NEWS
Whelp, I'm behind on the whole reviewing thing I was doing. School's been hell for the past few weeks, and it's not getting any better. Luckily, it's the weekend, and my mom can't read English so she's assuming what I'm typing is homework instead of yelling at me to do a weekend's worth of homework in one day as usual. Anyways, as a catch-up, the Casshern Sins and Wreck-It Ralph reviews are just going to come and go. The Rise of the Guardians review will link to both of them.

And Worldwide Overture will be back in schedule soon enough. I'm planning on being a ninja and coloring in the pages during class.

And without further ado, the second Toonami show review!
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Casshern Sins is a 2004 revival of the classic 1973 Neo Human Casshern series. Set in an alternate universe, Casshern is a killing machine who finds himself waking up with no memories of his past in a decrepit world that is slowly dying. "The ruin" has fallen on the Earth, causing robots everywhere to lose their immortality, and Casshern discovers that him murdering a robot girl named Luna was the cause of all this. Casshern spends the series walking the Earth as he carries the guilt of the horror he caused while also learning what it truly means to live.

Before I say anything else… Casshern Sins is an acquired taste. The episodes tend to drone, the tone and situations are depressing, most screen time is dedicated to characters trying to talk philosophical rather than actual character movement, and the show can be potentially boring to most. The reactions will vary. Maybe you'll love it at first sight for its intriguing tone and setting, maybe you'll hate it, maybe it'll grow on you. Either way, this is obviously a pretty divisive show, so I will try not to be biased with my own opinions through this review.

Casshern Sins is divided into two parts in terms of storytelling. The first 12 episodes are one shots where Casshern learns important life lessons from various one-off characters. The one-shot stories are rather hit-and-miss ranging from heartfelt and moving to eye rolling and boring. Whichever way the story goes, each one-off character proves to be interesting and engaging in their own little way. Some characters you will even be very upset at for never appearing again (and dying for that matter). After these episodes, the series enters into a more linear story. The second part proves to much more engaging, but heavily relies on how emotionally invested the viewer has become to the characters in order to pack a punch. However, it's safe to say that if you've made it this far into the show, the characters at least mean something to you. In the end, the overall theme of the series is about embracing and accepting death, and even if you didn't find a number of the episodes to your liking, each one has its own bit of the moral to tell, and every piece can be potentially just as powerful.

Casshern Sins is stylistic as hell. Where do I even begin? First of all, the show boasts unique character designs courtesy of Umakoshi Yoshihiko, my personal favorite character designer I might add. The backgrounds are vast and give the show a large and wide open feeling. Both the color schemes of the characters and the backgrounds help to paint the show's mysterious and sullen mood. The only real criticism I have is the shading effect on the outlines of the characters that, while looks cool, is a result of cheap and low quality outsourcing editing. Even if Casshern is not your cup of tea, it's worth it just for the visuals alone.

Animation wise, there's not much in this show that shows it off. Most times, the characters are speaking deep prose, only occasionally doing active movement. The show relies heavily on still pans and slow character movement. The action sequences are where the animation actually shines, though, ironically don't show too much of animation either. The fight scenes rely heavily on animation tricks that give a sense of movement without actually showing too much. Even then, they are some of the most unique fight sequences I've seen.

Probably my biggest criticism for this show is the dialogue. The characters constantly go on talking in vague ways, and repeating information the viewers already know over and over again. The wording for many terms come off as awkward, and just attempts from the writers to try to come off as cryptic. (Do we really have to constantly call her "The Sun Named Moon". Can't we just call her Luna?) This brings me to another problem this show has. It just tries way too hard with being dark and mysterious sometimes. I don't really have to explain this. If you watch, you'll feel it right away.

Cassher Sins is a mixed bag. On one hand, it's entirely unique, tells a thought provoking story with strong one-off characters, and boasts beautiful visuals. On the other hand, the dialogue is horrendous, and the show just screams, "Trying way too hard". Again, Casshern Sins is not for everyone, but for those who tolerate the mood, it's definitely worth at least one watch.

7/10

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