I just finished watching the second Psycho-Pass: Sinners of the System movie. While it was nice to see some old faces, I felt honestly a bit disappointed after the amazing first movie, which showed a reformed Mika alongside plenty of action and foreshadowing about something lurking in the shadows of the Sibyl System.

While the story starts in the present day with Akane and Mika having to deal with Frederica Hanashiro from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it quickly moves away after a few minutes to a past event from before the very first season of the series. This was back when Kougami was still an Inspector and everyone else was still alive and well.

Lies! Akane your actions speak for yourself!

Yeah, it's a trap Mika. It's clearly a trap!

The plot shows us a military operation that went wrong against another country where the soldiers were left to die. Only one soldier, Teppei Sugo, managed to return with his plane. Sugo eventually becomes an Enforcer under Mika and Akane, but this film focuses on his history.

At the time, he was still in the military while his Hue was growing more and more problematic due to the trauma left by the operation. His life is upended when an unmanned drone attacks the Ministry of Defense building, killing and injuring several individuals.

When these people get involved something bad is going to happen...

Oh, familiar faces!

The Public Safety Bureau sends its best team, including Kogami and Ginoza, to investigate and find the culprit with Sugo as a possible accomplice. From there, we go through a series of investigations to solve a mystery that turns out to be just a typical military cover-up for their past actions.

It turns out the "cargo" that Sugo released before retreating was a chemical weapon that killed allies and enemies alike, and the military wants to ensure that information never becomes public. The attack against the Ministry of Defense was caused by the wife of one of the soldiers seeking revenge, but she ends up getting killed before she can kill the last person involved. This last individual is terminated through a Dominator at the end as planned by the Sibyl System, while the whole operation remains hidden.

I guess he'll be back in season three...

Of course it had to be her after all...

Honestly, the lack of the Sibyl System being directly involved in the conflict turned this into a standard military conspiracy, which isn't exactly revolutionary or novel. It does give an insight into how things worked before Akane arrived at the Bureau, but I don't think it was a great showing in terms of storytelling.

This really speaks volumes about how much the series is carried by the dystopian world set up by the Sibyl System and how easily things fall down the moment this isn't at the center of attention anymore. I am curious to see if this is going to be used in some way in upcoming movies or series, or if it is just going to be a red mark in the history of this otherwise great series.

First real dominator moment of the movie

...and of course it was all Sybil plan all along.

I will watch the final movie of this trilogy next before starting the third season. Hopefully, this time we get back to Akane and the Sibyl System, as there were some good leads in the first movie that could be used.