First Impressions / Series Introduction / Snapshots

OP Sequence:

OP: “Aoi Hana” 「青い花」 by color bottle (カラーボトル)
Watch the OP!: Mirror 1, Mirror 2, Show Streaming ▼

ED Sequence:

ED: “reason” by K∧N∧
Watch the ED!: Mirror 1, Mirror 2, Show Streaming ▼

「終末の世界で」 (Shuumatsu no Sekai de)
“At The End of the World”

First Glance:
A remake of the 1973 classic Shinzo Ningen Casshern, Casshern Sins returns to television 35 years later with a modernized look and new cast in a production by MADHOUSE. While an OVA was released in 1993 followed by a live-action film in 2004, this time around we have a full two-season TV series (24 episodes) of robot action. Taking the helm as Casshern this time around is Mr. Gundam himself, Furuya Tooru, who younger fans may not recognize, but older ones would know him as Amuro Ray in the original Gundam and Tuxedo Kamen (Mask) in Sailor Moon. Tooru also starred as Kasuga Kyouuke in one of my favorite series when I was younger, Kimagure Orange Road, but current fans should know him as the narrator in Gundam 00. Despite the cast changing for both the OVA and this TV series, Utsumi Kenji has continued to reprise his role as the leader of the robot army and antagonist of the series, Braiking Boss, which should be a welcome addition for those who were actually alive in 1973 (…myself NOT included).

To be quite honest, when I first heard about Casshern Sins, I was simply going to overlook it with all the other interesting new series airing this season, but my interest was piqued enough to check it out after watching the PV. Well thankfully for that, I didn’t miss out on this series because it is quite the visual marvel, coming out of MADHOUSE’s studio and all. High-definition is used well here, with clean-cut lines making the somewhat simplistic character designs stand out in the dark barren backgrounds. Since I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from this series, visuals were definitely what stood out the most first. Story-wise, it seems like your typical robots becoming self-conscious and subjugated humans for their own meddling with technology (which is comparable to the prelude of The Matrix), except here we have Casshern siding with the near-extinct human race in a post-apocalyptic world after having lost his memories. It appears that Sins alters the original story, with Casshern being Braiking Boss’ strongest warrior originally, killing mankind’s supposed salvation Luna, and then waking up hundreds of years later in a ruined world to figure out his past; whereas in the original, Casshern is a cyborg (i.e. originally human) and joins forces with Luna to combat Braiking Boss. In this new rendition, Braiking Boss now seeks to destroy Casshern in a world where both humans and robots struggle to survive, under the belief that Casshern brought the world to ruin.

For a series that is primarily action-oriented, the premise works for me. With Casshern haunted by his vague memories of killing Luna, there’s a good, mysterious, underlying plot that ties the series together and keeps me wanting to see more. Also, despite Casshern being a lightning-speed, close-combat type of robot, the animation doesn’t skimp by adding in cheap blurring effects, so the action comes off quite crisp. The action is also pretty gory (as gory as robot destruction can get I guess) with Casshern ripping the innards out of his enemies while they scream in agony. With the whole idea of a robot fighting other robots for mankind’s sake, I couldn’t help but see the resemblance to Capcom‘s Mega Man (a.k.a. Rock Man) franchise, except here it’s A LOT darker. In fact, Casshern’s skin-tight frame, helmet, and long-flowing hair looks like the Mega Man design right out of Mega Man Battle Network, which spawned a TV series. Evidently, Casshern predates Mega Man’s first appearance in 1987 by a good 14 years, so I guess that says something about who possibly inspired whose design. In any case, I’ve been a big fan of the Mega Man franchise since I was a kid playing the games on my NES, so to see a series that revolves around a somewhat similar robot premise in a different setting is quite a treat. It doesn’t hurt that it looks really good either, so if you’re edging for some mecha-action outside your Gundams, Valkyries, and Knightmare Frames, this could be just the ticket.

Music-wise, I wasn’t particular drawn to the opening song, but I get this strange feeling it’ll grow on me. As for the ending song, someone has to tell me who K∧N∧ is, because I absolutely loved “reason” after listening to it only once.

 

Notable Cast:
– Casshern (キャシャーン) : Furuya Tooru (古谷 徹)
– Lyuze (リューズ) : Miyahara Nami (宮原 永海)
– Ringo (リンゴ) : Minaguchi Yuuko (皆口 裕子)
– Ohji (オージ) : Chou (チョー)
– Luna (ルナ) : Yajima Akiko (矢島 晶子)
– Braiking Boss (ブライキング・ボス) : Utsumi Kenji (内海 賢二)

47 Comments

  10. I was expecting some good animation from this one, but Madhouse has outdone itself. Everything is looking incredible and it was a real treat to the eyes.

    As for the OP, am I the only one who actually enjoyed the song? Just got kinda sad to see that there wasn’t any real animation to go along with it, although the images they used were quite sexy.

    Blue-kun
    Reply

  15. just gonna re quote my self ” ya didnt know they had such a post-apocalyptic setting, i though i was gonna be kinda like Birdy where Earth is still there… but was kool” gotta keep watching this one.

    Chimasternmay
    Reply

  16. The OP sounds cool, but I don’t really like the fact that it’s made of mostly still pictures. The ED animation, on the other hand, rocks the world.
    This show might be interesting; I might give it a try if I find a subbed version.

    Izuru
    Reply

  19. It’s interesting that Divine mentioned Megaman, because the character designer for this series is also the same that worked on the Megaman Zero series of games. For that reason, the characters in this show will share more in common with Zero than say Battle Network.

    Amuro1X
    Reply

  21. In fact, for anyone that’s played the Zero franchise, this and that are both VERY thematically similar. Both this new Casshern and the MM Zero series feature a super powerful robot protagonist awaking after a century of slumber with little to no memory of their past, a post apocalyptic world run by robots subjugating a dwindling number of humans, etc.

    Amuro1X
    Reply

  23. Music-wise, I wasn’t particular drawn to the opening song, but I get this strange feeling it’ll grow on me.
    —-

    I felt the same way.
    I only wish that the OP/ED was more action-oriented instead of mainly having still pictures. However,it’s still nice.

    As said,the animation looks lovely.
    It’s very appealing.. his outfit somehow reminds me of Suzaku though. XD
    (It must be the white tight suit.)

    Anyways,I like plots such as these since I’ve enjoyed animes such as Kikaider and Cyborg 009.<33

    Can’t wait for this to be subbed.

    Azumi
    Reply

  25. The character design is definitely appealing. The movie remake a few years back was very nice visually but a bit lacking in the story department for me, so I’m keeping my hopes up that this will achieve both. 😀

    I guess I really shouldn’t be surprised that the animation is great, it is MADHOUSE after all…but I’m pleasantly surprised that the new season has succeeded in making me follow quite a few series already (much more so than spring ’08), and there’s still ef and a whole heapload of shows that haven’t premiered yet…

    tau-tau
    Reply

  37. I thought of the Megaman contrast too the first time I saw the trailer, but after watching the first episode, when Casshern takes his helmet off he looks too much like Seiya from Saint Seiya.

    Angel
    Reply

  39. I used to watch anime movies on Sci-Fi on Saturday mornings. I remember watching the Cashan OVA (yes, it’s spelled different) then. Almost forgot about it had I not seen this show. I hope a group other than shinsen subs (IF they finish a series, they finish it months after it stops airing) grabs this.

    anon234
    Reply

  40. Well two sub groups brought it out. One with a LQ version I think, and the other is Shinsen-subs. They did a good job, the first episode definitely piqued my interest now too!
    Who is the girl?(the obvious robot one, not the “Luna” one)
    Why did he lose his memories?
    Why is everyone trying to kill him?(well who is behind it can be included)
    can’t wait for the next two episodes so I can see if I’ll follow this.

    kayne001
    Reply

  41. I’m pretty sure that the character designers for the Megaman Zero games and Casshern Sins are different people. Toru Nakayama is the one who did the Zero and ZX games, but Yoshihiko Umakoshi is the guy for Casshern Sins.

    Anyway, I have to admit that I too immediately thought of Megaman when I saw Casshern…

    zero1328
    Reply

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