What a view | Cannon Busters: the latest original anime from Netflix is an enjoyable ride
- The series is adapted from Tokyo-based American animator LeSean Thomas’ comics of the same name
- Cartoons are not just for children, as illustrated by the show’s post-watershed action and adult humour
Gone are the days when cartoons were for children. Cannon Busterson Netflix is testament to that, because although it features a chirpy little maintenance droid (hello, Star Wars) and a magnificent muscle car-cum-1950s Cadillac that transforms itself into, well, something closely resembling a Transformer, it would undoubtedly be a post-watershed viewing experience on regular television.
Made by Japanese studio Satelight, this is Cowboys & Aliens on intergalactic steroids. Butchery and blood abound. Heavy weapons blast desolate desert towns and the soundtrack booms along as wild-haired outlaw Philly the Kid, who is indestructible, tries anyway to outrun a murderous bunch of samurai-shaped robots with cannons for faces, as well as scarred, eyepatch-toting human bounty hunters probably modelled on the United States National Rifle Association’s rank and file.
Much to Philly’s annoyance, the droid, accompanied by Sam (“special associate model”), an excessively polite and overfriendly robot (hello again, Star Wars) has inadvertently become his travelling companion. Sam’s mission, meanwhile, is to track down her best friend and significant other, Kelby. Sam is a refugee from the kingdom of Botica, of which Kelby is the prince. Being a royal, Kelby was spirited to safety when Botica was largely destroyed by a malicious, rampaging magician. Being a bot, Sam was left to fall out of a tree.
It’s a madcap romp also graced by a couple of low-IQ punks straight out of Mad Max-land; vicious, sex-siren femme fatale Syrena; and jolly Mama Hitch, whose primary skill is skinning human corpses to make leather. Man (and woman) versus machine; evil versus good; the morally ambiguous hero on a journey to redemption … the gang’s all here, in this live-wire adaptation of the Cannon Busters comic books by Tokyo-based American animator LeSean Thomas.
It’s not without a certain rakish humour either. “What type of sport do you play where the balls get scratched?” asks the naive, ever-optimistic Sam. “It sounds like a real delight.”