Series Review - Cannon Busters

This was the promo for the Canon Busters kickstarter campaign. Sadly the series looks nothing like this!

It's with a heavy heart I write this review. Probably one of the toughest I've ever written in forever and the reason is... well I'll explain.

Lemme start at the beginning and the beginning starts with the original Cannon Busters creator, LeSean Thomas. For those that do not know, LeSean started as comic creator. His first comic Arkanium (2002) was something that even now most artists can't grasp in energy and fluid dynamic so, obviously, I became a fan since I first saw it. After that, and since Japanimation was a great influence for him (and me) he started another project called Boondocks (2005 - 2014) that I never got to see but between projects he released Cannon Busters (2005). A comic that was a mist of fantasy, western and action which no one could predict the outcome. Unfortunately that project was halted and LeSean went to South Korea to work on other shows like Legend of Korra (2012) and other projects but he did manage to make a pilot through a successful kickstarter campaign - see video bellow.

Time passed, and after more than ten years, Netflix announced that it was making the anime series!

Oh what joy for me!!! Finally my all time favorite action hero comics would come to life by the hands of one of the most brilliant creators I've been following since forever. Images of DieBuster, FLCL, Studio Trigger, Full Metal Alchemist, One Piece, Lupin III all rushed through my mind, expecting the series to be all this and more.

However... to my biggest disappointment, it was none of this. Cannon Busters is a mix-mash copy-paste of every other forgettable look-a-like anime series made with US money in mind and not at the least creative in any sense.

First, the design changed... like a lot! I had no problem with this since I know that animation requires a much simpler design for the animator to work off. But, I was expecting that the change made the animation better, not worse.

Second, the story's just horrible! I mean, the base is same as the comic but the way it is presented episode after episode, nothing ever changes and we learn nothing we hadn't already picked up in the first two episodes. After twelve episodes the plot stays exactly the same as the in first episode. No villains get eliminated, no depth of any character get's revealed and no twist whatsoever that could makes us go "Oh! So that's what happen!" get's revealed. Plus, we are following two characters stories that aren't connected at all. At one point I was hoping they would be different time lines and one was years before/after the other. No such luck!

Characters are as shallow as you can have in any Shoujo anime, the animation is poor and the episodes are like glued stories or eye pleasers of other series like Trigun, Cowboy Bebop or Gurren Laggan, even Alita's city Zalem is there at some point. Why? Why not?!. It's all so badly done. I mean, they couldn't even fit a good Itano Circus into it!

It was just frustrating to watch all twelve episodes. The only two that stand out are episode six, agains't a good design villain and episode eleven, that has multiple fights into it but even these are bellow even the worst of any Studio Trigger episode in any series.

Bad. Lazy. Uncreative. Copied. Rushed. Are all the things that come to mind after watching Cannon Busters.

Had they done six well prepared, super dynamic DieBuster robots vs robots Gainax action mini series and I would be applauding it on my feet. Seeing this after the awesome job Netflix did with LDR (Love, Death & Robots) and after what I saw from the kickstarter pilot, I just felt they were reaching for the easy completion and not the pinnacle of animation by US creators.

As I've stated before, it was hurtful writing this as it was hurtful to see such a great thing become this trainwreck of an anime. Had they stayed on track since the comic and this would not only would have been great, it would be memorable! Instead...

A one out of five.