[Anime Classics]

Plot Summary

In the near future, robot technology has advanced to the point of self-awareness. Under the leadership of the “Black King,” machines have decimated the human population and conquered the world. Those who survived the early holocaust have been enslaved for life. But throughout the hardships, a lone hero appears as the savior of mankind. He is Casshan - a fusion of man and machine driven to combat Black King and his forces to the end.

My Thoughts

This series has a good balance of cool fights and interesting character development. I'm a sucker for anime with a good soundtrack. There's this beautiful cello song that plays at all the dramatic moments. There's a really sweet love story between Casshan and the female main character. Casshan is torn with the conflict of finding his identity as a human or a robot. And just when you think this anime might be getting too sappy, the next scene has humans getting killed in the typical bloody anime style. I love it that the enemy robot army is consistent with its corporate branding, like Transformers with their Autobot and Decepticon icons. I loved this anime so much that, back in the day, I recorded it on VHS from the Sci-fi channel and re-watched it many times.

Side Notes

There's some confusion with how this was released. In Japan, it was released as a 4-episode OVA series. In the North America, it was compiled together and released as a movie. For the sake of patriotism, I sorted Cashan as a movie rather than a series. Also, the North American release translated this as “Casshan”. The correct translation is “Casshern”, so you might see other places on the Internet calling it that.

Buy From Amazon

You can buy this movie from Amazon. It goes for around $30-60 (US).

Download

Casshan: Robot Hunter can be watched or downloaded from Archive.org (Internet Archive), or downloaded via torrents from Nyaa. These sites are the best, safest, and most dependable resources to get anime for free.

Watch on Archive.org

Notes

• To cast the videos to your TV using AirPlay or Chromecast, press the button. This button becomes available when you start playing the video.
• The playable video is English dubbed. If you want Japanese language with subtitles, you need to download Casshan: Robot Hunter from Nyaa.
• Archive.org tends to be slow. Downloading Casshan: Robot Hunter from Nyaa is better. Additionally, Nyaa most likley offers a higher quality video, or even a Blu-ray quality video.

Download from Nyaa

Notes

• If you don't know what torrents are, YouTube has tutorials. Be mindful that torrent downloads aren't instant. Depending on your Internet speed and number of seeds, it could take up to 24 hours for an anime to download.
• If you need a torrent client, these are the best (they're all free).
• The majority of video downloads from Nyaa are in “MKV” format, and less commonly in “AVI”. If you need a good video player to play these formats, VLC Media Player is the best (and it's free). It's available on every OS, including iOS and Android.

Is the MKV too big?

If you download a large Blu-ray quality MKV from Nyaa, it is possible that your computer or phone/tablet isn't fast enough to play it at full speed. In this case, you can use HandBrake. It's a free video converter; use it to shrink down the video. If you need help using HandBrake, YouTube has tutorials. Another option is to use Plex (mentioned below) because it automatically downsamples large videos when it streams them to your TV.

Playing on your TV

The easiest way to play MKV and AVI videos on your TV is with Plex. It streams movies from your computer to your TV through your Wi-Fi. It's a free app. Install it on your Windows or Mac, then install it on your set-top box (Apple TV, Roku, Fire sticks, etc.). Just note that Plex will only detect these movies in an Other Videos library because the “Movies” library doesn't detect rare/obscure anime classics. If you need help, YouTube has tutorials.