Review of Casshern Sins

This anime is criminally low in score for how good of a show this is. Casshern Sins is truly one of the most excellent television shows you can watch. Be forewarned, this show requires a mature audience. I do not mean the ability to deal with gore, sex, drugs or swear words. It requires maturity on the viewers part to take the time to really look at what the show is presenting to you, and then to digest it and look again. This message is not spoon fed, and you will get out what you’ve taken the time to put in. Story 9/10: the plotis not simple, but it is also not complex or convoluted. It is fluid, the characters desires change and with that so does the plots direction. As for specifics, I personally dislike reviews that rehash the entire summary when you can read it above, but I will say this. The plot, the characters dialogue, the ‘cinamatography’, and the animation...they’re all excellent. The team treated this like they were directing a real movie, not some random animated tv show, and it shows.

Art 9/10: there was a true dichotomy with the art style here. The characters are plain, though extraordinarily well done regardless of this, and flow very wel. Some scenes they’re even more plain as faces are excluded to help convey emotion or hidden meaning. I personally was a huge fan of the character design, though I could see why others might not be, which is why this gets a 9 instead of a 10/10. Contrasting this were the absolutely gorgeous backgrounds. Whether a sea of glass, or a field of flowers, or just endless wastes....everything was eye catching, and there was constantly something going on onscreen becides the characters movement. And the colors. The colors in the show are so vivid. The animation team killed it.

Sound 10/10: the sound in Casshern Sins, from the voice acting to the sound effects, to the music.... was what truely solidified this as one of the best show's i've seen. While I did really like the plot and the characters, without these voice actors, without this orchestrated sound track.....I don’t think I would be giving this a 9.5/10. Probably would have gotten an 8. The sound... is everything. The attention to detail to the correct sounds for the provided effects was excellent. The voice acting, and the emotion behind it, from the main characters to the run of the mill bad guys, was excellent. The music? Out of this world. And I’m not talking about the two songs specifically produced that everyone is overhyping a bit. The actual music was brilliant. Heart-wrenching. It brought smiles, and it brought tears. It made the show.

Characters 10/10: the characters were all excellent, no exceptions. From the main cast to the characters showing up for only one episode, to the run of the mill bad guys. Everyone gave it their all, and it made it feel real. Every character in this show is multi-dimensional, and felt like a living breathing person. Every single one. Even some of the cannon fodder in a few episodes. That’s how seriously they took it. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a show flesh out each and every character this well, while also having the voice actors fit the characters so well. And I doubt I’ll see it again.

Enjoyment 9/10 (personal 10/10): I cannot give this a 10/10 on enjoyment despite how excellent everything was, as I know this show will not resonate with everyone. It requires patience. It requires introspection into the characters and yourself. What do I mean by this? You realize early on that while some robots in this show are what you are expecting, others mimic humans. And once you realize that while the cast is mostly robots, they act like humans...the entire show takes a much more serious tone within you.

I watched this in three sittings. Episodes 1-8, 9-15, and 16-24. Both times I went to continue watching on my second and third times, it was with trepidation and a heavy heart, because I knew what I was getting into. And yet, despite this, watching Casshern Sins feels rewarding. I feel relieved, and saddened that it is over.

Overall 9/10. There were some issues. Some minor writing style stuff I disagreed with and I did not like one of the main ish characters (Dune). But this truly is a masterpiece.

As a final note, the fight scenes in Casshern Sins are some of the finest I’ve seen. The reason for this is because the animation team went out of their way to try and obey the laws of physics for most of the fights. Characters move, and fall, like they should. The best example I can give, is in one fight Casshern gets slugged in the face while he’s in the air moving toward his opponent. Instead of rocketing backwards like every other anime with a fight scene, he instead follows the trajectory of the fist, and ends up doing a half flip in the air and lands on the ground, without moving backwards even a foot. I wish more studios would do this honestly, it made for much better viewing.