Today I started watching the Psycho-Pass movies, starting with the first entry of Sinners of the System, and I was literally blown away by Mika Shimotsuki. As you may know if you followed my previous posts, I really hated her personality in the second season of the series. But now? Whoa, she is amazing.

The story follows a new investigation that can be seen as a standalone movie, even though there are hints that it is part of a bigger issue. This time Akane Tsunemori stands on the sidelines to avoid attracting attention, letting Mika take the lead on the investigation herself.

The case is supposed to be easy: returning a latent criminal back to the facility in the Aomori prefecture (called Sanctuary) that was handling her. The issue is that this latent criminal was found under the influence of some mysterious drug, and the order to return her came from so high up that it overrode the Inspector's authority.

This was suspicious, so investigating the facility became a priority. Boy, did that place emanate an aura of "something crazy is happening here". The inmates seemed to act as a single group entity, closely resembling the newfound power of the Sibyl System to "judge" groups.

In the end, it turned out they were being used to dispose of and reorganize nuclear waste, controlled by the director of the facility who was the only one "outside of the group." Their crimes were discovered, and the situation was settled with quite a few cool action scenes with Ginoza taking the lead of the fighting.

The woman, Izumi Yasaka, was just trying to protect a boy from being disposed by the staff of the facility. Despite reaching high levels of Psycho-Pass coefficient, she was still trying her best to control the symptoms to help. This really impacted Mika, as she started to understand that, in the end, everyone is just a human living in different circumstances.

Mika's personality hasn't changed much on the surface; she is still impatient and prone to action even when not needed. However, she seems to focus a lot more on saving people compared to just "trying to avoid getting blamed for any failure" like in the previous season. She got so many cool lines and actions in this movie, it is insane.

Is this the result of her knowing the truth behind the Sibyl System? I wonder how much time passed between the second season and this movie series. If there was a reasonably big amount of time (4-6 months), I can see her becoming more mature after the admittedly horrendous experience against Togane and his mother.

In the end, we are still faced with a few questions. Who was the guy controlling the director from the shadows as shown in that final call? Is it related to the Sibyl System like that politician at the end (nice slap, Mika!) or is there something else going on in the background?

I am looking forward to watching the next movie soon. If this is the level of quality I can expect, I am going to be ultra happy waltzing back here to write more about it soon.