Casshern Sins

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.

Story

Despite being a remake to a kitschy 70’s anime “classic,”Casshern Sins begins promisingly. In the first few episodes, the creators lay out a post-apocalyptic setting that manages to feel both unabashedly retro and grimly bleak at the same time. The resulting mix of camp and angst is weirdly intriguing, especially when the solid supporting characters and mysterious titular protagonist are factored in.

Sadly, Casshern Sins fails to live up to its initial promise due to its unfocused overarching narrative. Rather than develop any core theme in the early to middle stages, the series meanders among flavor-of-the-week plots and half-hearted attempts at a main story. After countless ... thematically tangential episodes, the anime barely has room to resolve its main plotline and is forced to squeeze a half-hearted conclusion into the final few episodes. The final episodes seem to assert that death is needed to make life worth living. However, the distracted narrative and conflicting themes beforehand causes this moralizing to feel hollow and unconvincing by the time the creators decide to tack it to the end. At the end of the series, Casshern Sins doesn’t feel like it was ever actually about anything, and this is perhaps its greatest flaw.

The anime’s plot is further diluted by lame fight scenes that lack context or relevance. In many occasions, a group of mooks will simply appear in the middle of an episode to suicidally impale themselves on Casshern’s foot. These scenes appear to have been inserted to please the action junkies, but the problem is that Casshern Sins tries to be something more than just another shounen action show. By mixing mindless action with serious science-fiction, the anime fails to appeal to fans of either.

Still, in spite of all these weaknesses, the series is not without merit. Casshern Sins’ main strengths lie not in the actual meat of the plot, but in the assorted one-shot episodes that pepper the overarching narrative. While they disrupt the flow of the actual story, many of the disjointed plotlines are well-written enough to be entertaining in their own right. Granted, not all of the self-contained stories are good, but others are genuinely compelling. This alone prevents Sins’ story from being an outright failure.

Animation

Fortunately, Casshern Sins has an excellent idea of what it wants to look like, if not what it wants to be about. Put simply, the style of the series' dystopian setting is wonderful.Casshern Sins uses carefully chosen color schemes and crisp animation all to great effect, and the final visual package is one of the most impressive I've seen this year. A particularly impressive aspect of the visual package is the dramatic use of light in just about every scene. It's not Makoto Shinkai obsessive, but the shadows drawn across the hero's face do a lot to darken the mood.

Sound

Voice acting as a whole is uneven. The protagonist’s seiyuu is so hideously terrible that I genuinely wondered if he was trying to sound wooden on purpose, while some of the supporting roles turn in excellent work. On the other hand, the background music is almost universally excellent. The music grimly underscores the anime’s bleak mood without ever becoming a distraction. The soundtrack’s one flaw is its frequent repetition, but this never becomes too much of a problem.

Characters

In addition to the haphazard plot and the hamfisted ending, the creators botch the characterization on nearly every major player in the show. Casshern himself is the most egregious example; his deadpan voice acting, terrible dialogue and unconvincing development combine to form one of the most ineffective protagonists that I've ever seen. Dio and Leda, the two main villains, are almost as bad; not only are their motivations left woefully unexplained, they're just flat-out boring characters.

Fortunately, some of the supporting characters fare better; Lluyze in particular is a welcome exception to the bad characterization. Casshern Sins dedicates an entire episode to dissecting her psyche in a weird and decidedly Freudian fashion, and the result is arguably the highlight of the show. Sadly, she is a comparatively minor character and simply can't carry the show on her own.

Overall

Overall, I enjoyed myself as I was watching and in particular liked the one-shot episodes, which at times evoke the amazing work done in Kino's Journey. However, the turgid overarching narrative, the bad characters and the incompetent ending make me wonder if these scattered episodes were enough to make the series actually worth my time.

This series is incredibly repetitive and frankly I couldn't get past the first 6 or 7 episodes. I simply lost interest, watching it was like a chore which was really sad because good cyberpunk anime is hard to find. I didn't really enjoy the character design either, it looks overly simplified and the sceneries are plain and bleak.

Anime: Casshern Sins

Title: Satisfying But it's missing something.

About the Anime: In a dark future, the world is in ruin and everything is slowly crumbling away into dust. Humanity is almost extinct, while robots desperately seek out new parts to replace their rusting bodies. Their only hope for survival is to devour the one known as Casshern… or so they believe. Meanwhile, Casshern himself has lost all memory of his past. Why are these robots attacking him? Did he really kill the one known as Luna; the Sun that was called Moon? And why is he, alone, unaffected and undamaged by the ruin?

Story 5/10: Despite ... being a remake to a kitschy 70’s anime “classic,” Casshern Sins begins promisingly. In the first few episodes, the creators lay out a post-apocalyptic setting that manages to feel both unabashedly retro and grimly bleak at the same time. The resulting mix of camp and angst is weirdly intriguing, especially when the solid supporting characters and mysterious titular protagonist are factored in.
Sadly, Casshern Sins fails to live up to its initial promise due to its unfocused overarching narrative. Rather than develop any core theme in the early to middle stages, the series meanders among flavor-of-the-week plots and half-hearted attempts at a main story. After countless thematically tangential episodes, the anime barely has room to resolve its main plotline and is forced to squeeze a half-hearted conclusion into the final few episodes. The final episodes seem to assert that death is needed to make life worth living. However, the distracted narrative and conflicting themes beforehand causes this moralizing to feel hollow and unconvincing by the time the creators decide to tack it to the end. At the end of the series, Casshern Sins doesn’t feel like it was ever actually about anything, and this is perhaps its greatest flaw.
The anime’s plot is further diluted by lame fight scenes that lack context or relevance. In many occasions, a group of mooks will simply appear in the middle of an episode to suicidally impale themselves on Casshern’s foot. These scenes appear to have been inserted to please the action junkies, but the problem is that Casshern Sins tries to be something more than just another shounen action show. By mixing mindless action with serious science-fiction, the anime fails to appeal to fans of either.
Still, in spite of all these weaknesses, the series is not without merit. Casshern Sins’ main strengths lie not in the actual meat of the plot, but in the assorted one-shot episodes that pepper the overarching narrative. While they disrupt the flow of the actual story, many of the disjointed plotlines are well-written enough to be entertaining in their own right. Granted, not all of the self-contained stories are good, but others are genuinely compelling. This alone prevents Sins’ story from being an outright failure.

Animation 8/10: Fortunately, Casshern Sins has an excellent idea of what it wants to look like, if not what it wants to be about. Put simply, the style of the series' dystopian setting is wonderful. Casshern Sins uses carefully chosen color schemes and crisp animation all to great effect, and the final visual package is one of the most impressive I've seen this year. A particularly impressive aspect of the visual package is the dramatic use of light in just about every scene. It's not Makoto Shinkai obsessive, but the shadows drawn across the hero's face do a lot to darken the mood.

Sound 7/10: Voice acting as a whole is uneven. The protagonist’s seiyuu is so hideously terrible that I genuinely wondered if he was trying to sound wooden on purpose, while some of the supporting roles turn in excellent work. On the other hand, the background music is almost universally excellent. The music grimly underscores the anime’s bleak mood without ever becoming a distraction. The soundtrack’s one flaw is its frequent repetition, but this never becomes too much of a problem.

Character's 3.5/10: In addition to the haphazard plot and the hamfisted ending, the creators botch the characterization on nearly every major player in the show. Casshern himself is the most egregious example; his deadpan voice acting, terrible dialogue and unconvincing development combine to form one of the most ineffective protagonists that I've ever seen. Dio and Leda, the two main villains, are almost as bad; not only are their motivations left woefully unexplained, they're just flat-out boring characters.
Fortunately, some of the supporting characters fare better; Lluyze in particular is a welcome exception to the bad characterization. Casshern Sins dedicates an entire episode to dissecting her psyche in a weird and decidedly Freudian fashion, and the result is arguably the highlight of the show. Sadly, she is a comparatively minor character and simply can't carry the show on her own.

Overall 6/10: Overall, I enjoyed myself as I was watching and in particular liked the one-shot episodes, which at times evoke the amazing work done in Kino's Journey. However, the turgid overarching narrative, the bad characters and the incompetent ending make me wonder if these scattered episodes were enough to make the series actually worth my time.
~WhiteBakemono

This show was an attempt to recapture 70's magic, but Casshern is totally irrelevant nowadays considering the popularity of his successors Megaman, Bass, X, and Zero.

Story:
The series is very repetitive. Although it revolves around how the cast deals with a worldwide plague, the same plot points are repeated over and over:
-Every single time cannon fodder tries to devour Casshern, it amounts to nothing.
-Every time a one-shot character is introduced, he'll be dead by the end of the episode and forgotten.
-Casshern walks around moping a lot (and the Ruin wouldn't exist if he was just left in the past.)
-Being depressing, it seems to drag on ... and on with no progress.
And the ending was rushed - there wasn't even a sense of closure.

Art and sound:
They're pretty much the best trait of Casshern Sins.

Character:
All I have to say about the characters is that they have a chance of fading from the mind after you watch something happy and epic after this. A month after finishing this series, I totally forgot most of the one-shot characters.

Enjoyment:
Not great, but not horrible.

Overall:
If you've seen countless other fighting shows, skip this and go rewatch the previous seasons of Power Rangers instead. That show may be repetitive to some, but at least the enemies, weapons, and Megazords had high variety. And instead of just being depressing (Sad =/= deep) Power Rangers has aesops and gives its episodes triumphant endings that you will applaud.

This anime caused me a headache, especially when wondering if I should review it or not. After all, my opinion was changing with every episode, and quite drastically most of time. Hence why this review will be fairly short in comparison to my usual walls of text.

The very first seconds of the anime made me cringe. The drawing style. Oh, at this very early stage I could tell the series will equal a torture for I'm very sensitive when it comes to art. It got me wondering how did I end up having Casshern on my planning-to-watch list at all. First, I tried to justify ... it being old, as the style resembles ol' good mecha animes television was filled with when I was little. But checking the dates on MAL told me the anime was not /so/ old. Did it try to mimic those old animes, being based on one? Was such style chosen to set the atmosphere? I don't even care, as I found the art horrible and no excuse would fix it. Sorry, old school fans. It goes back to my childhood and mecha animes on television that I completely detested.

In fact, my opinion about mechas had not changed ever since, and so the beginning for the first episode nearly made me cry out loud, again wondering how did this thing sneak into my sacred list of animes I'm yet to find. The second thought was making a relation to Power Rangers. Don't ask, I don't even know. But I've buckled up, mostly led by my OCDs that suggest I complete every anime I start, and carried on. First few episodes were making me acknowledge the problem I have, as I swear, watching this anime was very difficult for someone like me. But eventually I started getting deeper into it. I enjoyed a concept of few small stories, especially about the girl who loved to fight. That very episode was the breaking point for me, when I finally started understanding the anime was not as simple as I thought and there were a lot of messages hidden along the lines. This is when I started paying more attention to the things said rather than how they were drawn. Although, I admit, I struggled with the art for the entire series.

The sound was alright. I can't say I was particularly fond of any of the soundtracks, but they did not irritate me either. As I've watched the subbed version, I had a grip of the translations of both, opening and ending lyrics, which, I'd say, matched the theme of the anime itself. That's a plus, really - most of time lyrics of the soundtracks are hardly related to the series. The tracks within the anime itself were well timed and suited the situations. But that's pretty much all I can say about it.

The characters were truly the best thing about Casshern Sins. The mains were given a proper development, as much as it was possible with not too many episodes. The supporting characters that Casshern would encounter once and never again were the ones that deserve all of my praises. They were a living example of the struggles we all go through at some point of our lives, offering to see how do our feelings and actions differ from how we see them and how do others perceive them. Although, they were being shaped as the robots and were hidden in tangles of metaphors not everyone can make out, therefore this anime is meant for the audience that likes to think. Otherwise, it will leave an impression of a weird and incoherent anime that makes no sense. I especially loved the concept of Luna and how the world perceived her existence and how that perception differed from her own. Again, for the ones who expected some mecha fights that require no second thought it'd make no sense, but if viewed as a piece that requires deep insights, Luna's phenomenon leaves you thinking about yourself and the world for a long time after you finish the anime.

It's still difficult to say how do I feel about this anime. It was a difficult watch, mostly because of my preferences in regards of art and not being a fan of mechas and post-apocalyptic settings. I did enjoy it to some extent, that's for sure. But in the same time I was not drawn in enough to stop noticing things that bugged me and occasionally I'd start regretting giving the series a go all over again.

Overally, I must say Casshern Sins is definitely a good anime that makes you think. It wasn't as action packed as I thought it will be, but I'm only grateful for that. If not for the deep ideas it harboured, I'd have a REALLY bad time watching it. Now, time would go past a bit faster as I'd be spotting the subliminal messages and decoding them. I guess I was mostly getting put off when those things were lacking. I don't think I'll ever rewatch the anime. If the offered ideas were presented in different settings, I would definitely return to it. Sadly, they are not.

And so, here's my scores:

Story: 8/10
Art: 4/10
Sound: 7/10
Character: 9/10
Enjoyment: 6/10

OVERALL: 6/10

*contains spoilers*

I like post apocalyptic settings. I like action. I like wit and creative and critical outlooks on life. I do not like the show however, even though it has all those. Surprising, right?

Now, let's have a glance at how this comes to be? First of all - the story and characters. The story is rather shallow and vague, masking its flaws with volume, passing characters (that die off or are never seen again even if they live), tons of conversation (most of which is pointless and repetitive, to the point a lot of characters could be one and the same), and philosophical questions (that ... it asks and doesn't even attempt to answer or even poke at). Secondly the pacing. Now although slow (something i really don't like), it would be pretty tolerable in this show, if not for the other problems that is. Characters. Most of them are pretty one dimensional, and forgettable, not to mention that they are not very believable in most cases too. The art and sound are also pretty mediocre.

Finally, the consistency of the story and the message its trying to relay is very shaky, changing a few times, and in the end failing to properly put out the points its trying to make nearly all the time, down to the very end. Its also littered with plot holes and incomplete pictures (for example, it speaks of, and shows humans at a few points, but forgets all about them, not really telling how they fit in the world or if they can live on (despite this probably being a yes due to nothing changing much for them, and the soil being fertile). A lot of detail is also left in the shadow, for example you can't tell for a few characters if they are humans or robots, or something in between, and a lot of other important details too)

Final word - i would probably not recommend watching this to anyone, instead, i would recommend the anime "Plastic memories", as it has a similar message, but is far more emotional, believable, colorful, and to the point.

Casshern Sins is a 2008 reboot of the classic 1970s Tatsunoko TV anime series that is set in a post-apocalyptic future where nearly all of humanity has been wiped out by robots and with the death of Earth’s savior Luna, all robots are falling prey to the poisonous atmosphere of Earth as their parts are corroding and rusting away. Luna’s assassin, Casshern, returns centuries later with no memories of the deed he committed and seemingly unaffected by the poisonous atmosphere as he has become immortal and can painfully regenerate from any injury he receives.

This rather dark and grim take on Casshern is a bit of ... a mixed bag in terms of execution. Casshern Sins appeared to be focused on exploring morals related to mortality and redemption as Casshern encounters different robots and humans who cope with the apocalyptic world in varying ways that include waiting for death, attempting to enjoy their lives while they can, attempting to exploit the chaos of the new era for personal gain, or seeking to kill Casshern either out of revenge or believing the rumor that consuming him will save their lives from death. The series is rather blatant in expressing said themes and this was usually a problem in my viewing of the series at a number of points, especially throughout its first half as Casshern continually angsts over gradually realizing what he has done and encountering others within episodic stories coping with life in the apocalyptic world. Characters that Casshern encounters often throughout the series like Lyuze, Ringo, and Dio have larger roles and more development throughout the show’s run that make their decisions within the apocalyptic world more interesting to see develop than Casshern and the one-shot characters introduced in the show’s first half.

The series starts to improve in quality within its second half when a sudden plot twist helps to further explore the events that happened before the start of Casshern Sins and allows the plot to start picking up steam beyond the self-contained episodic stories found within much of the show’s first half. This development leads Casshern and other major characters within the series reflect on their actions and what they seek to do with the changing developments that affect each of them. The series still has the rather bad habit of being blatant with pushing its moral at this point, but the mentioned plot twist shaking things up with the motivations and actions of the major characters still makes it a considerable improvement over its first half.

Visually, Casshern Sins was of average quality for a TV anime series with details looking a bit on the simple side and having roughly-drawn details with characters and settings. I'm guessing the animation style was used as a sort of homage to the original Casshern anime series. The subdued, dark color tones used for the anime go along well with the it's somber, dark mood and apocalyptic world. However, animation isn't too impressive as it seemed the series got a bit too liberal with animation tricks and shortcuts to compensate for lack of fluid animation and solid fight choreography.

Music is perhaps the best element to Casshern Sins given the great orchestral score and occasional dramatic insert musical tracks sung by Nami Miyahara. The soundtrack does a great job to complement key scenes throughout Casshern Sins’ run, even when the show’s execution isn’t always at its best.

Overall as mentioned, I found Casshern Sins as a whole to be a bit of a mixed bag. While the attempt of exploring moral themes within the series is admirable, it does get a bit too repetitive and blatant at points with hammering in its themes. The second half of the series offers solid and engaging introspection with some of the major characters in response to a major plot twist, though you have to venture through the anime’s first half filled with self-contained character stories and Casshern’s repeated angsting before you can get to this point. Judging from the rather divisive reception I’ve heard of Casshern Sins as a whole, I’d say your mileage may vary with the series and would suggest streaming or renting it before wanting to buy a physical copy for your anime collection.

Dissapointed with this. Such a pretty dvd package but the story let it down. I felt in the concluding instalments the writing was getting desperate to somehow bring it together. Suddenly " God" gets a mention and then the appalling pseudo scratchy live film footage of what looked like a japanese girl waving her arms above her head - wow- "high art"- lol- was that the producers daughter?
But truly the terrible waste is made apparent by the failure of the music. There's is a rehash of the 3X3 Eyes mystery theme ( a great anime by the way) surely not the same music - ... i was stunned that it turned out to be the same composer - how about some new ideas... how cheap is that....
Looking at the first version-casshen robot hunter - the opening scene is still striking even though its dated now.And the marvelous narrators voice over by majel baret (english dub).and many other small jewels. Overall it It had an "X" factor which Casshern Sins does not. This work is too patchy, some beautiful imagery but too long, - a real shame - it leaves you feeling what a waste of resources and writing that ended up out of its depth. It could have been so much better.

I'm usually the guy who digs melancholic & sad shows with a deeper meaning but Casshern Sins was pretty much of a drag for me to sit through. It ponders very heavily on it's apocalyptic decay of the world mood while handling reasonable character choices and a consistent story as optional.

The first half of the show is kind of a journey for the protagonist in search of his memories. On this journey he encounters new characters in each episode and we learn about their backstory and the state of the world. The writers try to give every episode / character his own theme, but ... since they are all bound to the decay there is little actual variation in the stories told. So this episodic character telling barely anything new makes the whole show feel like having 7 actual episodes and 17 fillers.

When they finally get to resolve the main story in the last third of the show, huge plot holes / logic issues begin to shine (e.g. there is the big idea, that a life without death has no real meaning but they don't distinguish between a healthy life/death cycle and a whole world going extinct). Also some major questions will never be answered. The final conclusion is fine but far away from perfect.

The best thing about this show was definitely the cool & unique art style in combination with the melancholic sound design. Also the obligatory fights in each episodes where nicely animated (except the mostly generic enemy designs) but given their hopeless tone, they weren't exactly fun to look at. All in all i would have probably enjoyed this show more in a 12 episode frame.

Casshern Sins is a thoughtful, violent, and dark reboot of the 1973 series Shinzou Ningen Casshern that examines the question of what give our lives value.

The show begins with the amnesiac protagonist Casshern feeling depressed after being told that he caused "The Ruin," which created the post-apocalyptic world that this series takes place in and is the reason that robots, which were previously immortal, can now die. The first half of the series is largely composed of episodic stories of Casshern searching through the ruined world for robots who still live for something despite their impending death, and in each of these robots, Casshern finds ... beauty. The problem with this is that the first half of the show feels very repetitive. Each episode focuses on a new character with a different life story, but Casshern ends up learning the same thing at the end of each episode, which is that there is still beauty in the world despite the ruin. It's incredibly simple and doesn't need to be stated more than once, but the entire first half of the show is spent tell that to the viewer again and again. The pacing is incredibly slow and despite lengthy conversations between characters, they say very little of substance. Because the entire first half of the show is incredibly slow, repetitive, and generally just lacking substance, it genuinely feels like the show is wasting your time.

With that said, the actual plot starts to pick up in the latter half of the series, and I think it does a decent job of synthesizing the ideas of the first half in a meaningful way to contribute to the show's over all themes, but that doesn't justify the fact the the beginning of the show outright wastes your time. By the end of the show Casshern, who was previously a blank slate, comes to have his own beliefs and ideals and concludes that the existence of death forces people to live their lives to the fullest. It isn't a particularly original idea, but it's executed competently through all of the different encounters Casshern has with dying robots. Despite that, this show really has no right being 26 episodes. I think the same story could have easily been told in 13 episodes without wasting any of the viewer's time.

The dialogue in Casshern Sins is another major problem in my opinion. Whenever Casshern meets a new robot, they basically just dispense their philosophies and motives to him in the most prosaic way possible. While I understand that this is done so a character's story can be told in a single episode, it's done in the most unrealistic and uninteresting way possible. Not only is the fact that these characters would be having such personal conversations with a complete stranger unbelievable, but the way that the characters speak also feel heavily scripted and unnatural. While I guess this is sufficient for simply divulging information about the character to the viewer, it lacks artistry and isn't engaging at all.

If there's any aspect of Casshern Sins that is wholly positive it is the soundtrack. Overall, it sounds more akin to something I would hear in a Hollywood movie than in a seasonal anime and there is no shortage of memorable tracks. Because so much of this show is just shots of characters standing around contemplatively staring at blue dirt, you really get to appreciate this anime's great OST.

Visually, I think this anime makes great use of its cold color palette to depict its dying, ruined world. In other a small handful of episodes the colors can be incredibly vibrant to emphasize that there is still beauty in the world in spite of the ruin. As is the case in a lot of shows made by Madhouse, the animation in the first episodes is of noticeably higher quality to hook the viewer in, but as the series goes on, it makes more use of still frames and stock footage to pad things out. Taken as a whole, the animation in this series is just fine.

Although I spent most of this review criticizing Casshern Sins, I rated it as highly as I did because of its great soundtrack and more focused latter half. Even though I enjoyed watching this show about as much as I enjoy getting my teeth pulled, I can't say that I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. I think Casshern Sins would appeal to those who like similar atmospheric, philosophical, and slow-paced anime like Ergo Proxy and maybe Texhnolyze. While I typically enjoy shows like that, Casshern Sins missed the mark for me.

I'd start by mentioning the things I liked about this anime: the art and the music are good, the show in itself is not didactic and it does explore some really interesting ideas. Where the show leaves much to be desired is its plot, character development and emotional stimulation.

I found the plot to be quite bland and predictable. The characters are incredibly unidimensional with their essence of existence being one or two memories from the past and a single objective that stems from them. The protaganist is an amnesiac who knows nothing about the surrounding world. Everyday he seems to meet someone new who ... gives him a new outlook on life or a glimpse into the past. The protagonist and a few other characters wander the wasteland and somehow keep stumbling across each other for no apparent reason. Everyone's obsession with the ruin is understandable but somewhat annoying. All in all the world building is poor and neither the present nor the past make too much sense.

Something which surprised me was the anime's utter lack of ability to evoke any emotion. I was just apathetic to it throughout the watch.

'For whom do the flowers bloom' was for me the best episode, it pondered upon an interesting concept namely the absurdity of natural phenomena. The final few episodes too had interesting takes on the paradoxes of life and death. Another good episode featured the psychoanalysis of a character and contemplated the loss of meaning in life.

The symbolism however, is incredibly hollow and banal. The rhetorical narrative is repulsive at times.
And the plot twists are incredibly unrealistic. I don't think it has any profound thing to say. It's just a hollow, pretentious mess.

I was disappointed by this one. It didn't feel like it delivered on much. Ouji and Lyuze bite it, which are both sad endings for these characters. It's unclear why Friender survives long after this (we even see him survive well into Ringo's later growth - clearly, she's a very different sort, as she didn't rust either). There are some sweet moments with flowers, and all in all, this felt like an epilogue and a fine one at that.

I can't say the same for the rest. Casshern decides that now, he's going to fight (so much for his resolve of the last episode), bodying Braiking ... Boss's hastily acquired army and then the big man himself. It's a last hurdle of sorts, though it's unclear why any of this was necessary or what Braiking Boss's aim was, given that he refused access to immortality and instead gave it to his followers. Maybe he wasn't such a bad guy in the end, but he didn't really serve a purpose in the story. Casshern confronts Luna, tells her that he will return if she forgets death, and disappears. He's committing to be an angel of death for this world, which is fine, it's just not that interesting given that he apparently never appears again and we don't know how Luna changes in the aftermath.

Overall, I felt a bit underwhelmed by this series. It had great themes and some of these episodes were incredibly strong. Even those that I didn't like had their moments. But I found myself liking more of the ideas the show presented rather than their executions.

I think that this anime too vague for the length of the whole show.
If it had less episodes it would have been fine, but far too many episodes are used to set the atmosphere or for random encounters with one-time characters that serve for either that or a philosophical insight. In the end this falls flat and dulls the experience, because this is a singular storyline for which far too little details are given about throughout the anime and it stays vague nearly until the end.
I believe that in this Casshern tried to be like Kino no tabi: The beautiful world, but unfortunately ... failed to deliver.
(unlike Casshern, Kino no tabi could allow itself to be slow, vague, and only philosophical because that was the nature of the story - there is no singular purpose and every episode is for itself, a new experience)
Also, I didn't appreciate how for a lot of (side) characters the motivation behind doing the things they did was not properly explained at all.
The raised philosophical question was no news to me as well, though I understand why people can appreciate it through this anime.
All in all, I did enjoy this show a lot of times, and I really like both Casshern and Lyuze.

Let me start off by saying that while I did indeed give Casshern: Sins such a low score it doesn't mean that I did not enjoy it.

On the contrary I thought it to be a more than decent anime entry. It had an original story and the characters were more developed than we see in many anime today.

So why such a low score from me?

Casshern sins is not for everyone.

It has a slow pacing and a fractured storytelling process at the best of times.

... The problem lies in the very lore of the anime itself. This is set post-apocalypse.

A genre that I both love and hate at the same time. I like dark and gritty things such as those universes that fall within this genre but I also like to 'see a light at the end of the tunnel', either in the form of a happy ending or one where 'hope springs eternal'.

An example of this for me would be like 'The Walking Dead'. It's a dark and gritty show but the characters somehow pull through and there's always hope for a tomorrow.

Not so for Casshern. If anything this anime's future is more in line with 'The Road' and it's clear that by the end all life would end.

I gave Casshern such a low score because of my personal disappointment for this outcome. But I understand there are many that like this kind of bleakness in their stories and that's just fine.

But don't take my view on it and go try Casshern for yourself! ;)

This review will contain SPOILERS for the show and will be pointed out before each section.
INTRODUCTION
While the premise of a character exploring the meaning of life after the world fell to ruin greatly interest me the execution itself was poorly done.
CASSHERN
Firstly, the main character Casshern is uninteresting as the only emotion he exhibits is depression, because of the fact that the caused the "ruin" which overtook the world. While facing the fact that you are the one that caused the end of the world would cause likely cause the feelings Casshern displays the issue is he doesn't remember doing this, in fact he remembers nothing. ... He is told multiple times that he killed Luna which caused the ruin and every time he acts if this is the first time he has heard this information. Even after seemingly accepting this fact and coming to terms with it, in a later episode he goes back to the way he felt before this. Eventually Casshern does learn that he must move on from his past, but his personality doesn't change all too much.
LYUZE (SPOILERS)
Lyuze wants to kill Casshern because he killed her sister and Luna and is the cause of the ruin. Every scene she is in with Casshern she states this to him. She yells at him explaining to him that it is his fault the world is like this. I understand her anger at him at first but that is all she does is just yell at him (which just becomes repetitive), until she learns to accept that he has grown as a person. Another issue I found with her character is that she believes that she has the ability to kill Casshern. It is demonstrated in almost every episode that Casshern is the most powerful being in the world, and that even though he wants to die he can't. So, it confuses me so much why she believes that she has the power to kill him, even after she ultimately joins his side and sees this. I've heard people say that her loving Casshern doesn't make sense after she so strongly hates him, but I disagree. Casshern has no memory of who he is and is a completely different person than who he was before. What does not make sense to me is how she still wants to hate Casshern even after acknowledging he is not a bad person; and the reason for this is the most selfish reason I can think of, "If Casshern isn't bad than that means I was wrong." Overall Lyuze's motives aren't bad, however the way she expresses herself is poorly written.
OHJI/RINGO
Ohji is Ringo's caretaker and I do find there dynamitic to be interesting. Ringo is a small girl who is basically the embodiment of purity in the world of ruin. Even though she is affected by the ruin it does not bother her and she just wants to play and be happy. It is a little cliche having a child not understanding the severity of what is happening around them, however I do think it works in this instance. Ohji's only motive in life is to look after Ringo and make sure she is happy. Well, it is a one-dimensional motive, learning more about Ohji it does make sense. Ohji does get more backstory halfway through the show, however nothing is done with this. I think the two are just average characters that mainly help drive the themes of the show.
DIO/LEDA
Dio and Leda are very one-dimensional characters. Dio is jealous of Casshern and wants to kill him, that is his only motive. The whole time Dio is on screen he is complaining about how much he wants to kill Casshern. While this does get resolved by the end of the show, it does not feel satisfying as a viewer because there isn't a connection between them outside of what we are told their connection is. Leda is Dio's partner, and she is actually the one controlling the strings which is shown from very early on during her introduction. Leda could be interesting if she didn't have to deal with Dio's want to kill Casshern. Every interaction between the two is summed-up as Leda: "Dio do this thing for me." Dio: "No I only want to kill Casshen." That is the extent of their relationship. Well, each character may have been interesting on their own the fact they are together drags them down, although this is explained in story reasons.
BRAIKING BOSS
Braiking Boss is one of the more interesting characters in the show and his reaction to the ruin and his relation to its causation are probably more realistic than Casshern's in my opinion. That being said he is not used much and only left a minor impact overall for me. I feel as though he should have been explored more than Dio and Leda and would have made a better main villian.
DUNE
I don't really have much to say about Dune besides I found him interesting.
LUNA (SPOILER)
The twist that Luna became "evil" if you can really it that didn't hit it for me. Well, it is explained why this happened, it doesn't feel satisfying at all. In fact, everything surrounding the character and her build up is unsatisfying. I think I should add that there is a difference between disliking the twist and finding it unsatisfying. I liked the premise of the twist, however like I said in my introduction, the execution of it was poorly done.
SIDE CHARACTERS
The show begins episodic, however towards the end this pacing stops. In the more episodic episodes new characters are introduced. I don't think any of these characters were real hits for me, and most of them just established the same theme. The Bandit robots are just stupid. I always hated the idea that every single low-level grunt believes that can defeat someone obviously higher in power than them. They are mostly just used as conflict when there needs to conflict or Casshern has to fight something.
PACING / PLOT
The pacing of the show is really slow, and I don't mind that in shows however the plot was boring to me, so the slow pacing amplified that feeling. As established in the Character review most of them are one dimensional and poorly executed. My biggest issue with the plot is it doesn't make sense how characters go from location to location; I'll explain the best I can without spoiling things. Basically, there's this rumor and Casshern tries to follow the rumor, but you only get the bare minimum details of the rumor as the viewer. Basically, the characters just sort wind up where they need to be with no explanation. This could easily be fixed with a side character saying, "oh by the way I heard if you go here, you'll find this," but no. It is never explained how our characters know where to go they just stumble around into places. While I understand this makes sense in episodic episodes, it is strange to see in the ones that aren't. Besides that, some things are introduced and never explained. One-episode introduces some background for Leda, but nothing seems to come of that. In the same episode a super important item is introduced that could be the solution to the main issue in the whole show, but again nothing comes from that. Those are my main issues with the plot besides the issues I have with the characters.
CONSISTANCY
This show is very inconsistence in many aspects. Besides what I described with the plot in the PLOT section there are more issues I have. First Casshern gets a robo-dog early on named Friender. Well, I don't mind him, he will just disappear for whole episodes with no explanation. In the very episode after he joins Casshern he is just gone the whole time, and then shows up in the episode after that one. What a robot exactly is also makes no sense. There are two types of robots, Bandits which are like more "classic" robots and then more humanoid robots. While some of the more humanoid robots look like robots; still robots like Casshern, Lyuze, and Ringo look like humans. On top of this some robots, bleed (blood not oil), breath, sleep, cry, feel (like the sense not emotions, but they have those too), grow up from children to adults, etc. the only thing they don't do is eat. In one scene Casshern ask Ohji if Ringo is human because she is bleeding, but then later on we see Ohji bleeding, and we know he is a robot. (Also nothing comes from Ohji's answer to Casshern.) It seems to me that the writers wanted the Robots to be able to express emotion, but just ignored the fact that they were writing robots and not humans. My last issue happened in two instances. First is in episode 18 where the same clip with the same animation and everything played back to back. While it could be argued that this was purposeful as the whole episode is basically a dream sequence, it felt more like an editing error. This happens one more time, but that time it is only with audio.
FIGHT SCENES
I've read a lot of people saying that the animation is one of the great aspects of the show, but I disagree when it comes to the fight scenes. They come off very choppy to me. One scene will be a character winding up for a hit, then cut to a close up on where the impact is. Most of the time you don't ever see the two people fighting in the same scene and it doesn't work for me. I want to actually see the fight not just close-ups of the hits. I will say however, that there is one fight towards the end that I think is done pretty well.
CLOSING THOUGHTS.
Casshern Sins has a good base but nothing else. Well characters seem like they could be interesting they are one-dimensional. The plot kind jumps around with no real solid connection between. There are many inconsistencies and things that just don't make sense as a viewer. Some important moments are poorly executed and what should be emotional comes off as laughable (Episode 18 and the overuse of Janice's song). I rated this anime a 5, which for some reason is listed as either Average or Mediocre. I think Mediocre sums this anime better. I don't think its good, but I wouldn't call it bad. It is worse than other anime's which I've given Average so I believe Mediocre is the best word to describe it.