Having been raised in the Christian atmosphere most of my life, I’ve always been taught that death is an unnatural thing in the grand design of God. It had no place in The Garden of Eden). Death is merely the unnatural result of our great, great, great, …, grandfather’s sin. Eventually, one day when God will return to take his people to heaven, there will be no death but eternal life, eternal bliss, and eternal fellowship with each other.
Killing never looked so right.
There is a magical moment in Casshern Sins 8. Not one of those feel-good moments in Natsume Yuujinchou, but one that is both surreal and sublime.
Here, toward the end, both heaven and hell converge at one place, but, at the same time, both are definitively separated by the concert dome’s walls that echo the sound of destruction on one side, the sound of hope the other. Yet, not unless the pressures of these two opposing sounds have worked together would the walls hold up.
with apology to Hemingway
Casshern Sins should’ve been a perfect show for a blog, such as mine, whose lofty charter is to attribute meanings to a meaningless world. Here in Casshern Sins, we have a world in ruin; the lucky ones are long gone, the unlucky slowly rusting away—the world in utter despair. Yet, there are still a remnant of characters, Akoes, Sophita and, in this episode, Lizabel, who manage to find a beautiful melody in such desolate world.
Apostle Casshern
Many of you know that in Christianity Jesus is the savior sent to the world by God for the salvation of mankind. What you may not know is that the plan of salvation was not what everyone had expected back two millenniums ago. The Jewish people had thought of their savior, the Messiah, as a powerful strong-arm leader who would drive away their oppressors (the Romans at the time) and restore their ruined nation of Israel. But instead, here came a carpenter who had claimed to be sent by God to rescue the oppressed, but he could hardly helped himself as people were dragging him up to the cross. The sinners thought they had overcome God’s plan.
Oh boy, I need a cold shower.
Sophita is the robot’s version of the 60’s hippies—live for the moment, express your feelings uninhibitedly, toss all caution into the wind—except that instead of fucking, she prefers fighting.
The whole episode is better understood, once we substitute each instance of the word fight with fuck (or shag if you’re British). Go ahead, watch the episode again with that in mind.
In a crappy world with nowhere worth going, this place certainly seems beautiful enough to stay.
Casshern Sins is starting to shine, through episode three. Despite being a very quiet episode in terms of action, it makes tidal waves of emotions from the dialogs between Casshern and Akoes, all of which distill themselves to a key decision the former makes and the blunt but yet poetic death the latter arrives at.
Don't you just hate it when girls do that.
Casshern Sins has finally not disappointed me in a disturbing but at the same time enlightening way. The issue of death is revisited from the context of robots who were once immortal but are now forced to embrace death, or ruins in robotic terms.
and annoying as hell too
This is the first time a character has killed a show for me. She, or it or whatever it is, was plain annoying and creepy! Half way through the episode, I was saying to myself, there is no way I will watch this hideous face and listen to her whiny voice for thirteen or so episodes. Then I got my hope up when I thought she was going to die, but damn it, she didn’t die! Gee, since when do giant robots have so much tenderness in their death grip?! Just squeeze and pop it goes. No wonder these robots are getting extinct.
