Casshern Sins

[masamuneehs]

this show is the bomb. I thought episode 13 was excellent, and not only did we learn a lot, but there are still a lot more questions still out there.

I'm interested to know where that third 'shining' robot who Leda was talking to came from. Also, one of the most heavily stressed aspects of this episode was about how Ringo clearly is different from Casshern and the rest of the robots... Despite this, her Ruin is clearly quite advanced, and even though Dio before mentioned how even he would some day die, one of the big questions remains about when (and why) she was made. The fact that she's in the scene before the OP also makes it seem like she was present when Casshern encountered Luna...

This also all explains a lot about why Dio is so focused on "competing" with Casshern...

people complained about them, but I think the independent stories really have helped me get attached to the central cast of this show. We got to see a lot (if not all) of the process that Casshern talked about when he told Lyuze how he is different now.

Braiking Boss's smugness all throughout ruining everybody's day was almost the epitome of awesome bastardom.

I love how this show is very heavy on symbols and motifs for themes. Too many other animes just bandy about whatever little message/flourish the creator thinks is cool, with most shounens stopping to discuss them in diatribe. There's still some kind of subtlety to this show, and it works very well with the stark contrasts (the "Oji! Smile!" moment really comes to mind) and continually stone-serious approach to the dismal story and atompshere.

[Munsu]

14 Shinsen:
http://a.scarywater.net/shs/%5BShins...5D.mkv.torrent

[Inazuma]

Awesome, watch it. Unlike any other eps so far.

[Kraco]

Did Casshern just get a girlfriend?

[Munsu]

Great episode. I wonder if Lyuze will be sticking around for good now... making the Casshern party himself, her, and Friender. Next episode seems like it'll be the return of Dune. I wonder if he'll get killed or play the role Lyuze has been playing up to the last episode, or maybe also join Casshern's party. Maybe he'll recognize her from the past too seeing as her sister was part of Luna's entourage.

Looks like the ED we had for episode 13 was a special one to mark the halfway point of the series, which also was the climax of the first portion of the series. Episode 14 came with a different ED.

[Pandadice]

Dune being the "shinigami" fellow? (I didn't/don't watch next episode previews)

dude, I wanted him to join Cassherns party since like as soon as I saw him. he's such an awesome character.

I definitely enjoyed this episode. But i wonder it Lyuze will still have that grudge she started with against casshern in the next episode.. or if it will be gone completely.

[masamuneehs]

great episode. Finally got it through my head that Dio is the dude with the long hair. I didn't think he'd look so different with his helmet off. feel sorta like a dumbass...

I love the irony in Braiking Boss being the one to just say to Casshern's face, "Look, if you don't fight, more people will die. Just suck it up." He does talk a bit too much, but I like his character. Way different than what you'd expect from a deposed despot...

Leda... Could it just simply be that she's backing Dio because she thinks he's the easiest to manipulate? I think she just wants him to kill Casshern, so she can kill him, so she can be immortal, or something along those lines. We've already seen she's not as strong in combat as either those two, and Braiking Boss' comments about her seemed to indicate that she's always sorta had her own agenda...

Boy there was sure a lot of graphic death in this episode. Christ. The massacre was just brutal in parts. I think they get away with a lot because it's "not humans" that are being killed like that, but, man...

Again, Casshern and Dio fight was pretty good again. I don't even mind when they do the "so fast you can't see" budget saving stuff that I thought was played out way back in DBZ times...

the scenes that got to me the most though had to be with Oji and Ringo. The emotion in that guy's voice when he's desperately looking for her, and his relieved, but almost wistful praise for her at the end of the episode... Don't think we're at the end of that story yet either...

Luna, or an imposter? I think seeing for himself might be the only thing that can bring Dune back to somewhere close to sane... I'm going with Imposter...

really like the new ED. Glad they kept "Blue Flowers" for the OP though. Something about that song always just gets me in the perfect mood to watch an episode of thise show. also, any idea who the girl lying near Lyuze is, in the ED? It almost looks like Leda, but that can't be right... Her sister who is... dead...?

[masamuneehs]

Razor Blades Comin' Out of Every Orifice

Shinsen Subs - Casshern Sins - episode 15 - mkv torrent

[Kraco]

Old ghosts:

Episode 16 - Shinsen





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Braiking Boss certainly travels a lot. Dio got some pretty good development or at least food for development. His performance was quite low in the beginning of the episode, which is somewhat understandable since he has been getting beaten by Casshern time after time - or at least hasn't won. Even Leda's words surely turn into poison after a while.

[The Heretic Azazel]

Interesting to learn that Ringo is a human. Just a few episodes back she was shown with rust on her forehead, presumably pointing to her ruin.

[MFauli]

Dio totally disappointed. Losing to someone else than Casshern, sigh. At least he returned the favor, but still...without Leda he´d be dead.

And Ringo is probably another human-robot-hybrid i guess, or whats e with the rust TheHereticAzazek mentions.

[masamuneehs]

something about the pacing in this episode just felt off to me... didn't really get too enthralled with the two throw away bad guys, and most of Dio's stuff was old hat revisited. we weren't really told what exactly motivated him so much at the end of the episode.

what i did find interesting was Leda saving Dio's life. And, of course, we have those conspicuously left out words she whispers to him before he passes out. I'd always written her down as a "manipulator with an agenda", but could it be possible that she actually cares about Dio after all? (I'm still saying 'no', she's just using him)

Oji's backstory was good too. That guy's voice is just wicked. It's so gravely and somber. I could totally see that guy doing narration... And, for my opinion, I thought the fact that they found Ringo inside of a human and robot meant she was somehow the long sought after hybrid. Otherwise the only thing that explains her robot parts is that Oji has had to do some major surgery on her over the years to keep her alive...

I have absolutely zero idea what is going on with Braiking Boss. It feels like he's almost trying to redeem himself, but he certainly isn't openly showing any remorse or anything like that. But the fact that the former tyrant who brought the world to ruin has been basically trying to encourage his former subordinates to become stronger (and to have emotion?!?) is a head-scratcher.

Still, he looks so freaking evil.

It's looking like it won't end well for Lyuze... I'm penciling her in for a tragic, Ringo/Casshern-saving death, with a chance of Luna resurrection if a happy ending is in the cards for this show.

They've arrived at the sea...

[Kraco]

A foolish dream:

Episode 17 - Shinsen



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Leda development more than in all the eps so far. She's actually a pretty tragic character, I suppose, and her personality makes now much more sense to me. Apparently she was a robot procreation experiment and it didn't go well, leaving her exceedingly dejected.

It was a pretty moving scene where the three robot kids died. Considering they had no history beyond this episode in the series, I find it remarkable I felt it moving.

[masamuneehs]

Yeah, a real good episode, because Leda's the consistent character who we knew the least about after Ringo and Oji's backstories were revealed. (Luna and Braiking Boss don't quite count, as I feel their backstories will come at the very, very end). I think Kraco hit it right on the nose.

the kids were pretty touching, but the thing that got me is when Ringo and Oji had to part ways. Somehow a sad Ringo makes me sad...

Dio's "I'm going to get some air" interests me, because part of me thinks it was done solely so Leda could fight Casshern for a bit, to develop her more as a threat (because she did pretty damn well, I'd say). If Dio had been there when Casshern showed, it would all have been different. But another part of me thought that maybe they had Dio leave at that moment because he didn't want to have to see what Leda was going to do to those kids.

Still, the two of them are really a perfect match. And, yeah, you almost can't help but sympathize with them even though they're the bad guys...

So, if I'm getting this straight, some now dead scientists created Luna, along with the three siblings who would protect her code/whatever That Rock is. Later they would try to have reproducing robots, the Leda, Casshern and Dio project. However, I thought we'd been told that Oji was part of that project? Did he maybe only just make them? I can't see it being possible that Leda's maker wasn't involved in her child-bearing test... Or am I remembering something incorrectly here?

The staggering amount of flashbacks to Lyuze's past and shots of her sitting naked in the next episode preview, along with her ominous foreshadowing a few episodes back cast a dark cloud over the next episode...

[Kraco]

A long dream:

Episode 18 - Shinsen



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A totally redundant episode. I guess they are running out of real stuff to make episodes of.

[Pandadice]

so i just watched episode 18, and it was fantastic.

it was great to get an episode based on Lyuze's character development. it was nice to get back to the "hey you killed my sister!" feeling she had at the beginning, because i had been wondering what happened to that. but then it progressed and she came to realize that she's got a thing for Casshern, and so even though he killed her sister, she loves him.

awman, i loved that urban setting they threw in. with the basketball court, and the graffiti on the walls. it looked very nice. i'm a bit confused over what the deal with that guy was though. he just came up and started touching her, and then they were like in bed, and she killed him, and it made me go like "uhh...... <.<?".

and again they brought back the song from towards the beginning of the series. i like that song, and i like that they're bringing it back. i was lookign for a download for it, but couldn't find one, so does anyone know where i can get it?

[Lucifus]

I also greatly appreciated and enjoyed this episode, redundant though it may be.

It was a treat and pleasure to see Lyuze's character development. The urban settings was a hell of a nice choice as well.

Your not alone on that scene with the guy either Panda, it also left me scratching my head going wtf. LoLs.

I also second Pandadice's request, someone should certainly link that song. =)

[KitKat]

This was a pretty bizarre episode, but the story is progressing pretty quickly, so I thought it was nice to have one week that was a bit of a breather, before we get into the final story-end arc which I'm hoping is going to be really intense.

Masa, have you been following the use of water ripples still? In this episode they had a wave of darkness spread out from child-Lyuze like a water ripple which I thought was an interesting variation.

[MFauli]

strange episode :-/

[masamuneehs]

this episode was like a re-cap episode wrapped inside of a character development segment. there wasn't much new stuff for us to get out of it, but it presented Lyuze's character very well and gave really clear insight into her mind (which is all sorts of fucked up)

i really liked the part early on where Casshern "kills her" but, of course, doesn't, and she starts to realize she has feelings for him.

Ripples. i have been keeping notice of them, but they happen so many times that it's almost impossible to read too much into all of them. in fact, there's almost never a "splash" even when there's real water (notice the exception to this, where child Lyuze is swallowed in the suddenly churning sea in the beach flashback after the OP). it's almost always a ripple... for the most part, I'd guessed that most of the ripples are people's "impacts", and that the surface is the world.

One of the ripples from this episode did stand out to me though, and it was in the scene right before Lyuze rises out of the red water (at which point everything turns blue and we hit the real recap flashback). Of course, it caught my eye because the ripple preceded her emerging from the water, as though whatever impact caused the ripple also 'birthed' Lyuze in that current form.

as for the 'dark ripple from child Lyuze', if t's the one where she's in the field after her sister does "Guess who?", it actually originates from the ground a bit away from Lyuze, spreading over the field along with the rain clouds. i believed this was supposed to represent the sudden appearance of Braiking Boss and the start of the war, which brings to an end their happy time as children (Lyuze briefly reappears in the same scene, in a suddenly barren patch of land, all grown up and wearing a uniform similar to what we saw Dune wore when he was protecting Luna) and ultimately takes Lyuze's sister away

on the "suddenly, creepy black guy" scene. it caught me off guard too. i didn't know what to make of it at all either. i suppose it has to do with Lyuze yearning for something special with Casshern, but instead going off with something far less satisfying (being his comrade instead of his lover), which only makes her more upset and confused and also causes her to add to the destruction in the world.

finally, as to "why did we get this episode?" i can't think of anything too good. the reused footage stinks of "budget trouble". the fact that all this happened now, in just one episode, makes me think somebody messed up with planning. but a part of me also wants to think that this is what was intended from the start. after all, they've been trying so hard to really develop all of the characters. it might not be ideal in how it was presented, but i actually enjoyed the episode and thought it was interesting, entertaining, and thoughtful.