Cannon Busters

I hear what all the other critics are saying about this series being derivative of better anime but let's be real, all anime is derivative of the best anime, how can it not be? Personally I was excited to watch this series. As a hardcore anime fan I've seen everything and in recent years I've found fewer series that can hold my attention. So what's so different about this series? If you don't know, it's the brainchild of American storyboard artist Lesean Thomas who worked on great american anime series like Boondocks and Black Dynamite. I was super excited to see what he would do with his own project, I was not disappointed. What I responded to when I first started watching anime was that glimpse into Japanese culture but now that I'm older I'm ready to see what people like me, who are not Japanese but grew up watching Japanese anime have to add to this art form and apparently so does Japan. This summer Japan announced a program to expand anime production overseas. Japan wants more countries to get involved to expand this incredible art form to every corner of the globe. I feel that this inclusiveness will only make anime better in the long term. To be honest Cannon Busters is far from perfect but it's not bad either. I found that I really enjoyed the world that Thomas created and all the different characters, especially these diesel female fighters mixed in with robots, lizard people, cat people and to be frank, black people. This new anime world is what captured my imagination and got me to stay through all 12 episodes. My only major criticism is that I feel this 1st season really needed to be 24 episodes. I think the constrains of 12 episodes stifled the story. In 24 episodes we would of seen the prince grow more, his relationship with Hilda and Oden could have been explored more, and Sam, Philly the Kid and Casey would have had more time for their adventure. This was a great break for the series creator Lesean Thomas and from him I expect even greater series to come. I'm certain that before we know it American anime will be adding more and more titles to that greats anime list. We just need to give it time and nurture our homegrown talen. I think Cannon Busters is worth a look and I look forward to its maybe future.

Let me just start this review by saying that this anime does a lot of things right. It starts off with an interesting hook and displays a beautiful and intricate world. The animation is fantastic and it has a killer opening that will keep you from skipping the intro. While watching I couldn't help feeling like this anime was kind of a throwback to Cowboy Bebop or Trigun. However, this doesn't display nearly the same quality in writing or polish as either of those shows. After the first couple of episodes the shiny animation and amazing soundtrack couldn't keep me from noticing the shows flaws. And as the show continued, these flaws became more egregious and severely hindered my enjoyment.

The first major flaw I noticed were the characters. While naive and upbeat characters aren't always annoying, Sam's persistent friendly attitude and innocent lack of situational awareness grates on my nerves. Mostly because it undercuts any potential tension that may have been there otherwise but also because there has to be a limit to not understanding when someone is trying to kill you and is not friendly. I don't care that it can be explained by saying that was how she was programmed, the point is that it gets incredibly annoying. Philly has the opposite problem, he is an arrogant and incompetent . I feel like you can either make a character a competent or someone who is incompetent but has redeeming qualities. Philly is neither and makes you question why you should care about his fate and what purpose he even serves for the story. Casey is probably the only character in the main cast I like and Prince Kelby is your typical sheltered annoying brat. Thankfully the side characters tend to have more interesting and likable personalities but we are stuck following Philly, Sam or Kelby most of the time.

The Second Flaw is the action. It is underwhelming and kind of disappointing. This is not helped by the fact that they often cut away from it and to something a lot less interesting. It's a pity since the intro has amazing looking action, however, it looks like they couldn't replicate the pace and intensity for the actual anime. Finally, the pacing for this anime is slow. There seems to be a lot of filler episodes that don't progress the plot and even within episodes there is a lot of empty space where not much happens. It seems like they were struggling to justify 12 episodes and had to drag out the story and runtime to match it. This is perplexing considering that the season ends on a cliffhanger.

All in all I would say that this anime is mediocre. It won't take priority over any shows you are currently watching but, if you find yourself lacking in good shows you could do worse than this one.

This show takes me back to fond childhood memories of anime. The transforming Cadillac is just fantastic, definitely my favorite character. Fun song, fun characters, and a fun story.

It's rare to find a title that grabs and holds my attention. Great action, great storyline progression and great character development. I'm almost addicted to this show.

This show is for people who dont usually watch anime or new comers. Its an adventure to save the kingdom following a mix of characters , some really annoying, across a wasteland. This anime combines the settings of Trigun and Cowboy bebop, The MC is influenced by Spike you can even hear the english voice trying to imitate Steven Blum, with heavy influences from Studio Trigger. This anime isnt for regular anime fans as it brings nothing we havent seen before and the execution is average its a story we all know.. The animation and 3D go really well together which we dont see often and the opening song is AWSOME. With the quality of anime being released in Japan i dont think this show stands a chance