Houlgrave recommended this series to me, which really intrigued me. A few years ago, I watched its first episode, and at that time it seemed like nothing more than standard “boy meets mecha”-fare. After watching the entire series, though, I’m glad to see that this series is much more than that, and definitely a product of Good Gonzo.

The series starts out as something that Mars Daybreak should have been: a fun adventure series, in this case following a delivery-boy who doesn’t mind dangerous jobs that involve a few mecha-fights here and there. The interesting part about the mechas in this series is that you can’t ride them, and instead you have to control them from outside. The cast of characters is varied and interesting: there basically are more children who found themselves such a mecha, and the series explores them as each of them is trying to act out his/her own sense of judgement.

A huge theme in this series is taking responsibility, and it goes further than you might expect at first sight. This series doesn’t merely preach “thou shalt take responsibility for thy actions”, it also critically asks when and why one should do that, and whether it wouldn’t be better to just go into your own way. This is where the diversity in characters comes in again, because of so many different viewpoints at this issue, it’s really able to explore these topics.

The big criticism against this series is of course that the plot doesn’t always flow as smoothly as you’d like. If during a big action-scene you suddenly see two characters pop up from out of nowhere, you’re going to have to assume that they were worried about some other character, and came to check it out, even though this is never directly said. This can also be a good thing, depending on the way you look at it. On one way, it’s indeed a bit lazy, but on the other hand it’s a series that doesn’t assume its viewers to be stupid, and the creators assume that their viewers are able to conclude that two plus two equals four, without having to spoon-feed it to them. Unfortunately, this mindset does not always work: there are a few very rather jarring convenient coincidences, which just serve to push the story into the direction the creators want it to. That’s indeed a bit lazy, but at least the results of these plot-twists make up for it.

Because what especially impressed me in this series was the completely different way that the plot evolves into during its second half. For a while, it really seems like it’s building up for a straightforward climax, but instead the mood of this series completely shifts and instead of focusing the climax of this series on lots of action and drama, the series finale instead aims to give a lot of depth to the series’ setting.

Overall, this is a series with a lot of diversity: not just in the characters, but especially the mood of the series can take on lots of different colours: from calm slice-of-life to a number of solid action- and comedy-episodes, to powerful drama, heart-warming character-development and mystery in the second half of the series. I think that that’s something typical of Good Gonzo, as you see that effect in a lot of their better series. The plot’s a bit jiggy, but because of that sacrifice Gonzo managed to put down a very nice series. Not to mention that this really is the first series I’ve run into that correctly understands the principles of Karate. Take that you generic shounen-series!

Short Synopsis: Casshern meets a girl who loves fighting.
Highlights: Subtle emotions rock.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8,5/10 (Awesome)
You know, back when that first episode ended I remember noting how Casshern Sins was too one-sided and how Casshern was too angsty, but I’m right at the point where I’m going to take that one back. Casshern Sins has been getting better and better with every episode, and at this point it’s my favourite of the new Fall-series after Mouryou no Hako (but then again, this one does have a few episodes of advantage against series as Tytania and Michiko to Hatchin, so who knows?).

The stories of the people that Casshern has been running into have all been excellent so far. This one explores a girl who through the chaos has come to love fighting. nd if she’s going to be destroyed, she might as well be destroyed being happy, and doing the thing she loved. That’s the basic set-up, but the really memorable part is the subtle character-development, with which she and Casshern come to understand each other through the course of the episoe. The pacing is very slow, but the subtlety makes excellent use of it.

I think that having a slow pacing like this series has, can either make or break your series, depending on how well you know to use it. The danger is of course boring your viewer to death without anything happening soon. The world Masterpiece Theatre solved this problem by adding lots of realism to keep the viewer busy, and with Casshern, it’s very subtle dialogue. A lot was said in this episode, and even though I didn’t understand everything, it felt that every line of dialogue contributed to the end result. On the opposite side of the spectrum, you have of course series like Naruto and Soul Eater, who try to lengthen their airtime by adding pointless exposition that everyone already could have guessed and doesn’t develop anything.

There’s just one thing that I want to see more in this series: an in-depth look at one of the robots who didn’t decide to look like a human. The ogre in this episode was a good start, but I’d like to see an even more in-depth look. As beautiful as the human designs in this series are, I think it’d really benefit the stories if we also get to see a bit more of their side, and why they’re letting themselves get killed off so easily.

Also… what happened to the dog?

Short Synopsis: An idol-turned-Shikabane kills people who don’t like her songs.
Highlights: Best fight so far; Makina’s background.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7/10 (enjoyable)
Okay, so I’ve gotten a lot of varied feedback on the new episode rating scale, some positive and some negative reactions. As a result, I’ve changed the scale a bit yet again, where anything above or equal to 7/10 means that I liked the series, as opposed to 6/10 (which was too low) or 8/10 (which meant me handing out only 8/10s for 95% of the cases).

In any case, this was a pretty strange episode for Shikabane Hime’s standards, where it spent the first few minutes on Keisei who decorated Ougi’s room full of figures and otaku-posters while he’s sleeping. While a bit funny, it did ruin this series’ mood a bit. On the other hand, however, it was a nice way to flesh out the different characters.

This really was an episode that was meant for both the cast to get closer together, and the viewer, to learn more about the characters. We finally learn a bit about Makina: it seems she was killed, along with her entire family in a fire. She already knew Keisei at that time, and something happened between the two that made Makina return as a Shikabane. The reason why Makina doesn’t berserk like all the other sis because of a contract she made with Keisei, where in exchange she gets to take his life-force (or something similar, at least) so that she can heal her wounds. Judging from the fact that the idol in this episode was surrounded by human allies, I’d say that it takes a skilled monk to make such a contract.

The enemy this time also got a bit more difficult than usual, and it’s good to see that the creators are adding an extra challenge to them, provided of course that they’re not going to drag on these fights over time. The idol’s story was a bit less interesting than the other episodes so far, but that may also be because that’s a subject I’m not interested in at all. Thankfully, the end-fight was an excellent one. I like how Makina doesn’t have any super-strength, but instead just a larger resistance than usual. And even then, when she leaps off a building, she still gets hurt, as opposed to other series where characters can jump off cliffs and are just fine after a few minutes of unconsciousness.