Movie Review: Casshern

While adapting an epic story of humanity and morality in the hostility of war, Kazuaki Kiriya's Casshern presents the social and political turmoil of a post-apocalyptic world, as well as the ravaging of visual clarity. What works in the freedom of anime and graphic novels is heavily restricted in the world of live action, and too clearly a conflict of imagery and action steps to the forefront of this creatively flawed endeavor.

A 50-year war has left the planet a devastated and dying world and the Eastern Federation has risen to power in an attempt to restore order, though covert political machinations rapidly work to overthrow its foundation. Employed by a corrupt military organization, Dr. Kotaro Azuma (Akira Terao) tirelessly works in genetics with the ulterior motive to find a cure for his dying wife, and in the process discovers the revolutionary Neo-Cells and the ability to synthesize living organs. After a freak accident in Azuma's lab causes the creation of sentient life and the reincarnation of his dead son Tetsuya (Yusuke Iseya), a new battle begins as the outcast lifeforms (dubbed Neo-Sapiens) wage war on mankind and all hope of survival rests on the shoulders of Tetsuya (renamed Casshern), a post-apocalyptic superhero encased in indestructible armor.

Abandoning conventional narrative and relying solely on the fateful definition of "Casshern" in the film's opening text, those who forget the cryptic message will likely be lost to the superhero's paranormal creation. Replete with mystical reincarnation, afterlife ghosts, mutant zombies, and robot armies, everything presented in Kiriya's film is so fantastical that attempting to understand gives way to simple acceptance that anything can happen in this futuristic world. Unexplained phenomena becomes commonplace and the visuals accept responsibility for storytelling, which might have been a worthy replacement had the imagery adhered to more recognizable guidelines.