Casshern Sins is a reboot of the 1973 anime series Casshan, produced by Tatsunoko Production and animated by Madhouse. The series discards the continuity presented in the original Casshan anime series, in which Casshern was a cybernetic superhero battling the evil robotic forces of Braiking Boss in a post-apocalyptic Earth. In Casshern Sins, Casshern is presented as a cyborg subordinate of Braiking Boss who was ordered to assassinate the savior of mankind, and has thus doomed the Earth to ruin. Casshern Sins made its English broadcast premiere on Funimation Channel on December 14, 2010. A manga adaptation was published in Jive's Comic Rush Magazine. In the United States, the series began airing on Adult Swim's Toonami block as part of its premiere on May 26, 2012.
Plot
Casshern Sins tells the story of a world where robots subjugated humanity after becoming self-aware. Their leader, Braiking Boss, ruled over the world with an iron fist. One day, a mysterious girl named Luna was summoned by the people in order to bring the salvation of mankind. Fearing her as a potential threat, Braiking Boss sent three of his most powerful cyborg warriors – Casshern, Dio, and Leda – to dispose of Luna. Casshern, the strongest warrior, managed to track down and kill Luna. However, this triggered a cataclysmic event which set into motion the end of the world. Hundreds of years later, the world's atmosphere is filled with poison, and, due to the inability of most remaining humans to reproduce, as well as the constant threat posed by the robots, humanity is on the brink of extinction. Robots fare slightly better, fearing death as much as humans do: the poisonous environment quickly causes their mechanical bodies to rust and corrode, forcing them to regularly replace their damaged parts, if spare parts in good condition can even be found. In this wretched time and place, Casshern, who had disappeared following the assassination of Luna, returns with no memory of who he is or what he had done.
Characters
Main characters
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Recurring characters
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Media
Manga
A manga adaptation was announced in the September 26, 2008, issue of Jive's Comic Rush Magazine. It began serialization in the December issue, which was published on October 25, 2008.
Anime
Casshern Sins was first announced at the Tokyo International Anime Fair 2008, where it was confirmed that Madhouse would be in charge of the animation. Soon after, an official trailer was posted online on its official Japanese website. It was announced at Otakon 2009 that Funimation Entertainment would produce and distribute the series for release in 2010, following a subtitled-only release on their video service in late 2009. The show had previously aired on Japan's Chiba TV, TV Aichi, MBS, TV Kanagawa& TV Saitama stations. Casshern Sins had also aired on Singapore's Arts Central channel. According to The Straits Times, the show aired simultaneously with Japan in order to cut down on illegal downloading in Singapore. TV5 airs Casshern Sins in the Philippines. Casshern Sins is distributed in Oceania by Siren Entertainment with an Australian distribution by Gryphon Entertainment, and New Zealand distribution is by Vendetta Films. Manga Entertainment distributes Casshern Sins in the United Kingdom. The series made its North American television debut on December 14, 2010, on the Funimation Channel. Cartoon Network's Adult Swim aired the series as part of the newly revived Toonami block from May 26, 2012 until November 3, 2012.
Reception
The anime series received mixed to positive reviews from critics. Theron Martin of The Anime News Network gave the series an overall ranking of "B+", commending the show's style and excellent sound design, while detracting that the show's "overstretched plot" and grim tone. Another contributor to Anime News Network, Mark Sombillo gave the series a much more mixed review, writing that "The pacing of the story is a bit like a learner driver having great difficulty with the clutch, prone to stalling on insignificant parts and just as likely to accelerate uncontrollably past things that could be interesting. The fight sequences are also cumbersome to watch where you're more likely to just see swipes of light to represent that an action has occurred before it skips to the scene where the bad guy is falling apart. And just back to the background music, or rather the bits where it doesn't play, there were just too many elongated silent moments often accompanied by cheap zoom-in shots of the characters with nothing happening." Norman Rafferty of The Escapist published a negative review of the series, stating that the series pleases no one.
