Production
Naoyoshi Shiotani came up with the idea of making Sinners of the System after productions of the series' 2015 film, Psycho-Pass: The Movie, was made. The director claimed the franchise should use new characters for the sequel Psycho-Pass 3 and Sinners of the System was created to fill gap between the movie and the third television series. The trilogy was also a test case for Psycho-Pass 3 in terms of production. For Psycho-Pass, Shiotoani tried to portray the human drama thoroughly with an hour-long episode each, to make it like a live-action overseas drama. Each Sinners of the System was about 60 minutes each episode, but it was a hard challenge for the staff to make it instead of the usual 30 minute-episode of the television anime series. Production I.G had to put a lot of stuff together in terms of story composint the films, but despite the difficulties they had, they felt it was doing all the work since they moved forward on two sides at the same time by also using its production as a test case for third television series.[1] The films were first announced in Japan by Fuji TV in March 2018.[2]
Shiotani returned as the film's director, having already worked in the previous Psycho-Pass series. Novelist Ryō Yoshigami wrote the first film's script while the second one was written by Makoto Fukami.[3] Shiotani spent time on pre-production. He wanted to combine the drama that the scriptwriter Fukami and Yoshigami wanted to draw with the drama that he had envisioned, so Shiotani asked them to write a lot of plots and screenplays.
Since all previous Psycho-Pass series were written from Akane Tsunemori's point of view, Shiotani wanted a new take on the franchise through to the trilogy. Through this, Shiotani wanted to explore relationships not seen before like Kogami's and Ginoza's as well as introduce characters who would play a major role.[4] Additionally, the television series primarily focused on the Sybil System themes so Shiotani wanted to create stories perimarily centered around the characters.[5]
From the beginning, Shitoani decided not to make a drama in Tokyo for the stage of each episode. Each of the three dramas is a complete drama, with variations. The director also wanted to change the overall color that colors the episode.[5] In regards to the first film, Shiotani picked Nobuchika Ginoza and Mika Shimotsuki as the main characters due to their similarities to the protagonists from the first television series, Shinya Kogami and Akane Tsunemori, respectively. Nevertheless, he noted these duo employed a different dynamic from Kogami and Tsunemori while noting how Ginoza has undergone a notable character arc across the previous projects related to Psycho-Pass mainly due to his relationship with Masaoka and Kogami. While Case 1 was not difficult to create since Shimotsuki and Ginoza already interacted several times in the past, Case 2 had more issues since Masaoka and Sugo had no such connections in previous works. The film was meant to how Sugo volunteered to become a Reinforcer despite his good nature.[5] Meanwhile, the character of Kogami was conceptualized as progressive hero by Shiotani due to how different is his first personality in contrast to his traits from the first television series. Through Sinners of the System, the director envisioned him as the main character who often interacts while showing the aftermath of his actions from Psycho-Pass: The Movie.[6]
Tsunemori was noted by the fanbase to be noticeably absent from the films despite her high importance in the previous works. Shiotani joked that while Sinners of the System uses other characters as protagonist, he still decided to use Tsunemori's image instead to make a crossover collaboration with the 2018 film Godzilla: City on the Edge of Battle.[7]
The first two movies had a prescreen in the Film Festival from late 2018 where Shiotani explained to the fans that the third title was still in development.[8] Seki explained the voice acting for the third movie was completed in June 2018 though but still told the audience from the festival that he could break their expectations. Seki felt honored when reading the script from his movie, something which Nojima agreed with. The staff explained an idea they wanted to explore in the films was the long distanced friendship between Ginoza and Kogami as the two have been friends before the events of the first television series.[8] The opening theme song for all films is remix of "Abnormalize" by Ling Tosite Sigure which is the opening theme for episodes 1 to 11 of the first season of the TV anime. The three respective ending themes for the three films are remixes of "Fallen", "All Alone With You" and "The Monster With No Name" (名前のない怪物) which were originally made by the band Egoist. Masayuki Nakano was in charge of these remixes.[9][10]
Natsuo Sai also wrote a manga based on the first two films.[11][12][13] A concert, Psycho-Pass, was made in January 2019 in Shibyua in order to promote the trilogy while featuring tracks from Yugo Kanno and portrayal of the franchise's characters by the original voice actors.[14] Two novels were also written in 2019, adapting the story from the trilogy.[15][16]
Cast
- Voice actress Ayane Sakura believed Mika Shimotsuki was now more fitting for the role of a heroine thanks to her experience in the second television series where she was the youngest main character. Once the first movie premiered Shiotani commented the trilogy would "broaden your perspective [the audience's]. They're those kinds of movies".[17] Sakura found that Shimotsuki displayed a more gentle behaviour during the narrative, feeling it would display a more mature take. Cherami Leigh voices Shimotsuki in the English dub.
- Kenji Nojima (Ginoza) had a similar reaction to Sakura's role in regards to a more upbeat trait than in Psycho-Pass 2. Following recording of the film, Sakura believed the trilogy was amazing to her due to Sakura's character arc.[18] Nojima mentioned that as Ginoza's hairstyle changes along with his values with Sakura seeing his personality of the second film and the first television series to remind her of the antagonistic Shimotsuki in retrospect.[19] Jessie James Grelle voices Ginoza in the English dub.
- Kinryū Arimoto
