Won’t someone please think of the children? Because that’s really all Black Bullet thinks about. Right at the heart of its world, ravaged by the giant insects known as Gastrea, is an employment structure that partners young men, “Enforcers”, with pre-adolescent girls, “Initiators”. Those children are of course genetically altered so to complement their red eyes they have phenomenal speed and strength, enough to fight the rampaging insects.
the high fructose pairing of Rentarou, serial loli magnet and perpetual do-gooder, and the sparky orange-haired Enju
You might just sigh and slowly shake your head at such a set up - it’s peculiarly original yet feels overused, tapping into the same buddy-cop dynamic that innumerable other shows, anime or otherwise, have used. What’s worrying is that in between all of the bad CG, B-movie style monster bashing is a worrisome, suggestive undercurrent that slowly, insidiously, creeps in. There’s maybe just one too many bath scenes, a few too many expressions of unflinching adoration, and too many children saying things that can be misconstrued as sexual.
It's a heretical sentiment to anyone, British or no, who grew up with Dredd as a comic book icon. Comparing Psycho-Pass' protagonist - a timid girl fresh out of the academy - to a Dirty Harry homage that was progressively retrofitted with philosophies from Thatcher's Britian, Fascism and the Cold War seems tortured at best.
gave the government means and opportunity to eradicate [...] political dissent by arresting deviants and subjecting them to 're-education'
But a dystopian future society under an absolute authoritarian rule, enforced by an organisation with little to no oversight and the ability, nay the responsibility, to mete out lethal justice to those deemed to deviate from the norm? The minutiae may be different but the broad strokes bear a striking similarity. More than that though, many of Dredd's stories over his 35 year tenure have been a pastiche or a response to real life situations and concerns. Likewise, Psycho-Pass is a response to the police force within Japan.
