers another strange case within the internet. A large and active CommuField named Melancholia's Rainy Blue was owned by an 88-year-old man who lended the room and his avatar to his 14-year-old grandson, Yuichi Tokito. Shion discovered that the grandson died in an accident half a year ago. Yet, his avatar is still active. It is confirmed that the grandfather was not using the avatar since he did not even know how to enter the social network. Moreover, he thought the affiliate income he was receiving was his pension.
Akane comments that she is astonished by the acting abilities of the hijacker, since he or she is able to not only control so many avatars at once, but able to control them "better", since the popularity of all the hijacked avatars has increased after their original user's deaths. Shinya replies by saying that it is actually only natural by the definition of an idol that a fan would be able to act as the idol better than the idol him or herself. This then leads Shinya to suspect that the hijacker is a fan of all three of the hijacked avatars.
Shinya narrows down the culprit by first asking Shion to draw a graph of the time spent in the Talisman Saloon. by the top 100 active fans per day. After Talisman's reputation went down, many of the active users shown went down on the graph. However, when Talisman's reputation went back up, only a few of the active users did not go back up the graph, (did not start spending time in the Talisman Saloon again). It is only natural that the culprit would be one of these people, since he did not need a regular guest avatar to visit the Talisman Saloon anymore, (because he was operating Talisman).
Shion finds only one person who fit the same activity pattern in Talisman's CommuField within both Spooky Boogie's Commufield and Melancholia's Rainy Blue. The culprit is identified as Masatake Mido, a 27-year-old man who works at a virtual sports manager company. Mazaoka confirms the culprits identity by checking his last Psycho-Pass Hue Check, which was 4 years ago at an annual checkup. This means that Mido spend 4 years avoiding street scanners on a daily basis. Shion traces his access records, and finds out that his last access to the internet came from a budget hotel in Roppongi, Minato Ward. She then looks up his home address, which is Motoazabu, in the same ward. Ginoza commands Akane, Shinya, and Mazaoka to raid the hotel room, while he, Kagari, and Kunizuka raid Mido's home.
Shinya, Akane, and Mazaoka raid the hotel room, where Mido is hiding. Mido activates a booby trap created by hacking into the Interior Holo which distorts everyone's vision in the hotel room as well as in the hallway. Mido uses the oppurtunity to run out into the hallway and escape.
Mazaoka, who came prepared for such an incident, uses Shinya's lighter to spew fire on the ceiling sprinklers with a bottle of alcohol that he brought. The activated sprinklers causes the Interior Holo to shut down, revealing Mido in the hallway. Shinya quickly shoots Mido with his Dominator, but only destroys his arm. Mido runs quickly away regardless, since he has been taking pain inhibiting drugs.
Mido runs back to his home to meet his avatars. After briefly comforting himself in their presence, the avatars are taken over by Makishima, who reveals that he lent his power to Mido because he was interested in Mido's own personality. However, Makishima concluded that Mido, in the end, had no personality of his own, and could thus never create his own ideas that weren't borrowed from others. Just before Ginoza, Kagari, and Kunizuka arrive at the scene, Makishima shuts down the Interior Holo and avatars, leaving Mido alone in his room in a deranged state. Regardless, they proceed to mercilessly eliminate him.
Afterwards, Akane and Ginoza have a chat on a balcony back at the headquarters. Akane states that although Shinya is a latent criminal, he is certainly different from other criminals like Mido. Ginoza simply replies by saying that she should separate herself with a fine line from the Enforcers. He then gives Akane his reasoning for having such an ironclad rule by sending Akane a file from the Personnel Department. The file reveals that Shinya used to be an Inspector working beside Ginoza. However, his CC increased after an unsolved case, MWPSB Special Case 102, ended. During and after that case, Shinya refused to received treatment therapy, causing his CC to increase to the point where he was demoted to a latent criminal, and thus, an Enforcer.
Philosophy of the Internet
The following is a rough translation of the conversation between Akane and Masaoka.
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MASAOKA: I can't really figure out stuff like avatars and virtual worlds. I mean after all, it's our bodies that actually breathe, sweat, and eat, right?
AKANE: Mr. Masaoka, I think people like you are an endangered species. Isn't using the net just like using knives for cooking or using paper to write things down? It has nothing to do with good or bad. It simply exists, so we accept it and use it.
MASAOKA: As expected, you're good at explaining things. You're like a teacher.
AKANE: Really?
MASAOKA: Do you know Roseau?
AKANE: You mean the philosopher?
MASAOKA: Yeah, and his work, "A Discourse on Ineqaulity."
AKANE: Hold on a second, please. I'll look it up.
MASAOKA: You don't need to. It's recorded in my brain. For example, suppose there are two hunters in a forest. Should they hunt for rabbits separately, or should they work together and go after bigger prey? Which decision do you think is correct?
AKANE: Of course the latter is! That's the basics of game theory. You work together to catch bigger prey.
MASAOKA: That's right, humans are social by nature. Languages, letters, currencies, telephones, all the communication tools that exist in the world are there in order to strengthen that social nature. Do you think the net has the same effect, missy?
AKANE: Yes... I think it does.
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So, Masaoka proposes this important question,
Does the internet strengthen our social nature?
Of course, he's implying that it is possible that the internet doesn't improve our social nature, as language, letters, and telephones might. But could this really be true?
To begin, we should first look at where Masaoka's way of thinking is stemming from, which he admits to be Rousseau's A Discourse on Inequality.
If you would like to understand Masaoka's way of thinking on a deeper level, I suggest you read A Discourse on Inequality and study it yourself, but I will briefly summarize it here.
In A Discourse on Inequality, Rousseau discusses primarily the origin of moral inequality, which he claims to be unnatural. The following is my definition of moral inequality from Rousseau's perspective.
moral inequality - differences of unnatural political power between different men, e.g. wealth, status, and class; in which one man benefits at the expense of another.
This definition of moral inequality as well as his observations of humans led Rousseau to believe in a phenomenon he calls Amour Propre. The following is my definition of Amoure Propre from Rousseau's perspective.
Amour Propre - acute awareness towards oneself in relation to others, i.e. comparing oneself to others.
Amour Propre is considered by Rousseau to be a harmful psychological deformation in the civilized humans, because he believes that the truly natural humans, (we'll call them "true" humans), who existed before the rise in moral inequality, only knows how to "be", and not how to appear.
Is comparing oneself to others truly a psychological deformation that is only harmful? For the sake of argument, let's just say for now that it is. After all, it goes without saying that because of Amour Propre, many humans go about their lives not only lying to others, but lying to themselves about who they really are; all because they wish to be a "good" person when comparing themselves to others. We see this especially more than ever in today's society; all we have to do is turn on the TV for surf the internet.
Now that I've briefly summarized Rousseau's concept of moral inequality, how does Masaoka connect Rousseau's philosophy with the internet? What would Rousseau say about the internet if he were still alive?
Let's look at the initial question one more time.
Does the internet strengthen our social nature?
Does the internet have the same effect that other communication mediums like language, letters, and telephones have?
Akane would say it does, given her initial response in the beginning of the conversation.
"Isn't using the net just like using knives for cooking or using paper to write things down? It has nothing to do with good or bad. It simply exists, so we accept it and use it." - Tsunemori Akane, Episode 5
Akane's point seems to be sound; the internet is a tool that exists only beecause humans created it for a function that would serve them by enhancing their communication. Thus, it cannot be said to be good or evil.
But why does Masaoka believe that this point is wrong, (or not completely correct?)
Well we certainly know the positive effects of the internet, which include the ability to send and receive data more quickly than any other communication tool. In this sense, the internet is a fantastic tool that undoubtedly allows humans to become stronger, since it allows them to socially cooperate with each other and solve problems that seemed impossible to handle before its creation.
For example, because of the internet, humans have achieved the feat of communicating with each other world-wide, sharing cultures and ideas with each other in order to learn more about the universe they live in!
However, the story does not end there, or rather, that's not all there is to do the story. What else is the internet providing its users to do?
When Masaoka started the conversation, he mentioned the key term avatars. I think that the root of the problem Masaoka has with the internet lies in this very term.
What is an avatar?
The following is a definition collected from Wikipedia.
avatar (computing) - the graphical representation of the (internet) user or the user's alter ego or character.
The key term is this: graphical representation, i.e. appearance.
What does this term imply?
What it implies is appearance, as opposed to being. According to Rousseau, the "true" human can only be, and not appear. Therefore, if the internet is a tool that allows humans to no be themselves, then it is a tool that allows humans to deviate from being a "true" human; and thus, become "less" human. In this sense, the internet is a tool that in fact, does not strengthen our social nature, but destroys it, since it causes humans to socialize with others without being our true selves.
Now you might be saying, "But that's because humans made that decision to lie to themselves on their own! The internet did not force them to do anything!" And this would be true. However, it depends on how you look at the question. Does the internet strengthen our social nature? Well, the answer to that question is that it both can and can't, depending on the individual's decision. In the end, i believe that both Akane and Masaoka are right. Of course, you can be a smart human being and know how to use the internet in a way that will strengthen your social nature, but let's get realistic. Most people aren't like that, and Masaoka knows that all too well. In this sense, the internet is something that inhibits our social nature from growing.
The majority of people will in fact abuse the internet due to Rousseau's phenomenon known as Amour Propre, but of course, that's only what I believe. You may have a different opinion. This is a very touchy topic after all.
I hope that Urobuchi goes more in depth on this topic throughout his further episodes.
The Philosophy of Guilt and Blame
The following is a rough translation of the conversation between Akane, Shinya, and Masaoka, when Akane becomes depressed over the fact that Sugawara was killed because of her involvement with the police; an involvement that Akane believes she initiated.
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AKANE: Because of me... [Sugawara] got dragged into this. It was my fault... because of me...
MASAOKA: Missy...
SHINYA: Did you use Spooky Boogie as a decoy?
AKANE: No...
SHINYA: Did you force her to cooperate?
AKANE: No...
SHINYA: Did you leak information from her about the enemy?
AKANE: No....
SHINYA: Then what exactly is your fault?
AKANE: That's... But she actually got...
SHINYA: Yeah, if we had caught the culprit last night, Sugawara Shoko didn't have to die. The responsibility for that lies with all of us. For now, just think about fulfilling your responsibilities. Let's catch this guy.
MASAOKA: In short, that's the only thing we can do to enable the victims to rest in peace.
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Many of us have probably heard similar conversations like this before either in daily life or other stories in general. So it shouldn't be anything new. Still, it's good to clarify where we think our philosophy lies regarding guilt and blame.
With that said, let's quickly try and answer this question,
Is Akane at fault for the death of Sugawara?
According to Akane, Sugawara's death is her fault since she is the one who initiated the conversation between Sugawara and herself, introducing the MWPSB's affairs to Sugawara.
While it's obvious that Sugawara might never have been murdered if Akane hadn't conversed with Sugawara about the police's affairs, it doesn't mean that Akane was the cause of Sugawara's death. This is because it was only logical for Akane to investiage Sugawara's CommuField due to the nature of her job. However, Akane ignore this logic.
Besides going to Sugawara's CommuField, which she did only by the nature of her job as an investigator of crime, Akane did not do anything to involve Sugawara within the MWPSB's affairs. As Shinya clearly stated, she did not use Spooky Boogie as a decoy, she did not force her to cooperate whatsoever, and she did not leak information from her about the enemy. Thus, Akane cannot be at fault for her initial involvement.
HOWEVER, Akane, as well as the rest of the MWPSB did in fact fail to handle the raid in Club Exoset in a professional manner, which otherwise could have prevented Sugawara's murder. Thus, it can be said that the entire MWPSB is at fault equally among each other. But there is no reason for Akane to blame only herself.
I feel like a lawyer here.
The Definition of "Idols" and "Fans" and their Relationship Between Each Other
The following is the roughly translated conversation between the Inspectors and Enforcers when they gather to discuss their next move.
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GINOZA: Is it even possible to operate several different Avatars at the same time?
SHION: It's not impossible for heavy users, right?
AKANE: What's abnormal here is the acting abilities of this culprit. Not only are these hijacked avatars not incurring suspicion, they're more popular than when their real owners operated them.
GINOZA: Why is it then that tens of thousands of users don't notice they're fake?
SHINYA: Because it's not a matter of real or fake. These avatars are idols on the net. In other words, icons. Icons cannot exist solely through their own will. Neither Hayama nor Sugawara established their status on their own. They were able to become Talisman and Spooky Boogie because their fans idolized them based on their own distorted perceptions. The idols' true feelings and their true colors are not the same as the ideals their characters represents. It's not surprising that a fan could do a better job than the real owners of playing the idol fans expect to see.
MASAOKA: Are you saying that the culprit is one of their fans?
SHINYA: Melancholia, Talisman, Spooky Boogie, he knows those three characters very well and can imitate them perfectly. The real culprit is someone whose levels of activity matches that enthusiasm.
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Shinya puts a very nice definition on the word "icon" that I do not hear very often.
The following is my definition from Shinya's perspective.
icon - a being whose ideals are based on the various perceptions of its audience.
This view on the word "icon" is particularly interesting because whenever I think of the word icon, I think of someone whose original ideas were so great that he inspired many others to believe in the same exact ideas.
However, I've now come to understand that this is actually a misconception.
You might be saying, "Well what's the difference?", but I think there is a big difference, and Urobuchi clearly thinks so too.
Look again at what Shinya says about idols.
"The idols' true feelings and their true colors are not the same as the ideals their characters represents." - Kougami Shinya, Episode 5.
This is the main distinction between the two definitions. This is why the first definition is actually a misconception. It is not that an audience has taken in the same exact ideas of the icon, but it is that the audience has perceived the icon's ideas as something of their own, i.e. in their own way. And what this means is that it is actually impossible for the original idea of an icon to transfer to its audience. Due to subjectivity and variations in thought and personality between any two human beings on earth, every original idea will be twisted or just simply different in some way between every person.
With that said, the original ideas that an icon might project to its audience may be taken differently by the general audience. What this means is that while an idol may think that his or her audience is perceiving his or her ideas in its generally whole form, it may not be the case. Moreover, if a fan within the audience understands how the audience is perceiving the idol's original ideas more than the idol him or herself, then it is more than possible for that single fan to do a "better" job at being the idol than the idol him or herself.
And this is the very case presented in Psycho-Pass, where the hijacker of all three "idols" understood the idols better than they understood themselves.
Those Without Personality
The following is the roughly translated conversation between Mido and Makishima, who speaks through the hijacked avatars.
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MIDO: You guys are eternal... You were released from the chains of a physical body and polished by collective intelligence. You're the souls most close to Plato's "idea". No one can look down on you. I won't let anyone destroy your nobility. I will... I will protect it at any cost. Once I was guided by you... Now, together with you, I will guide people and the world! You are eternal!
MAKISHIMA: But... couldn't you have done a better job, Mido?
MIDO: Wait a second... what on earth....?
MAKISHIMA: There's something that I've been searching for that I want to know. For that purpose, I did whatever it took. Say, have you read Shuji Terayama?
MIDO: Huh? Terayama?
MAKISHIMA: You should read his play, "Saraba, eigo yo." It seems like everyone is an agent for someone. And further, those agents have their avatars communicate in place of them.
MIDO: Are you... Makishima?
MAKISHIMA: You have thorough knowledge of various avatars and imitate them perfectly. You can become anyone, so I was very interested in what your personality was like. That's why I lent you my people and my assistance.
MIDO: Stop it! Give them back to me! Don't speak in their voices!
MAKISHIMA: But... I now see matters coming to a close. At least for the end, instead of using a borrowed idea, why don't you come up with an idea of your own to close the curtain?
MIDO: You bastard...! What are you doing-!
MAKISHIMA: You can play any character, and yet, in the end, it turned out that you yourself are nobody. Your core personality is null, empty. You don't have a face of your own. Since you lacked a face, you were simply able to wear any kind of mask.
MIDO: Shut up! Stop it!
MAKISHIMA: It's about time to say goodbye, Mido Masatake. The hunting dogs that bring death have arrived.
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This scene has to be one of the most intense scenes I have ever seen. The music, animation, voice acting... they were all perfect. However... when you add all of that to the grave philosophy and social commentary that lies beneath it all... all I can say is that I get chills down my spine whenever I think about it.
The philosophy behind this scene also is a direct follow-up from the conversation between Akane and Masaoka regarding the internet, and whether or not it is actually promoting the social strength of humans. (It also relates to Shinya's definition of an "icon".) Perhaps we can find Urobuchi's opinion on the matter by analyzing Mido's character in this scene.
Let's begin processing this scene by looking at Makishima's question, or challenge rather, proposed to Mido.
"At least for the end, instead of using a borrowed idea, why don't you come up with any idea of your own to close the curtain?" - Makishima Shogo, Episode 5.
Can Mido do such a thing? Is it within Mido's capabilities, within his personality even, to come up with an idea of his own?
We discussed earlier about the social significance of the internet and the problem of avatars regarding Amour Propre. By controlling these avatars, humans are pressured into comparing themselves to others due to Amour Propre. And because of this pressure, (of keeping a good appearance), humans tend to create avatars, i.e. characters of themselves that don't truly represent themselves.
Mido is such a character. As a fanatic fan of Talisman, Spooky Boogie, and Melancholia, he completely disregarded his own being for the sake of his idols. He cared more about these icons than himself, and dedicated his life to bringing these icons to life.
But why the dedication? Why does Mido care about these icons so much? They're not even human! Let's try to understand what Mido finds in these icons that are so powerful; powerful enough to give up his own life for.
We should start by analyzing Mido's statements about the icons at the end of Episode 5.
"You guys are eternal... You were released from the chains of a physical body and polished by collective intelligence. You're the souls most close to Plato's "idea". No one can look down on you. I won't let anyone destroy your nobility. I will... I will protect it at any cost. Once I was guided by you... Now, together with you, I will guide people and the world! You are eternal!" - Mido Masatake, Episode 5.
It can certainly be said that avatars are eternal in a sense... especially when compared to the life span of a single human being. Unlike a human, an avatar exists for as long as the data and collective intelligence that holds it together exists, (just think of an avatar as a robot, except it exists only over the internet).
But this isn't a new concept; we've heard about robots for long time now, and we understand the basic concept of robots being able to outlive humans, since they don't require a healthy physical body which degrades over time no matter what. However, what's most interesting about Mido's statement is his comparison of his avatars to Plato's "idea".
For those of you who don't know about Plato's "idea", it is fairly simple. The "ideas" Plato and Mido are talking about are basically the elements, or truths of this world. Plato believed that in this universe full of transient things, there has to be some things that aren't transient. We can support this assumption by looking at math for example; 2 + 2 will always equal 4 no matter what world we travel to. Therefore, that math equation can be considered to be a truth. It is this kind of truth that Plato and Mido are searching for.
So why is Mido referring to his hijacked avatars as things that are closest to Plato's idea? Well for one, we already know that they can be considered to be eternal, (as stated three paragraphs up), and a truth or "idea" must be eternal.
However, being eternal itself is useless. There has to be some way in which an "idea" affects how we live in order for it to be important to us. This is probably where Mido finds the beauty in his avatars; look at his statement again.
"Once I was guided by you... Now, together with you, I will guide people and the world!" - Mido Matasake, Episode 5.
And so, Mido states his purpose behind all of his previous actions, (and crimes).
Mido's wish is to lead the world with his avatars, or "ideas".
Why would Mido want the world to be led by avatars? I can only assume the reason why he would want this is because he has lost his faith in human reason, which has clearly proven to be mainly evil and corrupted throughout the course of history. I believe that as a solution to such corruption, Mido wishes to make avatars as the leaders of the world, instead of humans.
Why would avatars be a solution? Well, if Mido is correct in stating that his avatars are the closest possible things to Plato's "ideas", then it would only seem logical for us to accept guidance from them, since an "idea" is equal to truth. It is as if we would be allowing the very truth to guide us; doesn't that seem like a splendid idea?
But are Mido's avatars indeed things that are closest to Plato's idea? And if they are, would we really want to be guided by them? I could state arguments from both sides but that would take a whole other philosophical essay, so I won't right now. Hopefully Urobuchi will touch upon this subject again in another episode.
Now that we understand Mido's intentions, let's look at what Makishima thinks about him. Because clearly, Makishima is very interested in Mido.
Unfortunately, I cannot relate Shuji Tereyama to Makishima's thoughts about Mido right now because I do not know of Shuji Tereyama or his work. (If someone could tell me what the English name of his play is, it would help a lot!)
All I know is that Makishima mentions the concept of everyone seeming to be an agent for someone or something else, and that agent creates an avatar to communicate for him or herself.
It's easy to understand the concept of every person being an agent of his or her own ideas and philosophies, but what about the concept of every person creating his or her own avatar?
Once again, Urobuchi is referring to Rousseau and his idea of Amour Propre, (one's awareness of himself in comparison to others.) I believe that the "avatars" Makishima is talking about refers to appearances, or "masks" that people set up for themselves when they go out in public or browse the internet.
Basically, Mido represents the typical human who is socially affected by the internet. By using the internet as his tool, Mido created, (whoops, I mean hijacked, but the concept still applies), different avatars, or appearances for himself. And as a result, he has forgotten who he is himself.
I think I can confirm now that Urobuchi has a cynical opinion towards the internet, and how it affects humans socially. But I also believe he makes very good points to support his position, which is a position I support as well.
Although I agree with what Akane said earlier, I also believe that the internet is in fact, impacting humans as a whole in a more negative manner. I see it in every day life; people these days, (at least in the US), seem to be more obsessed with material possessions and things that are rather shallow, instead of the things that are unseen as well as the things that tend to mean much more. And when I try to analyze the personalities of a lot of these people, (try to look at these people behind their "avatars", or "masks"), I usually don't see much.
But let me stop myself before I go on a rant about all the social problems of our society. If you would like to speak more of the subject, please send me a message or comment below!
Episode Flaws
The following are my opinion and my opinion only!
1) It is never ruled out by the MWPSB that there could have possibly been more than one hijacker acting in a team, which is clearly unrealistic. What made them assume for the entire two episodes that there was just one hijacker taking over all three avatars? In fact, before this episode, I myself thought that there was a team of hijackers acting under Makishima as his puppets.
2) After Mazaoka disables the Interior Holo during the hotel raid, Mido is seen standing in the same spot in the hallway staring at Shinya as he was when he first began running about a good 20 seconds before. If this were more realistic, he would've already left the hallway, since he was given a 20 seconds to escape.
3) When Mido is shot in the arm, only his arm is destroyed. Yet, when the criminal from the first episode was shot in the arm, his whole body exploded! You might say that this inconsistency was due to the drugs that Mido was taking, but those were only supposed to be pain inhibiting drugs and nothing else. You can also say that he was running away and that the criminal from the first episode was just standing there, but I really doubt that the incredible power of that gun can be inhibited by simply flailing your arms...
Episode Overview
Overall, Episode 5 of Psycho-Pass is a very good episode! I seriously have not seen such a tight episode in a long time. Within a simple 20 minutes or so, Urobuchi managed to discuss with us at least 4 different topics of philosophy that I find extremely intriguing. Moreover, it really makes me excited for the future episodes, because I really wish to see more of what Urobuchi thinks about today's modern society.
Not many Animes or movies or TV shows in general are tackling the same subject that Urobuchi is tackling. And even if there are some out there, (and yes, I am aware of them, like Ghost in the Shell and Minority Report), they are not as recent as Psycho-Pass is. A lot has changed in the years leading up to 2012, along with the internet. So if you're looking for an Anime that discusses the philosophies of the internet as of 2012, Psycho-Pass is definitely your Anime to watch.
Plot Summary:
The MWPSB discover that Spooky Boogie became victim to the same hijacker that took over Talisman. After Shion discovers another similar case in another CommuField, Shinya analyzes the data of all three CommuFields together, (Talisman, Spooky Boogie, and Rainy Blue), and identifies the culprit, who was an active fan of all three "idols". The MWPSB then proceeds to eliminate the hijacker. Although the hijacker's intentions for committing his crimes are revealed, the intentions of the puppet master, Makishima, remain hidden.
Plot Details:
A crack has formed in the relationship between Akane and Spooky Boogie due to the raid of Club Exoset. Spooky Boogy states clearly to Akane that she will not work with the police or even her as a friend any longer.
Talisman continues give advice in the "Talisman Saloon", which is continuously packed with users. Talisman's actions confuse the MWPSB because he is socializing with other users as if he doesn't care about getting caught by the police. Thus, Talisman's goals are extremely unclear; if his goal is to make it seem as if Kimihiko Hayama is still alive, he would not have left his bank account untouched as well as ignore the record of him not leaving the apartment over two months. Moreover, if his intention was to hijack Hayama's avatar just for fun, it would seem unlikely that such a person would commit murder in order to do so. Things get even more confusing when we bring up the fact that the hijacker obviously prepared for any kind of retaliation from the police beforehand, which was shown in the events of the last episode. It is clear that the hijacker spent extra time to hack into the Holo-Cosplay system in Club Exoset in order to avoid any kind of mishap such as a police raid.
The hijacker's confident and seemingly careless actions cause Shinya to think that simply tracing his access routes would most likely be meaningless, since the hijacker is most likely confident in covering his steps. Instead, he looks for another way to trace him.
While Shinya goes over the chat between Akane and Spooky Boogie, Mazaoka and Akane have a brief philosophical chat regarding the usefulness of the internet.
Shinya discovers a clue in the chat log between Akane and Spooky Boogie; Spooky Boogie uses the word "police" instead of "MWPSB", which indicates a change in her word choice after the previous chat. Checking Spooky Boogie's past logs confirms that the change in word choice is not a coincidence. This leads Shinya to believe that Spooky Boogie is being operated by a different person; a hijacker.
Meanwhile, Ginoza, Kagori, and Yayoi locate Talisman's hijacker and raid his place of operation. They are met with a booby trap. A bomb explodes, slightly injuring only Ginoza.
Shortly after, the hijacker receives a call under the name Chloe Gu-Sung, who asks the hijacker if he would like to continue with his actions. The hijacker replies saying that it is his duty. Gu-Sung replies saying that he is not surprised, since the hijacker is Mr. Makishima's favorite. After he hangs up, it is shown that the hijacker has injecting himself with some sort of drug.
Shinya, Akane, and Mazaoka discover Spooky Boogie's identity by looking up Akane's classmates and narrowing the possibilities down to those who had an affiliate income. The identity is confirmed to be someone by the name of Shoko Sugawara after visiting her place and finding her body parts in the sewer.
Akane becomes depressed and blames Sugawara's death on herself, since she believes she herself got Sugawara involved with the case. However, Shinya comforts her, saying that it was in fact not her fault .
Shion discovers another strange case within the internet. A large and active CommuField named Melancholia's Rainy Blue was owned by an 88-year-old man who lended the room and his avatar to his 14-year-old grandson, Yuichi Tokito. Shion discovered that the grandson died in an accident half a year ago. Yet, his avatar is still active. It is confirmed that the grandfather was not using the avatar since he did not even know how to enter the social network. Moreover, he thought the affiliate income he was receiving was his pension.
Akane comments that she is astonished by the acting abilities of the hijacker, since he or she is able to not only control so many avatars at once, but able to control them "better", since the popularity of all the hijacked avatars has increased after their original user's deaths. Shinya replies by saying that it is actually only natural by the definition of an idol that a fan would be able to act as the idol better than the idol him or herself. This then leads Shinya to suspect that the hijacker is a fan of all three of the hijacked avatars.
Shinya narrows down the culprit by first asking Shion to draw a graph of the time spent in the Talisman Saloon. by the top 100 active fans per day. After Talisman's reputation went down, many of the active users shown went down on the graph. However, when Talisman's reputation went back up, only a few of the active users did not go back up the graph, (did not start spending time in the Talisman Saloon again). It is only natural that the culprit would be one of these people, since he did not need a regular guest avatar to visit the Talisman Saloon anymore, (because he was operating Talisman).
Shion finds only one person who fit the same activity pattern in Talisman's CommuField within both Spooky Boogie's Commufield and Melancholia's Rainy Blue. The culprit is identified as Masatake Mido, a 27-year-old man who works at a virtual sports manager company. Mazaoka confirms the culprits identity by checking his last Psycho-Pass Hue Check, which was 4 years ago at an annual checkup. This means that Mido spend 4 years avoiding street scanners on a daily basis. Shion traces his access records, and finds out that his last access to the internet came from a budget hotel in Roppongi, Minato Ward. She then looks up his home address, which is Motoazabu, in the same ward. Ginoza commands Akane, Shinya, and Mazaoka to raid the hotel room, while he, Kagari, and Kunizuka raid Mido's home.
Shinya, Akane, and Mazaoka raid the hotel room, where Mido is hiding. Mido activates a booby trap created by hacking into the Interior Holo which distorts everyone's vision in the hotel room as well as in the hallway. Mido uses the oppurtunity to run out into the hallway and escape.
Mazaoka, who came prepared for such an incident, uses Shinya's lighter to spew fire on the ceiling sprinklers with a bottle of alcohol that he brought. The activated sprinklers causes the Interior Holo to shut down, revealing Mido in the hallway. Shinya quickly shoots Mido with his Dominator, but only destroys his arm. Mido runs quickly away regardless, since he has been taking pain inhibiting drugs.
Mido runs back to his home to meet his avatars. After briefly comforting himself in their presence, the avatars are taken over by Makishima, who reveals that he lent his power to Mido because he was interested in Mido's own personality. However, Makishima concluded that Mido, in the end, had no personality of his own, and could thus never create his own ideas that weren't borrowed from others. Just before Ginoza, Kagari, and Kunizuka arrive at the scene, Makishima shuts down the Interior Holo and avatars, leaving Mido alone in his room in a deranged state. Regardless, they proceed to mercilessly eliminate him.
Afterwards, Akane and Ginoza have a chat on a balcony back at the headquarters. Akane states that although Shinya is a latent criminal, he is certainly different from other criminals like Mido. Ginoza simply replies by saying that she should separate herself with a fine line from the Enforcers. He then gives Akane his reasoning for having such an ironclad rule by sending Akane a file from the Personnel Department. The file reveals that Shinya used to be an Inspector working beside Ginoza. However, his CC increased after an unsolved case, MWPSB Special Case 102, ended. During and after that case, Shinya refused to received treatment therapy, causing his CC to increase to the point where he was demoted to a latent criminal, and thus, an Enforcer.
Philosophy of the Internet
The following is a rough translation of the conversation between Akane and Masaoka.
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MASAOKA: I can't really figure out stuff like avatars and virtual worlds. I mean after all, it's our bodies that actually breathe, sweat, and eat, right?
AKANE: Mr. Masaoka, I think people like you are an endangered species. Isn't using the net just like using knives for cooking or using paper to write things down? It has nothing to do with good or bad. It simply exists, so we accept it and use it.
MASAOKA: As expected, you're good at explaining things. You're like a teacher.
AKANE: Really?
MASAOKA: Do you know Roseau?
AKANE: You mean the philosopher?
MASAOKA: Yeah, and his work, "A Discourse on Ineqaulity."
AKANE: Hold on a second, please. I'll look it up.
MASAOKA: You don't need to. It's recorded in my brain. For example, suppose there are two hunters in a forest. Should they hunt for rabbits separately, or should they work together and go after bigger prey? Which decision do you think is correct?
AKANE: Of course the latter is! That's the basics of game theory. You work together to catch bigger prey.
MASAOKA: That's right, humans are social by nature. Languages, letters, currencies, telephones, all the communication tools that exist in the world are there in order to strengthen that social nature. Do you think the net has the same effect, missy?
AKANE: Yes... I think it does.
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So, Masaoka proposes this important question,
Does the internet strengthen our social nature?
Of course, he's implying that it is possible that the internet doesn't improve our social nature, as language, letters, and telephones might. But could this really be true?
To begin, we should first look at where Masaoka's way of thinking is stemming from, which he admits to be Rousseau's A Discourse on Inequality.
If you would like to understand Masaoka's way of thinking on a deeper level, I suggest you read A Discourse on Inequality and study it yourself, but I will briefly summarize it here.
In A Discourse on Inequality, Rousseau discusses primarily the origin of moral inequality, which he claims to be unnatural. The following is my definition of moral inequality from Rousseau's perspective.
moral inequality - differences of unnatural political power between different men, e.g. wealth, status, and class; in which one man benefits at the expense of another.
This definition of moral inequality as well as his observations of humans led Rousseau to believe in a phenomenon he calls Amour Propre. The following is my definition of Amoure Propre from Rousseau's perspective.
Amour Propre - acute awareness towards oneself in relation to others, i.e. comparing oneself to others.
Amour Propre is considered by Rousseau to be a harmful psychological deformation in the civilized humans, because he believes that the truly natural humans, (we'll call them "true" humans), who existed before the rise in moral inequality, only knows how to "be", and not how to appear.
Is comparing oneself to others truly a psychological deformation that is only harmful? For the sake of argument, let's just say for now that it is. After all, it goes without saying that because of Amour Propre, many humans go about their lives not only lying to others, but lying to themselves about who they really are; all because they wish to be a "good" person when comparing themselves to others. We see this especially more than ever in today's society; all we have to do is turn on the TV for surf the internet.
Now that I've briefly summarized Rousseau's concept of moral inequality, how does Masaoka connect Rousseau's philosophy with the internet? What would Rousseau say about the internet if he were still alive?
Let's look at the initial question one more time.
Does the internet strengthen our social nature?
Does the internet have the same effect that other communication mediums like language, letters, and telephones have?
Akane would say it does, given her initial response in the beginning of the conversation.
Akane's point seems to be sound; the internet is a tool that exists only beecause humans created it for a function that would serve them by enhancing their communication. Thus, it cannot be said to be good or evil.
But why does Masaoka believe that this point is wrong, (or not completely correct?)
Masaoka and Akane both agree on the basics of game theory, which explains that humans must socially cooperate with each other in order to become stronger. (Rousseau agrees with this as well). But does the internet have the same effect as Akane would say it does?
Well we certainly know the positive effects of the internet, which include the ability to send and receive data more quickly than any other communication tool. In this sense, the internet is a fantastic tool that undoubtedly allows humans to become stronger, since it allows them to socially cooperate with each other and solve problems that seemed impossible to handle before its creation.
For example, because of the internet, humans have achieved the feat of communicating with each other world-wide, sharing cultures and ideas with each other in order to learn more about the universe they live in!
However, the story does not end there, or rather, that's not all there is to do the story. What else is the internet providing its users to do?
When Masaoka started the conversation, he mentioned the key term avatars. I think that the root of the problem Masaoka has with the internet lies in this very term.
What is an avatar?
The following is a definition collected from Wikipedia.
avatar (computing) - the graphical representation of the (internet) user or the user's alter ego or character.
The key term is this: graphical representation, i.e. appearance.
What does this term imply?
What it implies is appearance, as opposed to being. According to Rousseau, the "true" human can only be, and not appear. Therefore, if the internet is a tool that allows humans to no be themselves, then it is a tool that allows humans to deviate from being a "true" human; and thus, become "less" human. In this sense, the internet is a tool that in fact, does not strengthen our social nature, but destroys it, since it causes humans to socialize with others without being our true selves.
Now you might be saying, "But that's because humans made that decision to lie to themselves on their own! The internet did not force them to do anything!" And this would be true. However, it depends on how you look at the question. Does the internet strengthen our social nature? Well, the answer to that question is that it both can and can't, depending on the individual's decision. In the end, i believe that both Akane and Masaoka are right. Of course, you can be a smart human being and know how to use the internet in a way that will strengthen your social nature, but let's get realistic. Most people aren't like that, and Masaoka knows that all too well. In this sense, the internet is something that inhibits our social nature from growing.
The majority of people will in fact abuse the internet due to Rousseau's phenomenon known as Amour Propre, but of course, that's only what I believe. You may have a different opinion. This is a very touchy topic after all.
I hope that Urobuchi goes more in depth on this topic throughout his further episodes.
The Philosophy of Guilt and Blame
The following is a rough translation of the conversation between Akane, Shinya, and Masaoka, when Akane becomes depressed over the fact that Sugawara was killed because of her involvement with the police; an involvement that Akane believes she initiated.
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AKANE: Because of me... [Sugawara] got dragged into this. It was my fault... because of me...
MASAOKA: Missy...
SHINYA: Did you use Spooky Boogie as a decoy?
AKANE: No...
SHINYA: Did you force her to cooperate?
AKANE: No...
SHINYA: Did you leak information from her about the enemy?
AKANE: No....
SHINYA: Then what exactly is your fault?
AKANE: That's... But she actually got...
SHINYA: Yeah, if we had caught the culprit last night, Sugawara Shoko didn't have to die. The responsibility for that lies with all of us. For now, just think about fulfilling your responsibilities. Let's catch this guy.
MASAOKA: In short, that's the only thing we can do to enable the victims to rest in peace.
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Many of us have probably heard similar conversations like this before either in daily life or other stories in general. So it shouldn't be anything new. Still, it's good to clarify where we think our philosophy lies regarding guilt and blame.
With that said, let's quickly try and answer this question,
Is Akane at fault for the death of Sugawara?
According to Akane, Sugawara's death is her fault since she is the one who initiated the conversation between Sugawara and herself, introducing the MWPSB's affairs to Sugawara.
While it's obvious that Sugawara might never have been murdered if Akane hadn't conversed with Sugawara about the police's affairs, it doesn't mean that Akane was the cause of Sugawara's death. This is because it was only logical for Akane to investiage Sugawara's CommuField due to the nature of her job. However, Akane ignore this logic.
Besides going to Sugawara's CommuField, which she did only by the nature of her job as an investigator of crime, Akane did not do anything to involve Sugawara within the MWPSB's affairs. As Shinya clearly stated, she did not use Spooky Boogie as a decoy, she did not force her to cooperate whatsoever, and she did not leak information from her about the enemy. Thus, Akane cannot be at fault for her initial involvement.
HOWEVER, Akane, as well as the rest of the MWPSB did in fact fail to handle the raid in Club Exoset in a professional manner, which otherwise could have prevented Sugawara's murder. Thus, it can be said that the entire MWPSB is at fault equally among each other. But there is no reason for Akane to blame only herself.
I feel like a lawyer here.
The Definition of "Idols" and "Fans" and their Relationship Between Each Other
The following is the roughly translated conversation between the Inspectors and Enforcers when they gather to discuss their next move.
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GINOZA: Is it even possible to operate several different Avatars at the same time?
SHION: It's not impossible for heavy users, right?
AKANE: What's abnormal here is the acting abilities of this culprit. Not only are these hijacked avatars not incurring suspicion, they're more popular than when their real owners operated them.
GINOZA: Why is it then that tens of thousands of users don't notice they're fake?
SHINYA: Because it's not a matter of real or fake. These avatars are idols on the net. In other words, icons. Icons cannot exist solely through their own will. Neither Hayama nor Sugawara established their status on their own. They were able to become Talisman and Spooky Boogie because their fans idolized them based on their own distorted perceptions. The idols' true feelings and their true colors are not the same as the ideals their characters represents. It's not surprising that a fan could do a better job than the real owners of playing the idol fans expect to see.
MASAOKA: Are you saying that the culprit is one of their fans?
SHINYA: Melancholia, Talisman, Spooky Boogie, he knows those three characters very well and can imitate them perfectly. The real culprit is someone whose levels of activity matches that enthusiasm.
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Shinya puts a very nice definition on the word "icon" that I do not hear very often.
The following is my definition from Shinya's perspective.
icon - a being whose ideals are based on the various perceptions of its audience.
This view on the word "icon" is particularly interesting because whenever I think of the word icon, I think of someone whose original ideas were so great that he inspired many others to believe in the same exact ideas.
However, I've now come to understand that this is actually a misconception.
You might be saying, "Well what's the difference?", but I think there is a big difference, and Urobuchi clearly thinks so too.
Look again at what Shinya says about idols.
This is the main distinction between the two definitions. This is why the first definition is actually a misconception. It is not that an audience has taken in the same exact ideas of the icon, but it is that the audience has perceived the icon's ideas as something of their own, i.e. in their own way. And what this means is that it is actually impossible for the original idea of an icon to transfer to its audience. Due to subjectivity and variations in thought and personality between any two human beings on earth, every original idea will be twisted or just simply different in some way between every person.
With that said, the original ideas that an icon might project to its audience may be taken differently by the general audience. What this means is that while an idol may think that his or her audience is perceiving his or her ideas in its generally whole form, it may not be the case. Moreover, if a fan within the audience understands how the audience is perceiving the idol's original ideas more than the idol him or herself, then it is more than possible for that single fan to do a "better" job at being the idol than the idol him or herself.
And this is the very case presented in Psycho-Pass, where the hijacker of all three "idols" understood the idols better than they understood themselves.
Those Without Personality
The following is the roughly translated conversation between Mido and Makishima, who speaks through the hijacked avatars.
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MIDO: You guys are eternal... You were released from the chains of a physical body and polished by collective intelligence. You're the souls most close to Plato's "idea". No one can look down on you. I won't let anyone destroy your nobility. I will... I will protect it at any cost. Once I was guided by you... Now, together with you, I will guide people and the world! You are eternal!
MAKISHIMA: But... couldn't you have done a better job, Mido?
MIDO: Wait a second... what on earth....?
MAKISHIMA: There's something that I've been searching for that I want to know. For that purpose, I did whatever it took. Say, have you read Shuji Terayama?
MIDO: Huh? Terayama?
MAKISHIMA: You should read his play, "Saraba, eigo yo." It seems like everyone is an agent for someone. And further, those agents have their avatars communicate in place of them.
MIDO: Are you... Makishima?
MAKISHIMA: You have thorough knowledge of various avatars and imitate them perfectly. You can become anyone, so I was very interested in what your personality was like. That's why I lent you my people and my assistance.
MIDO: Stop it! Give them back to me! Don't speak in their voices!
MAKISHIMA: But... I now see matters coming to a close. At least for the end, instead of using a borrowed idea, why don't you come up with an idea of your own to close the curtain?
MIDO: You bastard...! What are you doing-!
MAKISHIMA: You can play any character, and yet, in the end, it turned out that you yourself are nobody. Your core personality is null, empty. You don't have a face of your own. Since you lacked a face, you were simply able to wear any kind of mask.
MIDO: Shut up! Stop it!
MAKISHIMA: It's about time to say goodbye, Mido Masatake. The hunting dogs that bring death have arrived.
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This scene has to be one of the most intense scenes I have ever seen. The music, animation, voice acting... they were all perfect. However... when you add all of that to the grave philosophy and social commentary that lies beneath it all... all I can say is that I get chills down my spine whenever I think about it.
The philosophy behind this scene also is a direct follow-up from the conversation between Akane and Masaoka regarding the internet, and whether or not it is actually promoting the social strength of humans. (It also relates to Shinya's definition of an "icon".) Perhaps we can find Urobuchi's opinion on the matter by analyzing Mido's character in this scene.
Let's begin processing this scene by looking at Makishima's question, or challenge rather, proposed to Mido.
Can Mido do such a thing? Is it within Mido's capabilities, within his personality even, to come up with an idea of his own?
We discussed earlier about the social significance of the internet and the problem of avatars regarding Amour Propre. By controlling these avatars, humans are pressured into comparing themselves to others due to Amour Propre. And because of this pressure, (of keeping a good appearance), humans tend to create avatars, i.e. characters of themselves that don't truly represent themselves.
Mido is such a character. As a fanatic fan of Talisman, Spooky Boogie, and Melancholia, he completely disregarded his own being for the sake of his idols. He cared more about these icons than himself, and dedicated his life to bringing these icons to life.
But why the dedication? Why does Mido care about these icons so much? They're not even human! Let's try to understand what Mido finds in these icons that are so powerful; powerful enough to give up his own life for.
We should start by analyzing Mido's statements about the icons at the end of Episode 5.
It can certainly be said that avatars are eternal in a sense... especially when compared to the life span of a single human being. Unlike a human, an avatar exists for as long as the data and collective intelligence that holds it together exists, (just think of an avatar as a robot, except it exists only over the internet).
But this isn't a new concept; we've heard about robots for long time now, and we understand the basic concept of robots being able to outlive humans, since they don't require a healthy physical body which degrades over time no matter what. However, what's most interesting about Mido's statement is his comparison of his avatars to Plato's "idea".
For those of you who don't know about Plato's "idea", it is fairly simple. The "ideas" Plato and Mido are talking about are basically the elements, or truths of this world. Plato believed that in this universe full of transient things, there has to be some things that aren't transient. We can support this assumption by looking at math for example; 2 + 2 will always equal 4 no matter what world we travel to. Therefore, that math equation can be considered to be a truth. It is this kind of truth that Plato and Mido are searching for.
So why is Mido referring to his hijacked avatars as things that are closest to Plato's idea? Well for one, we already know that they can be considered to be eternal, (as stated three paragraphs up), and a truth or "idea" must be eternal.
However, being eternal itself is useless. There has to be some way in which an "idea" affects how we live in order for it to be important to us. This is probably where Mido finds the beauty in his avatars; look at his statement again.
And so, Mido states his purpose behind all of his previous actions, (and crimes).
Mido's wish is to lead the world with his avatars, or "ideas".
Why would Mido want the world to be led by avatars? I can only assume the reason why he would want this is because he has lost his faith in human reason, which has clearly proven to be mainly evil and corrupted throughout the course of history. I believe that as a solution to such corruption, Mido wishes to make avatars as the leaders of the world, instead of humans.
Why would avatars be a solution? Well, if Mido is correct in stating that his avatars are the closest possible things to Plato's "ideas", then it would only seem logical for us to accept guidance from them, since an "idea" is equal to truth. It is as if we would be allowing the very truth to guide us; doesn't that seem like a splendid idea?
But are Mido's avatars indeed things that are closest to Plato's idea? And if they are, would we really want to be guided by them? I could state arguments from both sides but that would take a whole other philosophical essay, so I won't right now. Hopefully Urobuchi will touch upon this subject again in another episode.
Now that we understand Mido's intentions, let's look at what Makishima thinks about him. Because clearly, Makishima is very interested in Mido.
Unfortunately, I cannot relate Shuji Tereyama to Makishima's thoughts about Mido right now because I do not know of Shuji Tereyama or his work. (If someone could tell me what the English name of his play is, it would help a lot!)
All I know is that Makishima mentions the concept of everyone seeming to be an agent for someone or something else, and that agent creates an avatar to communicate for him or herself.
It's easy to understand the concept of every person being an agent of his or her own ideas and philosophies, but what about the concept of every person creating his or her own avatar?
Once again, Urobuchi is referring to Rousseau and his idea of Amour Propre, (one's awareness of himself in comparison to others.) I believe that the "avatars" Makishima is talking about refers to appearances, or "masks" that people set up for themselves when they go out in public or browse the internet.
With that said, Urobuchi is making a social commentary on the effect that the internet has on humans, which I actually already covered before when I was discussing the philosophy of the internet. But I will briefly discuss it once again here.
Basically, Mido represents the typical human who is socially affected by the internet. By using the internet as his tool, Mido created, (whoops, I mean hijacked, but the concept still applies), different avatars, or appearances for himself. And as a result, he has forgotten who he is himself.
I think I can confirm now that Urobuchi has a cynical opinion towards the internet, and how it affects humans socially. But I also believe he makes very good points to support his position, which is a position I support as well.
Although I agree with what Akane said earlier, I also believe that the internet is in fact, impacting humans as a whole in a more negative manner. I see it in every day life; people these days, (at least in the US), seem to be more obsessed with material possessions and things that are rather shallow, instead of the things that are unseen as well as the things that tend to mean much more. And when I try to analyze the personalities of a lot of these people, (try to look at these people behind their "avatars", or "masks"), I usually don't see much.
But let me stop myself before I go on a rant about all the social problems of our society. If you would like to speak more of the subject, please send me a message or comment below!
Episode Flaws
The following are my opinion and my opinion only!
1) It is never ruled out by the MWPSB that there could have possibly been more than one hijacker acting in a team, which is clearly unrealistic. What made them assume for the entire two episodes that there was just one hijacker taking over all three avatars? In fact, before this episode, I myself thought that there was a team of hijackers acting under Makishima as his puppets.
2) After Mazaoka disables the Interior Holo during the hotel raid, Mido is seen standing in the same spot in the hallway staring at Shinya as he was when he first began running about a good 20 seconds before. If this were more realistic, he would've already left the hallway, since he was given a 20 seconds to escape.
3) When Mido is shot in the arm, only his arm is destroyed. Yet, when the criminal from the first episode was shot in the arm, his whole body exploded! You might say that this inconsistency was due to the drugs that Mido was taking, but those were only supposed to be pain inhibiting drugs and nothing else. You can also say that he was running away and that the criminal from the first episode was just standing there, but I really doubt that the incredible power of that gun can be inhibited by simply flailing your arms...
Episode Overview
Overall, Episode 5 of Psycho-Pass is a very good episode! I seriously have not seen such a tight episode in a long time. Within a simple 20 minutes or so, Urobuchi managed to discuss with us at least 4 different topics of philosophy that I find extremely intriguing. Moreover, it really makes me excited for the future episodes, because I really wish to see more of what Urobuchi thinks about today's modern society.
Not many Animes or movies or TV shows in general are tackling the same subject that Urobuchi is tackling. And even if there are some out there, (and yes, I am aware of them, like Ghost in the Shell and Minority Report), they are not as recent as Psycho-Pass is. A lot has changed in the years leading up to 2012, along with the internet. So if you're looking for an Anime that discusses the philosophies of the internet as of 2012, Psycho-Pass is definitely your Anime to watch.
reade more...
The MWPSB discover that Spooky Boogie became victim to the same hijacker that took over Talisman. After Shion discovers another similar case in another CommuField, Shinya analyzes the data of all three CommuFields together, (Talisman, Spooky Boogie, and Rainy Blue), and identifies the culprit, who was an active fan of all three "idols". The MWPSB then proceeds to eliminate the hijacker. Although the hijacker's intentions for committing his crimes are revealed, the intentions of the puppet master, Makishima, remain hidden.
Plot Details:
A crack has formed in the relationship between Akane and Spooky Boogie due to the raid of Club Exoset. Spooky Boogy states clearly to Akane that she will not work with the police or even her as a friend any longer.
Talisman continues give advice in the "Talisman Saloon", which is continuously packed with users. Talisman's actions confuse the MWPSB because he is socializing with other users as if he doesn't care about getting caught by the police. Thus, Talisman's goals are extremely unclear; if his goal is to make it seem as if Kimihiko Hayama is still alive, he would not have left his bank account untouched as well as ignore the record of him not leaving the apartment over two months. Moreover, if his intention was to hijack Hayama's avatar just for fun, it would seem unlikely that such a person would commit murder in order to do so. Things get even more confusing when we bring up the fact that the hijacker obviously prepared for any kind of retaliation from the police beforehand, which was shown in the events of the last episode. It is clear that the hijacker spent extra time to hack into the Holo-Cosplay system in Club Exoset in order to avoid any kind of mishap such as a police raid.
The hijacker's confident and seemingly careless actions cause Shinya to think that simply tracing his access routes would most likely be meaningless, since the hijacker is most likely confident in covering his steps. Instead, he looks for another way to trace him.
While Shinya goes over the chat between Akane and Spooky Boogie, Mazaoka and Akane have a brief philosophical chat regarding the usefulness of the internet.
Meanwhile, Ginoza, Kagori, and Yayoi locate Talisman's hijacker and raid his place of operation. They are met with a booby trap. A bomb explodes, slightly injuring only Ginoza.
Shortly after, the hijacker receives a call under the name Chloe Gu-Sung, who asks the hijacker if he would like to continue with his actions. The hijacker replies saying that it is his duty. Gu-Sung replies saying that he is not surprised, since the hijacker is Mr. Makishima's favorite. After he hangs up, it is shown that the hijacker has injecting himself with some sort of drug.
Shinya, Akane, and Mazaoka discover Spooky Boogie's identity by looking up Akane's classmates and narrowing the possibilities down to those who had an affiliate income. The identity is confirmed to be someone by the name of Shoko Sugawara after visiting her place and finding her body parts in the sewer.
Akane becomes depressed and blames Sugawara's death on herself, since she believes she herself got Sugawara involved with the case. However, Shinya comforts her, saying that it was in fact not her fault .
Shion discovers another strange case within the internet. A large and active CommuField named Melancholia's Rainy Blue was owned by an 88-year-old man who lended the room and his avatar to his 14-year-old grandson, Yuichi Tokito. Shion discovered that the grandson died in an accident half a year ago. Yet, his avatar is still active. It is confirmed that the grandfather was not using the avatar since he did not even know how to enter the social network. Moreover, he thought the affiliate income he was receiving was his pension.
Akane comments that she is astonished by the acting abilities of the hijacker, since he or she is able to not only control so many avatars at once, but able to control them "better", since the popularity of all the hijacked avatars has increased after their original user's deaths. Shinya replies by saying that it is actually only natural by the definition of an idol that a fan would be able to act as the idol better than the idol him or herself. This then leads Shinya to suspect that the hijacker is a fan of all three of the hijacked avatars.
Shinya narrows down the culprit by first asking Shion to draw a graph of the time spent in the Talisman Saloon. by the top 100 active fans per day. After Talisman's reputation went down, many of the active users shown went down on the graph. However, when Talisman's reputation went back up, only a few of the active users did not go back up the graph, (did not start spending time in the Talisman Saloon again). It is only natural that the culprit would be one of these people, since he did not need a regular guest avatar to visit the Talisman Saloon anymore, (because he was operating Talisman).
Shion finds only one person who fit the same activity pattern in Talisman's CommuField within both Spooky Boogie's Commufield and Melancholia's Rainy Blue. The culprit is identified as Masatake Mido, a 27-year-old man who works at a virtual sports manager company. Mazaoka confirms the culprits identity by checking his last Psycho-Pass Hue Check, which was 4 years ago at an annual checkup. This means that Mido spend 4 years avoiding street scanners on a daily basis. Shion traces his access records, and finds out that his last access to the internet came from a budget hotel in Roppongi, Minato Ward. She then looks up his home address, which is Motoazabu, in the same ward. Ginoza commands Akane, Shinya, and Mazaoka to raid the hotel room, while he, Kagari, and Kunizuka raid Mido's home.
Shinya, Akane, and Mazaoka raid the hotel room, where Mido is hiding. Mido activates a booby trap created by hacking into the Interior Holo which distorts everyone's vision in the hotel room as well as in the hallway. Mido uses the oppurtunity to run out into the hallway and escape.
Mazaoka, who came prepared for such an incident, uses Shinya's lighter to spew fire on the ceiling sprinklers with a bottle of alcohol that he brought. The activated sprinklers causes the Interior Holo to shut down, revealing Mido in the hallway. Shinya quickly shoots Mido with his Dominator, but only destroys his arm. Mido runs quickly away regardless, since he has been taking pain inhibiting drugs.
Mido runs back to his home to meet his avatars. After briefly comforting himself in their presence, the avatars are taken over by Makishima, who reveals that he lent his power to Mido because he was interested in Mido's own personality. However, Makishima concluded that Mido, in the end, had no personality of his own, and could thus never create his own ideas that weren't borrowed from others. Just before Ginoza, Kagari, and Kunizuka arrive at the scene, Makishima shuts down the Interior Holo and avatars, leaving Mido alone in his room in a deranged state. Regardless, they proceed to mercilessly eliminate him.
Afterwards, Akane and Ginoza have a chat on a balcony back at the headquarters. Akane states that although Shinya is a latent criminal, he is certainly different from other criminals like Mido. Ginoza simply replies by saying that she should separate herself with a fine line from the Enforcers. He then gives Akane his reasoning for having such an ironclad rule by sending Akane a file from the Personnel Department. The file reveals that Shinya used to be an Inspector working beside Ginoza. However, his CC increased after an unsolved case, MWPSB Special Case 102, ended. During and after that case, Shinya refused to received treatment therapy, causing his CC to increase to the point where he was demoted to a latent criminal, and thus, an Enforcer.
Philosophy of the Internet
The following is a rough translation of the conversation between Akane and Masaoka.
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MASAOKA: I can't really figure out stuff like avatars and virtual worlds. I mean after all, it's our bodies that actually breathe, sweat, and eat, right?
AKANE: Mr. Masaoka, I think people like you are an endangered species. Isn't using the net just like using knives for cooking or using paper to write things down? It has nothing to do with good or bad. It simply exists, so we accept it and use it.
MASAOKA: As expected, you're good at explaining things. You're like a teacher.
AKANE: Really?
MASAOKA: Do you know Roseau?
AKANE: You mean the philosopher?
MASAOKA: Yeah, and his work, "A Discourse on Ineqaulity."
AKANE: Hold on a second, please. I'll look it up.
MASAOKA: You don't need to. It's recorded in my brain. For example, suppose there are two hunters in a forest. Should they hunt for rabbits separately, or should they work together and go after bigger prey? Which decision do you think is correct?
AKANE: Of course the latter is! That's the basics of game theory. You work together to catch bigger prey.
MASAOKA: That's right, humans are social by nature. Languages, letters, currencies, telephones, all the communication tools that exist in the world are there in order to strengthen that social nature. Do you think the net has the same effect, missy?
AKANE: Yes... I think it does.
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So, Masaoka proposes this important question,
Does the internet strengthen our social nature?
Of course, he's implying that it is possible that the internet doesn't improve our social nature, as language, letters, and telephones might. But could this really be true?
To begin, we should first look at where Masaoka's way of thinking is stemming from, which he admits to be Rousseau's A Discourse on Inequality.
If you would like to understand Masaoka's way of thinking on a deeper level, I suggest you read A Discourse on Inequality and study it yourself, but I will briefly summarize it here.
In A Discourse on Inequality, Rousseau discusses primarily the origin of moral inequality, which he claims to be unnatural. The following is my definition of moral inequality from Rousseau's perspective.
moral inequality - differences of unnatural political power between different men, e.g. wealth, status, and class; in which one man benefits at the expense of another.
This definition of moral inequality as well as his observations of humans led Rousseau to believe in a phenomenon he calls Amour Propre. The following is my definition of Amoure Propre from Rousseau's perspective.
Amour Propre - acute awareness towards oneself in relation to others, i.e. comparing oneself to others.
Amour Propre is considered by Rousseau to be a harmful psychological deformation in the civilized humans, because he believes that the truly natural humans, (we'll call them "true" humans), who existed before the rise in moral inequality, only knows how to "be", and not how to appear.
Is comparing oneself to others truly a psychological deformation that is only harmful? For the sake of argument, let's just say for now that it is. After all, it goes without saying that because of Amour Propre, many humans go about their lives not only lying to others, but lying to themselves about who they really are; all because they wish to be a "good" person when comparing themselves to others. We see this especially more than ever in today's society; all we have to do is turn on the TV for surf the internet.
Now that I've briefly summarized Rousseau's concept of moral inequality, how does Masaoka connect Rousseau's philosophy with the internet? What would Rousseau say about the internet if he were still alive?
Let's look at the initial question one more time.
Does the internet strengthen our social nature?
Does the internet have the same effect that other communication mediums like language, letters, and telephones have?
Akane would say it does, given her initial response in the beginning of the conversation.
"Isn't using the net just like using knives for cooking or using paper to write things down? It has nothing to do with good or bad. It simply exists, so we accept it and use it." - Tsunemori Akane, Episode 5
Akane's point seems to be sound; the internet is a tool that exists only beecause humans created it for a function that would serve them by enhancing their communication. Thus, it cannot be said to be good or evil.
But why does Masaoka believe that this point is wrong, (or not completely correct?)
Well we certainly know the positive effects of the internet, which include the ability to send and receive data more quickly than any other communication tool. In this sense, the internet is a fantastic tool that undoubtedly allows humans to become stronger, since it allows them to socially cooperate with each other and solve problems that seemed impossible to handle before its creation.
For example, because of the internet, humans have achieved the feat of communicating with each other world-wide, sharing cultures and ideas with each other in order to learn more about the universe they live in!
However, the story does not end there, or rather, that's not all there is to do the story. What else is the internet providing its users to do?
When Masaoka started the conversation, he mentioned the key term avatars. I think that the root of the problem Masaoka has with the internet lies in this very term.
What is an avatar?
The following is a definition collected from Wikipedia.
avatar (computing) - the graphical representation of the (internet) user or the user's alter ego or character.
The key term is this: graphical representation, i.e. appearance.
What does this term imply?
What it implies is appearance, as opposed to being. According to Rousseau, the "true" human can only be, and not appear. Therefore, if the internet is a tool that allows humans to no be themselves, then it is a tool that allows humans to deviate from being a "true" human; and thus, become "less" human. In this sense, the internet is a tool that in fact, does not strengthen our social nature, but destroys it, since it causes humans to socialize with others without being our true selves.
Now you might be saying, "But that's because humans made that decision to lie to themselves on their own! The internet did not force them to do anything!" And this would be true. However, it depends on how you look at the question. Does the internet strengthen our social nature? Well, the answer to that question is that it both can and can't, depending on the individual's decision. In the end, i believe that both Akane and Masaoka are right. Of course, you can be a smart human being and know how to use the internet in a way that will strengthen your social nature, but let's get realistic. Most people aren't like that, and Masaoka knows that all too well. In this sense, the internet is something that inhibits our social nature from growing.
The majority of people will in fact abuse the internet due to Rousseau's phenomenon known as Amour Propre, but of course, that's only what I believe. You may have a different opinion. This is a very touchy topic after all.
I hope that Urobuchi goes more in depth on this topic throughout his further episodes.
The Philosophy of Guilt and Blame
The following is a rough translation of the conversation between Akane, Shinya, and Masaoka, when Akane becomes depressed over the fact that Sugawara was killed because of her involvement with the police; an involvement that Akane believes she initiated.
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AKANE: Because of me... [Sugawara] got dragged into this. It was my fault... because of me...
MASAOKA: Missy...
SHINYA: Did you use Spooky Boogie as a decoy?
AKANE: No...
SHINYA: Did you force her to cooperate?
AKANE: No...
SHINYA: Did you leak information from her about the enemy?
AKANE: No....
SHINYA: Then what exactly is your fault?
AKANE: That's... But she actually got...
SHINYA: Yeah, if we had caught the culprit last night, Sugawara Shoko didn't have to die. The responsibility for that lies with all of us. For now, just think about fulfilling your responsibilities. Let's catch this guy.
MASAOKA: In short, that's the only thing we can do to enable the victims to rest in peace.
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Many of us have probably heard similar conversations like this before either in daily life or other stories in general. So it shouldn't be anything new. Still, it's good to clarify where we think our philosophy lies regarding guilt and blame.
With that said, let's quickly try and answer this question,
Is Akane at fault for the death of Sugawara?
According to Akane, Sugawara's death is her fault since she is the one who initiated the conversation between Sugawara and herself, introducing the MWPSB's affairs to Sugawara.
While it's obvious that Sugawara might never have been murdered if Akane hadn't conversed with Sugawara about the police's affairs, it doesn't mean that Akane was the cause of Sugawara's death. This is because it was only logical for Akane to investiage Sugawara's CommuField due to the nature of her job. However, Akane ignore this logic.
Besides going to Sugawara's CommuField, which she did only by the nature of her job as an investigator of crime, Akane did not do anything to involve Sugawara within the MWPSB's affairs. As Shinya clearly stated, she did not use Spooky Boogie as a decoy, she did not force her to cooperate whatsoever, and she did not leak information from her about the enemy. Thus, Akane cannot be at fault for her initial involvement.
HOWEVER, Akane, as well as the rest of the MWPSB did in fact fail to handle the raid in Club Exoset in a professional manner, which otherwise could have prevented Sugawara's murder. Thus, it can be said that the entire MWPSB is at fault equally among each other. But there is no reason for Akane to blame only herself.
I feel like a lawyer here.
The Definition of "Idols" and "Fans" and their Relationship Between Each Other
The following is the roughly translated conversation between the Inspectors and Enforcers when they gather to discuss their next move.
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GINOZA: Is it even possible to operate several different Avatars at the same time?
SHION: It's not impossible for heavy users, right?
AKANE: What's abnormal here is the acting abilities of this culprit. Not only are these hijacked avatars not incurring suspicion, they're more popular than when their real owners operated them.
GINOZA: Why is it then that tens of thousands of users don't notice they're fake?
SHINYA: Because it's not a matter of real or fake. These avatars are idols on the net. In other words, icons. Icons cannot exist solely through their own will. Neither Hayama nor Sugawara established their status on their own. They were able to become Talisman and Spooky Boogie because their fans idolized them based on their own distorted perceptions. The idols' true feelings and their true colors are not the same as the ideals their characters represents. It's not surprising that a fan could do a better job than the real owners of playing the idol fans expect to see.
MASAOKA: Are you saying that the culprit is one of their fans?
SHINYA: Melancholia, Talisman, Spooky Boogie, he knows those three characters very well and can imitate them perfectly. The real culprit is someone whose levels of activity matches that enthusiasm.
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Shinya puts a very nice definition on the word "icon" that I do not hear very often.
The following is my definition from Shinya's perspective.
icon - a being whose ideals are based on the various perceptions of its audience.
This view on the word "icon" is particularly interesting because whenever I think of the word icon, I think of someone whose original ideas were so great that he inspired many others to believe in the same exact ideas.
However, I've now come to understand that this is actually a misconception.
You might be saying, "Well what's the difference?", but I think there is a big difference, and Urobuchi clearly thinks so too.
Look again at what Shinya says about idols.
"The idols' true feelings and their true colors are not the same as the ideals their characters represents." - Kougami Shinya, Episode 5.
This is the main distinction between the two definitions. This is why the first definition is actually a misconception. It is not that an audience has taken in the same exact ideas of the icon, but it is that the audience has perceived the icon's ideas as something of their own, i.e. in their own way. And what this means is that it is actually impossible for the original idea of an icon to transfer to its audience. Due to subjectivity and variations in thought and personality between any two human beings on earth, every original idea will be twisted or just simply different in some way between every person.
With that said, the original ideas that an icon might project to its audience may be taken differently by the general audience. What this means is that while an idol may think that his or her audience is perceiving his or her ideas in its generally whole form, it may not be the case. Moreover, if a fan within the audience understands how the audience is perceiving the idol's original ideas more than the idol him or herself, then it is more than possible for that single fan to do a "better" job at being the idol than the idol him or herself.
And this is the very case presented in Psycho-Pass, where the hijacker of all three "idols" understood the idols better than they understood themselves.
Those Without Personality
The following is the roughly translated conversation between Mido and Makishima, who speaks through the hijacked avatars.
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MIDO: You guys are eternal... You were released from the chains of a physical body and polished by collective intelligence. You're the souls most close to Plato's "idea". No one can look down on you. I won't let anyone destroy your nobility. I will... I will protect it at any cost. Once I was guided by you... Now, together with you, I will guide people and the world! You are eternal!
MAKISHIMA: But... couldn't you have done a better job, Mido?
MIDO: Wait a second... what on earth....?
MAKISHIMA: There's something that I've been searching for that I want to know. For that purpose, I did whatever it took. Say, have you read Shuji Terayama?
MIDO: Huh? Terayama?
MAKISHIMA: You should read his play, "Saraba, eigo yo." It seems like everyone is an agent for someone. And further, those agents have their avatars communicate in place of them.
MIDO: Are you... Makishima?
MAKISHIMA: You have thorough knowledge of various avatars and imitate them perfectly. You can become anyone, so I was very interested in what your personality was like. That's why I lent you my people and my assistance.
MIDO: Stop it! Give them back to me! Don't speak in their voices!
MAKISHIMA: But... I now see matters coming to a close. At least for the end, instead of using a borrowed idea, why don't you come up with an idea of your own to close the curtain?
MIDO: You bastard...! What are you doing-!
MAKISHIMA: You can play any character, and yet, in the end, it turned out that you yourself are nobody. Your core personality is null, empty. You don't have a face of your own. Since you lacked a face, you were simply able to wear any kind of mask.
MIDO: Shut up! Stop it!
MAKISHIMA: It's about time to say goodbye, Mido Masatake. The hunting dogs that bring death have arrived.
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This scene has to be one of the most intense scenes I have ever seen. The music, animation, voice acting... they were all perfect. However... when you add all of that to the grave philosophy and social commentary that lies beneath it all... all I can say is that I get chills down my spine whenever I think about it.
The philosophy behind this scene also is a direct follow-up from the conversation between Akane and Masaoka regarding the internet, and whether or not it is actually promoting the social strength of humans. (It also relates to Shinya's definition of an "icon".) Perhaps we can find Urobuchi's opinion on the matter by analyzing Mido's character in this scene.
Let's begin processing this scene by looking at Makishima's question, or challenge rather, proposed to Mido.
"At least for the end, instead of using a borrowed idea, why don't you come up with any idea of your own to close the curtain?" - Makishima Shogo, Episode 5.
Can Mido do such a thing? Is it within Mido's capabilities, within his personality even, to come up with an idea of his own?
We discussed earlier about the social significance of the internet and the problem of avatars regarding Amour Propre. By controlling these avatars, humans are pressured into comparing themselves to others due to Amour Propre. And because of this pressure, (of keeping a good appearance), humans tend to create avatars, i.e. characters of themselves that don't truly represent themselves.
Mido is such a character. As a fanatic fan of Talisman, Spooky Boogie, and Melancholia, he completely disregarded his own being for the sake of his idols. He cared more about these icons than himself, and dedicated his life to bringing these icons to life.
But why the dedication? Why does Mido care about these icons so much? They're not even human! Let's try to understand what Mido finds in these icons that are so powerful; powerful enough to give up his own life for.
We should start by analyzing Mido's statements about the icons at the end of Episode 5.
"You guys are eternal... You were released from the chains of a physical body and polished by collective intelligence. You're the souls most close to Plato's "idea". No one can look down on you. I won't let anyone destroy your nobility. I will... I will protect it at any cost. Once I was guided by you... Now, together with you, I will guide people and the world! You are eternal!" - Mido Masatake, Episode 5.
It can certainly be said that avatars are eternal in a sense... especially when compared to the life span of a single human being. Unlike a human, an avatar exists for as long as the data and collective intelligence that holds it together exists, (just think of an avatar as a robot, except it exists only over the internet).
But this isn't a new concept; we've heard about robots for long time now, and we understand the basic concept of robots being able to outlive humans, since they don't require a healthy physical body which degrades over time no matter what. However, what's most interesting about Mido's statement is his comparison of his avatars to Plato's "idea".
For those of you who don't know about Plato's "idea", it is fairly simple. The "ideas" Plato and Mido are talking about are basically the elements, or truths of this world. Plato believed that in this universe full of transient things, there has to be some things that aren't transient. We can support this assumption by looking at math for example; 2 + 2 will always equal 4 no matter what world we travel to. Therefore, that math equation can be considered to be a truth. It is this kind of truth that Plato and Mido are searching for.
So why is Mido referring to his hijacked avatars as things that are closest to Plato's idea? Well for one, we already know that they can be considered to be eternal, (as stated three paragraphs up), and a truth or "idea" must be eternal.
However, being eternal itself is useless. There has to be some way in which an "idea" affects how we live in order for it to be important to us. This is probably where Mido finds the beauty in his avatars; look at his statement again.
"Once I was guided by you... Now, together with you, I will guide people and the world!" - Mido Matasake, Episode 5.
And so, Mido states his purpose behind all of his previous actions, (and crimes).
Mido's wish is to lead the world with his avatars, or "ideas".
Why would Mido want the world to be led by avatars? I can only assume the reason why he would want this is because he has lost his faith in human reason, which has clearly proven to be mainly evil and corrupted throughout the course of history. I believe that as a solution to such corruption, Mido wishes to make avatars as the leaders of the world, instead of humans.
Why would avatars be a solution? Well, if Mido is correct in stating that his avatars are the closest possible things to Plato's "ideas", then it would only seem logical for us to accept guidance from them, since an "idea" is equal to truth. It is as if we would be allowing the very truth to guide us; doesn't that seem like a splendid idea?
But are Mido's avatars indeed things that are closest to Plato's idea? And if they are, would we really want to be guided by them? I could state arguments from both sides but that would take a whole other philosophical essay, so I won't right now. Hopefully Urobuchi will touch upon this subject again in another episode.
Now that we understand Mido's intentions, let's look at what Makishima thinks about him. Because clearly, Makishima is very interested in Mido.
Unfortunately, I cannot relate Shuji Tereyama to Makishima's thoughts about Mido right now because I do not know of Shuji Tereyama or his work. (If someone could tell me what the English name of his play is, it would help a lot!)
All I know is that Makishima mentions the concept of everyone seeming to be an agent for someone or something else, and that agent creates an avatar to communicate for him or herself.
It's easy to understand the concept of every person being an agent of his or her own ideas and philosophies, but what about the concept of every person creating his or her own avatar?
Once again, Urobuchi is referring to Rousseau and his idea of Amour Propre, (one's awareness of himself in comparison to others.) I believe that the "avatars" Makishima is talking about refers to appearances, or "masks" that people set up for themselves when they go out in public or browse the internet.
Basically, Mido represents the typical human who is socially affected by the internet. By using the internet as his tool, Mido created, (whoops, I mean hijacked, but the concept still applies), different avatars, or appearances for himself. And as a result, he has forgotten who he is himself.
I think I can confirm now that Urobuchi has a cynical opinion towards the internet, and how it affects humans socially. But I also believe he makes very good points to support his position, which is a position I support as well.
Although I agree with what Akane said earlier, I also believe that the internet is in fact, impacting humans as a whole in a more negative manner. I see it in every day life; people these days, (at least in the US), seem to be more obsessed with material possessions and things that are rather shallow, instead of the things that are unseen as well as the things that tend to mean much more. And when I try to analyze the personalities of a lot of these people, (try to look at these people behind their "avatars", or "masks"), I usually don't see much.
But let me stop myself before I go on a rant about all the social problems of our society. If you would like to speak more of the subject, please send me a message or comment below!
Episode Flaws
The following are my opinion and my opinion only!
1) It is never ruled out by the MWPSB that there could have possibly been more than one hijacker acting in a team, which is clearly unrealistic. What made them assume for the entire two episodes that there was just one hijacker taking over all three avatars? In fact, before this episode, I myself thought that there was a team of hijackers acting under Makishima as his puppets.
2) After Mazaoka disables the Interior Holo during the hotel raid, Mido is seen standing in the same spot in the hallway staring at Shinya as he was when he first began running about a good 20 seconds before. If this were more realistic, he would've already left the hallway, since he was given a 20 seconds to escape.
3) When Mido is shot in the arm, only his arm is destroyed. Yet, when the criminal from the first episode was shot in the arm, his whole body exploded! You might say that this inconsistency was due to the drugs that Mido was taking, but those were only supposed to be pain inhibiting drugs and nothing else. You can also say that he was running away and that the criminal from the first episode was just standing there, but I really doubt that the incredible power of that gun can be inhibited by simply flailing your arms...
Episode Overview
Overall, Episode 5 of Psycho-Pass is a very good episode! I seriously have not seen such a tight episode in a long time. Within a simple 20 minutes or so, Urobuchi managed to discuss with us at least 4 different topics of philosophy that I find extremely intriguing. Moreover, it really makes me excited for the future episodes, because I really wish to see more of what Urobuchi thinks about today's modern society.
Not many Animes or movies or TV shows in general are tackling the same subject that Urobuchi is tackling. And even if there are some out there, (and yes, I am aware of them, like Ghost in the Shell and Minority Report), they are not as recent as Psycho-Pass is. A lot has changed in the years leading up to 2012, along with the internet. So if you're looking for an Anime that discusses the philosophies of the internet as of 2012, Psycho-Pass is definitely your Anime to watch.
