Welcome. Today, I want to explore some thoughts about Akane and her mental strength. Please note that this post is subject to revisions once I have seen and analyzed the third season of Psycho Pass. For now, this post uses information from the first and second seasons. I hope you can forgive things being a little disorganized, but my brain is a bit scattered. I tried to put this piece together the best I could, so here goes.
Akane Tsunemori has a consistently stable psycho-pass and crime coefficient throughout the many cases. For example, you may recall that she witnessed her friend’s murder at the hands of Makishima. At that time, she was panicked and unsure, but there was no talk afterward about her psycho-pass becoming unstable. When the memory dive technology is used and Akane relives the visuals of her friend’s brutal death, her psycho-pass does fluctuate, but it goes back to normal almost immediately after the ordeal is over.
Another example can be found in season two. Akane’s grandmother is brutally murdered, and again, for that night, her stability fluctuated. However, soon enough, it was back to normal levels. In many different terrible and violent cases, Akane remains unshaken. It’s a wonder that she was able to handle that first case in episode one so well in the first place. There are several things that keep Akane grounded and balanced, but the main one is her incredible drive to live by her ideals of justice. This strong woman’s dedication to her sense of morality makes her resilient.
Now, the psycho-pass is mostly a measure of mental stability. In combination with the crime coefficient, it is the level of threat one poses to others or to the current order. But the psycho-pass system is also partly decided by Sybil, which changes its judgement if it sees someone it thinks could be a good part of the System. That is why Makishima was criminally asymptomatic. Sybil wanted him to become part of them, so it did not judge him as a threat. Makishima’s own mental stability was also part of why he was asymptomatic.
Similarly, Akane did not have a high psycho-pass even when she was directly arguing with the System. And just like Makishima, her calm resilience was also a part of it. This brings us to the main point. Akane is essentially criminally asymptomatic, in the same way as Makishima. There is no way to confirm this, since Akane does not commit anything considered crime. However, if she is asymptomatic, that explains why the Sybil System likes her so much.
If Akane believed she was doing nothing wrong, and committed a crime, I bet her psycho-pass would not change. But I’m not saying Akane is some kind of psychopath like Makishima. She still has empathy and respect for other humans. That is the basis of her desire for justice. And it’s a good thing, too. Makishima’s drive was to set people free from Sybil and encourage their wild side, eventually bringing down the System. Akane is just as dead-set on her goals. If she had been a sociopath, she might have been dangerous and destructive like Makishima.
So, Akane is crimninally asymptomatic. What is the significance of this? As explained above, Akane is not a sociopath, and believes in social order, preservation of life, and moral integrity. When combined with the criminally asympomatic trait, this makes Akane unique and, in a way, very powerful. She may even be the best suited for the position of inspector. Sybil certainly thinks so. That’s because a person like Akane has the potential to revolutionize the system by joining Sybil someday and influencing its decisions. In the meantime, she can continue to negotiate with Sybil and propose new ideas and better judgements.
However, Akane’s goal is not to become part of Sybil; it’s to change the system slowly and do whatever she can to make the world more just on a case-by-case basis. Sometimes, Akane is percieved as weak, but I believe she’s the strongest character in the show due to the combination of compassion and incredible mental stability. That’s all I’ve got for today. If you have time, let me know your thoughts on whether Akane is criminally asymptomatic and whether is strong or not. Thank you so much for reading. 🙂
Anime Rants 
Akane’s strong central core of beliefs is what makes her resilient and keeps her asymptomatic. She is what we should all endeavor to be. She has a strong central core – with includes compassion BALANCED with a sense of justice which allows her to argue with Sybil when she feels with is necessary with reasons that make sense to the system. She would be a good addition to the system when the time comes and as long as she hangs onto her center she will continue to be able to bounce back.
Here in the real world, the important point is that most of us could emulate this example if we would find a balance in our own hearts and minds of justice and compassion. This is why the court system is set up the way it is (originally) in the U.S. so that a jury of twelve of your peers can exercise their compassion, which is flexible, against the LAW which is not. So if a father kills the man who raped his minor daughter, while the law is clear, a jury has the ability to exercise compassion and find him not guilty or give him a much lesser sentence. Ideally they can also exercise this compassion devoid of influence by emotion – that is the sort of knee jerk anger that no doubt the father felt, but that an impartial jury can sympathise with, while not feeling the actual emotion – giving them the ability to look at things dispassionately. Over time, we’ve totally fucked this system in the name of greed, but the original set up is sound.
Law aside, if we all as human beings, exercised this sort of internal personal judgement in our life there would be a lot less misery, hate, greed, prejudice, acts of revenge and cruelty in the world.
At the most basic level, Akane is criminally asymptomatic because she is aware that we are all one and the world has a balance she can help keep – in fact has a calling to keep, while Makishima is asymptomatic because he is a true psychopath and other humans don’t register as equal living beings to him at all. To a true psychopath, they are the only “real” thing in the world and the rest of the world is only here to serve their wants and needs. Anything that doesn’t serve that is disposable. Whether it’s a worn out shoe or a human being makes no difference to them.
Great thought provoking post. Thanks!
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