DNA²

I enjoyed the first 10 episodes and then it turned into a Dragon Ball Z feel to it that turned me off right then and there. At first it seemed great, different kind of story, funny and full of drama. And then it did a complete 180 and kinda ruined it for me, the extra episodes (13 - 15) was more of the same DBZ style plot line.

Time for another nostalgic review! Today we look at a 1994 harem anime with an intriguing plot, but really stupid execution. Unless you are an older fan born before 1993 or so, I will place a wager you haven't heard of this series. It has been almost completely forgotten, but honestly that isn't such a tragedy. This is DNA^2.

The future is dangerously overpopulated, so scientists worked to find the mysterious cause of the population explosion that occurred in the late 20th century. It turns out it is largely the fault of 1 man-whore called the "mega playboy" who possesses genes so good that women ... are hypnotized by him. This guy knocked up 100 women, who each gave birth to sons, who all went on to knock up 100 women of their own, and so on. A time cop is sent back to the past in order to shoot the "mega playboy" with a mutagen dart that will give him the DNA of a loser, so no women will want him. In the mind of the man who wrote this shitty series, women can instantly assess the DNA of any male with a quick glance and always make romantic decisions entirely based on eugenics. I'm guessing that was his excuse that he wasn't getting any when he wrote this.
The time cop finds the mega playboy, but discovers he is a complete loser and figures that she must have the wrong guy. However, she shoots him with the dart anyways and he ends up becoming the mega playboy as a result. The moment she went back in time to stop the mega playboy, she was guaranteed to create the mega playboy or else she wouldn't have had a reason to go back in the first place. This logic is based on Novikov's self consistency principle named after the theoretical astrophysicist Igor Dmitriyevich Novikov. It states that you can't go back in time and change the reason you were going back in the first place. In fact, you may even be responsible for the event happening, like the Twilight Zone episode where a time traveler kills the real infant Adolf Hitler and replaces him with an orphan lookalike, who actually grows up to become the Hitler he went back in time to kill. The show later completely undermines this, but I never said it was well executed. I just said it had a few ideas that COULD have been interesting. The rest of the show revolves around the time cop chick trying desperately to cock block the mega playboy from scoring with various hot chicks.


The character art is actually quite well done. The women looked pretty hot for 1994! At least if you were a geeky teenage male trying to fantasize about cartoon women. The animation is also fairly smooth for its time and the color pallet is very bright and jovial.

Would I highly recommend this series? Not really. However, if you are an anime historian and want to see how harem anime have changed in the early 90s vs. the current age, I would in that case check this out!

DNA^2 is... well, its good. Simple as that. If I had to say one thing about it from the get go, it would have to be that the art style and animation are it's strongpoints. If you want to know more, then by all means read on.

Story – To be honest, this is the reason I originally decided to watch this. It’s actually an interesting premise with the main character’s allergy to girls and his mega playboy alter ego threatening the future from overpopulation. The parts where his allergy is exploited are probably some of my favourites. Though, the whole mega-playboy thing is kind of ... underplayed. That’s probably for the better, since Junta is kind of dull in that form. There are some fanservice bits here and there, but they are there to exploit Junta’s weakness towards girls. This means there will be no unnecessary fanservice you see in a lot of animes these days, just so people can get their jollies off or in hopes of boosting sales. As the story progresses it tends to rush a bit, which could have been solved if they extended the series to let’s say 14 episodes. Even 24 doesn’t sound like a bad idea, but I’m sure the budget had a lot to do with it (which happens a lot unfortunately, even today). The first half of the series is a lot better in my opinion, with a heavier dose of laughs and better pacing. I couldn’t help but feel cheated with the rushed ending though. Not even the OVAs solved this, but that’s a whole different story. All in all, DNA2 does a fair enough job at keeping things interesting.

Art/Animation – For a show that aired in ’94 it does a good job from an animation point of view. There’s still a fair amount of the typical shortcuts being used like single cel pans, repeat cycles and stills. The characters however, are fairly detailed and are even better than in the manga counterpart. I must say that I rather like Masakazu Katsura’s girl character designs a lot. Even now in ’09, the designs don’t seem all that outdated. Just goes to show you that Katsura has an appealing style that can withstand the test of time. On the background side of things, there’s nothing really worth mentioning here. They work with the characters and that’s that. Occasionally you’ll see an interesting shot that stands out, but for the most part they are average.

Sound – I really enjoyed the OP song, but the ED is forgettable. There is a distinct ’90s feel to the sound design, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It works well here. The voice work is executed nicely and Karin’s is probably my favourite out of the lot. The range of emotions she goes through is nicely played out through the voice acting of Miina Tominaga. Word of advice though - do not watch the English dub because it’s horrid.

Characters – Karin steals the show here. She’s very likeable and is the source of many of the laughs. Of course, Junta is an amusing character as well. You can’t help but feel sorry for him one minute and laugh at him the next. His mega playboy alter ego is less amusing however. He seems somewhat robotic and emotionless in his interactions with the others. Originally his actions were misleading me, as I wasn’t sure what to make of his other self. The rest of the cast, play out their supporting roles admirably, but some will make you wish they didn’t exist at all sometimes.

Overall Experience:

I liked it a lot for the first 7-8 episodes and then it got progressively less fun to watch, although it never got bad. The last arc made me shake my head and yet in the end I couldn’t help myself from liking it as a whole. Most of the reason lies in the art and Karin no doubt. Overall DNA2 wasn’t amazing, but definitely worth a watch. Now, whether this is your cup of tea or not, will likely depend on whether you grew up on old or new school anime. Keep in mind that this has very little action, even though the cover might suggest otherwise. Same goes for fanservice, if that’s what you’re looking for. The whole playboy bit of the summary might seem like it will lead to all kinds of ecchi scenes, but it keeps things on a tame level. In the end, if you don’t mind the retro feel this gives off then by all means check it out.

DNA^2,

Story:
The story is a bit odd, but is pretty good and is like any harem anime, silly but good enough. This anime lacks a lot and I have to say it really does shame the manga. This anime is very rushed and most plotlines are skipped, however it does have it's moments and the anime can be just one big joke. It's funny from time to time, also wierd, but it's not to bad.

Art:
For when this was made the art is definitely top notch.

Sound:
Soundtrack is good nothing special. Japanese voices ... are good but english dub sucks.

Character:
Character's are good, main character is the highlight of the show and really makes it what it is. Some characters just make me want to laugh, not in a good way.

Why did I like this anime?
I'm torn on this anime, they completely messed up the anime and rushed it so fast it turned out to be borderline bad. I don't know if the production crew didn't have enough funding, or if they blew it all on the animation from Madhouse studios, but it puts the manga to shame. However it is kinda good due to the characters, they are the reason this anime is arguably good.

That nigga that brought you such poorly received reviews for Chrome Shell Regios, Starship Operators, and Rumbling Hearts is back again by infamous demand and mistrust to bring you his latest review for DNA2. I try to avoid watching shows that take themselves too seriously and because of that its hard to make critical reviews for shows that don't take themselves seriously anyway. Lucky for the my millions of fanboys and tramps I've found yet another show worthy of reviewing.
Nigga DNA2 is flat out stupid. I revolves around a guy whos supposed to be a looser that has potential for a rare genetic ... trait that would allow him to take over the world. No not really he could just bang and impregnate a hundred hoochies ( apparently this is supposed to be uncommon).It should have been calledl the "Antonio Cromartie Story" or Cromartie High School( I think someone already did that). This is near and dear to my heart because I know niggas like this,shit my brother is like this. I had seven nieces and nephews by the same guy before I was ten, seriously.I saw all seven of them at the club last week. That ability however was not passed to me, I feel lucky enough to get some action that I wouldnt even consider askin for raw sex because I might not get no bunz at all if she say no. Anyway someone from the future is sent to stop this gene from activating so he won't overpopulate the planet when he passes it along to his one hundred seeds. They not only fail they partially activate the gene. Once again what fuckin gene? There are a lot more of these guys then people would think. Why bother stopping the gene? make him pay child support (hell of a contraceptive). He transforms a ton of times but sadly enough getting girls pregnant doesnt seem to be number one on his to do list, pun intended. More so he seems to just like seducing them.
The art sucked but it had to be ok for the time. Same for sound.

n the new episode of "A Blast from the Past" we have DNA² which is an anime...And the fact that i have to state it is because most people after watching even a sample vid from this turn into chinese psychopaths and sacrifice their daughters to the gods of Olympus to find salvation. And naturally it was deemed by the EU-which is a big thing in Brussels-as a psychological warfare strike from the land of the rising east and was banned.

No not really..Unfortunately this anime survives to this day so people of younger generations can also experience the terror.

So far this sounds like any of ... my reviews but this anime is so bad actually it's hillarious.DNA² may be the most ridiculous anime in existence. Wanna listen to the story? There's a DNA hunter named Karin,who was sent from the future to stop the so called Mega-Playboy,Junta, from fathering 100 kids that led to the overpopulation of the world.....Haven't passed out laughing, have we? Still with me?

Right...Then, as a plot twist i suppose, we learn that Junto isn't a playboy at all..In fact he’s allergic to girls and vomits at the slightest sign of skin. So you might think that ok, maybe he's gay or something.. NOPE, wrong wrong wrong..I wish he was, cause at least that would be some form of explanation. As for his condition there are no explanations given..He just throws a pink coloured rocket when he sees a woman naked..

My first thoughts-just by reading the story-were "oh fuck" and "somebody pass me the Glock"..You have time travel and the first thing to do with it was stop a lad from impregnating 100 women and not stop Hitler? But they didn't.. Instead they sent the blue haired gal to shoot the unstoppable fucker from..Well..Fucking!

"So how do you stop the sexual beast", you might ask and the answer is with a DNA altering bullet to the head.But since this is an anime and the story had to last for 12 eps, Karin accidentally shoots him with the very bullet that awakens his inner playboy thus making him Caligula incarnate..With funnier Shayan-esque hair.

Of course ALL the girls start dehydrating from lady juice overflow. Don't expect anything than the usual cast here. First of the bunch is Saeki, the hot girl that mocked Junta when his was an ordinary barfing loser, then there's Ami, the childhood friend who secretly loves him and is immune to his playboy trickery and last but not least Kotomi who farts whenever someone pays attention to her...........I have no words..And to end things the antagonist/ex Saeki's boyfriend who hates Junta and his new power up.

What can you expect from this anime? Many nosebleeds, farting, vomiting, boobie grabbing scenes, face-to-ass trip overs and all the usual stuff we have come to expect from these type of anime.Other than that? No, not really much apart from the silly as fuck factor that keeps increasing as the episode count does.

Be that as it may, it had it's funny moments. Like i said it's so ridiculous and bad it makes it hillarious. Its' badness gives it character..Not a good one mind you, but still a character nonetheless.

Animation was bad to the point of blindness even for it's time but then again i didn't expect anything grand from it. If i wanted Dragonball looking characters i'd watch Dragonball.

Voice acting was..I know i keep repeating myself but it was ridiculous. I think i've heard more passionate book reading from morgue keepers but maybe that's just me..Still since the anime itself is bad the bad voice acting makes it even more of a character building experience.

So it all comes down to this..Should you watch it?

Fucking yeah you should. It's bad, it's silly, it's the laughingstock of the anime world but you should give it a whirl just for kicks with your mates over drinks.

I have seen too little reviews here, so I'll add my two cents about the anime.

To be honest, what made me give this anime a try was its synopsis, I mean, an average guy with some allergy towards girls ends up being a mega playboy due to a bullet from the future and impregnates a lot of women, sounds not as cliche as the shows of today right? I actually didn't know what to expect here, maybe just some rom-com which it's, in fact, something like that.

The show's indeed somewhat cliche after all this anime was from the previous century, but the plot ... it's fun and odd at the same time. I think this show has a good pace for the most part, but that's the thing 'most', it starts well, three episodes later it fully hooked me but at some point on the 8 or 9 episode the plot devolves instead of going up, all this because of the inclusion of the antagonist and his ridiculous power and toxic behavior, the cast of characters is generally ok with some flaws but the antagonist is really awful both in the plot and on the writing side.

Another thing's that even if I didn't know what to expect from this I knew this wasn't supposed to be a battle shounen anime but toward the end, it heads toward that direction (BTW I heard that DNA2 mangaka and Dragon ball creator are friends so it's clear he received some inspiration from that). And I won't spoil anything but the end is good and bad, decent, but a questionable execution.

summary:
Story - 7: Interesting premise with a rom-com feel and a simple development but I think it works for the most part.
Art - 8: Decent, but being a 1994 anime it has very good animation and a nice art style
Sound - 8: I liked very much the opening performed by L'arc~en~Ciel and has good ending and insert songs.
Character - 7: I especially liked the mc and Kotomi, Karin it's alright, but I especially disliked Ryuji which I think is 'somewhat' intended as he's the antagonist.
Enjoyment - 7: Good at the beginning and middle part of the show but it lost its charm in the last episodes.
Overall - 7

As I said, the most interesting about this was the premise which has some elements of time travel on it, I liked the first 8-9 episodes but after that was like watching Dragon-ball with the super saiyan transformation and all, and the ending is acceptable but left some bitter taste on my mouth.

DNA^2 as a comedy has aged marvelously. I think this is a show that gets more hilarious with age. But if you decide to take it too seriously I don't think you will get as much out of the show as you could.

Story: Hilarious Premise but gimme moreee

The premise of this show is great. A lady from the future visits our MC in order to prevent the disaster in her timeline where a man with tremendous charisma is so charming that he impregnates countless women and causes a crisis. I love it. The story seemed a bit rushed especially since the show claims to be ... a harem. With a harem there should be proper attention given to all the chars in the love-triangle/love-decahedron. Especially the ending seemed extremely disorganized and abrupt as if the studio was on a schedule. Unfortunate.

Art: Ehhh

This the one area where time has not been gracious to the show. Art is a bit dated in the grand scheme of things though amongst the shows of it's era the art style is average. Because the action-packed scenes are fairly limited the animation is bearable.

Sound: Noice

The music delightfully upbeat and despite it being slightly cheesy does accurately color the hilarious character personalities. Especially the OP. Although you may not remember a great deal about this show after watching the music in the Opening is truly top tier. To the point of providing motivation to keep watching lol.

Character: Funny but kind of in an ironic way.

Because of the way the Characters interact with the silly premise allows for lots of laughs but also because of how ridiculous some of the situations were, there will be laughs from an ironic standpoint. Overall they enrich the world and setting in a great way.

Overall Enjoyment: Definitely worth a watch, if only to add it to your library.

This show is very amusing but the plot is a little out of the ordinary and it is not a legendary anime nor an epic anime by any means. Hell I'm not quite sure if there's much of a takeaway lesson at the end, but I was entertained all the way through. The only thing that will ruin the show is having high expectations so lower your standards rofl. Can be painfully slow to watch depending on the person.

*This anime was watched due to the Wheel of Obligation Anime Watching Challenge*
*This will be a review for both DNA² and DNA² OVA (episodes 01-15)*

INTRODUCTION:

DNA², an adaptaton from the manga, is set in our world during the nineties - the current decade when the anime was released. There is nothing unusual in this anime regarding to the setting - that is, besides the fact that a person came from the future to change another one and, possibly, save Earth's future. In that timeline, earth was suffering with overpopulation, which was mainly a single man's fault.

The anime, despite being mainly a comedic, romantic ecchi, features some ... battle shounen elements. Dragon Ball had been finding tremendous success by then, and a number of animes tried to implement some of its characteristics, with varying degrees of success. Unfortunately, DNA² is no exception to this.


PLOT:

Aoi Karin, a teenager from about one hundred years from when the story happens, is tasked to return to the past to prevent Momonari Junta from turning into Mega-Playboy - the one who impregnated a hundred different women, generating a cascade effect. By shooting him with a DNA altering bullet, he would never become Mega-Playboy, and the world would be saved. However, Karin is your typical clumsy protagonist, and she shoots a wrong DNA altering bullet through Junta, which prompts him to have eventual spasms of "Mega-Playboyness". When in that form, Junta has three main changes: women simply can't resist his manliness and immediately fall in love with him; he becomes stronger and more agile; and, lastly, he starts acting like... well... a ladiesman. Still, the change is not permanent, so Karin still tries to make things right.

The interesting thing is that Junta has this weird disease in which he is allergic to girls - even though he wants to hang out with girls, when he sees a female body, he simply can't resist puking. Poor guy.

The concept itself is as absurd as it sounds and, despite the initial curiosity one might feel, the plot isn't something to marvel at. It is, in fact, the anime's main weakness - don't expect complex events nor major plot twists. Knowing this, you can enjoy the show for what it is - a comedic (major trait) romance (minor trait), which it does impeccably. There are some simply genius situations which made me literally laugh out loud, unexpectedly.

I found the entire cast pretty likeable (except for Ryuji, F this guy). Junta makes you feel unconfortable, whereas his MP counterpart makes you cheer for him. Karin is probably what others would call "moe material", as she is cute and quite pretty. Kurimoto Ami is probably the most relatable person in the entire anime. Saeki Tomoko and Takanashi Kotomi are both great characters as well, and their lives are pretty well explored. When the anime ended, the reason I felt the most sorrowful was that I wouldn't be seeing the characters again.

The art style is definitely on-par with the epoch in which it was released. Episode's 1 prologue made me feel I was watching Buma coming out of the aircraft. Shadows are well explored, as are the expressions. Character's design are 90's standard material - Junta looks like a Yami Yugi and Goku mashup, which I do appreciate. Despite that, some special effects are simply terrible - the transformation to Mega-Playboy Junta is what comes to my mind. all in all, the art is fine. The sound direction at first did not amaze me - however, as the anime went on, I felt that it did fit the atmosphere. There is one small arc towards the middle of the anime in which music is somewhat important - that part was simply the most memorable for me.

Unfortunately, as I pointed out in the introduction, DNA² features battle shounen elements. Notably, this change happens mainly towards the end - I felt that from episode 11 onwards I was watching another anime. Gone was what made the anime fun - Junta's interaction with all different females, Karin's clumsiness, Ami's insecurities, and all the small details that were featured here and there. "Well, at least the story moved forward", is what I can say about the ending. Episodes 11 and 12 were mostly awful due to a mini-arc. The OVA was also unsatisfying - its main problem is that it had three single episodes - by all that happened, it feels like it could have been at least half a season. The entire ending felt rushed and inadequate - I wasn't watching the anime for action, but that is what I got. The characters then introduced had no time to be developed at all, I simply couldn't care for them. I read somewhere that the manga does a better job regarding this, so the anime must have suffered from a budget problem.

There are some other things I want to point out as well. Some interactions are bittersweet, making you care for the characters in question. The initial battle-shounen reference at the beginning of the anime was actually pretty good, it did catch me by surprise (in a good manner). As this is an ecchi, the female body was frequently depicted semi-naked or in tight clothing, and the camera angles favoured this as well. Also, for some reason, the fact that Karin could contact her boss from the future while still in the present made me mildly amused. Oh, and Junta's mom is the best.


CONCLUSION:

Despite the ending, I can safely say that DNA² was a blast to watch. I can't stress enough that my time with the show was over the top - up until episode 10 it was a solid 8, perhaps even deserving a 9. The problem is that the ending did leave a bad taste in my mouth - it was not what the fans deserved, it was not what the anime needed; it was simply a product of its time's popular shows. I will still recommend it to people, though I'll make sure to warn them about its flaws. One of these days I may check out the manga to know what the anime missed, changed or added.

Wow I never thought I would find an anime that I would give a 1/10. This was a trash show that I could not finish. Not because it was boring or just did not interest me, but it was just that bad.

Story: the concept was easy to fallow but the reason for why the plot happened was just like why? The idea of an over population of the earth in the future is a real Ecological idea, but how it came to be was just dumb. I only made it to the 4th episode and I gave up. Usually when I quit a show early ... is due to lack of interest.

Characters:

Junta: Our MC is okay but he is lacking in so many areas and the writers gave him some weird hidden ability to make up for it. I did not hate the guy, actually I think he was the only person I liked.

Karin: A time traveler who gives most of plot. She was annoying for she constantly had to remind me of her dream which was kind of normal I guess.

Ami: Junta’s childhood friend and just annoying.

Everyone Else: I was not completely sure but they were useless.

So im going to give this my honest review, cause i think people for some reason were expecting too much from a show where its synopsis is trying to stop a playboy. Like no shit its suppose to be cheesy.

Story:
As i said before main story is girl from the future goes to the past to stop someone from becoming a playboy and overpopulating the planet. By the way this someone has a bodily reaction towards girls that gets near him in which he throws up. Right here tells me this anime is more for jokes/comedy/harem then an actual serious story. Thats not a reason to ... call this show bad at all. However there are major issues i have with this show which i give it a fair score. Episodes 1-8 or 9 were fine. Gave me some laughs and you kinda get interested in karin's schemes on how she tries to stop the growth of the mega playboy, kinda episodic. Around 9 or 10 is where i have a big problem and for some reason the author wanted to include some super antagonist for some reason. It literally starts becoming DBZ/yuyu hakusho like which not a bad comparison but doesnt fit the flow of the show. It literally comes out of left field and had me in a wtf moment. Going into 12-15 the author kinda does a better job toning down the dbz nonsense and back to the shows reality a little bit by introducing a more realistic plot to the story. Imo this is what should have happen earlier ignoring all the DBZ stuff. However even with this introduction everything still felt rushed and out of nowhere. The ending was kinda meh. Could this have been written better? Of course? Is it that bad?? No. Compared to some of these newer nonsense ive seen worst.

Characters:
Karin: Future girl, seems alright. Was kinda annoying especially how many times she says mega playboy. Shes the whole im here for a paycheck attitude, though like most shows she starts developing feelings and has conflict between juntas feelings and her materialistic goals.

Junta: Typical MC with typical MC hair. Clueless sometimes but clearly has a heart of gold and caring for his friends. Cant say hes bad when he has the typical MC role. Could have been written better.

Ami: Oh japan here you go again with these "read the air" girls. For those that dont know what it means, it is notorious in japan. Its pretty much Junta having to guess what ami is thinking, and ami getting mad at junta cause he didnt guess properly instead of speaking her damn mind. So we get the whole "ugh you're so inconsiderate >.<" nonsense for no reason. So yea i found her annoying as i do with characters like that.

Ryuji: Dont really want to talk much bout him for spoilers but i was just fine with him being just a jock or whatever. Your ACTUAL typical playboy. Kind of a weird dude talking about DNA(which i think he means sex but w/e) He starts becoming junta's rivial or enemy, he starts going into extreme stuff early on that caught me off guard

Art:
Im a sucker for retro art so my opinion is very biased

Overall:
Its kind of a coin toss on whether id recommend this, if you dont mind alot of silliness then jumping into serious stuff without connection then yeah go watch. Again not bad just very hard to recommend this to people.

The story is cool but full of inconsistencies and holes. That would be alright but it's not funny either so it just ends up being boring most of the time. The only reason to watch is for nostalgic purposes.
I watched the dubbed version. The main character was decent and even sounded as though he enjoyed his job at certain points. The same can't be said for any of the other characters who sounded like random pedestrians taken off the street before they had their morning coffee and were offered 5 dollars to read lines off a paper. Especially Tomoko, what the heck.

The entire experience is a complete waste of time. 13 episodes done, and I feel as if I've gotten no further in life. Absolutely nothing is achieved by watching this show, not even a slight improvement in your knowledge. All you need to know is that the main concept is that the main character has superpowered genetics that allow him to utilize the "ultra-playboy" powers of seduction and physical strength / intimidation. Basically, the MC can swoon any female in his presence and can intimidate / beat up any man in his sight. He becomes a saiyan-lite practically invincible character, the stakes are always low ... since you know it's going to be resolved, and the dub does it no favors. Absolutely one of the lowest-effort shows I've seen. If this has somehow made you more interested in the show then I've failed. Just trust me when I honestly say that your life will be much better if you didn't even know this show existed. All you need to do is walk away and never think of this show ever again and you'll be ahead of me in life. Good luck.