Casshern Sins (2008), MAL 7.51/10, anidb 6.40/10. |
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| Episode 1 The show jumps into media res, kicking off with a scene where Casshern kills Luna. We'll probably have to wait some time before this is understandable. Time and place skip, then we see Casshern again. He's in a melancholic beautiful world which is post-post-apocalyptic. Which means a cataclysm already happened in the past, but a new one slowly progresses: the Ruin. Everybody seems to be affected by a slow and unstoppable decline and destined to die. It's a world in which everybody is waiting for the end by a whimper and not a bang. Casshern is amnesiac and everybody blames him to have caused the Ruin. We'll see. Casshern himself looks shiny and new, and is totally OP. He destroys multiple attacking robots (70s tin can design) with great ease. From what I understand those tin-cans are sentient robots who seek to kill and devour Casshern, to gain immortality from the act. In this bleak world Casshern meets a little girl, Ringo, who is a stark contrast to the depressing world. Genki, curious, trusting, open, playful. And I many add one of the cutest character designs I've seen in a while. She asks the right questions to Casshern, so this is also a form of exposition dump, albeit a really well done one. She doesn't know of she's a robot or a human, and neither does Casshern. Based on the designs, I'd say there are three races: tin-can robots, slicker androids line Casshern, and maybe humans like Ringo. Then Casshern brutally kills a robot before Ringo's eyes, frightening her. Her guardian Ouji-san comes and picks her up. He seems to know and dislike Casshern. There are some more very short scenes with other characters, most prominently a female android (?) named Lyuze. She's of the slicker type and also wants to kill Casshern, but not for the simplictic "I devour you" folk legend it seems. The art and music are very much art-house, not unexpected. The music is orchestral and seems to be opposed classically with all the components movie music has. Which I think includes themes for the persona, but I'm not sure yet. Colors are low saturation, only Ringo got a bit more lively ones. The backgrounds and characters are rather abstract and very stylish. Overall, a promising start. I was sucked right into the atmospheric, eerie, bleak and sad world. Shows I was reminded of were: Land of the Lustrous (stylish far-far future setting and mystery), Wolf's Rain (inevitable doom is coming), and of course Ergo Proxy (another amnesiac android in a bleak world). |
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| Episode 1. I have a very wriggly baby in my lap as I'm writing so will have to keep this quick. Loved the visual aesthetics and music, reminded me of Ergo Proxy also. We have a hierarchy of robots, some more humanoid than others like Casshern and Ringo. Casshern has recently awoken and doesn't know his purpose or reason for being created. |
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| Episode One A promising start and I also agree, Ergo Proxy sprang to my mind too. Casshern is target numero #1 - he did something bad and gosh darn he can't remember anything. I'm inclinded to think Ringo is human just on the basis of, I can't think why they would make a robot like that. Looking forward to seeing where this goes. |
| “I just spent the last two years thinking that you guys knew more than me about life and I just found out that you guys are just as dumb as me.” “Duh-doy.” “Yeah, duh-doy.” |
JokerVentura said: Episode One A promising start and I also agree, Ergo Proxy sprang to my mind too. Casshern is target numero #1 - he did something bad and gosh darn he can't remember anything. I'm inclinded to think Ringo is human just on the basis of, I can't think why they would make a robot like that. Looking forward to seeing where this goes. I had the same thought about Ringo, why would someone make a child robot (maybe for adoption, human owners who've lost their own child and want a replacement like in Plastic Memories iirc). Ringo acted very child like, very different from all the other robots we've met so far, but it is only ep 1. Maybe she's been told she's a robot or is pretending to avoid notice. |
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23feanor said: JokerVentura said: Episode One A promising start and I also agree, Ergo Proxy sprang to my mind too. Casshern is target numero #1 - he did something bad and gosh darn he can't remember anything. I'm inclinded to think Ringo is human just on the basis of, I can't think why they would make a robot like that. Looking forward to seeing where this goes. I had the same thought about Ringo, why would someone make a child robot (maybe for adoption, human owners who've lost their own child and want a replacement like in Plastic Memories iirc). Ringo acted very child like, very different from all the other robots we've met so far, but it is only ep 1. Maybe she's been told she's a robot or is pretending to avoid notice. True, kinda like that A.I. Spielberg film. Yeah her behaviour was another reason I'm inclined to believe she's human. I like the idea of her being lied to that she is a robot, it would be interesting. |
| “I just spent the last two years thinking that you guys knew more than me about life and I just found out that you guys are just as dumb as me.” “Duh-doy.” “Yeah, duh-doy.” |
| Episode 1 The show starts after a catastrophic event, something that has effectively placed a ticking clock on the lives of the mechanical residents of this world... and everyone blames Casshern. The semi-post-apocalyptic environment is certainly intriguing, but the central mystery - whether Casshern is responsible for these events - is what drew me to this show in the first place. He has no memories of his past, and rumors fly from the robots who encounter him, including the apparently mistaken belief that devouring him will grant them immortality. There appear to be two subsets of robots in this world, one more classically mechanical that comprise most of the robots Casshern encounters, and another more humanoid, which includes Casshern, a woman he meets with pink hair who taunts him, a young girl named Ringo, and her guardian Ouji-san. These subsets are clearly different based on appearances, and the latter seem generally higher quality, but they are all sentient and value their lives. Watching Casshern tear into a robot who damaged Ringo, tearing through internal cables as it begged for its life, was legitimately horrifying. There's clearly more to what's going on. We get faint flashes of another female humanoid robot in Luna, whom many believe was killed by Casshern, starting the events around them. Casshern doesn't seem in total control of himself, and suffers from bouts of pain that go unexplained. He's certainly strong compared with most of those mechanized beings he encounters, but where he comes from and why he's so powerful remain to be explained. Quite the start! |
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| Episode Two A good amount to digest with this episode. Casshern killed Luna which led to the ruin, which seems to be the robots rusting away due to the material they're made of. No doubt down to humanities massive decline, so there is no-one around to fix or create new robots. Casshern and Dogo seem to be immune, probably due to what they are made from, perhaps they are literally 'built different' which would also explain why they're a lot stronger than the other robots we have seen so far. The idea of eating Casshern is probably the idea of making what he is made of theirs, which clearly wouldn't work by just eating him, but it makes sense as rumours generally lose their original meaning. Also seems like Casshern seems to have a fight/kill mode he is finding difficult to control, which leads to the tragic end we witness. Robot wise the human looking robots also seem to be closer to humans and the non human ones seems to be disgusted by this. Onto the stuff which I was hoping for and am a big enjoyer of. Are we even alive? Death gave us life. Robots in Love. I was hoping for this sort of philosphical questions when it comes to robots. This is what I enjoy and I hope for more as the series progresses. |
| “I just spent the last two years thinking that you guys knew more than me about life and I just found out that you guys are just as dumb as me.” “Duh-doy.” “Yeah, duh-doy.” |
| Episode 2. Casshern and the audience are still in the dark about what happened and what he did to start the ruin by killing the son of the Moon/Luna. Robots acting like humans, experiencing love, mourning their dead and asking existential questions of themselves and their meaning, ie humans were often defined as living by the fact we are mortal and pass away, now robots are no longer immortal are they too alive? A bunch of peaceful robots resigned to their eventual demise end up attacking Casshern out of desperation to stay alive, a very human trait, but Casshern destroys them all unable to moderate his fighting instinct. |
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| Episode 2 Kicks off with the 2nd half of Lyuze's meeting with Casshern. After she learnt he's amnesiac she gives up her plan to kill him. She argues it's more suffering for the robot she hates to witness the Ruin he caused than to die for reasons he doesn't understand. Next we are introduced to a robot couple who constantly assure their never ending love to each other, and that they'll stay together until the Ruin tears them apart. They are over the top melodramatic and touching at the same time. The two of them are member of a community of robots (the anddroid type) who made their peace with the Ruin and just want to live a peaceful life waiting for the inevitable. Casshern talks to some of them, and learns that they feel that being mortal made them feel more human and alive paradoxically. He himself seems to be immune to to Ruin, showing no signs of aging or damages. Much onlike some members of the community whom we see die, by simply falling apart, crumbling to dust an rust, or losing body parts. The Runi's robo-death here comes suddenly and reaps quickly. A tin-can type comes to visit and ridicules the community over their stance on mortality. He attacks members claiming they are Casshern, so he'll kill and eat them. The real Casshern reveals himself and kills the tin-can. All in a sudden the lovers' male pare changes his attitude and no longer wants to die, but to devour Casshern. We get a Zombie Apocalyptic scene where half of the village surrounds and crowds Casshern, who goes into Berserk mode and kills them all but the lovers female and her dog Friender. She then dies of Ruin minutes later. Overall, an exposition episode which introduces the mechanics of the Ruin. It also looks into philosophical themes such as mortality as the source of the value of life. |
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| Episode 3 Some structural patterns emerge. Each episode so far started with a few seconds of the "original sin" scene with Luna. After that, there are closing moments of the last scene of the previous episode, kind of a reverse cliff hanger. I'm a fan of structural patterns like this, and really hope they are kept up. Also the show seems to be episodic (maybe only the first part, happens frequently). We get another philosophical position, an older human with a fatal disease who wants to end his journey and shares this thought with Casshern. Who embraces it, by offering his life to Friender who decides not to take it. With his stunted emotions, Casshern remotely reminds me of Kino who also travels from philosophical question to philosophical question. World building wise, humans are confirmed in the form of that laconic middle aged man dying from smoking and lung cancer (hinted at). On top of the knowledge humans exist and aren't that rare, he transfers some ideas into Casshern. That endless travel is tiresome and all trips have to end. That humans are imperfect, self-contradictory but still worth living as. He's pretty much just a cool guy and in some way a mentor of accepting death to Casshern. Whom he calls a Shinigami, a fairly good characterization as he so far really only brought death. This is underlined and subverted by the twist that the human leaves the travel party right in time before his death from chronic disease in the sand, just to create a counter example. Friender, the dog of the robot couple from episode two, waits until his former masters completely disintegrated and then searches and finds their perceived murderer. Under the influence of the human Casshern offers his throat to the attacking dog voluntarily. The dog doesn't accept the offer and the two of them become a team. Nice to see Casshern made his first friend. They seem to be a good match, the dog also has those glowing eyes, killer instinct and doesn't seem to be affected by the Ruin. Overall, the format establishes itself as "philosophical road movie" and Casshern has further development. I think we'll see him grow more and more emotional and "woke" after each encounter, along the line of Fumetsu no Anata e. Just way cooler and stylish :) |
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| Episode 2 This episode gives us a means to see how the robots of this world are handling the ruin, see how they interact with each other and with Casshern, and... oh yeah, watch a lot of them die as Casshern enters a blood rage. Fun. There's a real sense of humanity in these robots, which is intriguing for a number of reasons. There's a bitter irony now that they are experiencing the very mortality that characterizes humanity and deeply crave a return to a functionally immortal life. Watching some of these robots die, some even without regrets, is certainly disquieting as they literally fall apart before our eyes. If all you had ever experienced was a life without aging, I can imagine that this would be horrifying. But it's the central relationship in this one between two robot lovers who have decided to ride out the ruin together, accepting their deaths. Except... well, one of them clearly hasn't accepted it, as the moment he is offered any chance at an immortal life (via devouring Casshern), he immediately discards it. The female robot, on the other hand, was devoted to it. So, much as Casshern kills her in the aforementioned blood rage, there's a sense that she's already lost what was keeping her going all this time. So yeah, Casshern killed a town full of robots except for the dog, but in his defense, they attacked him first. This episode played with some intriguing concepts, and clearly puts Casshern in the position of understanding what a monster he can be when let loose. |
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| Episode Three Starting straight after the last episode and Casshern comes across a genuine human. He's dying and we get a roadtrip and philisophical discussion episode which clearly effects Casshern. We also get Doggo waiting until his master is gone and joining Casshern, after a battle which kinda shows he forgives Casshern for what he did. From the rusting of the robots, to the damage to the human and lack of greenery, I'm gonna guess the ruin is some sort of change in the atmosphere making it somewhat poisonous to most in the long run. Overall another episode of what I hoped for from this series. |
| “I just spent the last two years thinking that you guys knew more than me about life and I just found out that you guys are just as dumb as me.” “Duh-doy.” “Yeah, duh-doy.” |
| Episode 3. Slower episode where we see Casshern meet a human, who's dying, and he reunites with Friender the Dog. I'm getting used to the slow methodical dialogue, gradually bringing the apocalyptic world into focus. @inim To Your Eternity is a good comparison for this show, just different worlds. |
23feanorJun 15, 2022 4:16 AM
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| Episode 4 Casshern encounters Sopita, a female warrior robot. She's beautiful, a highly skilled swords fighter and constantly looking for fights. As she herself puts it, this is the only way to express her emotions - by the sword. She only feels alive when she's fighting. She used to work as a scavenger, killing and dismantling robots for spare parts. Now she's only looking for the thrill which comes from a fight and a kill. This is contrast to her illeism, a trait usually assigned to children and moe characters in anime, which seems to represent her soft side. An important side character is a huge warrior robot who used to fight against Braiking Boss' forces but lost an arm to the Ruin. Sophita has a friendly relation to him, and he tries to talk her out of the fighting abit but without success. Casshern intervenes in a losing fight Sophita has with a handful of robots, killing them. She falls in love with Casshern, calling him beautiful. In a 2nd fight against the huge warrior bot Casshern is injured but we learn that he regenerates. Wounds and damage simply repairs itself, he is truly immortal. Casshern tries to talk Sophita out of fighting too, also to no avail. At night she surprise attacks him again and lands what would have been a fatal blow to anybody else. Casshern survives it, and Sophita explains she no longer feels the desire to fight now. Immortality aside, Casshern was the perfect opponent and she prevailed. She also explains that she attacked because she felt that Casshern has a death wish, and she tried to bring it on to him. Immortality is a bitch. Overall, good episode with another bunch of philosophical themes, some nice fight choreography, an a hot fembot. In a nutshell Sophita's dilemma is the good old hedgehog dilemma, she wants to be near other people but only can express her emotions by hurting them. |
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| Episode Four Casshern meets Kenpachi Sophita, who lives to fight and kill. This episode felt like it was about finding meaning to survive. Sophita's found a way to actually feel (not serial killery at all....) and even the big metal bossman found one in survival itself, hoping to regain his former power/missing arm. He also name dropped he protected Braiking Boss, possibly an important robot? We even see Sophita change this episode or maybe find what she was actually looking for. She tried to kill Casshern, feeling he wants to die, but is unable to due to his healing factor (maybe nonobots or something) and it turns out she didn't want to kill him. She feels connected to him, a connection she has probably been searching for from the beginning. |
| “I just spent the last two years thinking that you guys knew more than me about life and I just found out that you guys are just as dumb as me.” “Duh-doy.” “Yeah, duh-doy.” |
| Episode 4. Casshern meets Sophita who only feels alive when she's fighting (hedgehog dilema, haven't heard of that analogy before, very apt for this scenario). Loved the imagery and OST for this episode. |
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| Episode Five Lyuze reappears and we find out why she hates Casshern, dude kicked her sister's ass. We also see Ringo and her Guardian have gotten undamaged robot parts for their group. So we can see they can repair with replacement parts, so the issue must be creation itself. Casshern really has a problem with this fighter mode, he lacks the willpower to control it. To be fair he doesn't know himself, so how can he control himself. Finally we get a dark robed figure at the end.... dark robe usually means badguy. He looks familiar, probably the same model as Casshern himself, so they probably have a past. |
| “I just spent the last two years thinking that you guys knew more than me about life and I just found out that you guys are just as dumb as me.” “Duh-doy.” “Yeah, duh-doy.” |
| Episode 5 After a few episode with one shot characters we get back to the recurring cast. Casshern himself is sufficiently established as immortal, invincible and with a strong death wish. Scene one brings back pink haired Lyuze, and uses her for exposition dumping the Ruin's backstory. Casshern worked for some master who ordered him to kill Luna. Lyuze's sister worked as Luna's bodyguard. She failed to prevent the assassination, and after this became the first robot to suffer from the mysterious new decay which evolved into the Ruin globally, and was the first to die of it with Casshern's name as her last word. The world we see in the backstory is very different from today, there's lush vegetation, colors are brighter and the show uses the classic orange light at sunset to create a warm and cozy atmosphere. Lyuze nurses her dying sister and swears to kill Casshern out of revenge for Luna and her. Scene two is Casshern offering his life to Lyuze. She heavily attacks him with her blade, creating a lot of cuts which just heal. She is literally not able to significantly hurt leave alone kill him when he doesn't even defend. Then Berserk mode kicks in and Casshern would have killed Lyuze in seconds if not Friender intervened and savd the girl. Scene three has Ringo and Ouji-san finding a vault with high quality spare parts. There are a lot of robot children with them, but also simple tin-can folks. Ouji-san seems to be a robot doctor (= engineer I guess) and promises to use the parts for repairs. Suddenly a group of bandits attacks and starts to kill. Casshern intervenes and on learning his name the bandits switch their target, not without killing a now "useless" robot child. Yes show, they are really really evil to kill children for no reason. Casshern enters Berserk mode and kills them all. Just before he continues with the children and civilian robots, Ringo yelling at him breaks Berserk mode. Casshern asks himself why he is unable to control himself and gets the answer "because you are Casshern". OK, yea. In the cliff hanger we see another slick android, who had watched the scene from an elevated location, He drops a dark hooded cloak, and reveals a build is very similar to Casshern's. Overall, best episode so far. I liked the visual story telling in the flashback. The aesthetic of the fights is reduced to the max, and we have some nice visual metaphors such as Ringo's shell. Really good. |
inimJun 16, 2022 3:32 PM
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| We're having a mini heatwave here in the UK and it feels like being slowly cooked alive atm. The British tend to complain no matter what weather it is like, lol. Episode 5. We get some background on the death of Luna and Lisa from Lyuze, although I'm still not exactly sure what or who Luna was. Lyuze describes Luna as the source of life for all living beings, maybe a master robot? We get our first full colour scene watching as Lyuze looks after her sister Lisa at a lake side cabin, showing the clear difference the ruin has made to the now bleak world. Still not sure whether Ringo is human or a high class android like Casshern, who appears to both bleed and cry. |
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| Episode Six Braiking Boss is mentioned once again, this time by the New Guy, he used to be in charge. New Guy turns out to be made similar to Casshern, but he isn't immortal or ruin resistant like he is. He wants to see how Casshern is after killing him, so he can be the new Boss and fix the ruin. Casshern is willing to die, but his battle mode is not willing and neither is Lyuze. If Casshern was somehow 'cursed' after killing Luna, I wonder why Dogo is ruin free too. Also a mystery female saves the New Guy. |
| “I just spent the last two years thinking that you guys knew more than me about life and I just found out that you guys are just as dumb as me.” “Duh-doy.” “Yeah, duh-doy.” |
| Episode 6. Cassher meets another newer model android who tell him that he was created to wipe out all life, robot and human, and that he neither robot or human. And then he declares that he'll be the one to destroy Casshern himself. Casshern is told by new guy, Dio i think he was called, that his death could halt the ruin, if Dio can uncover Casshern's immortal ability. Casshern agrees to sacrifice himself but his battle mode activates when his life is in danger and Lyuze also comes to his defence. I think Ojii knows more about Casshern than he's letting on, maybe he was Braiking? Dio resides in a desolate castle on a cliff with the mysterious female long haired android, who was watching the battle between the two with interest. |
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| Episode 6 Two more "high class androids" are added to the recurring cast, Dio and his female partner. Except for color scheme he looks exactly like Casshern, and claims to know everything about him. He also owns the same battle powers, I'm not sure about immortality and regeneration as this isn't shown. We get some more information about Luna, who according to Dio was immortal herself. In the opening fragment of the murder scene, she herself prophesies the Ruin in case she is killed. Dio points out the paradox that Casshern "killed" an immortal and that his death will restore the status quo ante with immortal robots. Prominently missing in Dio's plan are the humans. He sees himself as successor of Braiking Boss, a legendary robot who lead the rebellion against humanity and first ruler of the sentient robots. Dio expects that analyzing dead Casshern's secrets will provide him with the required powers. Dio and Casshern start to fight. Two times it is intervened in favor of Casshern, first by Friender and then by Lyuze. Casshern himself first accepted death at Dio's hand, he still has that strong death wish. When after a while his Berserk mode kicks in this changes and the fight becomes real. Lyuze succeeds to fend of Dio and injure him,, forcing retreat. She once more explains that it's her privilege to kill Casshern, and that he first has to remember his sin. In a parallel aftermath scene we see Dio comforted by the female who also was watching his fight. Casshern is with Ringo and Ouji-san who treated his and Friender's wounds. It's almost that Casshern found a group he belongs to, but Ouji-san pushes for parting as he sees Casshern as a trouble magnet and risk for Ringo. Ouji-san seems to know a lot about the past and robots, but only gives vague hints. He's clearly withholding information. Overall: yes. Please continue, I like what I see. 23feanor said: I'd argue that all the mains are archetypes, gods, symbols, whatever you want to call it. There are the tin-can bots and the regular humans (like the one who died in the desert) in contrast. The "high class androids" are quite different, and membership is ambitious. But then again, there is de-facto magic in the world such as immortality and regeneration. Calling the "Casshern class" of robots androids or cyborgs (~ half humans!) may be a working language convention to express assumed membership to the "archetype" or "allegorical figure" class. One can simply argue that Luna is Life, Casshern is Death, Ringo is Hope, Lyuze is Forgiveness, and Dio is Greed for Power. I think three of them are different and of an even higher order: Luna and Casshern, the two immortals, and Ringo the only human (most likely) in the group.Still not sure whether Ringo is human or a high class android like Casshern, who appears to both bleed and cry. |
inimJun 18, 2022 6:46 AM
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23feanor said: Thanks. On 2nd thought, the symbols of the "big three" may be: Life (Luna), Death (Casshern), and Rebirth (Ringo). The whole show is centered around the themes of death, life and immortality. What if neither Luna nor Casshern are "good", because life needs death to avoid standstill = immortality? What really matters is renewal. Ringo's child like, curious, and open-minded attitude captures this.@inim some interesting thoughts, hadn't looked at the main cast that way but it does work |
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inim said: 23feanor said: Thanks. On 2nd thought, the symbols of the "big three" may be: Life (Luna), Death (Casshern), and Rebirth (Ringo). The whole show is centered around the themes of death, life and immortality. What if neither Luna nor Casshern are "good", because life needs death to avoid standstill = immortality? What really matters is renewal. Ringo's child like, curious, and open-minded attitude captures this.@inim some interesting thoughts, hadn't looked at the main cast that way but it does work Ringo is an enigma for this world, her childlike glee and curiosity stand out like a beacon amid these high and low class robots. When we write 'childlike' we're referring to the behaviour of a human child, this line of thought makes me pose the question 'do robot children exist' (not just a robot with the appearance of a child, but infant robots that grow and learn) and if they did, what would they be like? The notions of renewal and hope fit her well. |
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| Fallen behind on posting (been moving into our house at long last), but I have kept up on the show, so I'll post some basic thoughts about each episode from 2 to 7. Episode 3 This is the first episode we've gotten (and, at least up to episode 7, the only episode we've gotten) where a human is part of the cast. Structurally, though, he's similar to many of the characters who meet Casshern: a fleeting part of his life who will shortly pass on. Importantly, though, this is the first character to die in the show who hasn't either died by Casshern's hand directly or by the Ruin. Casshern sees himself as the Angel of Death (it's verbalized by his new companion), but he has no hand in this man's death. It was some inevitable consequence of disease and/or injury. Beyond that, this human is someone who has been in Casshern's shoes, running away from his problems in an attempt to escape them and only accepting himself in the end. Perhaps foreshadowing of Casshern's own path? Episode 4 We really are building a personality with Casshern as we go and I found the comparison @inim made to To Your Eternity quite apt. Though Casshern is only without his memory as opposed to starting from nothing, he's building who and what he is (and also what he is not) as he goes. This episode confronts him with someone who thrills in the fight, something he could never do, horrified as he is by what he has done and continues to do unwillingly. Yet, it's Sophita who walks away most changed by this encounter, as she falls in love with Casshern, tries to kill him, and finds both his willingness to die and his apparent immortality overwhelms her desire to fight. She fought the best, and with nowhere to go from here, she exits the competition on a high note. Episode 5 It's time to refresh some of Casshern's memory, albeit from the perspective of someone who saw the effects of what he did more directly. Lyuze lost her sister, who protected Luna and was damaged and then destroyed by rapid-onset Ruin after Luna's death. Lyuze is given the opportunity to kill Casshern, who now wishes to die, though she does not deliver, instead finding herself confronted with a berserker Casshern who preserves his own life unconsciously. His past is catching up with him, though rather than deal with it meaningfully, he's just trying to succumb to it, but his own body won't let him. Even when he saves Ringo and Ouji-san from an attack by malicious robots. his body and mind betray him, almost resulting their deaths. It's understandable that he wants to end it, but this clearly isn't a feasible route for him to take and it's the easy way out if he could take it. Episode 6 It was him, Dio! Yes, I had to. Anyway, Casshern is attacked by the first opponent he's seen who can match him for physical strength and speed, except this guy knows how to use what he has. We learn that Luna might also be the origin of Casshern's immortal "curse" and that his death may in fact be the means to stop the Ruin, though we're not quite sure how his body can be used to do that. There's a fight between them, with Casshern once again trying to let himself die. Dio is saved by an unknown female android after injury by Lyuze. Interestingly, during their fight, Friender and Lyuze try to save him, two other robots who have suffered by his hand and fought with him. There's a recognition here that Casshern deserves to live, even if he hasn't accepted that yet, despite what could potentially be gained by his death. Episode 7 We get a sort of Tower of Babel, though it's really more of a means to place a giant bell at the top that can be used to give people hope in a time of despair. Of course, the android who is pursuing this bell is using robots to smelt it, and wants to add Casshern now to truly create a beautiful sound. He easily prevents the attempt on his life and walks away, having gained a will to live over the last several episodes by aiming to atone for his sins. As he walks, he hears the peals of the bell as it was made and returns in time to save her and the bell as the latter comes crashing down on top of her. He found the sound beautiful, despite her protestations that it wasn't, and walks away truly feeling that there is beauty in this world to which he brought Ruin. This resonates with her, as when Ringo and Ouji-san later arrive, she hasn't returned the bell to its spot, but rather intones the sound of a bell, feeling the beauty of it in her heart. She doesn't need to physically manifest it anymore. She feels as though she is complete without it, and perhaps has given up on trying to get that sound to everyone, instead settling for the few that come to visit. It's a surprisingly beautiful episode with little fighting. |
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| Episode 7 Back to one time encounter episodes. Casshern encounters engineer android Lizabel in a dilapidated factory, her former work place. Her raison d'être is to build a bell for the high tower of the building, and ring it to send a signal for everybody "that the world is still beautiful". Lizabel in her mind hears the sound of a beautiful bell. The dark side is that she catches and melts robots for the metal needed. She instantly recognizes Casshern's high quality, builds a trap with narcotic incense, and starts to press him into a metal block. This fails and Casshern leaves. Liz finishes the bell, places it into the tower and rings it. Casshern from the distance hears the sound, which is not nearly as beautiful as Lizabell had imagined it. A bunch of tin can robots comes to the tower's top an attacks what in their opinion is a horrible sounding thing. The bell falls and the whole construct is destroyed, Liz herself closely saved by a returning Casshern. Who tells her the sound gave him hope and made a lasting impression. In my reading this is possible regardless of the objectivelybad sound because it's an attempt to create art for the sake of art. Nobody really needs a bell, but having one is beautiful. And even if that dream is not accomplished perfectly, trying is worth it. In an epilogue, Ringo and Ouji-san visit the place and Liz shows them the tower's top. She only hears the broken bell's sound in her head, as beautiful as she originally imagined it. She sings it and this is good enough to carry the idea to the visitors' minds as well. Overall, another "reason to live" style episode. We had that before with Sophita and the desert human. In a hopeless and dying world, what keeps people from falling into agony? Having a passion, dream, or goal. Lizabel's dream of shared art so far was the most beautiful. |
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| Episode 7. Just wondering how yo possibly intoxicate a robot, high or low class? I suppose that means Casshern has some biochemical process going on inside him. Art for arts sake huh. Seemed to have an impact on Casshern meeting the lady that makes the bell ring. Again with this show, loved the imagery and OST for the factory and tower. |
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| Episode Seven Seemed like she had lost hope and ringing the bell wasn't just about bringing hope to others. Unable to used gold, silver or Casshern as material for the bell, it sucked and the bell annoyed the other robots. Thankfully it at least touched Casshern and that was enough for her to carry on. @23feanor Possibly, rather than a robot Casshern might be a cyborg. If Luna was life and a human, and Casshern Death and a robot/cyborg, maybe with her death she became a part of him and thats what makes him different than the others. |
JokerVenturaJun 19, 2022 2:32 AM
| “I just spent the last two years thinking that you guys knew more than me about life and I just found out that you guys are just as dumb as me.” “Duh-doy.” “Yeah, duh-doy.” |
| Episode Eight Enter Vivy who wants to sing to bring hope, while a group of robots are out to destroy hope (cos haters gotta hate I guess....) Casshern helps her on her journey when all her protection robots have been destroyed. A second episode centered around the same theme, except this time the attempt was successful. Having the song mixed with Casshern fighting worked well, but I question why they included the sound effects. The battle being silent seems like it would have made the scene a lot better. |
| “I just spent the last two years thinking that you guys knew more than me about life and I just found out that you guys are just as dumb as me.” “Duh-doy.” “Yeah, duh-doy.” |
| Episode 8. Casshern meets the Songstress and bringer of hope, his polar opposite as the bringer of ruin. He escorts her to a singing venue that she's being making for and she finally gets to sing her song in the same place she heard another singer many years ago. This is mirrored in Ringo's reaction who appears moved by her song. All this takes place whilst Casshern is fighting a small army of robots outside. English singing wasn't the best, not terrible, but not great either. |
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| Episode 8 Macross C, the animation. Casshern meets idol singer Janice, who is under constant attack by bandits. Their argument: she attracts a lot of people, and a lot of people provide a lot of spare parts. And they hate hope which her music stands for. Because, why not. Janice wants to travel to the legendary stage of Bazaar and give a huge concert for the many refugees there. Casshern escorts her, and closely behind Ringo and Ouji follow - all of them mesmerized from an open-air performance Janice casually did. The concert takes place and it turns out Janice is herself dying of the Ruin, it's her last concert. While she performs, Casshern destroys half an army of bandit bots protecting the concert. He may be the most OP MC I've seen in a long time. Overall, not really my cup of tea. The Engrish songs were bland and the story pretty simple. Music is hope, yea. I guess they really wanted that Macross parallel montage, so let's check that and move on to smarter writing. Because music plus battle is already taken. |
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| Episode 9. Casshern comes across a girl robot cultivating flowers in a cavern amidst a robot graveyard. Her brain circuits are fried and she doesn't seem aware of what she's doing, trying to fix dead robots. Haunting music in this episode. Some parts where the contrast between the hill of flowers and the bleak backdrop put me in mind of Naussica Valley of the Wind. |
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| Episode 9 Casshern comes to a cavern where a young robot girl named Nico lives who has lost her sanity. She cultivates flowers and cares for a puppet made of scraps whom she thinks is Luna, her former employer. She's kind and gives flowers to all visitors, and looks after their injuries. Shortly after Ringo, Ouji, and Lyuze arrive. Lyuze knows the girl from her time with Luna. Ouji-san only knows her in her current state, which is ongoing for a long time. He also explains that this place is robot graveyard. Ringo friends quickly with Nico, roughly of the same (looks) age and they have a happy time playing amidst the flowers. Nico's garden is indeed a little oasis in this bleak world. A tin can warrior robot named Bolton suffers from injuries and Ruin, he can't move and rejects all kind acts by Nico. He was among those soldiers of Dio's army chasing Casshern before they fell into this cavern. Over the course of the episode he mellows and becomes more friendly, but in the end still dies. Nico dies as well when defending her Luna doll against yet more tin-can soldiers. It's unclear if that's because of injuries or Ruin. Friender best dog as usual when he defends the two girls. Bolton spread the rumor that Luna lives, so Casshern (now accompanied by the rest of the gang) sets out on a quest to find her. Overall, Casshern now has a social life and friends. An average to good episode, with both episodic and story advancing elements. |
inimJun 21, 2022 12:02 PM
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| Episode Nine Robot graveyard with a broken minded robot girl trying to fix robots that can't be fixed. Her futile acts and need to protect her 'Luna' doll seem like forgotten regret of whatever happened to Luna. Episode Ten Dio episode as he recruits for his plan to rule Za Warudo! and become Braiking Boss II. A cloaked robot and former protector of Luna called Dune the God of Death appears, he seems weighed down by his failure. Dio is mistaken as Casshern and his inferiority complex is revealed..... poor dude.....Casshern is better xD A battered Dune continues on after being defeated, he grasps at a ruined flower that falls apart..... there is no hope in his future. There's gotta be a Braiking Boss flashback at some point, I'm looking forward to it. |
| “I just spent the last two years thinking that you guys knew more than me about life and I just found out that you guys are just as dumb as me.” “Duh-doy.” “Yeah, duh-doy.” |
| Episode 10. Focus is on Dio and Leda, who plan to become the next robot empire. Leda would fit well as the embodiment of greed. Rune, Luna's old bodyguard appears and causes Dio into a of anger when he is mistaken as Casshern. Leda uses this anger, as well as some female robot charm (kiss and cuddle, very human) to get Dio to name himself Braiking bosses successor. More great music. Apart from the music and visuals I don't really have much of a connection to this show yet, reminds me a bit of Excel Saga in that it has non standard stories and flow. |
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| Episode 10 The episode develops Dio (the Casshern look-alike from an earlier episode) and his woman, Leda. It turns out she is the more ambitious one, and together they strive to kill Casshern, revive the immortal empire of the robots, and make Dio the successor of Braiking Boss as their ruler. To that end they create a large army of robots around their castle. Dio, while in public speech promotes all this, on the inside feels inferior to Casshern. He is still mortal while his identical in construction twin gained immortality and regeneration when he killed Luna. A new robot named Dune enters the cast, Luna's former body guard. He used to be very strong and was dubbed Shinigami, but now is in rags and more crawling than walking. Yet, when attacked he still stings quite heavily. He's heavily tied to the past, pretty much all he says is "Luna". Leda attacks him but can't land a hit. Then it's Dio's turn to attack. Dune mistakes him for Casshern and by this infuriates the envious Dio, who seriously injures and incapacitates Dune (probably permanently). Dune is crippled but not killed, though, and crawls away from the castle in one of the last shots. Dio then gives a pep talk to his growing army. The rumor that Luna is alive is echoing among them as well. In the last shot we go back to Casshern, who commits himself to finding Luna - he pretty much starts to believe the rumor. Overall, we got an official villain couple now, and Leda is the classic toxic female behind strong man Dio. Dune is pretty much the male version of Nico, a former servant of Luna who lost his marbles and is lost in the past. So we got faction Casshern seekers, Dio robot supremacy, and Dune memory lane now. Unclear where this is all heading, but at least it's beautiful and atmospheric. |
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| Episode 8 Honestly, kinda disappointed in this one. This is one of the few people whom Casshern has run into in his travels who has a skill set that could have been seriously meaningful to him, as an individual who is under near constant assault from robots who are terrified of the Ruin. It's not so much that she doesn't use it when she's with him (though it's surprisingly rare), or that she doesn't travel with him long term (we know she is slowly rusting away herself and this is a last hurrah for her), but rather that he doesn't at least try to get her to come with him. He's at the point where he's trying to reform, so you'd think he would also be trying to reduce the body count he racks up. Instead, he arguably causes more death by defending her while she sings. It's unclear why she's being targeted throughout the episode, so maybe that's the issue here, but if her singing really does something beneficial (which it appears to at the start of the episode), then it's a shame that Casshern's playing such a passive role with her. Episode 9 I like this episode because it gives us some insight into these random fodder robots. We spend an episode with one who is basically at the end of his rope - he's lost several limbs, can't move well, and is resigning himself to the Ruin. But he doesn't stay that way. Nico influences him in a positive way, a young girl robot who can't even defend herself. He ends up trying (and failing) to defend her in the end, but there's still some meaning to his actions because, unlike so many around him, they're not driven by his inevitable fate. That being said, I wish we'd gotten to spend more time learning about Nico's past. We're told about it a bit, but we never get to experience what she was like with Luna, Lyuze or her sister. You still want to protect her for who she is now, but the tragedy of her story is a bit muted when we know so little about her. Episode 10 We've got a Dio and Leda-centric episode with almost no Casshern, which gives us some insight into their motivations. We get some idea of why he was instantly driven to destroy Casshern upon seeing him, and also why Casshern's amnesiac state threw him for a loop - this isn't the same Casshern he ran into in the past. Leda clearly has her schemes and an unknown end-goal in mind, but at least for the moment, it's more interesting to see into Dio's motivations and learn about Rune. In this case, we do get some insight into a new character's background, though the touches we get of it are light: a powerful warrior, guard to Luna who clearly grew close to her before she died. Unlike Nico, he hasn't lost his mind, at least not fully - he's detached, but when he snaps into focus during his fight with Dio, it's clear that the person he was is still in there. He's also a dangerous fighter, giving us a taste of what Dio can put out when he's serious. Still, everyone walks away from this, even Rune despite being worse for the wear. A man driven to move by his desire for vengeance, I'm sure he'll play a role again in the future. |
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| @whiteflame55 meant to say congrats on the house move the other day but expect a squirming baby Aria drove the thought out of my mind. It's always satisfying moving somewhere new but also a pain having to unpack and get settled. Enjoy your new abode! Episode 11. We meet a mixed group of robots and humans led by a high class robot called Jin who are also searching for Luna. Jin has a pro human stance and believes the two groups can exist together. Jin's group meets up with Casshern and his group want him to cannibalise Casshern to save them but he refuses. Is his strong conviction the reason for his lack of ruin? We hear from the group that Luna bestowed the gift of life to both humans and robots equally. Good episode. |
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| Episode 11 During yet another battle Casshern is buried under debris and Friender sets out to find help. He encounters a mixed group of humans and robots wandering the land in search of Luna. Their logic is that this is better than just sitting around and wait for the Ruin to happen. Jin, a robot, leads the group. He's a bit like a Luna's prophet, and believes that she will bring salvation to robots and humans alike when the returns. There's another robot in the group, Gido, who suffers from the Ruin and while traveling with the humans hasn't as firm a faith in human-bot equality and Luna. When they are attacked by roaming bandits Jin is called traitor of the robot "race". Gido temporarily leaves the group for the bandit gang, and learns that Friender is Casshern's companion. Friender leads the mixed group to Casshern's location and by digging makes them clear the debris with explosives. Gido and the bandits arrive and Gido suggests to eat Casshern after digging him out. Before anything like that happens he emerges from below the rocks and beats the bandits. Next he attacks Jin in his usual battle rage, but Jin with a little help from Friender can knock him out. The group wants Jin to kill Casshern so they can heal Gido. Jin refuses and delivers a sermon how they "only" need to find Luna and they should not kill anybody. The group doesn't believe in Luna, but Jin counters that Casshern from the legends is real and right in front of them. So Luna is just as real, he argues. The group and Casshern then move on separately. Toro, a human child and friend of Gido, talks about growing up and healing Gido. Jin's remark is interesting: humans can develop and grow. He doesn't say "unlike robots", but it's somewhat implied. Another interesting remark is by some human group member. Neither friender nor Jin show signs of the Ruin, which he suggests is because of their faith and determination. Overall, an episode full of religious motifs. Jin the prophet, Gido the disbeliever (with redemption), Casshern the resurrected from the grave. The mixed group is like a small Luna cult, Jin like a prophet / priest. I've watched this episode twice, it's pretty rich in the details. Clearly one of the best so far. |
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| Episode Eleven Doggo takes centre stage when Casshern gets buried during a fight. A group of robots and humans coexist with the leader being ruin free. Not sure on the conviction stopping his and Doggo's ruin. The Luna giving life to robots and humans interested me. I'm wondering if she was a scientist, a creator of robots and maybe that led to the improvement of humans too. It seems off that in an atmosphere able to turn the world to deserts and rust away advanced robots, that humans can survive at all. So perhaps they're stronger than they should be and its somehow down to Luna too. Episode Twelve A city once controlled by Braiking Boss, where his idea of absolute order still seems to be in place. The robots have accepted ruin and despair and want to meet it without complaint or disobedience to this ideal. A young painter though believes in hope, as well as his mission to paint. If a strong conviction stops the ruin than Margo would be ruin free too, so I'm gonna call bull on the idea from last episode as nothing but an optimistic view. Man this episode end was actually sad. |
| “I just spent the last two years thinking that you guys knew more than me about life and I just found out that you guys are just as dumb as me.” “Duh-doy.” “Yeah, duh-doy.” |
| Episode 12. Casshern comes across a ruined city formerly ruled by Braiking Boss but now desolate. There he meets a painter who wants to cover the city in his colour so history won't forget him, angering the citizens of the city of who believe that it is useless to hope and that robots should accept the fact of the ruin and gladly welcome the on come of gradual decay, a rather depressing point of view. Basically if you know death will eventually happen, what's the point in anything. The painter, Margo, thinks that you should still make an effort to live and leave your mark even if you know decay and death are the evntual outcome in life. Some lovely atmospheric backgrounds and setting for the ruined city with snow fall. This show has an exceptional ability to convey a vibe, mostly bleak and forlorn, with it's visuals and music. |
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| Episode 12 Another variation of a "Raison d'etre" episode, along the line of Sophita and the women with the bell. This time it's the robot Margo, who's goal is to continue the tradition of painting his home city in a new color each time there's a new ruler. He never met Luna, but believes in her and her wish to paint it "in it's natural color", which he considers to be white. He struggles with multiple impediments: he's disabled and sitting in a wheel chair. His fellow citizens hate his work and attack to stop it. Last but not least he's visibly suffering from the Ruin himself, rendering him weak and limited. In a stark contrast to this is his enthusiasm to get the job done and leave a mark. He's very aware of history and shows Casshern the many layers of paint from the past, which he hopes his work will become part of. Casshern replies that he lost all memories and so do the old paint layers - nobody remembers the painters and rulers of old. Once more Margo is optimistic and replies that he is already part of Casshern's memories and that way will live on, and that Casshern because of that has some memories after all. Casshern is fascinated by Margo and stays despite having little to gain from it, he pretty much develops the emotion of sympathy and respect. Eventually Margo falls apart rapidly and dies of the Ruin, but with a smile and the brush in his hand. On top of the "why people create things in the face of certain death" theme, there are nuances added. One is the memory aspect. Sophita's reasons were egoistic, the bell lady wanted to send a message. Margo wants to preserve memories and tradition while creating his own mark for future generations to do the same. Overall: To me the show as a whole and this episode in particular vibrates with what may be the most Japanese emotion of them all: mono no aware. I'm a big fan of those rare shows expressing it. For the intellectual and historical take there's Hyouge Mono. On the emotional level there are Girl's Last Tour, NieA_7 or Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou. It may be what @23feanor describes as "mostly bleak and forlorn", or the German Weltschmerz. In any case, Casshern Sins moves toward this emotion more with each episode. I'm really glad to have found another show of this type, they are rare and precious. |
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| @inim I've also come to appreciate the Japanese sentimentality towards the ephemeral and passage of time, often focused on the fleeting blossom of youth which was expertly summed up by Oreki at the end of Hyouka iirc. This notion is something I've only come to understand myself in my later years, when you realise you're no longer young and helped me appreciate what I have. Tolkien described this idea well through the elves as they were immortal and therefore had a gentle sad feeling about the cycle of life, everything beautiful waxed and then waned. |
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23feanor said: Yes, at some point of aging you make a choice of sorts, and mono no aware to me is far superior to "forever 17" or even depression. I've never thought of Tolkien's Elves in the "mono no aware" context, but you are right on spot. They are even a pretty perfect example. Also that while they don't age, they kind of tire and wear off, until they enter Elvish Nirvana by voluntarily going to the "The Grey Havens" ("Graue Anfurten" in the German translation, love the 2nd word it is so powerful). Thanks for adding another example to my collection :D@inim I've also come to appreciate the Japanese sentimentality towards the ephemeral and passage of time, often focused on the fleeting blossom of youth which was expertly summed up by Oreki at the end of Hyouka iirc. This notion is something I've only come to understand myself in my later years, when you realise you're no longer young and helped me appreciate what I have. Tolkien described this idea well through the elves as they were immortal and therefore had a gentle sad feeling about the cycle of life, everything beautiful waxed and then waned. |
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| Episode 13 Answers! Casshern, Ouji, Ringo and Lyuze seek shelter in a cave during heavy rain, and a hooded stranger joins them. He turns out to be Braiking Boss, former ruler of the robots. He reveals that his scientist Ouji-sensei (Ringo's current caretaker) created Casshern, Leda and Dio on his behalf as an experiment on procreating robots. Boss is a firm believer in robot supremacy, and the lack of self-reproduction was the last attribute needed to overcome humans. The experiment failed and what was left were "killer machines". Which Boss ordered to kill Luna, and Casshern succeeded. He gained immortality after it, something Boss says is not his creation. Another focus is Ringo, who shows signs of the Ruin in the form of rust after the rain and skin scratches. A metal ring around her head (hidden under the hair) marks her as robot. On the other hand she hurts herself with a glass shard and bleeds good old red blood. She remains ambivalent here, with traits of both races. Lyuze and Casshern discuss his sin, which he regains memories of after meeting his former Boss. Lyuze is not willing to forgive him even if the rumor is true and Luna still lives. Yet she isn't in a hurry anymore to kill him, even after he remembers now. Casshern himself is trying to kill himself instead, in the face of the revelation of his guilt. Ringo tries to convince him to live, and then the cliffhanger kicks in. Overall, this felt like the capstone of the first cour, bringing together the backstories and drivers. From what I read Casshern's second half is less episodic and more story driven. I like the atmospheric world created so far, the motifs of inevitable decay, hope in the face of mortality, and the monotonous drain of immortality without development. Braiking Boss almost literally brought the latter up, same thought as @23feanor had for Tolkien's immortal Elves. I usually don't notice background music, in this episode I did so I guess it was pretty good. Another very good episode. There's still plenty of room for speculation, about Ringo in particular. Is she Ouji's creation as well, maybe the robotic counterpart of Luna? Also the Luna religion among robots has reached mass appeal, following Chekov's Gun principle they really need to show her soon. How she will be, and how she'll react to her "murderer"? |
inimJun 24, 2022 5:10 PM
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| Episode Thirteen Braiking Boss in person, I wasn't expecting him to still be alive. The who created and why of Casshern, Dio and Lena is revealed. I also find it interesting that when he mentions procreation the shot is on Ringo. Given her mixture of rusting but also bleeding, she seems to be somewhere between human and robot, is the answer she is one of the three's child? Perhaps one of them wasn't a failure. Also nice new ED. |
| “I just spent the last two years thinking that you guys knew more than me about life and I just found out that you guys are just as dumb as me.” “Duh-doy.” “Yeah, duh-doy.” |
| Episode 13. We finally meet Braiking Boss and discover that Ouji was the professor who made Casshern. As you guys have already mentioned, what is Ringo, a human/robot cyborg, she bleeds and rusts in water (Casshern also bleeds though)? Is this the answer to eternal life for everyone, a mix of both technology and biology and something Luna knows how to perform? We saw a robot baby in this episode, so there are robot children, who I'm guessing must grow and develop, but that raises an interesting question, are the robots procreating and somehow creating new robots through a natural process (no idea what or how though) rather than building them? Or maybe was robot procreation something that used to happen before the ruin? Ouji says that Casshern, Dio and Leda were created with the purpose of reproducing (male+female=birth of new life form) but that it didn't work (did they have sex like humans i wonder, it would seem from Leda's behaviour that intimacy plays a role, or maybe she was programmed like that). If Ouji didn't make Casshern immortal then it must have been Luna. Agree with your sentiment @inim, we've heard so much about Luna I hope we get to meet her sooner rather than later. Braiking Boss said something about Luna's first death, insinuating that she can reincarnate or has the ability to regenerate/heal. At the beginning of the episode we normally see a flashback to Luna and Casshern and their encounter, however in this episode we saw Ringo instead, which turned out to be the scene at the end of the episode. Going out on a limb here but I wonder if Ringo is the reincarnation of Luna, that may explain why Ouji wants to keep her away from Casshern? |
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