Casshern Sins (キャシャーン Sins) is a reboot of the 1973 anime series Casshan, produced by Tatsunoko Productions and animated by Madhouse, it aired from October 2008 to March 2009. The series made its English broadcast premiere on Funimation Channel in December 2010. A manga adaptation was published in Jive's Comic Rush Magazine. 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.

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 "the ruin", a cataclysmic event which set into motion the end of the world. The robots lost their ability to live indefinitely, and began rusting and dying. After, hundreds of years, 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. A rumor is spread that any robot who kills and eats Casshern will obtain eternal life, forcing Casshern to fight for his life. Throughout the story, he seeks the truth about the past and tries to find meaning in the fervent will to live he sees in those around him.

Characters

Main characters

Recurring characters

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. It aired from October 1, 2008 to March 15, 2009. 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. 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 Funimation Channel. Adult Swim aired the series as part of the newly revived Toonami programming block from May 27 until November 4, 2012. 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.

Reception

Theron Martin of Anime News Network praised the series and gave it 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 from the same website, Mark Sombillo gave the series a review, writing that "Let's go through what was good. The soundtrack is fantastic. The word “epic” is far too often thrown around today with total disregard to its real meaning and applicability but I'm left with not many other words in order to describe the background music. Essentially it's the kind of orchestral performance that would be at home in a movie about the gods of Mt. Olympus fighting it out with the Titans. The ending credits song is also a first in a while that has struck a chord in me. K∧N∧'s soulful singing perhaps doing more to remind me of how lonely Casshern's world is turning into rather than the story itself. Character design also has a bit of nostalgic feel to it, a light nod to the original series and the era it was re-envisioned from; you can be forgiven for thinking you were watching Battle of the Planets all over again. 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".