Casshern Sins is a reboot of the classic Tatsunoko Production anime, Neo Human Casshern. This reboot was animated by Madhouse (Death Note, Highschool of the Dead). Unlike the original Casshern anime, Casshern is not a superhero who is fighting against Braiking Boss, but his subordinate whose mission is to kill Luna who is a threat to Braiking Boss, which triggered Earth into ruin.
Set in a post-apocalyptic world, an amnesiac named Casshern is hunted down by rusting robots because accordingly, once you devour Casshern, you will be saved from the on-going ruin. With no memory of his past and him being immortal, Casshern fights with no reason while trying to learn the truth about himself.
Later on, he met Lyuze, who wants to kill Casshern because he killed her sister while she is protecting Luna, the one who is called “the sun which is named the moon,” the one who is said to give salvation to those robots and humans who are seeking her.
After Casshern learning the truth that he was a subordinate of Braiking Boss, and was ordered along with Dio and Leda to kill Luna and Casshern was the one responsible for killing her that triggered the ruin. Learning that a certain Luna is alive, Casshern seeks her to learn if she is the Luna that she killed and to learn the state of the world is in.
On to the review, if you are a casual anime viewer, there are some instances this series will bore you due to its deep tone and its rather gloomy setting. Its one of those series that you might have a hard time to watch if you are not that interested with it or you are forced to watch it.
When I heard that this title will air on local TV back then, I decided to research about the original Neo-Human Casshern and tried my best to look for subs of the first episode but sadly, the only sub that I found was the OVA version of it, so I just stick with my sources, Wikipedia, Google and YouTube.
While doing a research on the classic version, I compared my materials in what I am watching. In the original anime, Casshern was a cyborg who is fighting alongside with his robot dog, Friender to fight Braiking Boss, a robot created by his father.
In Sins, Casshern is a cyborg created by Braiking Boss’s scientist alongside with Dio and Leda for reproduction, but because it failed, they became his mercenaries. They are ordered to kill Luna and Casshern killed her, causing the world into ruin. Since the titles are extremely different, I stopped doing comparisons and focused on the series itself.
In terms of the story, it was deep, dark, and complex and it focused more on Casshern’s sin, hence the title. He was at first, confused on the situation the world is facing and why he is fighting. Is it for survival? Or is it for something much deeper? As he explores the desolated planet, he slowly learns about himself, and made friends in the like of Friender (Which sadly, never turned into a jet like the original), Ringo, Ohji and later, Lyuze.
After learning that he is the cause of this mess, he wants to know a way on how to reverse it. This is where we saw a change of pace in the series. After we learned that Luna is still alive and there is “hope” in this wasteland, Casshern and co. looks for her to find out the answers that bothers them about this world.
The best thing about this is that there is a sense of realism in it. Its like after looking for Luna everything will be magically back in the way it was before Casshern killed Luna. This is where the series left a good mark in me because this sense of realism focused on two things: life and death.
As we all know, all of us has its own expiration date, because of what Casshern did, robots that are seemed to be immortal lost their immortality and slowly deteriorate until they die. Since after the events prior to the series, Casshern became immortal, beautiful in the eyes of those dying robots. Because of this, they want to devour him due to the impression that if they want to be immortal again, and seeing that he will not die, they want a piece of it in there lives.
Because of this theme, I can sometimes parallel it into this modern world. We all want to live forever, or like what an old song says, we want to be forever young. This made me realize something, we cannot live forever and that is what the last few episodes of the series did. Accepting death as it knocks into our doorstep.
In terms of animation, Madhouse, once again amazed me especially the battle scenes. Those battle scenes have this “manga” feel in it that every time you see Casshern rip off robots, the dark lines gave an emphasis that he is really ripping them down with all of his might while he is in berserk. His fights with Dio are those fights that are worth watching repeatedly aside from the gymnastic moves both displayed along side with his final battle with Braiking Boss that gave a good closure on this “villain.”
Speaking of Braiking Boss, my only disappointed is that I expect him to be hands on type of villain but it turned out to be the one who is responsible in the shadows, and the series gave this good impression on me about him.
Overall, Casshern Sins is one of those reboots that is worth watching. Aside that it was unique from the original, you do not need background knowledge regarding on the original series because Sins gave a different breath on Casshern and co. Its deep and post-apocalyptic theme dragged me into the series that if you are not a fan of those post-apocalyptic setup stories, I suggest you to skip it but if you are a fan of those series that is something to do with redemption, I suggest you should give this show a try.
At the end of the day, if you are like me who learned that Friender could transform into a jet in the original, you will be disappointed because the series tries its best to stay as believable as possible. This is a good thing now that most of the films right now focused more on trying its best to explore in the real world while trying to pull some fantasy elements on it.