Casshern Sins

In a distant future, Earth has become a wasteland and humanity as we know it has died out. All that remains are sentient robots. They were supposed to be able to live forever—until the one called Luna died and the Ruin started. Their bodies will rust, and there is nothing that can be done to fix it. Now the robots are left only to contemplate their deaths, kept going only by the rumor that if they eat the one called Casshern, they will gain immortality.

Casshern knows nothing about his past, why he exists, or what he is, but he must find out, or he will face the constant torment of being hunted by robots who don't want to die. Casshern leaves death wherever he goes, but he must face it if he is to find out the truth of this world.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Casshern Main

Furuya, Toru Japanese

Lyuze Main

Miyahara, Nami Japanese

Ringo Main

Minaguchi, Yuko Japanese

Ouji Main

Cho Japanese

Dio Supporting

Morikawa, Toshiyuki Japanese

Sophita Supporting

Akiya, Tomoko Japanese

Margo Supporting

Ishida, Akira Japanese

Friender Supporting

Dune Supporting

Nakano, Yuto Japanese

Kozuki, Luna Supporting

Yajima, Akiko Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Oomori, Hiroyuki Producer

Uema, Yasuhiro Producer

Fujio, Tsutomu Producer

Reviews

Mar 27, 2009

The_Golden_Witch

Recommended

Casshern Sins is not for everyone. The show pretty much moves at one pace, and that pace is ’slow’. There is a lot of silence, introspection, and philosophical dialog. Ordinarily, this would make one assume the show is pretentious (especially since it has a lot of similarities to Texhnolyze), but it really isn’t. Casshern has a very simple plot, very simple dialog, and is easy to understand, so people looking for a mind-blower won’t find it here. The plot and messages of Casshern Sins are much more along the lines of Kino’s Journey or Mushi-shi. However, just like action fans will be turned off by ... the slow pace, fans of more quiet, contemplative anime might be turned off by the fact that there is at least one fight scene per episode and they can at times be lengthy. So the niche here is kind of small, requiring that you like a good variety of styles. I happen to fall into that niche.

Like most good shows, Casshern is amazing in a number of areas and wouldn’t be the same without any of them. The soundtrack, voice acting, animation, directing, fights, dialog, art - everything aligns just right to create a show that is just about perfect for what it is. I’ll be getting into detail on that now.

Sound

Casshern Sins has a very powerful and gripping soundtrack composed by Kaoru Wada (Princess Tutu, Tekkaman Blade, To Heart). The songs are all symphonic, ranging from minimalist and pretty to towering and sinister. The loud songs are very intensely dramatic and dark to the point that some (like the first track Sins) sound outright evil. (Interestingly, that song sounds like the symphonic version of an Opeth song.) The calmer songs are usually very airy and often acoustic-guitar driven. They definitely evoke images of Casshern’s world where you’ve heard them in the background. While either type is great, I prefer the calm songs if only because the more dramatic ones would go better with the show.

There is something very mysterious but also very charming about these calmer songs. They bring a sense of wonder mixed with familiarity. It’s a sense like seeing something totally new, but so enthralling that it feels like home. The ultimate song that captures this feeling is ‘Memory Past’ which is the song that usually played whenever Casshern met someone new and learned their story. The closest real musical comparison I have for this OST is the music in Phendrana Drifts in Metroid Prime which has always been some of my favorite composition. In the context of the series, all of the songs work superbly well to add ten extra layers of tone onto the already tone-tacular series. The music is notable straight from episode 1, which I guess it’d have to be to make me go and find the OST.

In addition to the OST, there has been a Best Theme Collection from this series. The show has one opening theme (Aoi Hana by color bottle) and 3 endings (Reason by KANA, Aoi Kage by Otoya Kichiemon, and Hikari to Kage by Kuno Shinji), the second of which is only used for one episode. The best theme collection has the op and main eds in TV size, several instrumental versions of Aoi Kage, two original tracks by Wada Kaoru, two important vocal insert songs from te series (Sky and A Path by Nami Miyahara who voices Lyuze), and finally, both the original Tatakae! Casshan! theme and a new, heavy version of the song by Otoya Kichiemon.

I personally didn’t care much for the 2 main eds, but I found myself completely unable to skip the op for even one episode. It is easily one of my favorite opening songs in a while. Aoi Kage and the modern Tatakae! Casshan! are both awesome because they manage to play heavy metal acoustics. Anything that can do that is automatically awesome. The old-school Tatakae! Casshan! is the ultimate great touch for lovers of old-school tatsunoko songs. However, great as that all is, Sky and A Path were the real reasons I was interested in this release. These songs made episode 8 of the show amazing and reappear at many great moments later in the show. Both are extemely pretty and wonderful, and Nami Miyahara’s English is excellent (evidently she studied English in Australia).

It’s worth making the statement that Casshern Sins has some of the coolest sound effects ever. The effects during fights are visceral, intense, and completely full of impact. Care was taken to make the sound effects just right and give every hit that needed extra edge. I’m thinking that they made a lot of the effects in the studio, seeing as there were very organic sounds of like pots breaking or the creak of metal. It’s pretty rare I think these days for so much craft to go into sound effects in anime, so it’s pretty notable when it does.

As far as voice acting goes, this show amassed a royal fuckton of talent. Being as there were so many minor characters, a lot of voices were required, and Madhouse didn’t skip out on giving every single character a standout voice. For starters, Casshern himself is voiced by Tohru Furuya (certainly most notable as freaking Amuro Ray, as well as Tuxedo Mask, Pegasus Seiya, and Yamcha) which is a very interesting performance. The voice of Casshern is certainly unique, sounding strong but never stern, and in pain but never really weak. The voice adds a lot of mystery to the character, sounding like the robot he is, who doens’t quite understand emotion even though he seems to feel it. The best part though is his wails in agony which are used frequently when Casshern’s body self-repairs. That dude’s wails are frightening.

Nami Miyahara plays Lyuze with the perfect mixture of resolve, confusion, rage, and love. Like Casshern, hers is a very distinct voice. Yuko Minaguchi (Videl - Dragonball, Yawara, Akiko - Kanon) does a completely superb job as Ringo. She should be cast as every single little kid in anime. I’ve never heard a kid voice that managed to sound young and yet in no way annoying. Best kid voice ever. ‘Cho‘ reprises his role as every old man in anime, lol. Akiko Yajime (Diva - Blood+, Shin-chan, Relena Peacecraft, Kuu - Haibane - damn that’s range) brings her mysterious voice to Luna which tricks you with it’s very regal sound until you start to see another side… well that’s a spoiler. Kenji Utsumi (Shenlong - DBZ, Zodd - Berserk, Lt. Armstrong - FMA) is Braiking Boss who he played in the old version of the show as well, bringing a nostalgia factor.

Toshiyuki Morikawa (Who is in everything. His list is totally nuts.) is awesome as Dio. He plays the perfect rival character. His voice has a darkness to it, but not like an evil bad-dude, more like a man driven by dark purposes but full of resolve, which Dio is. Mami Koyama (Lunch - Dragonball - yes, most of the cast worked on Dragonball, Balalaika - Black Lagoon) brings the thunder as Leda who is convincingly evil and conceited, but also has an inner emotional side. Some of my favorite minor character performances include Mami Koyama’s second roll as Lizbell in episode 7 (which is interestng because Koyama is Tohru Furuya’s ex-wife, which when you think about it makes certain scenes very awkward), Tomoko Akiya whose performance as Sophita is borderline creepy and very fun, and Taeka Kawata who plays Nico, the little girl whose brain has been fried.

Visuals


Casshern Sins is animated by Madhouse. The dudes who brought you (alphabetically) Black Lagoon, Boogiepop Phantom, Death Note, Dennou Coil, Gunslinger Girl, Nana, everything Satoshi Kon, Texhnolyze, Trigun, and X, just to name a few. If you’ve seen none of those, I’ll just say it - they have incredibly high production quality and have been around forever. To give you an idea of how high their budget is, the first half of Casshern Sins aired simultaneously with three other Madhouse shows, the second half with one, all of which had unfaltering high-quality animation throughout. There is pretty much no other studio who can do something like that. So it really comes as no surprise when I say that Casshern Sins has incredibly beautiful animation.

The most instantly and consistently notable thing about Casshern’s art is the luscious backgrounds. The background art is almost incomparably beautiful - almost. Probably only one show matches up to it, it being Mushi-shi, which is why it’s no surprise that Yoshihiko Umakoshi was the art director and character designer for both series (a dual job he’s done for Zipang, Street Fighter Alpha, and Boys Over Flowers, none of which I’ve seen. He also did it for Air Master which doesn’t matter because that show is fugly, probably thanks to budget.) I’ve actually watched an interview with this guy on one of the Mushi-shi DVDs and while he is very boring to listen to, I do remember him saying that he was a perfectionist and would always stress that there be boatloads of detail in the backgrounds, which I guess he’s still up to.

Casshern’s art is almost always barren, lifeless, and cold. The world of Casshern faces ruin (basically, apocalypse) and so there is little life to be found. The landscape is jagged and covered in large mountains, hills, valleys, craters, and deserts of sand and snow. Remnants of civilization can be found, some cold cities have buildings that still tower while others have fallen apart and buildings have become decrepit husks. Some places have become so dry and ruined that the ground has actually crystallized and cracks under every step. Occasionally, though, there are places of lush, brimming life to be found. Secret gardens surviving in caves or wellsprings and oceans. There is definitely a sense of mystery to the world that you can find anything if you look around enough. And, as a character in one episode teaches Casshern, every place in this world is beautiful. As a big fan of dystopic art, I found myself completely enraptured in these wastelands as much as I was mystified by the lush outcropping of life in unexpected places.

Umakoshi’s character designs are drop-dead gorgeous. It takes skills to make a masked superhero with a big red C on his chest and ornamental horns on his helmet fit into a dark, somber setting. But, somehow, he’s done it. Casshern looks like a badass but also looks like he fits into the setting. He is supposed to be a beautiful person, and it’s certainly visible in his design. All of the characters are very tall and lanky, almost like CLAMP designs, but have an added sharpness to them and are actually consistent. I can easily call them some of the best character designs I’ve seen in anime.

What’s most impressive, though, is that a definitive 70s style remains ingrained into the designs. Every one has absurdly big hair and their facial features are very old-school. However, these elements have been perfectly crafted so that the designs still look modern and not ridiculous as they often do when new shows try to use old style. The robots especially represent the old school with their very basic designs, but they have a bloodthirstiness about their designs that makes it unsurprising when they are killing machines. Overall, I’d say my favorite designs from the series were definitely Lyuze and Luna.

Naturally, since this is Madhouse, there are also plenty of exemplary animation techniques. Unfortunately, ANN doesn’t have any animators listed, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Hiroyuki Imaishi’s (director of Gurren Lagann and animator of all those wacky scenes in shows like FLCL, Mahoromatic, and even FullMetal Alchemist) name ended up on that list since his trademark over-the-top and hyperactive style is used in many of the fights. The show features a lot of ‘sketchy lines‘ and badass shadow effects. The fight scenes often contain mind-blowing animation tricks that will make people who notice these things cream a huge load.

Directing

I think that series director and storyboarder Shigeyasu Yamauchi probably had the biggest impact on the way this series turned out. As you can see on his ANN page, he directed a bunch of the Dragon Ball/Z and Saint Seiya movies and had involvement with their main series (and going by their ANN pages, he would have had experience with nearly all of this show’s seiyuu during those times). The experience with those series can be seen heavily in the fight scenes. When Casshern and Dio fight, nearly every strike rockets someone into a wall which explodes just as the other fighter shoots at them like a bullet for the next blow. There are several scenes where the ground around Dio craters under the sheer fluctuation of his power. Yamauchi definitely wanted to bring the scope and intensity of a DBZ fight to this series, which is something I personally have always wanted to see done in a serious anime. It is made a thousand times better by the huge budget of the show which allows the fights to look amazing, cool, and fluid.

Yamauchi definitely has a great sense of dramatic cinematography. Every shot is carefully composed to look as cool as possible, with characters nearly always in some kind of dramatic pose and the light hitting them just right. This is taken to an almost hilarious extent in some of Casshern’s fights against robot armies because he will literally attack them by kind of jumping at them, striking an epic pose, and somehow causing them to explode. Lighting is impeccable and the use of color is very important. Most of the show has a sort of blue and grey hue to it, but when other colors appear they are striking and noticeable against the backdrop of blue. Overall, I think Yamauchi just does a splendid job and probably had a lot of fun with it.

Plot/Theme

The overall plot in Casshern Sins is so simple that I could detail the whole thing thoroughly in a small paragraph (but I won’t for spoilers’ sake.) The show’s focus is more on the themes that drive the series and the characters representing or interacting with those themes. That said, while the plot is simple, it is very well-presented and interesting, making it a great driving force for the action and themes.

All of the show’s themes relate directly to the conflict between life and death. The dark, barren world of Casshern is on it’s way to ruin and death is ever-present. Every person is directly grappling with death and the end of the world, and those who don’t die just from the ruin usually die at the hands of other robots, especially if they try to attack Casshern. There are few characters who survive their own episode, much less the whole show.

What Casshern, who is immortal, learns in his travels through the dying world is how death effects different people (usually robots). Most of the world desperately clings to life. The strong robots fight and kill each other constantly to steal each other’s parts and try to prolong their lives. The weak search for any means of survival, clinging to little hopes or loosing to despair. Some merely accept the ruin as pleasantly as they can, but more often than not they will turn from this mindset at the slightest sight of hope - namely, the supposed immortality that one will gain if they devour Casshern.

However, not everyone is desperately clinging to life. Casshern encounters some robots and humans who aspire to something without the fear of death. Some teach him that the world is beautiful even in ruin, that there is hope in the world, or that they can live forever in the things that they leave behind. Casshern’s conflict becomes whether or not eternal life is justified or death necessary. He is torn between the sadness of death and the liveliness brought out by it’s presence.

The themes of each episode are interesting and deep, sometimes moving, and more so as they culminate into the over-arching theme. Casshern, as a stark contrast to the world around him that he desperately tries to understand, makes for the perfect receptacle to these themes.

Characters

Casshern Sins features surprisingly complex main characters in light of it’s simplistic plot and usually episodic nature. Casshern himself starts off as basically a blank slate with no memories and only knowledge as far as he learns from others. As he experiences the world, he has to weigh his experiences against each other to figure out his own beliefs. His character is kept interesting by the conflicting ideas he develops in relation to those experiences.

Lyuze’s conflict is between her desire to kill Casshern because of him ruining the world, effectively killing her sister, and her growing care for him and changing perception of the world. Casshern’s first companion, Friender, has some pretty great development considering that he is a robot dog who cannot speak. Friender’s emotions are represented through actions, and in those actions we see how he slowly transitions from hating Casshern to trusting him and eventually both protecting him and keeping him under control.

Without spoiling, the villains, Leda and Dio, have their own interesting development. Dio has dreamed of nothing but killing Casshern, while Leda is using dio to try and make the world her own. Each of them is thoroughly explored and developed. Luna, Oji, and Braiking Boss are also great characters with a lot of development, but those are spoilers.

There are a whole plethora of minor characters, most of whom appear just for one episode. Every one of these characters feels alive - they don’t merely expunge their beliefs onto Casshern, but show him the way that they live (or, of course, die) through their actions. Characters come in all variety of personality, shape, and size. (inside joke) Casshern could be said to have the best pseudo-harem since Ginko from Musi-shi.

Episodes

Casshern Sins is episodic much in the same sense as Cowboy Bebop. The chains of episodic parts are broken up by plot-related episodes, the major characters get their own introspective episodes, and the last group of episodes form the conclusion. There were a couple of less-than-amazing episodes (I remember finding 15 and 16 a bit boring and 21 is kind of ill-done but the next episode justifies it) but otherwise, every episode was great.

All of the plot episodes were superb, especially whenever Casshern and Dio fought, which was always quite epic. Besides the wonderful climactic episodes, I pretty much had 4 favorites. Episode 7, where a woman in a high tower teaches Casshern about the beauty of this ruined world - Episode 8, where a woman wants to spread hope through her song - Episode 12, where a man tries to paint his city his color so that the world will remember him - and Episode 18, and excellent cuckoo nest episode into Lyuze’s psyche.

Overall

As I stated in the beginning, Casshern Sins is definitely not for everyone. If you like all kinds of anime regardless of genre and are easily interested in something without it having to be fast-paced, Casshern may be for you. If you’ve always wished that the philosophical plots of pretentious anime would mix with the good fun and awesome fights of shounen action, Casshern may be for you. However, if slowness leaves you bored or action leaves you disinterested, you’ll want to stay away. For me, the show was everything I could have wanted and filled a niche that I’ve long waited for an anime to fill.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by The_Golden_Witch (3)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Apr 11, 2009

bloodraevynn

Mixed Feelings

I will admit that my opinion of "Casshern: Sins" is somewhat biased by the fact that I watched and enjoyed the original 1973 anime "Shinzou Ningen (Neo Human) Casshern" first. Because of that I became more than a bit pissed off when I realized that "Sins" had absolutely _nothing_ to do with "Shinzou Ningen."

"Sins" is touted as a "remake" of the original series, but that's a fallacy. What it actually is, is a story so utterly disparate from the original that the use of familiar names and faces seems to have been the result of a combination of laziness on ... the part of the designers and a desire to boost the initial viewership by feeding off of a pre-existing fandom. The characters who "return" in "Sins" are not at all like the ones they were cloned from - in Luna's case there is no similarity whatsoever, which is a shame, because Luna was my favorite character in "Shinzou Ningen."

Even when I cooled down and resolved to evaluate "Sins" on its own merits, rather than comparing it to "Shinzou Ningen," it still came up lacking. It seems as though the creators got together to come up with a collection of evocative images and scenes, and then strung them all together with a flimsy, poorly developed plot cluttered with ill-fitting elements. The anime is rife with trite symbolism, and does its level best to constantly hammer you with angst, without bothering to be remotely subtle in the execution of it.

Actually, there's a fundamental lack of subtlety on most levels of this story's execution; where it's most damaging though is that as the story progresses it becomes overwhelmingly preachy; and that, more than anything else, I could have done without.

Despite that, I can't exactly call it a _bad_ anime, I think anyone who likes this style of story will probably find it reasonably entertaining, and the art and animation _are_ beautiful, but if you're looking for a great anime, this isn't it.

It's a pity though; I would have loved to see what a faithful rendering of "Shinzou Ningen Casshern" would have looked like executed with modern storytelling aesthetics.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by bloodraevynn (1)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Feb 17, 2019

Eneko-chan

Not Recommended

In a nutshell, I think that Casshern Sins is a terrible anime. I might’ve given it a slightly higher rating, say, a 2 or even a whopping 3 instead of 1 like I am giving it now, if only I haven’t picked it up because after watching Ergo Proxy I read on Reddit that “Ergo Proxy is just a pale shadow of Casshern Sins”. I loved Ergo Proxy to bits, so naturally I just had to have a look at something that was potentially even better. This, however, made me compare the two series at every turn, be it consciously or subconsciously, and it was ... never in Casshern Sins favor. So, I went in with reasonably high expectations, and what I have encountered has disappointed me so badly that my overall impression of Casshern Sins ended up being even grimmer than it could’ve been. That being said, I am certain that if I had gone in blind, I would still hate it.

Anyway, the plot tells us a story of a not-quite-robot-not-quite-human named Casshern who mopes his way through the wastelands of a planet where once a mighty robot civilization now falling prey to Ruin has flourished, or so we’re told, at least, but I somehow doubt the civilization had been that advanced. We only get to see a handful of small towns, one (one!) spare parts factory, a church, and the rest is, well, desert, copious amounts of flower fields (I swear, there are more flower fields than there are towns, but of course there are, everyone knows flowers are essential to robot well-being, right?), desert, lake, plains, sea, some more desert, caves, some gigantic microphone-shaped constructions of unknown origin and purpose protruding from the sand in the, oh, did I mention there’s deserts? No, there’s no roads or any infrastructure whatsoever, except maybe, uh, some pools or hot springs or whatever, which again, everybody know robots can’t live without, like flowers. Oh, and there’s a hidden experimental laboratory tucked away somewhere, too, but it’s the humans’, not the robots’.

Yes, there’s apparently humans, too, although you only ever see, like three of them over the course of the entire series and they’re all minor background characters. They have created robots, and the apparent root cause of all conflict in the series – Luna, an, uh, immortal frog-faced girl with twin blue ponytails that provided life eternal for man and robot alike, until Casshern came along and somehow managed to do her in despite her stated immunity to death, thereby attaining immortality himself and unleashing the mysterious plague called Ruin upon the world. What it does, as we’re told and shown, is that it makes robots rust and start to break down gradually, resulting in their eventual death and dissolution into dust. All tools are apparently subject to this too, for some reason. In episode two we’re told that replacing rusted parts doesn’t work, but it doesn’t preclude robots from still trying to do that in a bid to save their life. Just, y’know, not in a rational way of “mass-producing spare parts so we could change them as soon as they start showing signs of wear” (the only factory we see is in perfect working order, so it’s certainly not out of realm of possibilities). Instead, those who can, choose to hunt smaller and weaker robots to take them apart for their innards. As in, in one instance, a large, classic box-shaped giant robot with a flail or a morning star for an arm picks up a tiny robot identical to a human child in all respects, cackling triumphantly, and gleefully tells us he’s going to get so many good parts from this body still relatively untainted by Ruin. Are you fucking dumb, Robot-Man?! There’s no way ANY of her parts will fit you.

And that was a major source of my unending frustration with this anime – NOTHING adds up. The world is an entirely illogical mishmash of half-baked apocalypse-themed ideas no one ever bothered to think through. The details of it end up contradicting each other ultimately, and that’s where the details are given at all. I have mentioned above that humans are a part of the world in Casshern Sins, but nothing is ever explained about them, not their relationship with robots after they have created them (we only know that the robot king hated them, and that “bad” robot goons will kill them on sight, but the why of it is left out), not where they reside and what they are doing now, not how the Ruin affects them, if it at all does (seems to imply it does, fails to explain how), nor, most importantly, what the difference between the robots and people even is, despite this seemingly being a plot point.

Robots in Cassern Sins behave exactly like people would. They fall in love, the feel anger, joy, sadness, despair, they cry (one character remarks to the other with disdain “You’re crying?! Like a human?!” only to do that herself a few episodes later), they dream of becoming famous singers, they bleed, they can go for a swim, they sleep and rest, they breathe, they take pills, they have families, baby robots grow up into adult robots and grow old… About the only thing they haven’t explicitly shown them doing is eating, but neither do we get a sense of what energy source if not food keeps them functioning. No sockets or landlines, no batteries, no tanking stations, no solar panels… Why bother making most of the characters robots at all, if their being robots doesn’t add anything to the story? They could’ve just as well been humans that have attained near-eternal life through advanced medical technology (as the humans in Casshern Sins apparently have!) and not a single thing would have changed.

Because the world falls apart (literally, too, har-har), the motivation and the backstories of everyone involved crumble to dust right with it. Recurring characters are static and one-dimensional, and minor characters all blend together to form two blurry blobs: the bad guys that have to hurt others just because they happen to see them, cue our protagonist flying in to save the day and utterly destroying them in a bland fighting scene without any real stakes, and the, er, I suppose, good guys, that are trying to live to the fullest despite the world around them having gone to shit, or something. Just, the ways they do it are often absurd – there’s a guy who paints the whole town bluish white, even the tallest buildings somehow, despite him being in a wheelchair and needing help to go up a flight of stairs, a woman that tries to knock out a robot who’s just passing by and strikes her fancy with aroma candles to try and make him a part of a bell (don’t even ask), a girl who likes to beat others up and fight, but somehow she’s admirable unlike the bad guys because, I guess, she looks pretty and asks before she goes impaling robots on her sword? The only decent episodic character was the human from episode three, at least he brought some much-needed levity and exposition into the dreary mess Casshern Sins calls its plot. Just as well that he died very promptly.

The main character oozes angst like Ikari Shinji on steroids. From episode one it’s obvious that none of what’s happening is really his fault, but still he spends all of his screen time (and most of viewers’ time along with it)being emo about it. His preferred method of conversation is staring at people dumbly, moaning about his suffering and repeating the last few words his conversation partner said in a questioning tone. There’s also a robot dog, the only one we see in the series, whose relevance to the story is a mystery shrouded in an enigma, but it’s there in almost every episode anyway. Then there’s a girl who starts out hating Casshern’s guts and wanting to exact revenge on him, and then ends up falling in love with him out of the blue over the course of two bizarre episodes dedicated solely to the topic. No, they’re not about their interactions – their interactions are minimal at that point. It’s a peek inside her “inner world”, and boy is it weird as heck! You could say that this is the character with most development, but since all that development is shat into existence out of nothing, it doesn’t really count. Or maybe her falling in love with the protagonist was inevitable – because this could’ve just as well been a harem with how many women fawn over Casshern, cling to him and call him beautiful. Just because. Also, we have an annoying child, whose primary function is to a) laugh like an idiot, pluck flowers and marvel at how pretty things are so that we know how innocent and beautiful her heart is and b) run away and get lost. At one point, she also serves to get the gang’s hands on an important gimmick that turns out to be a MacGuffin, forgotten about in the very next episode and ultimately serving nothing. Oh, and there’s also her guardian and apparently, gasp, the creator of Casshern (which is never explored at all), whose sole purpose is to rant about how precious the robot girl in question is to him and drive a truck around to take her places. Places where she can stumble upon Casshern, so we can listen to how she repeats his name over and over and watch her gift him seashells or something. The antagonists are similarly one-note: Mr. “I-need-to-kick-Casshern’s-ass-with-my-two-feet-because-he-humuliated-me” and Ms. “Maleficent-who-wants-to-get-knocked-up”. I won’t even touch upon Braiking Boss and Luna, because that fail is of truly epic proportions.

Many here praise Casshern Sins for its visuals and sound. I won’t deny it, the crisp lines and stark, bright contrasting colors make this series easy on the eye, and the animation is fluid and dynamic. There is of course this weird fetish that the art director has with drops of water, flower fields and pieces of robots affected by Ruin chipping off and scattering into dust, and while it admittedly looks great, it’s repetitive to the point of obsession. It smack of an attempt to appear deep and meaningful through visual means without anything of substance backing it up. The black-and-white video footage insert in one episode is another example of that visual pretentiousness. Also, I, and this is due my personal taste, absolutely loathe the character design. It’s so overwhelmingly 70’s? 80’s? There’s very little variety in facial features – we have ugly classical “bucket of bolts” robots, humanoid-type robots with distinct half-oval eyes and single vertical line on their faces, and Casshern-style sleek and pretty robots indistinguishable from, say, humans. The only exceptions to the rule would be Ringo’s guardian Ohji, Braiking Boss and maybe that short dude from the church in episode two. Casshern, Dio and Leda’s design with their regenerating bodysuits and Gundam-esque horns made me giggle. Especially Casshern with the blatantly Superman-like “C” on his chest. Also, the trio seems to have a pair of weapons hanging from their hips purely for decoration as Leda is the only one to actually use them. Why do the rest bother with them again? And Luna… well, she just looks as if someone stuck a frog’s head in a blue wig and a bicycle helmet on a loli body.

As for the music, honestly, it made me laugh at the most inappropriate moments. Sometimes, the characters would talk, and then this incredible sappy melody would start blasting full-force, and instead of moving me to tears the scene would make me gag because of its blatant grab for my heartstrings. I’m familiar with Kaoru Wada’s work through anime like 3x3 Eyes and InuYasha, and the similarities between those OSTs and Casshern’s are striking to the point of the man plagiarizing his own work. I swear there was this one track that was a dead-on ripoff of his own Sango’s Theme for InuYasha. Where that sort of music worked for a simplistic and a bit naïve shonen anime, it fails to deliver in a postapocalyptic series with philosophical aspirations. It sounds pretty, sure, but it’s completely at odds with the world and the story it tries to convey. It doesn’t add to it, it detracts from it. The voice acting is unimpressive, particularly in the leads. I suppose that Casshern’s VA does an adequate job of conveying what a sad little boy the protagonist is, but he also manages to make him sound like he’s got a developmental disorder, and his “howls of pure agony”, groans and grunts sounded very unnatural. Lyuze’s VA made her character have all the emotional range of a toaster oven. Ringo sounded whiny, bratty and annoying, good job picturing a child, I guess? The rest were passable. I’d say Braiking Boss’ and Luna’s VAs hit the mark with their acting, but that didn’t save their characters from poor writing, unfortunately.

I’ve seen reviews claiming that all lore omissions, plotholes and worldbuilding problems are actually non-issues because this anime is not supposed to be a consistent, fleshed out sci-fi story, but more of a philosophical\psychological exploration of sorts, particularly of the issues pertaining to death and life in the face of immortality and unavoidable doom. I don’t know where people saw depth, or metaphors, or anything like that, because the series is about as subtle as Casshern’s fist in a random robot’s chest. Already in episode one (or was it episode two? they do blend together so) the main message of Casshern Sins is established – “there is no true life without death, precisely because of the prospect of perishing one must strive to live as full a life as possible”. Roll credits, I guess, because all that follows is a disjointed series of mind-numbingly repetitive vignettes that serve to illustrate this particular point with plots so similar they seem cloned. There’s also an overarching plotline that comes to the forefront in the latter half of the series, but it doesn’t bring any satisfying answers about the world or the characters, and the message stays exactly the same. I swear, this could’ve been one or two-episode OVA and it would’ve been sufficient to tell this story, if you wring it out to rid it of endless landscape shots, intense face close-ups, characters standing or walking in silence and meandering pointless dialogue that doesn’t shy away from repeating the exact same phrases several times in a row in the exact same wording.

Bottom line: Casshern Sins is a hollow, artificial, pretentious attempt at making a puddle look like an ocean. If you’re 13, like the idea of robots and have never happened to ponder your own mortality, give this a whirl, and maybe you’ll like it despite its agonizingly slow pacing. Also worth a try if you like to poke fun at logical fallacies, plotholes and poorly written dialogue. For the rest, it would be an exercise in frustration.

Reviewer’s Rating: 1

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by Eneko-chan (6)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Anime Remake - Part 1

by Kacha_Shosha

49 Entries · 37 Restacks

Underrated & Hidden Gems

by ManicPixieTerror

50 Entries · 769 Restacks

covers stack

by FiviG

50 Entries · 18 Restacks

North American Anime & Manga Releases for April

Here are the North American anime & manga releases for April Week 1: April 7 - 13 Anime Releases After War Gundam X Collection 1 Blu-ray Animegataris Complete Co...read more

Apr 5, 2020 10:06 AM by ImperfectBlue | Discuss (0 comments)

Toonami Block Returns to Adult Swim, Deadman Wonderland and Casshern Sins to Air

Adult Swim announced last week that it would revive the Toonami anime block after asking its followers in April if they would like it back. According to their schedu...read more

May 21, 2012 12:20 PM by Florete | Discuss (154 comments)

	Poll: Casshern Sins Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 ) Ahenshihael - Oct 2, 2008	159 replies	by childisharmenzo »» Nov 22, 7:46 PM
	Hidden Gem? yg01 - May 26, 2018	7 replies	by Noctael »» Oct 30, 7:16 AM
	Poll: Casshern Sins Episode 12 Discussion ( 1 2 ) slayer545-sama - Dec 20, 2008	51 replies	by thomas_ardwolf »» Oct 23, 9:39 PM
	Poll: Casshern Sins Episode 24 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 ) dbaranyi - Mar 16, 2009	187 replies	by dspr »» Oct 12, 2:32 PM
	Poll: Casshern Sins Episode 20 Discussion dbaranyi - Feb 18, 2009	30 replies	by dspr »» Oct 12, 11:30 AM

Diving into the Strange World of "Source: Other"

Plays, poems, and pachinko — absolutely anything can be adapted into an anime.

by Shymander

42,043 views

15 Post-Apocalyptic Anime To See Before The World Ends

The Doomsday Clock - a metaphor designed to represent how close humanity is to destruction - is at 3 minutes to midnight. To help you prepare for our rapidly approaching destruction, we've got you covered with some top-notch post-apocalyptic anime.

by MisterD98

381,805 views

CollectionActionSci-fi