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The endless everyday? I've seen these same ideas expressed without a specific term quite often. Well, yes, these kind of consumerist societies become plagued with meaninglessness and inauthenticity. This kind of "progress" is not fulfilling. From briefly scrolling through the/ Instead of Aum, you could look to someone Ted Kaczynski as a similar figure who thought something was wrong about society and wanted something else, and he's far more relevant to Texh than Aum. He was concerned with technological society. He was a reclusive figure who wouldn't be able to lead a movement and there had already been many people writing about the same subjects that concerned him, anyway. For example, the majority of what he had written in his manifesto was influenced by Jacques Ellul and some others. Kaczynski's contribution was largely the revolutionary aspect to it and his concise fine-tuning of language. So he probably didn't think publishing essays and books on the subject alone would result in any change. Such books are still written, so he is obviously correct. So what he opted to do was mail bomb a bunch of technologists, resulting in deaths and a sensational case for the police, leading to his plan going through of getting his manifesto published in the newspapers for a more radical kind of influence. Of course, many people just don't take it seriously. David Skrbina is basically his successor of sorts, who conversed with Kaczynski while he was in prison, and some of these letters were incorporated into one of Kaczynski's books. I think what Aum did was far more silly as they were a rather powerful organization at the time, if I recall correctly, so they should have bided their time. Almost makes me wonder if there is some deeper conspiracy to the story. Kaczynski had far less to lose.

I suppose endless everyday = abundance + boredom + lack of direction is useful enough as a quick go to and to have a term to describe something that tends to require at least a paragraph of explanation. lol, at seeing Re:Zero as the example. XD

Nietzsche was referring to the antithesis of the ubermensch as the last man in Zarathustra and wherever else, which is a kind of pathetic people or man seeking comfort and not striving for anything, which becomes increasingly more widespread with technology and a lot of political and philosophical trends. The reason Yoshii does not do such a thing with the surface world is because they are "barely human" in a sense and have no potential for anything revolutionary or that would lead to change. They are sheep getting fleeced by the shepherd. And even that is a poor metaphor because they have no function, and they are going extinct. The sheep herd has a function and often continues to remain at parity or grows larger per the needs of the shepherd. Lux actually has humans that can be molded into something greater. Some of this you end up having to look at in broader strokes in relation to philosophical ideas because the characters tend not to explain much.

And I feel like what you're describing in relation to late-stage capitalism precedes what we might call late-stage. You could easily make the case that that's where we are now, and what we're seeing in Texh is far removed and is presented with far more "progress." It's just a common thing in rootless consumer societies that destroy tradition and culture. The thing about the surface is that many elements often described in late-stage capitalism are absent as well. I mean, I'll have to stress here that I need to finish the series again, and I'm going by memory; I'm also biased against Marxian interpretations (though what is described by late-stage capitalism is plausible enough, even though it's kind of thrown around carelessly), so take that as you will XD. There is no inequality or class (any class structure or inequality being associated with the Hill, Class, and Lux) that I remember; the "work" that was presented seemed like some pointless volunteering to give people like Sakimura or Yoshii or whoever something to do but was not needed. That's the impression I got, though there's admittedly not a lot to go on, and I think you'll agree with that in a lot of places for Texh, lol. The place is presented like an idyllic yet creepy ghost world. If anything, it is a desolate post-capitalist world of some sort. Basically, machines handle everything and society is apparently equal, medicated, and without meaning, whiling their days away without a care.

Edward Hopper presents a kind of lonely melancholy and nostalgia mixed with pleasant but potentially alienating surroundings. I take it to mean the theonormals saw something was wrong, so they went with a retro setup when things were more agreeable and had not progressed as far, hoping that would fix the problem, but they're just throwing up another shade of paint rather than getting at the root of the issue. It's a kind of ersatz traditionalism or regression on their part. The thing is that capitalism does give something to strive for even with its problems, but it's trending toward a particular direction and can be cast aside if it's no longer relevant to those calling the shots. When you get beyond even that, then you are really fucked because there is no striving at all. Live in your pod, get your UBI (or energy certificate, as the old technocracy movement would call it), items and food droned in, watch your media, no need to go outside if you don't want to, as machines are handling tasks, etc. It's basically E.M. Forster's The Machine Stops by that point, which has a similarly bleak ending to Texh, where the characters live in little hermetically sealed vessels of the machine and concern themselves with abstruse matters disconnected from society. Only I feel Forster had a more "intellectualized" view of the future that was far less degenerated than what we should expect.

Yes, I'd agree that leisure certainly isn't enough to give meaning. Leisure time is good to have, but it has to be directed toward something or it leads to meaningless consumption and discontent. So I just nodded along to endless everyday (though I've yet to read the second, longer link), but largely reject late-stage capitalism in relation to Texh.

lmao, the sports part with note. XD

lol, Malice is pretty much Konaka's realistic sex doll fetishism but more of a mood piece than even Texh. The android girls in Armitage III, which he also wrote, are highly advanced and come with artificial wombs. There's not even a single female (other than android) support character. There's a strike against androids because they're taking jobs, and there are a bunch of angry women because the android girls are too sexy. XD

AIII is way better than MaliceDoll, though.

lol, the camera work in that interview. Is he trying to sneak a low-angle panty shot without being suspicious? XD

Alice in Cyberland looks like it's probably among his worst script credits, but I guess I'll add it. I still need to get back to his take on Giant Robo.

Not sure with Ghost Hound, but it seems to be his favorite among the anime he worked on, so I suspect he put his own unique spin on it. But I'm also not sure how it deviates from the source, and I haven't seen the anime in a long time.

Yeah, a lot of his stuff seems to have divergent perspectives amongst fans, especially Texh and Lain.

Edit: One thing I was wondering about is that I read your original post before you had a chance to edit it, and you were talking about late-stage capitalism. Main reason that I bring it up is that I don't recall too many people mentioning that in relation to Texh. Is this something fans sometimes go into, and so there is a theory camp like that or was that an observation you made separately? That's fine if you don't want to talk about it, as I assume you edited that out because you thought it wasn't relevant. I guess you would have been applying that to Lux, though, and some of the shifts the city went through during the course of the series, rather than the surface. I don't find it that relevant because capitalism in relation to technocracy and transhumanism isn't necessarily a permanent thing. Ultimately, capitalism is costly and resource-intensive. It's great for controlling international markets and centralizing parts of the world further, but if you look at technocratic ideologists, few of them are interested in unlimited growth and consumerism. Further and further automation means a need for fewer and fewer people. I would say that Texh is already past this point, with Lux being a raffia station that has the single-minded aim of radical change by providing supplemental material for the growth of transhumanism.

>Furthermore, from what I hear about the direction of Mikado's arc in later entries, I think he's gonna become straight up alien to me.

Many Durarara fans and critics alike rate the x2 sequels significantly lower. I noticed you have the original in your favourites, but you haven't watched the sequels. Would you say the original is a complete enough experience? ( no spoilers :) )

What do you make of Narita's obsession with connecting everything together?

It worked for Baccano since the anime is pretty much self-contained, and you only watch it for the thrill and mystery. Not so sure if it will work for Durarara since this one demands a certain level of investment in its characters, so it might start to feel a little tedious if you can't connect with its characters after 60-ish episodes. But I'll see.

I'm hesitant to say much because I'm only at ep 10 of my rewatch. The union flag is an intriguing design. Them being a union of industrial workers and loosely based on Japan's communist party but also having that rather busy symbol inside of the cogwheel. I guess it does make sense for that to be a flower, meaning raffia. Raffia is the crop of concern for Lux because of its applications, and the main part of industry would be extracting it, I'd assume. Though, ironically, it will be the undoing of the industrial working class as they are, and despite them being anti-texhnolyzation, Kimata is texhnolyzed.

Well... does it ever address the degenerated healing? I know Yoshii notes it, but I'm not sure if they ever say much about it otherwise, except we can note that other than symbolic cuttings of limbs, as Organo carries out, it seems if you get a bad leg wound, it's much more likely in Lux to not heal, become gangrenous, and require amputation. While I don't understand why this is happening, I feel a big part of transhumanism is to weaken the body so it requires augmentation from external sources. You're not healthy, so you need medicine. You're weak or disabled, so you need some kind of mechanical assistance or texhnolyzation. Medicine has side effects and can be damaging longterm (and costly in a lot of places). If you don't have to take medicine, you don't want to take it. Stuff like adding a limb or a brain chip or whatever also has a lot of risks, and there's a dehumanizing aspect to it individually and as part of a social dynamic. There's a trend in society that seems to avoid improving the body in favor of external "improvements." So this seems partly a means of making the transhumanist elements more widespread and to create greater class division. Those who can texhnolyze and those who can't. Eventually, you weed out the weak who can't get texhnolyzed and society becomes increasingly texhnolyzed, and the transhumanism is expanded.

Ichise is stubborn and prideful, wanting to take, procure, and earn things himself rather than to be given charity. Maybe I'd say more, but I think it might be too reaching right now.

Not sure when it comes to Onishi permitting. I'd lean toward it being a minor factional dispute rather than him approving it, but I'd probably have to watch the Organo scenes more closely as there are a lot of small details that are only easy to pickup when you're looking for them and roughly know what happens in following episodes.

Yup, my guess is also that the pimp is former Organo who got too big for his britches and got his limb stripped from him, just as happened with the Michiko scene. Organo are the only ones who would be called "big shots." Racan are punks. SU are a workers union. Organo are basically like well-dressed yakuza running the place. I think there's also a piece of dialogue between Shinji and the afro guy about suits and "baby gangs" (which would have to be the Union). They clearly present the Organo as the head of the pack.

Still haven't looked back at your previous message yet.

Yeah, it's interesting to see how certain pfps correlate with behavior...

Yup, it's really cool. It's like Baccano on a larger scale and with more fleshed-out characters. The only real complaint I have is that I am not always able to relate or empathize with the characters. But they're quirky, so it's fine.

I'll respond to your longer comment later. Just wanted to say right now that a lot of plot points and things I've mentioned in those notes are incorrect. And I remember glaring errors, mixing up characters, etc. It's a combination of remembering things and watching, so it's a mess right now.

>Every single person needs to be stripped of innate desires of self-preservation, the very sight of blood and distress.

Well, that's the thing. She didn't even consider that she was in danger. She was merely perplexed by what that man was trying to do. Of course, it's worth questioning how long it would take to desensitize people to what so obviously looks like a threat (if it is at all possible). Psycho-Pass doesn't really talk about this, so I guess it's upto the viewer to decide how believable it is. I think that, given enough time, this is possible. Before the Helmet Arc, such incidents were extremely rare, so suspicions were usually unfounded, and being overly suspicious would probably also result in a clouded Psycho-Pass. So people just naturally stopped being distrustful.

>The connection could be there, but it's highly highly contentious in the real world nevermind on the massive scale that we see in Psycho-Pass

I think the connection is more likely in a sanitized world like Psycho-Pass. The thrill of violence might make people feel disillusioned with the peace of Sibyl Society. I am not saying they are going to outright commit crimes, but even the slightest precondition for violence is going to be taken care of by the Sibyl System. So, I think it's safe to say that such media is being regulated, or at the very least, the people themselves have shunned such media for their own good. The screwed up sadists were being supported by Makishima and had to live away from the Scanners (which does raise questions on the universalness of the system, but the general population still had little contact with these fringes pre-Helmet Arc), and wherever the police are involved, people know that some unordinary situation is taking place, so they are naturally more suspicious. Like I previously said, the sheer, unabashed nature of the crime couldn't be processed by the people in that scene, at least in that particular moment. But yeah, much of this is me trying to make sense of what happened, so I guess Urobuchi should have done something that more viewers would find believable.

Also yeah, the show doesn't really go into the science of how the Sibyl System actually works. But to me, at least, that's pretty much a non-issue, given the interesting questions it raises once you just accept that it somehow works.

>I find Makishima's stance against the Sibyl System somewhat compelling in and of itself, but I didn't remember the offer being all that tempting to him to begin with.

I didn't mean to say that the offer was tempting, but like you said, people generally value immortality. Criminally asymptomatic people have always disagreed with the Sibyl System to such an extent that their Psycho-Pass simply couldn't get clouded, and yet so many of them ended up joining the System. I think Makishima's decision, at the very least, is a testimony to his strong beliefs. Not as earth-shattering as Griffith's choice, but yeah.

I hope your traveling arc was fortunate.. Sakura Quest it reminds me of.. is that a Shirobako sequel movie!!!!!!.. didn't know :(

>Is free will more important than the prosperity of society at large?

I will argue that materialistic wealth and social harmony can't be the sole metrics to judge prosperity, and a deterministic society simply can't be considered prosperous. A true utopia, putting aside the matter of its achievability, should have all humans cooperating for society's betterment by their own free will. Not only does Sibyl punish the more vulnerable people under the pretext of crime control, but it actively dictates everyone in their day-to-day choices. It's as far away from prosperity as it can be.

>Is an individual's free will more important than the prosperity of that individual?

Now this is a question I think everyone will have a different answer to. Some might feel distressed at their free will being taken away, but many would find it a trivial price to pay. Their view on prosperity might be different from mine, and that's totally acceptable. Even if I can question it on moral grounds, I simply cannot deny Sibyl System's incredible efficiency. It breaks socioeconomic hierarchies and gives everyone what they deserve. Within realistic possibilities, I can't fathom anything better suited to achieve "materialistic" prosperity than the Sibyl System.

lol, I was wondering if I should rewatch Malice@Doll, which I also have rated 1/10, but I'm not sure and seeing a recent dismissal of it doesn't exactly encourage me. I'm sure it's as awful as I remember it being. How do you feel it fits in with the rest of Konaka's cyberpunk works? Anything worthwhile in that respect? :S

>"All these people have lived up until now without ever even considering that something like this could happen." Genuinely, how tf does this even happen?

I don't think it would be as hard as you think. Anyone creating, sharing or consuming violent media would have (at least to some degree) a clouded Psycho-Pass, so information control would have been child's play once the scanners became omnipresent. And I expect people who are naturally violent would be isolated from a young age like Kagari was.

>Why/how the Sibyl System can't read his psycho pass, idk, or at least, I can't remember.

Psycho-Pass relies on your mind to deem criminal activities as criminal. If your mind doesn't recognize it as a crime, Sibyl System can't do anything about it. Let alone crime, Makishima so strongly believes that his actions are just, his Crime Coefficient dropped when he killed Akane's friend.

>Do you mean he'd be less exciting to watch if he were more rational? Is the starkness of his opposition to the system what makes him an interesting character for you? Like the very premise of a "Makishima" existing in a pristine world such as Psycho-Pass's...

Precisely. This is just me speculating, but the Sibyl System is universally perceived as a godsend to save Japan from the rampant violence overseas. Not just that, it's in many ways the ultimate form of governance where all forms of social hierarchy have been destroyed, and your life is purely determined on merit. If you have the aptitude for it, you can lead the best life possible, and if you are a threat, nothing and no one can save you. On the surface, it's a utopia. And yet, Makishima mocks this society and prefers to live in rampant violence over prosperity if it means being able to exercise free will. Mind you, Makishima would have become practically immortal if he joined the Sibyl System, but he turned that down. It's the sacrifice he makes and the harm he brings upon himself that makes him so badass and unforgettable.

>considering that the our characters are shocked by the idea of people ignoring blatant violence like this, considering that other citizens in other wards react to blatant violence in a way more familiar to us, I struggle to accept this scene.

One likely explanation is that the first incident woke up the people. All the violence that happened publicly is shown to have started the following day, after the incident went viral. For the first time in their lives, these people get acquainted with the idea of violence and the fact that their lives are in danger. Their actions thus are more in line with what we would expect.

>Makishima wouldn't just be convincing other sadistic psychos, he'd also be convincing rational people to his side.

I get you, but personally I prefer it this way. It's the perfect blend of entertainment and intellectualism, and I guess someone as famous for his sadism as Butch Gen would be more comfortable making something like this over something more dialogue-heavy.

>That's why he gives Kazuho Yoshii and Johan Liebert to me, only I'd consider Makishima better realised. (But these comparisons would take a long time to explain).

Liebert is an awful villain because his unfortunate upbringing gives him a warped worldview. He has nothing relevant to say because he wrongly assumes that everyone is like the Nazis. Monster is a terminally boring and pointless exercise in proving an obviously misguided villain wrong. Makishima is different. His beliefs are born of his own free will, and his statements are of utmost relevance to the society he inhabits. As far as Kazuho is concerned, I like him as an antagonist and kinda agree with the comparison. Talking about him and Texhnolyze would require a whole separate conversation though.

>"Sibyl society will ultimately be dismantled, whether it be naturally or through revolution." I don't quite think that Makishima demonstrates a claim as strong as this, but I think he demonstrates -- and lives as evidence for -- its imperfection.

I think the massive scale at which the Helmet Arc plays out proves that claim. A lot of people have been done wrong by the Sibyl, and they will take up arms against it when given the opportunity. Even inspectors like Kogami and Ginoza fell prey to their emotions. The very existence of criminally asymptomatic individuals like Makishima proves that mankind as a whole will never fully give up its free will, even if it means sacrificing prosperity.

>An illusion of control?

I meant the second option.

>Do you think that Sibyl leaves you as nothing more than a domesticated animal? Or is this Makishima speaking?

I meant those words from Makishima's point of view.

>I want Makishima himself to suggest an alternative to the Sibyl System -- arguments he has made against it. Not arguments we are making on his behalf.

I almost feel Makishima would be less convincing if he were more rational. I personally don't feel a need to hear him arguing in support of his beliefs. As long as his beliefs stand in opposition to widely accepted ideals and as long as he can effectively demonstrate the validity of his beliefs, I am going to be invested in his character.

Perhaps you are right about the Stress Level, and it's just honest-to-goodness apathy caused by the Sibyl System. But I still wouldn't find this premise to be extreme as you said in your previous comment. Crime has been practically eradicated, so what these people are witnessing is something they have never even heard of let alone seen beforehand. So I would say it's reasonable to believe that the general populace has been desensitized to crime. People like Akane who are still knowledgeable about crime (and therefore express any sort of proper reaction to it) are few and far between.

>this kind of behaviour from bystanders seems to be isolated to this particular ward

I wonder. This kind of incident hasn't really happened before for a long time, at least not this publicly. Given the proximity of our characters to latent criminals and their occasional encounters with crime proper, they expected the citizenry to react in a similarly responsible manner. Which as I explained before, is somewhat of an unreasonable expectation. Even reporting crime is something nobody is expected to do; these people are just that alien to the idea of crime.

>you're gonna have to give me your take as to how someone like Makishima is molded.

I don't think the how is really important here. But since you asked me to speculate, I would just say that Makishima finds pre-Sibyl society more fascinating. He reads a lot of literature that presumably predates Sibyl, so he likes to listen to all sorts of opinions, something that has been heavily stifled in the Sibyl society (anything that could raise Crime Coefficient gets cracked down upon). There's also a little bit of alienation Makishima feels from society, given his criminally asymptomatic nature. I guess you could say that he is unable to see the big picture and that his actions are self-centered, but to me they raise thought-provoking questions, and as he demonstrates, the Sibyl society will ultimately be dismantled, whether it be naturally or through revolution.

>Under Sibyl, people were still free to some extent, just not free enough for Makishima's standards, apparently. So, one thing's for sure, I wouldn't endorse Makishima's anarchy as the alternative.

Makishima would argue that freedom under Sibyl is merely an illusion of control. When your choices are made within the options that the Sibyl gives you, you are nothing better than a domesticated animal. If it determines you to have low aptitude for a certain job, it will simply not allow you to do that job; it refuses to take into account willpower. If it determines you to be a latent criminal, you are robbed of a good life without ever having done wrong; it refuses to take into account self-control. I don't think Psycho-Pass expects you to endorse Makishima'a anarchy, rather it expects you to understand the true nature of such unprecedented prosperity.

>"well, it's not like moral intuition can erode to this extent, right? Especially as a commonality as in Psycho-Pass." I just take issue with the extremity of the premise.

I wouldn't say the Sibyl System has conditioned people to become immoral. People just don't want to get involved in stuff that doesn't directly concern them, it's not even that uncommon in present-day society either. People can recognize something as being criminal (the Stress Level of the area did go up) and yet feign apathy. Of course, the Sibyl System is also partly to blame given how the Dominator has become the sole means of exercising justice, so people feel discouraged from taking action on their own.

>If he came in during an earlier stage of Sibyl's integration, where the possibility of severe consequences to selling off moral judgment loomed, where people are still being sold on the possibility of living their best lives and actively having to make the trade off now for themselves and future generations... then I'd find him a more compelling antagonist. He would have a stake in the debate, so to speak. Still though, the whole slicing innocent victims' throats thing would remain a let down lol. Doesn't do much for his credibility.

I would strongly disagree with this. The fact that Makishima exists at a time when Sibyl's benefits have been thoroughly demonstrated and yet chooses to advocate for its downfall is what makes him my all-time favourite antagonist. He believes from the bottom of his heart that even the whole sum of society's advancement isn't worth selling one's free will, not today, not ever. Even if it means engaging in rampant violence and plunging society into anarchy, free will is worth it. It's an incredibly powerful statement to make.

As for the Laughing Man, while I could empathise with his cause, he didn't really have anything profound to say. Nothing wrong with that, obviously, it's just that is what made SAC a lot less impactful for me. At its core, the Laughing Man incident is about a man (and his followers) who had grown fed up with the corruption of political leaders and other influential people. Certainly a powerful story, but not that contemplative.

> One last thing, I find the ending kinda a let down.

(SPOILERS) Kogami killing Makishima proves Makishima's point, that people can't be forever restrained through determinism, that when the need arises, people will exercise free will and rebel against the society that they themselves stood to massively gain by. It proves that the "domesticated" state that the Sibyl system has reduced people to can never become the natural state of humanity. How long is Psycho-Pass' society willing to let itself be subjugated for the sake of peace is what the show leaves us to ponder about.


Lastly, I don't think that the Sibyl system was introduced in some secretive sort of way. It must have been opposed initially, but seeing the unparalleled prosperity it offered in exchange for what many would consider a small price, the criticism would have slowly died down. People like Makishima who value free will above all else aren't that common, but that is what forces me to think, "Why would a man destroy everything for the sake of free will? Is it really more important than the prosperity of the society at large?"

I mean, I can't really point out any objective flaws in SAC, my issues are purely a 'me' problem. I agree that nearly every episode contributes in some way or the other to the larger scheme of things, it's just that I am not as invested in the cast and the plot as you or any other fan of the show might be. For me, its so-called spiritual successor Psycho-Pass works much better, feeling a lot more high-stakes, tightly-knit and just profound overall. Even the mini-arcs in the first half felt really intense while serving the same purpose as the standalone episodes in SAC.