Psycho-Pass Season 3 On The Way, Season 1 Director At The Helm

Psycho-Pass is finally getting its third season, continuing the story of detectives working futuristic city streets alongside dangerous criminals. This cyberpunk thriller anime first aired in 2012, before being followed by a second season, titled Psycho-Pass 2, in 2014.

According to the Psycho-Pass anime's website, which was translated by Anime News Network, the new season will star Yuuki Kaji as Arata Shindō and Yūichi Nakamura as Kei Mikhail Ignatov. Naoyoshi Shiotani, who directed the first season but was replaced with Kiyotaka Suzuki for the second, is scheduled to return for this third season. The creator of Psycho-Pass, Akira Amano, is returning to do the designs for the brand-new characters as well.

The Psycho-Pass anime has had a rather bumpy history. The first season is popular and highly regarded in both Japan and the West for its soundtrack, characters, and visuals. The TV show's second season was not praised to the same extent, and critics of the second season target its over-the-top use of gore as well as a villain who isn't as well-written as the one in the first season. Since its unpopular second season, the universe of Psycho-Pass has been expanded with three films (the most recent of which released in Japan last month), a manga that operates as a prequel to the main series, and a video game called Mandatory Happiness.

Psycho-Pass takes place in Japan in the near future, where crime is virtually nonexistent. At all times, everyone is monitored by a network of psychometric scanners that measure the mental and emotional state of each individual. Those who are calculated to likely commit a crime are swiftly detained and given therapy, while those who are deemed too far gone to save are sentenced to life in prison as "latent criminals" or killed on the spot by Inspectors or Enforcers. Inspectors are elite police officers who patrol the city, enacting the will of the system that governs everyone's mental state. Enforcers are latent criminals who serve Inspectors by committing the violent actions that may negatively affect their handlers--their lifetime servitude the price they have to pay for ever once feeling or thinking something illegal.

If you're interested in catching up on Psycho-Pass, you can watch both Season 1 and 2 on Funimation.