Casshern… a series reboot of the original Shinzou Ningen Casshern back in 1973. Of all the new shows this season, I think this one is my favorite. Lets talk production values, people. I really enjoyed the OP and ED, I think they fit very well, and they have a nice melody. Music overall was certainly a strong point of the show. The BGM really fit well into the scenarios presented, and I think that they sound lovely as well. The animation is fluid, almost seamless, which goes along well with the simplistic character art and gorgeous post-apocalyptic backgrounds. The voices are another strong point. Personally, I had a fangasm when I discovered with glee that Utsumi Kenji was reprising his role as Braiking Boss. I don’t think anyone else could have voiced him better than the original guy. The voice of Casshern was good too, and you can see the talent of Furuya Tooru. My only gripe in the entire show is Ringo. That little girl is kind of messed up looking. To quote Tenka Seiha, she looks like she’s going to devour Casshern. You can really see the connections to the old series. The robot designs are the same, but the coloring is gone, rusted and corroded due to the ruin. They are as cruel and heartless as they were in the first version too.
I’m really enjoying the plot. A fanboy like myself has been coming up with so many conspiracy theories about the plot, and links to the old show back in the 70’s. Hell, I typed a three-page bullet list on my theories. Leave me a comment if you’re interested. So Casshern wakes up from a hundred year slumber with no memories. All we know is that he killed Luna, and the Ruin (the apocalypse) was triggered by this event. Humans are now few and far between, being slowly killed by the poisonous air from the Ruin and Ringo even comments that she has not seen one. The robots don’t fair any better. The poisonous air is corroding and killing them along with the humans. Casshern kills a bunch of robots that think that they can end the Ruin and become immortal if they devour him. A strange woman appears, and notes the patheticness of the robots, then vanishes. We see that Casshern is wounded as well, and he screams. An old man, Oji, realizes that Casshern has awakened, and Braiking Boss tells him it is so. Casshern later meets a little girl robot named Ringo, and she comments that he is as pretty as a human. (In the original series, Casshern was originally a human who turned himself into a cyborg to combat the robot menace.) Ringo says she’s broken, Casshern says she’s not, Ringo gives him a shell and runs off. Casshern has a few flashbacks of when he killed Luna, and this causes him to freak out every so often. (These flashbacks helped fuel my theories too). Casshern, the super-hearing sexy devil that he is, hears her shells drop as she is attacked by a robot, and rushes to help her. He carries her to safety, then turns into badass mode. Glowing green-blue eyes, and combat ready. He brutally destroys the robot in retaliation for hurting Ringo, but in return, he makes Ringo afraid of him. Oji carries her off, voicing his disappointment in Casshern (which was one of my conspiracy flags, comment on my profile if interested.) The enigmatic female that showed up earlier and notes how brutal Casshern is, and that he disgusts her. He is the cause of the Ruin, and that is all she needs to know to hate him enough to want to kill him.
Overall, I’m in love with this show. The production value is incredible, the story is intriguing, and it made me, a fanboy, come up with theories of conspiracy with renewed vigor. I highly recommend this series to fans of the original show, superhero fans, fans of a dark story, and anyone in general. My overall score is 10/10.
Production done by Madhouse. Airs on Wednesday. Subs by Shinsen.
