Why the low rating on mal?

Old_School_Akira said:
Because haters think it’s not ANIME

Yemi_Hikari said:


This. There are people who claim that it's not Anime because the source material is a Western source material, or there are people who claim that it's not Anime because it was released in both English and Japanese at the same time. There are also people who call the series cliche without actually watching something for themselves simply because the show shares quite a few tropes with certain series as if these shows somehow own the tropes and thus are the only ones which can utilize them.

Blazeofspikes said:
Its a anime that wants to follow the foot steps of shows like cowboy bepop/spacy dandy/etc yet it lacks the likability of such shows imo english dub wise.

Philly the kid starts off as one heck of a jerk type character that only gets less jerkish towards the middle of the series but I still find him unlikable as a character. The only thing I can relate to him which isn't a good trait for liking a character is being annoyed by the following 2 next characters that is Turnbuckle and Sam.

Turnbuckle and Sam are simply noisy characters and have no real character traits other than being side characters to make the main character do something for an episode and have a backstory.

The young prince, the king, the body guard, and the villain: all of these characters are one note cliche characters such as the young prince is snobby, the king's character is simply being a king, the body guard is simply a body guard, and the villain is simply a villain. The idea of a machine kingdom suppressing a magic kingdom which causes a magic kingdom to rise up against the machine kingdom sounds cool on paper but the execution through using these 4 characters made me want to skip the flash back and flash present scenes to get back to Philly the kid having to deal with 2 noisy annoying characters again as I would rather be annoyed than being bored.

I guess the only characters I kind of liked was the drunk assassin character but he came and gone. Same could probably be said about most of the one of characters but since they come and go incredibly fast I tend to feel disappointed that they couldn't stay for the whole ride as that is a recurring thing starting as early as episode 3 or so.

I would rate the show as incredibly average because if I wanted to watch a action show that has some goofiness to it. Then why would I spend the time to watch an incredibly average/annoying/cliche show when I could watch or rewatch the classics that people compare this average anime to?

I don't know who the target audience of this show is other than people who haven't watched trigun/space dandy/cowboy bebop and enjoy anime because its simply anime and have the free time to spend watching whatever.

If you have watched trigun/space dandy/cowboy bebop, then you are watching this show to see if its as good as these shows and I feel like your enjoyment will vary from terrible-average.

DSA-7 said:
6.6 average is already a above average score. If y'all really saying this is objectively a 8 or higher, I believe you must have watched it on some hard drugs. There's nothing wrong with liking something, but don't try to pretend it's low rating is only cus "haters!" and that it's far beyond it's given score, because it isn't.

JetBlackLink said:
Being cliche isn't exactly a problem. All ideas were already thought before. What really matters is the execution. And well, Cannon Busters has a decent execution. Not the best one, but a good one.

IKKIsama said:


It's actually rated below the real average (mean) MAL score which is 6.63.

Yemi_Hikari said:


This. There are people who claim that it's not Anime because the source material is a Western source material, or there are people who claim that it's not Anime because it was released in both English and Japanese at the same time. There are also people who call the series cliche without actually watching something for themselves simply because the show shares quite a few tropes with certain series as if these shows somehow own the tropes and thus are the only ones which can utilize them.

JetBlackLink said:
What is kinda annoying is seeing how this anime got this amount of hate when Netflix has a lot of worst shows, but I want to say - REALLY WORST shows - crappy stuff such as Sword Gai, A.I.C.O. Incarnation, Children of the Whales, ID-0, Hero Mask, Cagaster of an Insect Cage (has a nice manga but the anime adaptation was terrible), and even mediocre stuff such as Lost Song, Last Hope, Kuromukuro, among many others. Cannon Busters is simply considerably better than all of these other titles I mentioned in this single comment, but is treated like worst garbage than them by many people, wich is a shame.

A fair MAL avaliation for Cannon Busters would be 7,5/10.

Yemi_Hikari said:
I've stopped taking people who accuse something of being a "rip-off" or a "bad version" of something seriously. More often their accusations are based on the fact they dislike something - which is completely okay - rather than factual evidence. Again, there's nothing wrong with disliking something, but there is something wrong if you start throwing around those words - or even claiming any of the five story elements are "bad" without evidence to back themselves up with. Why? Without the evidence as to why something is bad it's just opinion, not fact, but more importantly, the accusation of something being a "rip-off" is just as bad as accusing someone of plagiarism. A "bad version" does soften the accusation, but it's still something which needs to be backed up.



Thank you for saying this. More importantly, for me this is a big deal having seen first hand a young fanfic writer with a lot of potential to grow as a writer delete all of her online writing because another writer accused her of ripping off her fanfic simply because it used the same cliche - the plot was about a new girl to the school, yet having looked at both works they were very different from each other.

Of course, a few people may be thinking - hey, the creator of Cannon of Busters is an adult, even a professional, he can take it. That doesn't change the fact you're insulting their hard work, but making a false accusation - a very nasty one at that. You're in effect telling them they're being unprofessional when they're not, but I'm really tired of this idea that a specific writer/artist can somehow monopolize a specific trope.

That said, there is nothing wrong with disliking a show and/or specific story elements in a show. Ones dislike is subjective and has nothing to do with the actual quality of the work which is measured by objective criteria which do actually exist. More importantly, when discussing the actual quality of the work ones personal opinion should be left out as much as possible, though erasing bias isn't always possible.

Mind you, not everyone who dislikes the show is doing this, but for those who are - by calling it a "rip-off" you're just adding credence to the idea that the rating is low because o f haters.

Blazeofspikes said:
Also you can't judge a show based on objectively alone. A review that is only objective is basically a show synopsis that isn't capable to telling the reader whether its "good" or "bad" because "good" and "bad" are subjective opinions.

Heck I would argue that a person who has a great technical skill in writing a story can be beaten out by a immature writer who isn't as great technical skill wise by creating a entertaining yet messy story that engages the reader more in a way that is unintended through subjective reasoning alone rather than "objective" reasoning.

Blazeofspikes said:
I must let you know that I did not say the whole show was cliche, rather the 4 one note characters that serve the backstory for annoying robot girl is cliche in structure but the most offensive part is that it was incredibly boring in my opinion.

Blazeofspikes said:
If I read this show as a comic instead of a torturous netflix english dub. I would have probably skimmed read it and gave it no real thought in regards other than the art and characters are cool but the 4 one note characters still feels predictable.

The English dub's execution regarding the voice acting is ear grating that I don't even know why I even gave the show 8 episodes other than giving the show the benefit of doubt that "The guy who created this show is theoretically a legend. maybe it will improve in the next episode. Or maybe the next episode".

Yemi_Hikari said:
Except judging a work with objective criteria isn't just about judging a work on the technical skills alone, but in both writing and art technical skills are what's known as "the basics" that one would expect a seasoned craftsman to always have down pat because they've refined their skill that much, but there are other objective criteria one can judge a work by which don't fall into technical criteria, such as characterization which is judged by what people would and wouldn't logically do, plot which is judged by what would logically be the cause and effect, etc.

In fact, I'd further argue that the young artist whose writing or art succeeds despite the technical difficulties does so because they aren't so restrained by trying to perfect the technical aspects of a work, but using words like "messy story" - that's subjective because what a "messy story" means differs from person to person, but I'd argue that many times the newbie writer's stories aren't anywhere near as messy as people including themselves think they are.

The word objective means based on fact while subjective means it is based on opinion, meaning the only subjective manner in which we judge a work is based on ones own like or dislike of a work, but a good critic will attempt to leave that personal bias out of the picture and realize that even if something isn't their own personal cup of tea that it is still a good work because they're judging based on objective criteria, but when someone judges based on their own personal opinion and tastes - that becomes a problem because all of our personal tastes differ.

Let's toss out the fact you found the story boring because that is obviously a personal preference and focus on the fact you've stated the work is cliché. The very fact you toss around the word cliché as if it is some kind of insult when it is not says far more than you think, because they're not a bad thing.

What's even more interesting is the fact I'd argue that "annoying robot girl" doesn't qualify as a cliche - there isn't even a trope for the "annoying robot girl", not to mention the fact you found the character annoying can be chalked up to your opinion of the character rather than an objective analysis of her character. However, the line which majorly bothered me...

You want everyone here to take your ability to judge the series seriously, yet you've done the one thing people say not to do when judging the quality of an Anime - to judge it based on the English voice acting - the dub - rather than the original voice acting. The case where an English voice actor out does the original voice for a given character is very rare, yet the entire English voice cast doing this is pretty much unheard of. On top of this, the English voices aren't the original voices. That means no - you did not judge the Anime on it's own merits like you claimed.

You also make the mistake of assuming the quality of the source material based on the quality of the work, although you've also admitted your criteria is based on your own personal like and dislike - is aka subjectve, not objective, but tossed around the word cliche as if it were a bad thing when it's not. There are plenty of times I've seen people note the adaption doesn't live up to the source material, but there are times the adaption out does if not improves upon the source material.

Last, please don't refer to inexperienced/newbie writers as "immature writers". When a writer is immature it will actually show through in the tone of their writing, but a writer can have great technical skill and still be considered an "immature writer". You're judging the work based on your own personal opinion, not on it's own merits, but you keep throwing words around as if you know how to use them, which is majorly frustrating.

For example, you labeled something as cliche thinking calling it such would bolster your argument because you've bought into this idea that cliche is bad, but the element you listed isn't a "common phrase, motif or trope" thus it can't be considered a cliche despite the fact you slapped that label onto it. Seriously, there is no "annoying robot" trope.

DSA-7 said:
6.6 average is already a above average score. If y'all really saying this is objectively a 8 or higher, I believe you must have watched it on some hard drugs. There's nothing wrong with liking something, but don't try to pretend it's low rating is only cus "haters!" and that it's far beyond it's given score, because it isn't.

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