Shogo Makishima (槙島 聖護 Makishima Shōgo) is a criminally asymptomatic individual whose stated goal is to liberate Japanese society from the Sibyl System, as he believes that it is turning its citizens into non-thinking automatons instead of independent thinking human beings.[2]
He is the main antagonist in the first season of Psycho-Pass.
Appearance
Makishima is a male of average height and a slender, but fit build of an indeterminate age. He has amber-colored eyes and messy white hair held back in a ponytail. He wears a variety of outfits, ranging from a yellow and black jacket over gray pants[3] to a green pullover with a white shirt beneath.[4] Despite the fact that he possesses a callous nature, his facial expressions depict a variety of emotions. He is physically agile and strong — a skilled fighter, as demonstrated during his first fight with Shinya Kogami who he defeats with just a few blows.[5]
Personality
He is a humanist on the dark side: someone enchanted by the worst aspects of human nature with no qualms about witnessing or causing others' suffering. He has the ability to manipulate people to do his bidding, possessing both uncommon charisma and a true gift for persuasive speech. He has no compunction about dealing death to those who either stand in his way or those of whom he has grown tired, either with his own hands or through subordinates.[6][7] He enjoys reading dystopian literature[3][8] and Shakespeare,[9][7] as well as having a thorough knowledge of the Christian Bible.[10] He is often seen reading and even quoting texts from these works on occasion. The thing that truly separates Makishima from the rest of humanity, however, is the fact that despite his diabolical intentions and actions, his Psycho-Pass remains unsullied.[11][5]
Makishima personally states that he wants to see "the splendor of people's souls" and outwardly disdains humanity's way of living, considering humans worthless due to their dependence on the Sibyl System.[11] He believes his actions will alert people to examine their
motives and to determine the direction of their lives based on their own will, despite the fact that he is forcing them to do so. This adamant belief extends to the point where he is willing to die by the hands of someone "who has the will to kill".[11]
According to Kogami, Makishima's pure white Psycho-Pass is the result of having suffered hardships in his early life and that by being "unrecognized" by Sibyl, Makishima felt invisible, which may have triggered his single-minded goal of taking down the Sibyl System.[12] Makishima, on the other hand, believes that isolation made him stronger.[13]
Personal Background
- At some time in his life, Makishima discovers that he can control his Psycho-Pass at will.
- In 2102, he meets Toyohisa Senguji.[14]
- In 2109, he meets a teacher named Kozaburo Toma who is also able to manipulate his Psycho-Pass. It's hinted that Makishima abets Toma in the killings that Toma commits, making him an accomplice.[15]
Relationships
Shinya Kogami
Kogami's detective skills and his ability to deduce that the murders [16] at Oso Academy were not Toma's fascinates Makishima[7] and, as Senguji once put it, makes Makishima happy when Kogami mentions his name.[4] He and Kogami understand one other and they are solely focused on the other. Makishima admits that he is displeased with Kogami's attachment to the Sibyl System and is willing to kill him as a result. However, after he comes to know the true form of the Sibyl System and escapes from PSB custody, he contacts Kogami to advise him that it isn't something worth putting Kogami's life on the line to protect.[17] He was finally killed by Kogami.
Gu-sung Choe
Makishima is shown to be trusting of Choe[2] despite their differences (e.g. Makishima likes books while choe likes technology). Makishima thinks Choe is a "genius"[8] and is vaguely disturbed upon witnessing his death at the hands of Toma. Out of all of his pawns or subordinates, Makishima seems to like Choe the most and never places the man's life on the line intentionally. When Makishima watches the video record on Choe's phone, he is surprised and even a bit disturbed when he learns how he died and who killed him.[17]
Kozaburo Toma
Like Makishima, Toma is criminally asymptomatic.[15] Makishima helps Toma commit his grotesque serial killings in the Specimen Case, and even captures and tortures Mitsuru Sasayama, who he mutilates, plastinates and displays as a holographic projection.[14] When Toma is apprehended by the Criminal Investigation Department, Makishima sees a chance to escape and does so by killing Toma and crashing the aircraft in which they are located.[17]
Etymology
- The name Shogo means "sacred protection" (聖護).
- Shogo's surname Makishima means "twig, Chinese black pine" (槇) (maki) and "island" (島) (shima).
Alias
- The name Yukimori means "prosperity" (幸盛).
- Yukimori's surname Shibata means "brush, firewood" (柴) (shiba) and "field, rice paddy" (田) (ta).
Trivia
- He and Kogami are the same height.
- He is a light sleeper and sleeps, on average, three hours per day.
- His fighting style is Pencak Silat.
- His favorite food is tomatoes, his least favorite is meat and eggs.
- His hobby is reading.
- He is adept at track and field, swimming, and martial arts.
- His motto is "To live is not merely to breathe; it is to act" which is a quote by Rousseau.[18]
- His favorite saying is "Throw away your books and rally in the streets."
- His favorite thing in his room is a beloved razor.
- His strength is the art of persuasive speech and his weakness is simple work.
- His favorite authors are Friedrich Nietzsche, Michel Foucault, William Shakespeare, George Orwell, Jules Verne, Arthur Conan Doyle, Jonathan Swift, Philip K. Dick, Marquis de Sade, Kenzaburō Ōe, Jun'ichirō Tanizaki, Shuuji Terayama and much more.
- His favorite books are George Orwell's 1984[3] and Foucault's 'Surveiller et punir: Naissance de la Prison (English title: "Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison") because they help him sort out which aspects of the Sibyl System dissatisfy him.
- The first novel he ever read is Sherlock Holmes.
- He reads one book per day when there isn't a movement of associated crimes.
- He also owns manga by Osamu Tezuka and Fujiko Fujio, especially Fujiko's.
- Under the alias Yukimori Shibata (柴田 幸盛, Shibata Yukimori), he is an art teacher at Oso Academy.[7]
- Sasayama is the only person who manages to track Makishima down before getting killed. The blurry photo of Makishima, which had been left in his Dominator's terminal, is the only evidence that points to Makishima as the murder suspect.[19]
- In the gekijouban, Kogami hallucinates seeing Makishima.
- He has the same seiyu as Sho Hinakawa.
- He bears a physical resemblance to Mukuro Rokudo and to some of the traits of Byakuran from Katekyo Hitman REBORN!, a manga/anime that shares the same character designer as Psycho-Pass.
References
- ↑ The Official Profiling Book 2 Character Diagram
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Sweet Poison
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Nobody Knows Your Mask
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Fruit of Paradise
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 The Gates of Judgment
- ↑ Nobody Knows Your Face
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 And Then, Silence
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 The Town Where Sulfur Falls
- ↑ Return of the Lunatic Prince
- ↑ Blood-Stained Reward
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 Saint's Supper
- ↑ Transparent Shadow
- ↑ Perfect World
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 Psycho-Pass: The Novel
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 Invitation from the Abyss
- ↑ Satsuki Kuzuhara and Yamaguchi Masami (discovered during 0107 episode); of Yoshika Okubo and Kagami Kawarazaki (discovered together during 0108 episode)
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 Heart of Iron
- ↑ The full quote is "To live is not merely to breathe; it is to act; it is to make use of our organs, senses, faculties - of all those parts of ourselves which give us the feeling of existence."
- ↑ The Language of the Chinese Orchid