Casshern Sins Impressions

While watching Casshern Sins, I once jokingly said to a friend that this was the most depressing slice of life anime I’ve ever seen. After thinking it over, however, I don’t think that statement is that far from the truth. To be clear, Casshern Sins is not a slice of life anime by any stretch of the imagination. Based on the first seven episodes, I would certainly say that Casshern Sins is certainly a more episodic series than Deadman Wonderland is.

Every episode follows Casshern as he wanders the ruined world. Along the way, he encounters different characters and their story is told throughout the episode. There is no guarantee that we will learn any new information about Casshern’s backstory (he has amnesia) but the episode usually ends with despair.

When I wrote about the first episode of the series, I stated how the show’s ability to get me to come back for more was a sign of a good show. When the second episode aired, any uneasiness I had toward the show went away because the second episode was absolutely glorious. Without going into spoilers, all I’ll say is that it had a good setup, a natural progression of story, and an ending twist that was so beautifully dark (and logical) I instantly fell in love with the show.

Then I continued watching.

Episodes 3 through 7 were, to me, disappointing overall. Some episodes ended with their own dark twists, most of the characters’ stories weren’t nearly as interesting, and only two episodes really have anything to do with Casshern’s backstory. That leads me to my other complaint about this show so far. Early on, the show set up a mystery of whether or not Casshern was the cause for the entire world going to crap. This is a 24 episode series and we already have a definitive answer to the series. Before the opening of each episode, small clips of the events leading up to the ruin were shown. Simply put, there’s no doubt who’s the one responsible. I hope they introduce a new mystery outside of “How do we fix the world?” and “Can/how do we kill Casshern?” in the show because if there isn’t, Casshern’s story is looking to be pretty underwhelming right now.

While I do think the show has been disappointing overall so far, by no means do I dislike it right now. The episodic stories have kept my attention so far. I just wish they were half as good as episode two. In addition, I absolutely love the art style so far. A lot of anime these days look relatively similar to each other, so it’s refreshing to see a show that looks distinct and beautiful at the same time.

Right now, I suspect my feelings toward Casshern Sins will be similar to my feelings toward Trinity Blood when it was on Adult Swim. It’s a show that I’ll watch because it’s at least good with a few moments of awesome. At the end of the day, however, this is shaping up to be a show I can’t see myself watching a second time unless it’s for a review. Hopefully, the remaining episodes will change my opinion into something more positive. Right now, it all depends on the stories.