- Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
- Video Codec: AVC/MPEG-4
- Resolution: 1080p/24
- Audio Codec: Japanese Dolby TrueHD 2.0 Stereo, English Dolby TrueHD 5.1
- Subtitles: English
- Rating: TV-MA
- Region: A (Region-Locked)
- Discs: 7 (4 x Blu-ray + 3 x DVD)
- Studio: Funimation
- Blu-ray Release Date: August 2, 2011
- List Price: $74.98
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Overall
[Rating:4/5]
The Series
[Rating:4.5/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:4.5/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:4/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:3.5/5]
Click thumbnails for high-resolution 1920X1080p screen captures
(Screen captures are lightly compressed with lossy JPEG thus are meant as a general representation of the content and do not fully reveal the capabilities of the Blu-ray format)
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The Series
[Rating:4/5]
Casshern Sins: The Complete Series brings together all 24 episodes of the series, previously released on Blu-ray by Funimation, in two parts. The series acts as a reboot of the Neo Human Casshern anime series. Its focus is on Casshern, a cybernetic creature, who awakes with no memory of his past. He is alone in a vast wasteland, a post-apocalyptic Earth, left to do battle against giant robots known as Bandits that all want to devour him. Why they want to devour him holds the key to the mystery that is his past. They all believe that devouring him will save them from “the Ruin.”
The entire planet, robots and humans alike, are dying out. It has been years since robots, once indestructible, overran the humans and made them nearly extinct, but now even they are succumbing to a corrosive disorder known as “the Ruin,” which the entire planet is dying from. Casshern has been labeled the culprit for the woes of the world. It has been said that he killed a woman known as “the sun called moon,” also known as Luna, and said to have the ability to give out life equally to robots and humans. Through his killing Luna, Casshern is said to have gained immortality for himself and to have brought the Ruin upon the world.
Alone, with his robotic dog, Friender, who is also unaffected by the Ruin, Casshern wanders the desolate world, fighting off the bandits and protecting those few humanoid robots who choose to live out their lives as humans and accept their eventual Ruin quietly. But, he also desires to find Luna, who is rumoured by some to still be alive.
Those bandits also have another agenda — to join the army of Dio, another cybernetic creature nearly identical to Casshern, and just as powerful, created by Braiking Boss, the robotic overlord who once ruled over the world that ordered Casshern to kill Luna.
On the search for Luna, believed to still be alive and capable of curing the Ruin, a decay that brings death to every robot on the planet, Casshern not only surprisingly finds friends in Lyuze, a woman once set on killing him, and a little girl named Ringo who both become his traveling partners, but he also begins to find meaning in his own life.
Casshern Sins has a sleek animation style and brooding storyline. Without giving too much away, there are some surprising plot twists that make the story well worth watching. Like many anime series, Casshern Sins is a brooding and dark sci-fi adventure. Though the idea of the brooding loner who must be redeemed is nothing new to anime (or sci-fi, or any form of fiction for that matter), Casshern Sins still manages to set up an interesting premise that makes viewers want to see more, but it does tend to become a bit repetitive from one episode to the next, one battle to the next. However, there’s more than enough mystery and beautiful animation here to keep the story interesting.
Video Quality
[Rating:4/5]
As I said in the original reviews of this series, Casshern Sins looks really good on Blu-ray. There are no like aliasing and motion judder and the AVC/MPEG-4 1080p/24 transfer is clean and detailed with beautifully rendered line art and vibrant colors, especially reds and blues, which really seem to shimmer.
Audio Quality
[Rating:3.5/5]
The English dub is provided in Dolby TrueHD 5.1 and the original Japanese language track in Dolby TrueHD 2.0 stereo. The 5.1 mix is aggressive with heavy use of the surround channels for discrete sound effects, lots of ambience and effects panned around the room. Low frequencies are deep, with punches and explosions having heft, but not necessarily being boomy. Dialogue is clean and mixed well in the mix. High frequencies are tweaked a bit, which becomes a little fatiguing and the overall sound level is pushed rather high, with dynamics limited a bit.
The Japanese 2.0 track is just as aggressive, but has the volume scaled back just a tad and dialogue sounds a little more open and ambient. It has a wide soundstage across its two channels and aggressive directional panning. Dialogue is clear, even during the most active, sound effects-laden scenes.
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:2/5]
There haven’t been any new supplements added to this new complete set over the separate Part 1 and Part 2 Blu-ray releases.
The supplements provided with this release are:
- Pre-Air Event (1.78:1; 1080p/24; 0:11.58) — The Japanese cast and director hold a pre-release Q&A session.
- Mini-Concert (1.78:1; 1080p/24) — Color Bottle perform their song “Azure Flowers,” which is used for the opening credits of Casshern Sins.
- Original Commercials (1.78:1; 480i/60)
- Textless Songs:
- Opening: Aoi Hana (1.78:1; 1080p/24; 0:01.32)
- Closing: Reason (1.78:1; 1080p/24; 0:01.32)
The Definitive Word
Overall:
[Rating:4/5]
Casshern Sins offers excellent animation and an engaging storyline that translates well to high definition. The mixture of stunning visuals, brooding plot lines and frenetic sci-fi action make for thrilling entertainment.
Additional Screen Captures
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[amazon-product align=”right”]B0050UEVO6[/amazon-product]
Shop for more Blu-ray titles at Amazon.com
Overall
[Rating:4/5]
The Series
[Rating:4.5/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:4.5/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:4/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:3.5/5]
