Review of Casshern Sins

This anime was made in 2007 by the famous and grand studio Madhouse, in partnership with Tatsunoko Production. Tatsunoko was one of the most pioneering animation studios in the industry, giving rise to even studios like Pierrot, J.C. Staff and Production I.G. One of Tatsunoko's oldest animes, was the Casshern Robot Hunter, which to be honored, then had its reboot with a slightly more serious story, in an episodic format and with a slightly darker atmosphere. Thus was born Casshern Sins, who besides being a Madhouse production, is also an anime that has the direction and storyboard of Shigeyasu Yamauchi, who was also general director of Dr.Slump, directed several episodes of Dragon Ball Z and some films too, as is the case with that Janemba film against Gogeta that has an absurd animation, and also directed several episodes of Knights of the Zodiac, in addition to some films, such as The Prologue of Heaven, which has the best animation that Knights of the Zodiac can ever have until today.

In other words, Shigeyasu Yamauchi is truly a great director, he knew what he was doing when he was called; it is noted that he used the layout of Knights of the Zodiac in Casshern Sins, and the action scenes of Casshern Sins leave nothing to be desired, they are really fluid and have a choreography that is not exactly absurd, but it is a choreography unique, and that is a very positive point.

So nothing better than to start talking about Casshern Sins about his animation and setting. The anime is really fantastic at that point; it manages to convey an extremely dead and deep scene with that grayish color, and vibrant colors, but extremely dense and cold. The sound design is also incredibly well applied and I felt lost in a space of solitude in many moments while I watched Casshern Sins.

Really, he manages to delve directly into the post-apocalyptic cause he is trying to show you, and you buy the idea in 2 or 3 episodes, everything happens very quickly, because it is really very well directed.

All this half-dead and dirty aspect is perfect for the story that Casshern Sins is trying to tell episodically, which is nothing more than the story of our protagonist named Casshern. Casshern is basically an empty cyborg-shaped shell, which functions as one of the weapons of the Braiking Boss, perfectly designed to subdue Luna, who is treated as the source of eternal life in the world in which the anime takes place.

All of this happens and the anime takes place after that, with Casshern wandering around the world, seeing robots falling apart and losing hope, wanting to survive but unable to continue, and Casshern is the only one that does not rust.

Because he is the only one who does not rust, and because he has killed the source of eternal life in the world, everyone seeks to kill Casshern because apparently that would give them eternal life, but nobody knows if that would really be true, since the protagonist remains alive until the end of the anime.

But Casshern works as if he were a lost child, trying to understand and reconnect, also trying to find meaning in life and in the struggle for survival; anime deals with very philosophical issues in all its parameters and this is very interesting because it is being developed through this episodic line.

Being episodic is perfection for Casshern Sins, because his script is well elaborated and his philosophical questions become more masterfully present, since each episode has enough time to introduce a new character that Casshern finds on his journey trying to understand what it is death and life.

And in the middle of this whole journey, there is the best character for me that is certainly Friender. His relationship with Casshern contributes a lot to the anime atmosphere. The way they know each other and all the dog's heroism in every scene he appears, demonstrating that he has a determination to live and get on with life, is sensational.

But not everything is flowers, at least not for me. Although there are excellent episodes in Casshern Sins, as is the case with the painter episode, we also have episodes in which nothing means anything, or at least I did not have the ability to see what he wanted to say to me in a certain way, as it is the case of Sophie's episode, or Sophia... I don't remember the name exactly.

But this is the episode where a girl shows up to fight Casshern and she is in this attempt to have a fight against him, a fight to the death, for the entire episode.

I didn't understand what message the anime was trying to get through, if there was any message at all, and the episode also seemed to me to be extremely dragging.

There are a few episodes outside this one, which seem to be very long in Casshern Sins, and they were really complicated to watch... Although most episodes need 24 minutes to develop and present their philosophy through the character that focused on that episode, there are some that I feel like I only need 12 minutes, or even that it doesn't need to exist, as is the case with this episode of Sophie in particular.

Watching Casshern Sins for me was a roller coaster of good and bad times; there were episodes that left me really stuck watching, but there were also others that were extremely boring and only the atmosphere took hold along with the soundtrack...

With this mix of funny and boring episodes, I really couldn't fully entertain myself with the work and I thought it was good, but it was nothing extremely absurd for me.

Philosophical questions are very well applied and developed, and all of this really works, but for me, only the story sends good messages and is done well, it is not the only thing that matters.

The pace is also very important to me, even more because I already have some problems to be able to watch something, so Casshern didn't really arrest me like that, which is a shame, because it's a good anime.

Philosophy, as I said, is well applied. The anime tries to talk to us on purpose through immortal beings, who are robots, only dealing with the difference and at the same time the relationship between life and death.

If you compare it to Utena, which is an anime that I also thought was good, but boring at different times, Casshern Sins is extremely better, because it is not full of symbolisms played in everything that is corner so that you understand what the work is trying tell you.

Casshern Sins is direct with the viewer, and he presents only a dense and philosophical narrative, it is up to you to pay attention to details, and not have an absurd research on symbolisms to understand what he is trying to pass on to you. This automatically earns me more points.

The secondary characters that are the key weight for each episode, serve to make the viewer reflect along with Casshern. This anime basically gives you a main character who doesn't understand anything about life and death, and he invites you to live this experience together with him. Every dialogue is special, all the secondary characters matter, everything makes you think and discuss, and at the end of the day the journey ends with both understanding everything.

It really is splendid how it works, and I am amazed every time I think that the 24 episodes, despite some not so important, took me on a philosophical journey to mature together with the protagonist.

The ideology of each one and the way that each one thinks, trying to adjust reasons to continue living, or trying to leave something in the world so that at least someone understands that you have been there sometime and your existence has not been in vain, it is magnificent.

Life and death is hope and despair; life and death is illusion and allusion; life and death is a prelude and finally a checkmate... Life and death is the normal cause of all things, all things having their origin and their weight doomed to their defects. What to do while you are in the middle of both? I think that is the question that Casshern Sins wants to ask at the end of the day, and I invite you to reflect on that every day in your life starting today.

Leaving a legacy is important; demonstrating that you did something is important... We will not exist forever in practice, but in theory we can continue to exist in some way, and not go through libitina without doing anything.

Understand what Casshern Sins is trying to say to you; understand that life is unique and you should not waste your precious and unique time on what does not suit you, or what will not leave something good for others.