Were all female robots in this world built with hair on the same white-to-red color scale? This is probably the third episode where Casshern’s run into a new lady robot whom I’ve initially confused with one he’s already dealt with. It might seem like some Hitchcockian “doubling” if we didn’t keep running into enough of these gals to upset any sort of potential symmetry.
That aside, the requisite “fabular factor” was evocative as it’s ever been. To pile on another comparison point, this series really feels like some kickass take on THE LITTLE PRINCE, at times, for the way it mixes tragedy and whimsy together like water paints it then applies to a snowboard’s decals. Again, there’s something so conceptually ripe to this destroyer figure being so fair and boyish that this poor girl wants to use him to somehow raise hopes in the Ruin. Conflate that with her heartbreakingly misguided scheme to melt him down into a beautiful bell and you’ve got something that truly feels like a story young robots would be told at bedtime.
Of course… that’s all a set-up for the girl’s malformed bell to attract another gang of robots for Casshern to kick the shit out of. Got to love the dichotomy, no?
Watch this episode, "The Woman of the Tall Tower” above and decide for yourself, then read my comments on the previous episode here.
After arguing all those related debates about adaptations vs. originals and long form vs. short form storytelling, I’ve got to say that SAMURAI 7 already has some edge over SEVEN SAMURAI by virtue of how much space it has to develop its heroes.
Again, it’s been a long, long time since I’ve seen the original, but as I recall, you only really ever got to know the bald veteran leader, the earnest novice who gets busted for romancing one of the peasant girls and then the big talker that Mifune played. The rest of the crew was just kind of there to fill out the roster and, eventually, the body count. Here, a more deliberate pace has been chosen to put some personalities to these paragons. Granted, it was always going to be easier to tell them apart due to their colorful and wildly different designs, but I still appreciate what seems like a conscious effort to take better advantage of the space.
Considering the explicit involvement of Kurosawa’s estate, I’d venture a guess that this was made by some people who’d been frustrated for years for how they didn't get to know those samurai better in all the all-too-brief hours of the original’s screen time.
Or maybe they simply thought it was missing steampunk robots and slo-mo supermoves?
Watch this episode, "The Entertainer” above 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
Well Tom, you're not done with meeting new female robots just yet.