Desert Punk: Volume 1

Introduction

Desert Punk is finally here! I've been waiting to watch this particular title for as far back as I can remember, since I wandered onto an anime forum out in the ether somewhere, and found ten pages of unadulterated love for this show from a horde of appreciative fans. It came out in Region 1 land quite some time ago, has been out on fansub even longer since its Japanese release in 2004, and it's taken a good long while in finally getting to the UK. You can tell that it's old in that it's one of Gonzo's last series to be made in a 4:3 aspect ratio. And that's pretty much all I knew about the show, aside from the fact that it's set in a post-apocalyptic Japanese desert. It's a sign that all good things come to those who wait, and I'd like this opportunity to mention that I have been waiting for NieA_7 for almost as long, just in case anyone in UK anime licensing is reading. Now to see if Desert Punk lives up to the hype!

Post-apocalyptic wastelands are a penny a dozen in fiction, and the one in Desert Punk is truly a classic of the genre. A devastating war has wiped out most of civilisation, and the dregs and descendants of the survivors now eke out a living in an endless desert where Japan used to be. People being people, many of them survive by preying on the weak, and this is truly a society where might is right. You'd expect there to be a champion standing up for the weak and oppressed, someone still possessing a moral backbone and a sense of justice. You'd be wrong. There is however the Desert Punk, a.k.a. Sunabozu. He's a cold hard mercenary character who is in it solely for the cold hard cash. Diminutive in stature, and masked behind a hi-tech helmet, he's fast, wily and is just as likely to outwit his opponents, as he is to outfight them. He's developed quite a reputation in the Great Kanto Desert, but he has one, or rather two distinct weaknesses. Breasts! He can't get enough of them. And when one day he encounters Junko Asagiri, a rival mercenary with an exquisite cleavage, he's truly met his match. The first four episodes of Desert Punk are presented here on this disc from MVM, along with more than a handful of extra features.


1. Ghost and Boobies
A family being tormented by a trio of thugs is pretty par for the course in the Great Kanto Desert, although surprisingly rescue is at hand. The Desert Punk doesn't care about the weak and the suffering, he just needs information from the thugs, and it's just a happy coincidence that the family is rescued (for a small fee). Desert Punk needs the location of the Kawazu gang's headquarters, as he's been paid to retrieve a certain treasure. He has more luck when he discovers a girl lying unconscious in the shade of a rock. Junko has just escaped from the Kawazu gang's hideout, where she was routinely abused and forced to make pudding. Once Desert Punk has stopped drooling, he's pointed to a rock formation where the Kawazu gang dwell. But he's walking straight into a trap, as the Kawazu boss Makoto has 'hulkosis'.

2. Sand and Rain
After being hoodwinked by the busty mercenary Junko Asagiri last time, Desert Punk swears off women completely. That lasts until his next job, where he has to collect an outstanding debt from an old man named Koike Kazuo. He's facing competition on this one as well, this time from a Repo Man named Amagumo who is just as notorious as he is. It turns out that Koike has two debts due on the same day. It doesn't matter to the two mercenaries that the old man is sick, on his deathbed, but Desert Punk is swayed when he meets Noriko, the old man's beautiful young daughter. Amagumo on the other hand thinks he can turn a tidy profit by selling Noriko. There's no other choice for it. Desert Punk and Repo Man will have to fight a duel over the daughter, with vocal accompaniment by the village elder.


3. Tank and Machine Guns
Junko Asagiri has a shock when she goes looking for Desert Punk. She isn't expecting a brat named Kanta Mizuno to open the door, but the anti-hero has been unmasked. The anti-hero is also in debt, following the last two unsuccessful missions. It's making that M40A1 sniper rifle seem even more distant. But, Junko has a deal for the Desert Punk, a deal worth 6 million, which is enough to persuade him to work with the be-jugged one despite his earlier vow. The only problem is that he's up against Kong, the legendary scourge of the desert, a monster armoured transport hovercraft that is impervious to weapons, and mows down all in its path. What p***es him off even more is that Junko is hedging her bets, and has hired the Kawaguchi Machine Gun brothers to help.

4. Sniping and Footsteps
Kanta is caressing his brand new sniper rifle, and looking for some target practice in the ancient ruined city. He's got his shiny new equipment, is out of debt, and has nothing to complain about. Nothing except Onama Jiro, the Shimmering Sniper, who is looking to make a name for himself by taking down the legendary Desert Punk, and has challenged him to a sniping battle across the devastated rooftops and skyscraper stubs.

Picture

As mentioned previously, this was one of Gonzo's last 4:3 anime, and naturally the transfer reflects that. Once again, I find my perennial gripe with Gonzo DVDs, that odd combination of compression artefacts and vertical banding, although in this case it is really most obvious only during the live action opening sequence. Otherwise it is a clear and sharp transfer with little to complain about.

The animation is dynamic and vibrant, there is a singular style to the character designs that emphasises bold lines, and high contrast, while the desert setting quite understandably invokes a limited sandy palette of colours, as well as lots of sere, parched landscapes. This is a show where darkness and light play a big part in setting the atmosphere, and it works brilliantly in establishing the mood of the show.

Sound

You have a choice between DD 5.1 English, and DD 2.0 Japanese, along with translated subtitles and an optional signs track. I watched it through in Japanese first and found it to be a wholly enjoyable experience, the stereo doing a good job of conveying the action scenes, the incidental music for once preferable to the theme tunes, and the dialogue clear throughout. Then I began as usual to sample the English dub, and I watched it all the way through again. Mark this down. This is a red-letter day. Desert Punk's English dub is superior to the original Japanese soundtrack, and not just because of the added immersion of the 5.1 Surround. For once, an inveterate sub fiend prefers an English dub. It all boils down to masks. A desert environment means that the characters are more often than not masked or shrouded. You can't see their lips move, so dubbing becomes a whole lot easier as there are no lip flaps to match. Desert Punk's dub is nowhere near as constrained as other anime dubs get. It's a lot more freewheeling, ad-libbed, faster, wittier and funnier. It lacks the awkwardness required to fit English dialogue to Japanese phrasing. It takes an occasional liberty with the translation, but it's all the better for it. I must admit though, that re-recording the theme songs with English lyrics is never advisable.

Extras

There's goodness from Japan and the US to be found in the extras on this disc.

The Making Of The Live Action Opening is just that. For just over eight minutes, we go behind the scenes of the shoot for the opening sequence, and we can see actors and a film crew toiling away at the beach.

Another 8 minutes or so are devoted to Takatori Hideaki, the singer of the theme tunes to the show. We can learn how the songs came into existence, and how fans at concerts react to anime music coming from a j-rock band.


The English Cast Auditions last 15 minutes. This section is audio only of course, and we get to hear the audition tapes of the successful actors who wound up working in the show. I guess it would be rubbing salt in the wound to play the tapes of those who didn't get the gig.

As Seen on T.V is episode 1 again, this time sanitised for public consumption. The original episodes were a little too profane for television, and so middle fingers were masked, and swearing was replaced by comedy sound effects. It's not as funny as the intro promises.

There are the textless credit sequences of course, and the whole thing is rounded off with trailers for Solty Rei and Daphne In The Brilliant Blue.

Conclusion

The problem with anticipation is over-expectation, and it gets worse the longer the wait is. By this point, I was expecting Desert Punk to be the best thing since sliced bread, and there is an inevitable disappointment when that turns out not to be the case. It didn't take me long to get over that and pay attention to the show though, as Desert Punk turns out to be a remarkably refreshing show. Of late I have been looking for the next big thing, delving into niche titles that stray from the middle of the road, just something to blow my mind away at how revolutionary and groundbreaking it all is. Desert Punk is none of that. It's not even the re-imagining of Trigun that the bleak, parched setting suggested it might be. Instead, Desert Punk turns out to be a very familiar sort of anime indeed, but one that sets out to have as much irreverent fun in its run time as possible. If there is a post-apocalyptic counterpart to compare it to, then that would be Tank Girl, as it has the same sense of profane absurdity to it.


It also has plenty of fan service to it. When your main protagonist is an adolescent who has a weakness for boobs, then a lot of the show revolves around his pursuit of the same. And it would be a poor anime that doesn't give him a suitable target for his affections. Junko Asagiri has the sort of figure for which 'curvaceous' is an understatement, and it appears that the animators all have degrees in breast physics. Bounce and jiggle are judiciously applied and in terms of animated goddesses, Junko gives Jessica Rabbit a run for her money. It's post-modern sexism of course, as while Kanta leers, drools and gropes his way through the episodes, Junko invariably has the upper hand, leaving our hero destitute and worse for wear at the end of each encounter with her.


The set up is simple. Kanta Mizuno is the Desert Punk, a handyman whose skill and abilities stand him in good stead in a desert wasteland where the few surviving humans eke out a living. His aim is to make money, by taking on the tough jobs where his wits and fighting ability earn him an unrivalled reputation. It's a rough future world, which means that his foes and peers are all as hard-bitten and mercenary as he is, and each successive mission offers the chance for him to put his skills to the test. That he's a teenager means that he's apt to ridicule his foes while beating them soundly, and he's also apt to be led by his hormones whenever there is a female in the vicinity. This often leads him in over his head. It's a rough, mean, future world where everyone is out for what they can get. And it's all played for laughs.


Sometimes, what you're looking for in an anime show can be summarised in one short, succinct word, 'Fun'. Desert Punk fits that criterion like a glove. It's not pretentious, it's certainly not complex, and it doesn't demand serious thought from the viewer. However it is cheeky, ribald, irreverent and entertaining. It's there to make you laugh, and giggle, and chuckle, and it almost has your eyes out with its juvenile attitude to mammaries. Desert Punk is fun, and for something so light, this disc comes with a more than average selection of extra features. MVM may be plundering the back catalogue, but with shows like Slayers and this, it becomes clear that there is a whole heap of class anime that we in the UK have missed out on. Catching up can be fun too.