Shinya Kogami
Shinya Kogami is the protagonist introduced in the 2012 anime series Psycho-Pass. A police officer in a cyberpunk dystopia, Kogami becomes obsessed with murdering Shogo Makishima, a criminal mastermind responsible for the death of one of Kogami's former allies. The character has also appeared in manga and novel adaptations of the series, a prequel manga series, a stage play and the films Psycho-Pass: The Movie and Psycho-Pass: Sinners of the System Case.3 On the Other Side of Love and Hate, which focuses on Kogami's life after the events of the first anime season. He reappears in the third television season, Psycho-Pass 3, as a supporting character. Additional novels and manga explore Kogami's work as an Inspector years before the start of the television series.
Kogami was created by the Production I.G. staff. Writer Gen Urobuchi created the character to contrast Akane Tsunemori, Kogami's police supervisor, whose personality and ideology are opposed to Kogami's. He was designed by mangaka Akira Amano, who wanted to give the character a strong sense of individualism in contrast to the scenario of the series. Kogami is voiced in Japanese by Tomokazu Seki and in English by Robert McCollum.
Critical reception of Kogami has been positive due to his interactions with Akane Tsunemori, and his return in the 2015 film was praised after his absence from the second Psycho-Pass anime season with the third anime season providing his return along with further depth in characterization. Kogami has been well received by fans, winning the "Mister Noitamina" award and placing in Newtype popularity polls on several occasions.
Creation
Development and influences
According to Psycho-Pass director Naoyoshi Shiotani, Production I.G. staff developed Kogami's character as a stark opposite to his enemy and rival Shogo Makishima, with Akane Tsunemori as the audience surrogate between them. Their first names indicate this opposition: Makishima's is Shogo, and Kogami's is Shinya. Writer Gen Urobuchi said that when he created Kogami and Tsunemori, he tried to balance their traits. Writer Tow Ubukata, who supervised the second anime series, called Kogami a "wild" character, the Japanese characters for his last name referring to his traits of loneliness and strength. The duo was further stated to resemble the lead characters from the Japanese police comedy-drama Bayside Shakedown, Sumire Onda and Shunsaku Aoshima. In the series' finale, Kogami disappears from society and is briefly seen in a boat reading the book In Search of Lost Time. This led to speculation that Kogami escaped to France with Urobuchi responding that while he might have travelled to different countries, he was unable to confirm his location when the series ended. Kogami's personality was initially designed as aggressive but after several revisions, is depicted as a gentle, calm, taciturn man. Shiotani described Kogami as a "troublesome person" and said that although he liked Kogami, he would rather have the talkative Makishima as a friend.The concept of Tsunemori seeking out the renegade Kogami was influenced by the original video animation series Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team and the Western films Apocalypse Now and Saving Private Ryan. Tsunemori's search for Kogami was influenced by these films because the staff believed this scenario would appeal to both genders and different age groups. The non-romantic relationship between Tsunemori and Kogami emphasizes, instead, the trust they have in each other. The duo is stated to resemble Sumire Onda and Shunsaku Aoshima, the lead characters of the Japanese police comedy-drama Bayside Shakedown. In an official pamphlet, staff members share their view of both the similarities and differences between Kogami and Makisihima, much of it regarding Kogami's psychological growth. Fukami describes Kogami as the type of person who is happy to encounter those with bad intentions because "he just loves justice." Urobuchi, on the other hand, notes that Kogami lacks Makishima's panoramic vision and that he is "just a loser."
Since all Psycho-Pass were written from Akane Tsunemori's point of view, Shiotani wanted a new take on the franchise through to the trilogy Sinners of the System. 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. 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 Akane 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. 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.
For Providence, Shiotani specifically wanted Akane Tsunemori to be the film's protagonist while Shinya Kogami would remain as her partner in a sense of a buddy cop. The center of the story was the strong relationship between Akane and Kogami. While Fukami found the idea of a romance these two as romantic, he aimed to go further. Instead they act more like comrades, fighting the same enemy. Fukami was always conscious of the relationship and distance between the two when writing the script. Ubukuta found the idea of a romance could be troublemsome to the narrative as it would affect more their personalities. Ubukata said Tsunemori is artless as she does not possess a peculiar way of thinking about things and doesn't lose the courage to say things that ought to be a given as though they are a given. This change led to similarities with Kogami. Shiotani wanted to rebuild Akane's and Kogami's relationship returns even if they belonged to a different organisation. The scenes in which the two of them appear together came together naturally. He reflected that Kogami is frank about his voice without paying attention about how he is received while Akane is more straightforward. Shiotani wanted strong scenes about their relationship shaped by the entire franchise. Saiga's death scene was one of the hardest to animate, most notably the expression Akane performs upon seeing him. Saiga's voice actor was worried about the impact the character would live in the protagonist. The fight scenes between Kogami and Kai were carefully animated to focus more on them than the backgrounds being affected by the strong weather.
Kogami's characterization was set up since the third Sinners of the System movie with the character searching for another chance at life after his revenge story from the first arc. Meanwhile, Akane Tsunemori was written to also be taken seriously due to her age. One of Kogami's lines of comfort to Akane is a direct reference to the first television series which helps to take back their original dynamic. Shiotani in particular cited the elevator scene involving the two leads talking as his favorite one. Initially, Kogami was written as a mentor figure to Tsunemori which the film recreates. While the franchise started with a season involving Akane and Kogami, the staff believes Providence serves as a good ending point as the duo reunite to solve another case together. Though the film primarily focuses on Akane, Ubakata believes it also carries Kogami's character arc from a traumatized man to a more righteous man thanks to being assisted by several characters, surpassing his feelings about Shogo Makishima.
Design
Kogami's character was designed by manga artist Akira Amano. Amano said that she began with a black-haired man in a suit and, although she was limited in expressing his characteristics with his clothing, she was finally able to include some individuality in each of her characters. She made the main male lead's design distinctive with a simple police uniform. Yuki Kubota found the character muscular enough for him train in order to properly portray him in the stage adaptation.Character designer Kyoji Asano emphasized contrast when illustrating Kogami and Tsunemori: Kogami wields a weapon freely with one hand while Tsunemori wields it with both hands indicative of her lack of experience. Asano further stated that Kogami was the easiest character to draw due to his tendency to express an angered reaction. As a lead character, Asano felt like she could care about him. Wanting the series to be "anti-moe", the production team avoided showing Tsunemori removing her clothes, and instead featured scenes where Kogami would remove his.
For the film Psycho-Pass: The Movie Kogami's visual appearance was sightly altered. In adapting Amano's design under Shiotani's direction, animator Naoyuki Onda was told to draw Kogami in order to make him look stronger. This was done not only through his physical appearance but also his facial expression and hair. However, he believes in the end stayed true to Amano's artworks. He used multiple designs based on real life in regards to military clothing as it was something he was not used to draw. As a result, the military clothing Kogami wears in the movie was made by designers he called Furukawa and Ishiwata. Due to Kogami being tortured by Rutaganda in the movie, Onda commented he made such damaged appearance more revised based on Shiotani's suggestions. Kana Hanazawa said that female viewers should look forward to Kogami's scenes where he does not wear a shirt, as the actress noted him to have a strong sex appeal.