Review of Casshern Sins

I'm usually the guy who digs melancholic & sad shows with a deeper meaning but Casshern Sins was pretty much of a drag for me to sit through. It ponders very heavily on it's apocalyptic decay of the world mood while handling reasonable character choices and a consistent story as optional. The first half of the show is kind of a journey for the protagonist in search of his memories. On this journey he encounters new characters in each episode and we learn about their backstory and the state of the world. The writers try to give every episode / character his own theme, butsince they are all bound to the decay there is little actual variation in the stories told. So this episodic character telling barely anything new makes the whole show feel like having 7 actual episodes and 17 fillers.

When they finally get to resolve the main story in the last third of the show, huge plot holes / logic issues begin to shine (e.g. there is the big idea, that a life without death has no real meaning but they don't distinguish between a healthy life/death cycle and a whole world going extinct). Also some major questions will never be answered. The final conclusion is fine but far away from perfect.

The best thing about this show was definitely the cool & unique art style in combination with the melancholic sound design. Also the obligatory fights in each episodes where nicely animated (except the mostly generic enemy designs) but given their hopeless tone, they weren't exactly fun to look at. All in all i would have probably enjoyed this show more in a 12 episode frame.