Category: Casshern Sins

Short Synopsis: Lyuze and Ringo return.
Highlights: How come Ringo and Casshern went to exactly the same place?
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7,5/10 (Good)
This episode returns us to the main storyline, when first Lyuze finally decides to show up and kill Casshern (she’s been following him everywhere, it seems). Even though Casshern still doesn’t remember what he did, he knows that he committed a horrible sin. As it turns out, Lyuze’s sister was the first he killed, and infected with that robot-breaking-down disease.

At the moment, Casshern is some sort of combination between human, robot and immortal being; there are so many facets to this guy: he doesn’t need any food, yet he can shed tears, he’s incredibly powerful, he can heal any sort of wound, and yet he suffers from memory loss and he’s got an alter ego that appears once he’s angry. I suppose that this alter-ego here is the key to everything. My guess is that Luna did something before she was killed, which tried to suppress Casshern’s violent personality, though only succeeded in this partially.

I was a bit disappointed when Casshern suddenly was able to save Ringo from out of nowhere, though. Has it been clearly mentioned that the two had the same destination, which I missed somewhere? Otherwise, it’s a pretty jarring coincidence on an otherwise excellent series. I already really like this series, but it’s just too early for my suspense of disbelief to just ignore these sorts of things. The point the creators tried to make with it was clear, though: up till now, Casshern’s violent side only disappeared when said side calmed down, but this time Ringo was able to call the guy out of it.

It’s very strange; this series is really well-written: the single dialogues are really detailed, and bring out the best of the different characters, and then there are a few things in the set-up that just don’t sit right. This episode too portrayed the ugly robots as much more evil than the human-like robots. It feels as if this series has a crappy guy behind the series composition, and yet the most amazing scriptwriters and art directors. Especially considering the former, this does make sense when you look at the staff-list, since the guy behind the series composition also did those of Claymore, Yume Tsukai and Shakugan no Shana. The chief animation-director also did the same for Mushishi, which could explain the amazing visuals, but I still have no bloody clue where that amazing dialogue comes from. Could it really be, that after directing countless of Dragonball Z-movies, the director suddenly saw the big bright light at the end of the tunnel or something?

Short Synopsis: Casshern meets a girl who loves fighting.
Highlights: Subtle emotions rock.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8,5/10 (Awesome)
You know, back when that first episode ended I remember noting how Casshern Sins was too one-sided and how Casshern was too angsty, but I’m right at the point where I’m going to take that one back. Casshern Sins has been getting better and better with every episode, and at this point it’s my favourite of the new Fall-series after Mouryou no Hako (but then again, this one does have a few episodes of advantage against series as Tytania and Michiko to Hatchin, so who knows?).

The stories of the people that Casshern has been running into have all been excellent so far. This one explores a girl who through the chaos has come to love fighting. nd if she’s going to be destroyed, she might as well be destroyed being happy, and doing the thing she loved. That’s the basic set-up, but the really memorable part is the subtle character-development, with which she and Casshern come to understand each other through the course of the episoe. The pacing is very slow, but the subtlety makes excellent use of it.

I think that having a slow pacing like this series has, can either make or break your series, depending on how well you know to use it. The danger is of course boring your viewer to death without anything happening soon. The world Masterpiece Theatre solved this problem by adding lots of realism to keep the viewer busy, and with Casshern, it’s very subtle dialogue. A lot was said in this episode, and even though I didn’t understand everything, it felt that every line of dialogue contributed to the end result. On the opposite side of the spectrum, you have of course series like Naruto and Soul Eater, who try to lengthen their airtime by adding pointless exposition that everyone already could have guessed and doesn’t develop anything.

There’s just one thing that I want to see more in this series: an in-depth look at one of the robots who didn’t decide to look like a human. The ogre in this episode was a good start, but I’d like to see an even more in-depth look. As beautiful as the human designs in this series are, I think it’d really benefit the stories if we also get to see a bit more of their side, and why they’re letting themselves get killed off so easily.

Also… what happened to the dog?

Short Synopsis: Casshern meets a man who travels alone.
Highlights: Subtle drama rocks!
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8,5/10
Am I the only one who finds it ironic that the series with the most original and appealing character-design of the season is a remake of a series that came from the 1970’s? In any case, I really liked this episode. It’s a quiet, yet very powerful one. The past few episodes have shown us nothing but robots, and yet at the same time they suggested that humans were still alive. In this one, Casshern finally meets a human, and the episode is basically a character-study of this human.

He’s basically a human that continues to run away from the robots, and is critical of his own existence. He already has a bad health (probably due to that nasty apocalypse Casshern caused), and I guess that at that point, the company Casshern can offer the guy is like a godsent. He dies of his own accord, at the end of the episode, and yet the coincidence of which it happens only contributes to Casshern’s nickname of “Death God”.

It’s also a great episode for Casshern: we’re only at episode three, and the guy is already developing. This episode was really meant to silence the emo inside of himself, which is always appreciated. What was up with the dog, though? Why did it suddenly have a change of heart? That was a downside of this episode.

Then there’s that ending theme, which I’m certain that it’s got some double meaning. Why exactly does it show the little kid and that woman together, and ends with the notion that Casshern is gone? It could be pulling off the same thing Soukou no Strain did, where the ED was basically a well-camouflaged aftermath of the series.

Short Synopsis: Casshern ends up at a small refugee village of robots.
Highlights: Surprisingly solid.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10
As for the shows I’m not blogging (as usual, this isn’t really about “is this good?”, but “do I feel like writing about it every single week?):
– I almost wanted to blog Tales of the Abyss, but then Mouryou no Hako and the 12-year-old girl who strangely was a guardian convinced me not to for now.
– Hearing “urusai urusai urusai” once was enough to convince me to never go near Toradora again.
– Hyakko is funny, but the characters feel a bit flat.

So, basically because of the large amount of series that are continuing from previous seasons, and Tytania (the one that won my little contest, a month ago), I only have the room to blog five new series. If Tales of the Abyss would have aired during a lighter season, I definitely would have ended up blogging it. There’s also the matter that three series that I’m planning to blog haven’t even aired yet (and because I’ve only heard a few very vague details of what they’re about, they still can utterly disappoint me), so who knows?

In any case, even though I didn’t like the first episode, I’m going to blog Casshern. Even though the main character is a bit emo, there’s a lot of good stuff in this series. It probably is one of the most solid series to have aired this season, and the slow pacing contributes to that. But what I especially like is the different variety of robots that Casshern runs into, and how they’re trying to live within the mess he caused them. The concept of robots is a bit strange here, and it’s almost like they’re stuck somewhere between humans and robots. They’re made of metal, and yet they can think, and be killed very easily. It seems that there’s either no mechanic left that can repair them, no cure against the rust, or no new metal to replace broken parts. There’s a story going around, that if you eat Casshern, you’ll be saved from the inner destruction. My guess is that that’s some sort of rumour, started by someone who wants to get rid of Casshern.

But really, seeing how everyone in this world is just waiting for destruction. It makes for a very appealing premise. And so far, I really like the side-characters. And about Casshern: he can grow enough, with 22 more episodes to go. Even though he’s emo, he’s not stupid. He wants to find out what the heck he’s done. Memory loss was very well done in Kaiba, so why not here?

Then there’s the matter of this show’s staff. I honestly got scared when I learned that the director of this series was the one behind several Dragonball Z movies. But then it got me thinking: I’ve spent so many seasons, preparing by looking at the staff list, and that only turns out to be reliable in 50% of the cases. There’s only a handful of directors that can really be consistent in their work, like Akiyuki Shinbou, or Koichi Masahino. In fact, quite a lot of my favourite series were directed by people who also directed more questionable series: the director of Toward the Terra screwed up with Itazura na Kiss, the director of The Third went on to direct Penguin no Mondai afterwards (what the heck!?), the director of Shion no Ou also did series as Dragon Drive, Beyblade and Tenjou Tenge. So, why not? At least I can say that Casshern doesn’t feel like anything Dragonball Z at all. Who knows?