Casshern Sins.

My first experiences with Shigeyasu Yamauchi’s work were the two DBZ Broly movies that he directed. Considering my later experiences with his work, these two movies stand out as being nothing like the pensive, angst filled themes that are typical of Yamauchi (even when it comes to Street Fighter). Instead, if you’re a DBZ fan, all you get out of that movie is some nice action. Either way you’ll come out wondering exactly why Broly is so revered in some segments of Z fandom.

That note aside, Casshern Sins is made in the true vein of Yamauchi despite my wildly different expectations for the show. Not being aware of who the director was, I was expecting a grandiose, bombastic slugfest full of hot-blooded heroes and villains when I first saw the designs. It is quite the opposite. Having watched 10 episodes, most are formulaic stories focused on Casshern encountering a person with a story to tell and it usually ends with him being frustrated and full of guilt of what he's done in the past-- a past he cannot remember in the first place. At the point where I am in the story, he looks like about to find a way to cope with his past, which is encouraging in terms of looking towards future episodes.

Essentially, Casshern Sins is an old-school take on apocalyptic story using today's animation. The character designs hark back to the 70s and 80s and the entire script has a kind of melodrama permeated throughout that gives off the impression that this is something that would be made back in that era. The most striking thing about the production is the coloring, designed here by Kunio Tsujita. This is the best example that I can think of where the color design actually adds another important layer to the visuals and is vital to setting up the atmosphere of the story instead of just being there. Not that I want to diminish the hard work of anybody who's involved in making animation presentable, but the work done here really left an impression on me. Tsujita also worked on The Tatami Galaxy , a show where you see a plethora of color designs (though, Yuasa's works are always interesting in that respect).

Overall the animation has been nice when it comes to the fights, but there have been two fights that stand out. The first was the fight in episode 6, which is handled by Norio Matsumoto, a master at this kind of material. The other was Naoki Tate in episode 10, the prolific animator on One Piece. He handles the first section of the main fight in this episode (a character starts fighting like Sanji, so it stands even if you're not familiar with animators). The opening is a solo effort in terms of animation, all done by Yoshihiko Umakoshi, who's also the character designer and the chief animation director for more than a dozen episodes. Episode 8 is also a solo effort in terms of 1st Key Animation by Tatsufumi Itō. This particular episode reminded me of a plot that would be more at home in a Macross series (singing in order to save the world), but maybe there's something in the culture barrier that makes me miss out on something here.

Despite my different expectations of the series and the fact that I haven't been a huge fan of the director's previous work, Casshern Sins has actually turned out to my liking so far. Recommended to those who want old-school melodrama in new packaging.