Casshern Sins
Casshern Sins is a 2008 alternative version (reboot? not really...) of its 70's counterpart Shinzou Ningen Casshern. The original anime is an iconic henshin anime, an anime that would probably be a bit of a boring watch today for most (and me... I tend to prefer manga from this era instead xd) but that is nonetheless a staple that proceeded to inspire a lot of media going forward.
Watching the original anime is not at all necessary for Casshern Sins due to it being set in a very different universe, it works as a standalone. There are some shared characters - like Casshern, Luna, Casshern's dog Friender and the big bad guy Braiking Boss (and maybe some minor characters that serve as easter eggs). However all of them are vastly different from their original counterparts. For Casshern the main and most important similarity is that he's a half human half robot hybrid in the new anime as well, while Luna seems to be a completely different entity, sharing only resemblance to her original self.
The plot tldr is that Casshern awakens without his memories, in a world vastly different from what he remembers. Robots are now not immortal anymore, while Casshern somehow is. They all want to eat him or kill him because it is said that they'll regain their immortality if they do so. They are all affected by the "ruin" (fancy term for rust) and if their resolve isn't strong they'll die more easily, or something. Casshern is the cause for making the robots this way, because he killed Luna, and he wants to find out why he killed her and how that brought the world to this state. And thus his journey begins.
The first half of the anime takes its time. Casshern meanders around and meets many robots and a few humans, we get some worldbuilding and we kind of find out what's been going on while Casshern was gone and he gets clues about Luna. The second half is more plot focused but it follows a similar formula, with unnecessary pace slowing interruptions consisting of random robot goons whose purpose is only to crumble by the ruin, always trying to kill Casshern at the most crucial plot related moments. It gets old really quick.
This anime is at times very abstract, and lots of artistic liberties are being taken at every corner. That can be a good thing, when executed well. It gives off a stage play vibe, but I don't think this anime exactly nailed it, because certain plot points seem kind of trivialized by it especially once the plot gets going. However, the background art and the environment are absolutely magical at points.
Time and space in this anime are very wonky. Characters will be saying "the ruin has affected us for such a long time" making it sound like it was hundreds of years, but some context story clues make it seem like it has only been a couple of years. The environment however looks like it has been abandoned for.. thousands of years. Considering this anime is centered around immortality and the suffering that comes with it you could interpret this time wonkiness as a way of perceiving time when one is immortal, except that immortality ceased to exist before the beginning of the show itself. The way space is portrayed is another can of worms. We are told and shown that the world is vast and empty, dead and devoid of plant life. When we encounter the first flower field all of the characters express amazement, because of course they would, flowers are a rare sight! And then it happens again, and again, and again, and flowers become a permanent installment in every episode lmao. Characters also make their appearances whenever and however they please, they keep going to and fro Casshern, whatever the plot requires. It's very dreamlike.
Something this anime didn't really succeed in is getting an emotional reaction out of me except for Ohji. I usually love stuff dealing with immortality even if it's kind of shallow but in this story I caught myself feeling very indifferent towards the robots. The robots in this anime are dealing with a very basic human condition which is confronting their mortality. Like humanity 101. Yet a lot of the first half is focused on robots totally despairing and going rabid due to it. We find out that pre-Luna-being-killed robots were immortal and perfect, even capable of transferring their consciousness, and that they by and large got rid of humans. After Luna got killed, they lost their immortality and the world completely fell into disarray. I can't help but feel like... they're inferior to humans lmao. We handled the Original Sin a bit better I think... Maybe I'm going through a clanker phase due to ai fatigue, but all I could think to myself at certain moments was just how much idgaffffffff about their rusty asses that totally gave up.
Next, let me talk about Casshern for a bit. It took him a whole cour to actually begin speaking and not just repeating what people say back at them in form of a question. However, once he started speaking he did this thing where he'd say something and go back on what he said in the same episode, then change his mind and repeat the process all over again. It was especially apparent during the part when he meets Luna and goes away, then back, then away, then back again lol. The dialogue in general had a tendency to be very contradictory and repetitive, and a lot of the times it consisted of characters yelling each other's names a lot. There's also this funny thing regarding Casshern - he's a half human half cyborg yet he's unquestionably one of the least emotional characters in the anime. This is funny because all throughout the anime there's a.. prevailing sentiment that robots can not feel emotions. To add another layer of hilarity the robots in this anime do, in fact, feel emotions in every episode. Anger, sadness, despair, fear... Whether some of this is intentional and a way of the anime showing us how the robots are kind of developing humanity (tying this back to the whole mortality thing) or not is hard to tell, because I don't think it has been executed well.
Stuff that I actually enjoyed in this anime will be hidden under spoilers because it's related to the second half which is more plot driven.
First, there's Luna. I was super curious about what's the deal with her, and I think the story delivered on that front. The slow first half helps build tension, even though it's a tad too slow. I won't go into too much detail, but I truly loved how Luna was
- not the idolized being they expected
- not the opposite of what they expected
but instead she was - a secret, third thing.
Another thing I'm glad about is that the anime ended up not going with the "the ruin will take hold of you later if you have something to live for" message that seemed to prevail in the first half of the anime. I wasn't really fond of that sentiment and I much prefer the thing with Casshern coming to terms with the fact that he is a killing machine whose purpose is to make robots never forget that there is death, while Luna provides unnatural eternal life devoid of meaning, and the two of them creating a sort of balance while Ringo is a possible start of actual life among robots what with her being a robot possible of reproducing and all that.
Lastly, one of the most positive things about this anime is how open to interpretation it is. I think even 12 years after its release people can't seem to reach a consensus on some things, which makes for fun discussions. Of course, this ambiguity comes from plot holes and the dream like world in which the characters drift in and out of and appear and disappear whenever and however they wish, but hey the fun is still there. Digging around some older threads about it really makes you realize how dumb some anime watchers are though...