00:25 - the longest opening scene yet, and, well, it's chock full of info. Casshern didn't decide to kill Luna, and it almost seems as if he had no real choice. In this way most of his angst about it is generated because he doesn't have his memories and thinks that maybe, somehow, he willingly did it, willingly brought the Ruin on the world.

02:40 - Casshern is brought to tears by a huge mound of slag. As always, even without words we get the feeling that he's blaming himself for the destruction.

03:55 - Friender's inability to stay angry at a Casshern who is constantly torturing himself with guilt is likely a trend we're going to see in this show among characters.

05:45 - but the girl sure is trying... Seems to be the type that needs to have an enemy or someone to hate lest she suddenly have to go about doing something positive.

08:10 - Well, one thing for sure is that the Ruin was not some kind of instant apoclypse. The fact that Luna's protector died a slow death, in a world still filled with sunlight and trees, sure points to that, but... The fact that her Ruin started the moment Luna died...

09:00 - good stuff with the ruin starting in the fall and the first Ruin victim's death coming at sunset.

11:00 - And, of course, like most lazy, guilt-ridden people, Casshern says, "Hey, well, if I did a bad thing, just kill me!" Of course, only reactionary fools would take him up on this offer, since the clear thing to do is to make him redeem himself not just through dying, but trying to actively amend for his act until he dies.

12:40 - I'll say it only once. The head. Cut off the goddamn head. Slashing his body up with all those wild, shallow attacks might be a great way to take out frustration, but, as the guy said himself, it's not enough to kill him.

13:10 - Asimov's Third Law of Robotics kicks in. It came up last episode, as Casshern said he didn't "become unlike" himself when Sophita stabbed him because there was no killing intent (also, matches with his massacre of the weak robots at the church in episode 2, since even though there was no way for them to kill him, they certainly meant to). But I'm still having trouble with Episode 3, where Casshern seemed to be content to let Friender kill him... HAve to re-watch that one later.

13:20 - His eyes aren't clouded over, but, that face... Artistic inconsistency, or?

14:50 - Everybody seems to realize that Casshern is unable to let himself be killed, and so he does the only smart thing he can, just walk away.

15:35 - Spare parts that haven't been Ruined? Tell us more!

16:20 - Hope. He says it'll come if their bodies get better (aka, the Ruin stops), but, of course, one can imagine that the Ruin is simply caused by the lack of hope in the world (Luna).

17:25 - hmm... somehow this episode has really felt like they're holding back on showing the violence... I can only wonder why, but... personally it's not something that i like to see.

20:10 - Well, guess those fears of toning down the violence were a bit premature.

21:45 - Evil twin brother? Well, sure, it seems to be in a ton of robot stories like these, so why not...

Looks like we'll get a little more back story, as well as an opponent who can really stand toe to toe with Casshern next episode...

Somehow I wasn't really feeling this one all that much.