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Casshern Sins
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Animation - 9.2 |
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Sound - 9.0 |
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Story - 7.0 |
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Character - 7.5 |
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Value - 7.6 |
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Enjoyment - 7.8 |
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Average - 8.0 |
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| Average |
6.2 |
| Animation |
10 |
| Sound |
9 |
| Story |
3 |
| Character |
5 |
| Value |
4 |
| Enjoyment |
6 |
| If there was one thing that Casshern Sins was truly great at, it was grabbing your attention. Right from the get go, we are treated to a beautiful battle scene with the supernatural being known as Casshern demolishing hordes of robots in stylistic fashion. The action is great, but the art is even more gorgeous. And then after the battle is done, Casshern sits by himself, greeted by an energetic young girl who goes by Ringo, possibly the cutest and most adorable little girl you'll ever see.
By the second episode it proved that it has a lot more to offer than robot busting eye candy. The story is about Casshern, a robot human hybrid who has killed the entity known as Luna, the world's only saving grace. As a result of this murder, robots have started to decay with no hope of repair, and their only silver lining is a myth that devouring Casshern would give them eternal life. What's even more weird is that Casshern has no memory of anything nor is he aware of the fact that he has killed Luna.
The most common theme of this anime is life and death. Casshern spends most of the anime walking around and helping various people cope with the inevitable fact that they are going to perish one day while fending off the armies of robots that want to eat him. The world of Casshern Sins is just beautiful. Although much of the scenery is within a dessert setting, it's amazing how they can make a bunch of cliffs, rocks, and destroyed buildings so lively and depressing. Contradicting descriptions, but that's really how it feels like. The character designs are also very neatly well done it is as if Casshern Sins is an artwork itself.
Now, that covers everything that is good about the anime. Casshern Sins has beautiful art, great looking battles, and Ringo, but man is it a mess. Direction must have been the last thing considered when Madhouse started developing this show. Although the themes about life and death are well elaborated on, it was literally the only theme it used. The second episode was really thought provoking, but then it became the same thing after that. Same scenarios, different characters. It got repetitive fast.
When the story starts moving on wheels, that is when it lost you. The character development was pretty half assed, such as the rivalry with Casshern and Dio, Lyuze's out of the blue love for Casshern--which goes nowhere--and a plot twist that just doesn't make any sense at all. It is really tough describing what the story tried accomplishing, but it hurts my brain doing so. The only character that is truly likable is Ringo, just because she's so overwhelmingly adorable..
Casshern Sins may better be off as a 13 episode anime, or perhaps even an OVA, or movie. Any sense of direction and substance was lost somewhere throughout its 24 episodes. As an art project, it'd be hard to find any anime that stacks up against Casshern Sins, but as a professional TV show, it's a pretty big disappointment. The best two episodes in the anime were the first two, and everything just goes downhill after that. Not a recommendable watch, but if you just wanted to check it out, at least watch the first two episodes, and assume everything after that is going to be the same.
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Pierre |
(2009-04-13 18:55:53) 2009-04-13 18:46:29 |
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| Average |
7.0 |
| Animation |
8 |
| Sound |
8 |
| Story |
7 |
| Character |
7 |
| Value |
6 |
| Enjoyment |
6 |
| High expectation as the anime chose a very difficult plot to start off but with limited development, low in drama value, the overall result is not satisfied.
Features:
Some good dark themed art,
nice songs
Great VA like Furuya Toru and Yajima
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fnord |
2009-03-21 01:17:57 |
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| Average |
8.8 |
| Animation |
10 |
| Sound |
9 |
| Story |
7 |
| Character |
8 |
| Value |
9 |
| Enjoyment |
10 |
| Casshern Sins is a liberal remake of a '70s series going by "Neo Human Casshern", or somesuch. While the story and setting bear little resemblance, this origin becomes important for the artistic direction. Where in the original series Casshern was an enhanced humand protecting makind from rebelling robots, in Sins he was the one who doomed the earth to ruin when he killed mankinds hope under orders. The show is then about his journey through a world on the brink of destruction to find out just what he did and who he was, as he has conveniently forgotten his past endeavours (or, perhaps, has only become self-aware after the act of killing - my theory).
Animation:
Animation itself is good, but not stunning. Most action scenes are well animated, but apart from them the amount of movement is limited. I will still rate this ten as the art is beautiful beyond comparison. Casshern clearly references the shows of the seventies in its clear lines and blocky colours (not to mention the character designs), but mixes it with styles from a variety of sources to produce something very unusual. Most exceptional, though, is the colours. In a world grey and bleak, Casshern utilizes a sort of "island principle" on its colours. A lot of the footage approaches monochrome, but is then interrupted by extremely colourful and vibrant images rich in detail and overflowing with aestethic style. Especially in later episodes the colours are used for mostly effective symbolism as well, giving the otherwise more shallow aspects of the work greater depth. Everything is milked for any possible aspects of melancholic beauty, be it mundane things like the ocean or flowers in the wind, or the death of someone we know.
Sound:
Strong and atmospheric music, but onesided VAs. To be honest, I am not sure whether more energetic VAs would have been an improvement since the show does rely on the mood of melancholic inevitability, thus eliminating the need for a lot of a seiyuu's emotional voice range. Casshern's VA needs to be credited with avoiding the easy road of going all-out-emo on Casshern, and Lyuze's VA successfully represses a lot of her tsun tendencies. Epic voice acting for Luna. I don't particularly like the OPs and EDs.
Story:
The story is *very* slow. This is a genuine warning. For at least two thirds of Cassherns run, nothing whatsoever happens storywise. It's simply a traveling adventure of sorts. Even when the main storyline is tackled, neither the characters nor the story display any inclination to be rushed. Often a slow show gets an insta-drop from me, as I am notoriously impatient; it counts for Casshern that it captivated me nonetheless. The ending will most likely result in diverging opinions; personally, I found it fitting if anticlimactic (surprise). The episodic content, making up much of the show, varies in quality. Some episodes are boring, but most fascinate with its sheer overwhelming beauty and melancholy. Recurring motives during the show are the meaning of life and death, their relation to each other, the price one is willing to pay to live and responsibility for ones actions.
Character:
Decent character depth and creativity all throughout the cast. Casshern and Lyuze, the only ones with any real development, are fairly shallow for being the main cast. I was initially annoyed by Ringo's personality, seeing her as unsuited to the shows parameters, but she (and the idea of her character) grew on me. The permanent cast is small, two hands should suffice for accounting, but satisfactory. The characters depth, while adequate, does not really match up with their respective screen times.
Value:
High-quality visuals. Good subs. Will archive and rewatch entirely at some point (certain scenes while it's still readily available on my HDD).
Enjoyment:
Casshern Sins is best summarized by saying it is a show that could have failed very easily on a large number of points. It has eccentric art, a slow story, unusual voice acting and a number of other idiosyncracies, but manages to end up as a class-A show in my opinion. While certainly having its weak points (most notably the pacing*) this is a show effortlessly above average through its sheer beauty alone.
* It can be successfully argued that the slow and reflective pacing is part of what defines this show, and that a faster pacing would have seriously detracted from the melancholy in the atmosphere. I concur this is a possibility, but still think it's too slow.
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| Average |
9.7 |
| Animation |
9 |
| Sound |
10 |
| Story |
10 |
| Character |
9 |
| Value |
10 |
| Enjoyment |
10 |
| A very wondeful add to this year's low turn out of animes. It may not be the best, but it is very close depending on if you are a mecha type anime watcher..
It is more about redemption of our main protagonist and his pennance. The osts are very fitting.
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| Average |
7.3 |
| Animation |
9 |
| Sound |
0 |
| Story |
7 |
| Character |
7 |
| Value |
0 |
| Enjoyment |
6 |
| I haven't watched or read any of the previous works on Casshern, so this review is based upon this series alone.
The series is based on Casshern learning about his past as he has lost all memories of the event after killing Luna, the immortal. Killing her apparently made him immortal, but also doomed the world for robots as they all being to die from rusting.
It's an interesting view of the world as you can see how robots live their lives after discovering that the world as they know it is coming to an end. There's really no surprise here as you can see people rioting, some people praying and looking for some salvation, and other people just accepting their death.
Putting that aside it is still somewhat entertaining to watch. For example the episode with the bloodlust robot that tries to put Casshern out of his misery.
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| Average |
8.8 |
| Animation |
9 |
| Sound |
9 |
| Story |
8 |
| Character |
9 |
| Value |
9 |
| Enjoyment |
9 |
| Casshern Sins is absolutely fantastic in its own sad and traumatic self, and what do I mean by that?
While the show is being setted in a very grey and monotone world, it still talks to the viewer by being beautifully drawn and never feels tired or boring colour wise. Certain key moments in the story visually comes to life in a splendour of colour and fluid animation.
The sounds and music are of high standard and helps the feel and presence of the environments and characters that are portrayed in the story.
The story at some points in the series feel like they might forgotten something in between sometimes and clearly some inconsistencies between episodes can get apparent but not at all so you as a viewer feel discomforted for long. The story is that good.
What could be considered a filler episode could still be proven as a very good opportunity to get to know the characters and the world in which the story takes place.
Some episodes could literary put tears to your eyes without being melodramatic as the world falls into ruin by the day and the constant regret of Casshern really puts a damp on the mood.
But there's also hope amid all the despair and destruction and those moments really feels in you.
All in all, this series is a must see for those who like sci-fi, robots, good animation, fitting and good music, believable characters and story to boot.
You will not regret having seen this series I'm sure.
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