Got to say - - these five-second-long teasers have got to be some of the strangest “cold openings” I’ve ever run across. They feel almost like Andy Warhol’s attempt at a SIMPSONS couch gag or something. I suppose the idea is that you’ll eventually get to go back and somehow view them all as something continuous and coherent. As is, the snippets are giving maddeningly-brief glimpses of the murder that set this world into Ruin and this plot into motion.
The effect seems a little unnecessarily obfuscating at first but, after thinking about it, I see it adding much to the mythic quality of this saga and its inciting incident. In a lot of ways, it’s almost like the common creation myth for a sort of robot agnosticism (in contrast to the robot Gnosticism offered by the MATRIX trilogy). Like, the world is in a new post-industrial dark age, and each episode reveals a new sect with radically different ideas about the path to salvation and radically different interpretations of this one sacred text. Some think Luna’s still alive, some think Casshern’s robo-flesh grants immortality, some think that neither of the characters ever existed… and so on.
Actually, maybe it still “robot Gnosticism” - - just robot Gnosticism of a different stripe. Casshern’s legendary, and much disputed, assassination of Luna evokes Sophia’s creation of the Demiurge as a sort of transgressive, arrogant fall from grace that dooms the world to some prison of existence. I honestly don’t expect these parallels will stretch much farther, but you could write a crackerjack thesis paper on how the Ruin is perhaps the symptom of a material “false reality” that these robots can only escape after reaching some level of enlightment. Or maybe it’s just hope or purity of spirit… the characters do explicitly discuss that in this episode.
Again, it’s funny that a series about an asskicker in a white figure skating outfit and his robot dog has already provoked far deeper thought than pseudo-intellectual cyber-bunk like GHOST IN THE SHELL and TEXHNOLYZE, et al.
Well, that’s not fair - - they did provoke plenty of thoughts of “Oh geez… how much longer is this thing?”
Watch this episode, "By One’s Calling” here and decide for yourself, then read my comments on the previous episode here.
Tom Pinchuk’s a writer and personality with a large number of comics, videos and features like this to his credit. Visit his website - - tompinchuk.com - - and follow his Twitter: @tompinchuk
Geez, GiTS and Teknolyze getting a kicking.
It funny how different this Casshern series goes a different direction than the original, which was very saturday morning cartoon vibe and good vs evil. Here, your not sure what is right, allowing for a more thought provoking experience.
Yay, Friender gets the spotlight, and I hope to see more of Jin. All these rumors about Luna being alive makes these robots feel human. These robots should be thinking logically, but Casshern Sins robots are strange.
@YotaruVegeta said:
'Cause they've got it comin'.
@metalsnakezero said:
Yeah, like I've said, I've been getting the biggest kick out of this series because it's basically the more mature, deconstructionist take on MEGA MAN I've been wishing for.
@takashichea said:
That's another thing I like about the series. They've got no bones about all this robot business being a total fantasy.