VHS Review: Casshan - Robot Hunter Volume One (1993 - 1994)

Posted by Retrokaiser On Wednesday, June 4, 2014 0 comments

Before we kick off the review I would just like to mention that the following review was written somewhere between late-2012 to early-2013.  My review skills have grown a lot since then and I am surprised that they have grown in such little time.  What I am trying to say is that this came from a time where I was a bit rougher and not as expressive as I am today and my reviews weren't as long.  This review has been sitting on the shelf long enough and is time for it to finally come out.  So sit back and enjoy this rare review (not so rare now) being released for the first time ever... Well nearly for the first time ever as this review was released on April Fools Day 2014 but it was converted into binary as it also doubled up as a teaser to promote this review (great, I'm hyping it up too much now).

"Casshan: Robot Hunter - Volume One" contains the first two episodes of a four part OVA series. The show is about a female soldier named Luna living in a post-apocalyptic world taken over by a robot army ruled by The Black King. Luna and the rest of the human survivors are hoping that they will be saved from Black King's evil robot army by the legendary hero Casshan giving it a very Jesus Christ style of storytelling. I don't mind the story but there have been many shows like this that have done the whole "legendary hero returns" story a lot better than what this does.  (Click "Read More" to read the full review).


Animation and art are the best thing about this show but it does look quite old with it's gritty dirty look. However I do quite like the character designs as they do fall under the line of classic superhero and super-villain look and makes them very memorable looking. The quality of the video feels very bootleg as it looked like it was just simply dubbed from the US releases. Funny enough this could actually be the case as Kiseki was a very cheap ass company that cut corners (but that's for another time). While I did say it looked like it was dubbed from the US tape the picture quality is still very watchable but could still be a bit better.

The English dub is very terrible as it sounds very wooden and stale to a point where it makes the show nearly impossible to watch. This is sad as this could have been a decent show at best but instead we have something that sounds like the acting was done by pit-bulls with diarrhea AKA most of today’s musical artists (dare they call themselves artists) which is bad even for Streamline Pictures (who dubbed this version I'm reviewing). For those who have no idea who Streamline Pictures are, they are just an old dubbing group owned by MGM that did very crappy dubs 

What baffles me the most is that this old release got a R18+ (the highest a non-pornographic program can get in Australia) rating when you could easily get this played on a kids channel like Cartoon Network as it is as tame as watching He-Man and Transformers (well nearly as they would have to censor out a brief boob scene). Thankfully the current pressing of this show was re-rated with a much more appropriate M15+ rating. Anime in Australia is very weirdly rated and that will not be the last time I say that (see Black Rock Shooter review in "MCM #7" to hear more bitching on the Australian rating system). Sadly the dub of the show has killed any chance of this getting a recommendation and is better served being used as a blunt weapon in a fight with those stank-ass feral neighbors who look and act like something out of Jersey Shore and My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding.  


Title: Casshan Robot Hunter
Genre: Anime/Animated, Action, Sci-Fi
Running Time: 60 minutes (2 episodes)
Animation Studio: Tatsunoko Productions, Artmic
Distributor: Kiseki Films
Rating: R18+ (Occasional Nudity, Violence)
Price: Varies
Recommended: No

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