In the future, Japan is a wasteland. In the Great Kanto Desert, scattered humans eke out a living in the hot sand. Among them, a short-statured man they call "Sunabozu (Japanese version)" or “Desert Punk (English Version)” – real name being Kanta Mizuno makes a living as a bounty hunter. Like a demon of the sand, he seems unbeatable. Yet, like all men, he has a particular weakness for the opposite sex.
For characters, Kanta is a selfish, arrogant, sex-addicting, boob-obsessed, crude short perverted asshole…….and that’s what I like about him. Yeah, most of the traits I sometimes loathe in most characters, whether in animation or live-action form within my heart and he’s the protagonist but at least he’s being straightforward with his intentions. He isn’t trying to be the hero of the wild west of Japan. He’s doing this to survive by any means necessary although sometimes he can mess it up by being his somewhat normal self. Then there’s Kosuna – real name being Taiko Koizumi, the later apprentice of Desert Punk as he defeated her old apprentice The Shimmer Sniper and she begged him to be his apprentice and he accepted her offer……mostly after she shown him a picture of her large-breasted mother….or some woman that she claims to be her mother. Yeah, she’s whiny and seems like she can’t handle being a mercenary but as the series progresses, her character strength and motivation grows.
Speaking of big breasts, there’s Junko Asagiri, known as “The Vixen of the Desert” and the female rival and sexual desire to Desert Punk as she often uses her sex appeal to get her way and every other time, DP tries to cop a feel of her very large breasts and yes, he does get slapped and beaten for that. She does contribute the fan service part of the series but it never gets that risqué or close to a Hentai. It’s more eechi but not so annoying, you’ll get turned off. There is Rain Spider, who is equivalent to DP when it comes to combat and he is not to be fuck with when you tried to run away from him and he’s quite humorous in his scenes, especially that one particular scene. There are other supporting characters like the Machine Gun Brothers, who are childhood friends to Desert Punk but they even know that he’s an asshole and there is their sister Natsuko, who is also DP’s childhood friend and (you guess it!!) wants to fondle her breasts especially when they were young and you wonder why the Machine Gun Brothers would want to kick his ass.
Now the show’s perverted humor and okay timing has been made a staple of this series and it did a decent job of delivering on that but halfway of the show, it completely does a 180 and the tone changes in some areas, just like Trigun. However, somewhat like that aforementioned series, the execution of changing the tone did a little hit or miss. For example, the first opening theme completely fits the first half of the series much like the opening theme for Trigun fits for the first half of the show but once the serious episodes begin, that theme feels so inappropriate and out of tune. The second opening theme of Desert Punk just got out of the way with showing “Tits and ass” at first and then “Shit gets real, y’all”. The animation was done by Gonzo and this was actually done with a budget that didn’t run out of money that fast. There might be small hiccups that are hardly noticeable and has the post-apocalyptic/western clash that looks like it came out of Mad Max minus the Thunderdome. The background music plays some orchestral sounds for the action & serious dramatic moments while most of the time it plays something that sounds like it’s coming from a soft core porn but it’s passable at best. The FUNimation dub was an earlier but satisfying effort with actors like Eric Vale as the title character. Luci Christian does sound a bit whiny as Kosuna but it feels more suited within the character and Kenny Green surpasses all expectations as Rain Spider. Other actors such as Callie (or Stephanie, I don’t know which) Young, Jamie Marchi & the other FUNimation extras are very acceptable in their parts.
FINAL VERDICT: It’s rude, crude, unabashed, shameless, and yet it’s hilarious. Yeah, most of the characters (especially one in particular) you don’t know whether to like or question or loathe but it’s so unconventional that you wouldn’t really care less about it. For most people that would be fans of eechi titles, this one is something I would say to check out but I wouldn’t rush to get it just that quick.
