Anime Movie Ad ‘Arrests’ And ‘Kills’ Pedestrians

In the world of Psycho-Pass I’d be shot, arrested and shut away from society. Thank goodness I don’t live there.

Psycho-Pass, the anime about a utopian/dystopian future where the human psyche can be digitally measured and people with even the potential for criminal acts are captured or killed, is getting a new movie out tomorrow. As part of the advertising campaign, a “scanner” was set up where people could get their psyches measured.

Located under Shinjuku station, in a long hallway, the large monitors have been set up with “scanners” (Kinects) that scan the people standing in front of them and display the people’s “crime coefficient” on the monitors. People with high enough readings are treated to cuts of the various characters from the anime using their Judge Dredd-esque weapons, called Dominators, to either “apprehend” or “kill” them.

I was in the area and decided to check out the display. I was not prepared for the packed mass of people all gathered to be scanned.

After patiently making my way through the huge crowd of people, I got in a position where I could be scanned. In Psycho-Pass, people with a reading of over 100 are regarded as potential criminals and are apprehended. People with a reading over 300 are considered too great a threat to society and disposed of through rather gruesome means. It was kind of fun to stand there waiting to see what sort of crime coefficient I’d have.

174. There you have it: Proof that I am (potentially) a terrible person. Of course, there’s still hope for me, as opposed to the person standing to my right who managed to get a reading of 866… Someone call the cops.

The Psycho-Pass movie opens in cinemas in Japan tomorrow. Stay tuned for a review.