Watching 'Cannon Busters' Episode 3

Unlike the previous episode, I found myself enjoying this episode far more. There is some gruesome imagery present as we get to see humans that had been skinned, with the skin having been used as clothing for the family that is living in this ranch. During this segment we get a really good example of environmental storytelling. There is a clothes rack that is also present in the barn where the skinned bodies are hanging, and on this rack is a collection of different sets of clothes that perfectly put across what kind of people had lost their lives here. On one occasion, there was clothing from a bride and a groom, which makes it all the more tragic.

The logistics of Philly’s immortality becomes quite interesting here; not only that, you also get to appreciate just how high his tolerance for pain truly is. In addition, there are different times for resurrection based on the way he was killed. This time he was poisoned and therefore took far longer to come back when compared to the previous time, where he was shot. This is an interesting mechanic to give, as it would make the timing of his deaths far more important when it comes to a clutch moment.

During the flashbacks to the kingdom, we get to see that the villain has revealed he is in fact part of the royal family. We are left to assume that he was the result of an affair. Regardless, we are really treading heavily into Arslan Senki now (I am sure there are also other examples, Arslan is the first to come to mind is all.). We are also treading on a bit of Final Fantasy XV with the familial ties that are involved from the royal side of things. The more I am watching this show, the more I feel as if I am being told indirectly that I should be watching or playing all these other media that I had been listing.

While the mother and the daughter of the family are talking about how they are going to kill the heroes, while also making sure we know that this family is the result of inbreeding (as if it was not obvious in the prior episode), we are also shown what Sam and Casey are up to in the hole they had been tossed into. There is a gag of the two robots being shocked repeatedly that gets old after the first time they show it off. Unfortunately, they repeat it twice more before they get on with the story, and this makes it seem as if the animators were padding out the show so that they could artificially extend the arc, which would in turn extend the length of the season as a whole. What makes it all the worse is that you could feel that they are dragging, and it really pulls you out of the show.

Eventually we are treated to the episode actually starting, and something happens instead of spending precious screen time on the comedic gold that is the inbred brothers, which falls so spectacularly flat that it was a little painful to get through. Sam and Casey escape and Philly unhooks himself, and afterwards, he kills the mother. We are then treated to a decent enough action set piece that actually has a bit of momentum to it. We get to a point that Philly is cornered by the daughter, who, while the design of her is beautiful, is definitely evil, and really pulls it off well. If I had to give these last two episodes anything, it is that the daughter of the inbred family is a joy to watch as the villain. That being said, there is no tension in the scene at all as we already know that dying, to Philly, is an inconvenience at best that he would ideally like to avoid.

We are also treated to yet another form that Sam is able to turn into so that she is able to kill the daughter before Philly is killed again. We get more The Iron Giant references as Sam does not remember that she had just turned into a weapon that obliterated the entire ranch that they were held in. We then move swiftly on to the next episode, and hopefully it would be far better than these previous two were.