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Children Of the Sea

chapter 35, page 5 (vol. 4)

#children of the sea #daisuke igarashi #seinen #manga

PSYCHO-PASS remains one of my all-time favorite anime just by how much it prefigured the "politicization of medicine/medicalization of politics" that has become way more relevant these past several years than when the franchise was originally conceived. I use the term "prefigure" rather loosely. It's about as much prefiguring as Star Trek's "A Taste of Armageddon" prefigured drone warfare and military video games.

That TOS episode was mainly commenting on the most advanced airbust weapons at the time that could literally cook entire cities alive while leaving the lion's share of infrastructure comparatively "untainted" despite the "megadeaths" that resulted. It's a deconstruction of this scientific dehumanization of humanity as something quantifiable in the name of civilization, that war itself could be purified to even worse death.

PSYCHO-PASS is mainly commenting on how Japanese medicine is both highly advanced yet Japanese culture deeply stigmatizes any kind of neurodivergence, whether a mental disorder or simply a different perspective. It's a deconstruction of this scientific dehumanization which wouldn't end suffering per se, but rather erase its existence as much as practical. Both aren't exactly subtle about this.

It's very very important to understand that PSYCHO-PASS is meant to appear as utopian as it is dystopian. People are generally very happy in that version of Japan. The "neoliberal world order" has long since collapsed, according to its own canon. By more metrics than the cymatic scans, Japanese people are pretty happy. Nonetheless, if you feel sick to your stomach watching it then that's a feeling you should hold onto whenever you see political discussions of medicine or medical perspectives applied onto social issues.