First Date: Casshern Sins
Ratings (out of 5):
- Story: ♥♥♥½
- Animation: ♥♥♥♥
- Characters: ♥♥½
- OP/ED Themes: N/A (my copy had no op or ed, though it looks like they might have just cut off the ed?)
- Overall: ♥♥♥½
Thoughts:
Casshern awakens to a dank, dark world run by robots that are all falling apart. They also have gotten it into their heads that if they devour Casshern, they will become immortal. Casshern kicks some ass and takes no names, and only learns his own name from their battle cries: “Kill Casshern! Devour Casshern!” After that he comes upon a childlike robot named Ringo who asks Casshern if he’s human, because he’s so pretty. Casshern isn’t sure himself. He protects Ringo from another robot, but the viciousness of his attack scares Ringo away– giving Casshern one of his first memories: a human girl, crying. And thus begins his quest to find his memories, etc.
Right-o, then! For those of you who enjoy that feel of old-school design mixed with new-school animation, Madhouse presents: Casshern Sins! Based loosely on the 1970s anime Casshern, the series focuses on the titular Casshern, a cyborg– not quite human, not quite robot, and…well, so far we’ve got two other presumably main characters who’ve appeared: Luna, in Casshern’s memories, and an unnamed presumably robotic guy in a cloak.
This is the kind of show that I’m more interested in for the story than for the characters so far. Casshern is sort of a blank slate and we know barely anything about the other two. I don’t think Ringo will be a recurring character, either.
I don’t want to explain more about why I’m interested in the series, because a lot of the information that I have from researching the show isn’t yet offered up in the episode, and I’m trying to stick to an “if-it’s-not-in-the-first-ep-don’t-mention-it” stance. (Sidenote: it worries me when that happens. Doesn’t it mean they’re giving away more than they should in promo materials? And no, this isn’t stuff taken from the original; the story’s really quite different from the 1970s anime.)
Excellent visuals, wish my copy’d had the OP and ED so I could talk more about the audio…it’s rather stark throughout the episode, with no or very quiet music during the dialogue– presumably that’s intended to match the desolation of the landscape.
All in all, I’d say this is a must-watch for fans who like a sci-fi setting (but not necessarily a heavy sci-fi show, i.e. scientific detail is thus far minimal).
Tags: casshern sins, fall-2008, first-dates
October 6th, 2008 at 10:32 pm
That’s some awesome reverse-helmet, 70s hair.
I’ve been looking forward to giving this a watch.
October 6th, 2008 at 11:14 pm
I almost fell a sleep during this, first time ever watching an anime..
October 7th, 2008 at 2:44 pm
Glad to see you’re doing your First Dates again. I feared they wouldn’t make a reappearance this season. ^_^
October 8th, 2008 at 10:23 pm
Just saw it, and I tend to agree. I’m interested to see where it’s going. I’m looking forward to seeing where the story goes, as well as more robot destruction.
And I knew I recognized that voice. Go Tohru Furuya.
November 5th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
I saw the original dubbed back in the 90s and basicly. It’s about a cyborg that saves the world from robots. The robots were created to save the earth but took to enslaving the human race.
The mysterious cloaked robot, I think is the black king the head robot that cashan killed to free humanity. How this whole ruin thing happened is beyond me but I’m interested in this… even if the characters seem kinda meh.