Previously on Timotei Anime Review [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.146822-Timotei-Anime-Review-Ikki-Tousen#3359712]
[HEADING=1]Timoei reviews: Desert Punk[/HEADING]
[Img_Inline Caption="Is that man wielding a dismounted .50 Cal?
Holy shit he is!" Align="Left"]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/6c/SunabozuCover.jpg[/Img_Inline]
"Fourth wall? Fuck the fourth wall!" -[small]Amnestic[/small]
When I read that Desert Punk was a post-apocalyptic action/adventure/comedy/science fiction series, my mind went to Trigun. However not even halfway through the first episode I realized I could not have been more wrong. However thankfully I was wrong in a good way, and instead of finding a series which tried too hard to be funny or serious I found a gem among middle grade shows with an excellent sense of humor and epic dialogue. I think I do not need to say that I was rather surprised.
Just to give you an idea of what Desert Punk is like, imagine Trigun: A serious show with a serious plot and serious characters where comedy takes a back seat, now take that and reverse it. Desert Punk is by very little means a serious show and has one of the greatest senses of humor I have seen in an animated series since Drawn Together. The first hint the viewer receives as to the show's attitude is in the first opening theme [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62K6_3gKyHM], which to my surprise isn't actually drawn, but in fact live action. So sure, the first OP may not be so awesome, but the second one kicks some serious ass [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vctkjuuMV2s&]. *I now have it on a WMA format*
The writing is a treat for the mind and the voice acting in both versions is surprisingly well done. The producers also decided to play with the viewer by fucking with their Disney-implanted idea that every protagonist is a undauntedly virtuous example of mankind that never loses hope (if you think this, then Gurren Lagann is for you), and instead create a mammary-obsessed, morally corrupt asshole who thinks only about himself and is almost guaranteed to fill you with laughter at every turn.
[HEADING=3]Overview[/HEADING]
[Img_Inline Caption="Peace out bitches" Align="Right"]http://i629.photobucket.com/albums/uu20/midnight_angel319/x_f7ECl.jpg[/Img_Inline]
Desert Punk takes place in the far future (stretching beyond the year 3026) where mankind has all but wiped itself out with the help of its rapidly growing arsenal of advanced weapons that range from your simple U.S. Government issue M1911 to a something that would be what a Large Hadron Collider would be if you were to turn it into a weapon. The cause of this is never truly explained which leaves a nice sense of mystery that allows the viewer's mind to run loose and decide upon what happened themselves, almost like the ending of The Thing. Though the cause is unknown, the results are quite visible as Kanto (now known as The Great Kanto Desert) and presumably the rest of the world has been turned into one massive desert. Mankind has reverted to its old Viking habits of a few groups of rapists and pillagers doing what they do best while others struggle to make a living for themselves. The situation can be compared to that of the Fallout series; however corporations have been re-established and have begun producing everything from board games to tanks (all of which are a result of data stored in surviving hard drives from computers). A government of sorts exists known as
[Img_Inline Caption="Do not want" Align="Left"]http://www.anime.com/Desert_Punk/images/02.jpg[/Img_Inline]
The series kicks off with a father, a mother, and a hungry daughter wearing helmets being chased by three men who are also wearing masks and are wielding weapons as well. The gun wielding men soon catch up the fleeing family and proceed to beat the father for not handing over his money. They then attempt to rape the mother until they finally remove her helmet and are repulsed by her atrociousness. Their attention is later diverted back to the husband and they begin beating him for protecting a woman as ugly as his wife. Just as you think the family is done for our hero Kanta shows up and begins talking to the men in an almost friendly fashion until a few of the wrong words are spoken and the men proceed to bust more than a few magazines worth of caps in his ass. Suddenly the men are unable to move and Kanta reappears in the air dangling by a grappling hook and exposes that what they had in fact shot was a scarecrow filled with cans of stun gas.
After ripping off the men's clothes and leaving them in the desert stark bollocks naked and leaves them with a note to their boss telling him that his mother is a whore (I shit you not). Kanta then spares the family for every last dime they have leaving the daughter to ***** once more about being hungry. Get use to hearing "I'm hungry" from her because these three will appear not once, not twice, but four more times in the next 23 episodes. So Kanta then moves on and sees the feet of a person splayed out behind wall. In this situation most of us would be thinking "I hope they're alright", but Kanta's thoughts are instead that of the mindset you are put in after killing a group of Super Mutants in Fallout 3. He proceeds to head over to the body with the thought of stealing their clothes and possessions, only to be faced by two mountains glued to the chest of a woman named Junko. For those of you who read my Grenadier review, I'm sure you remember me saying that several of the characters' breasts were too big?Well Junko puts Rushuna and Setsuna to shame with breasts that are most likely nearing the DD range.
It turns out that Junko is actually bullshitting that she was on her last leg and had escaped the servitude of the man that Kanta is after whom she claims wanted her to constantly slave to make him his grandmother's gelatin. Being as Kanta is rather young he is drawn in by these two gigantic orbs and doesn't even bother to be discrete about it and in fact refers to Junko directly as "Fun Bags". Once Junko's breasts have done their Jedi mind trick on Kanta, he heads off to find the boss whose mother fidelity he had just insulted no more than ten minutes ago. What has happened between receiving the note and him meeting Kanta can best be described as Rex Banner turning into the Hulk. After several minutes of screwing around and picking off his henchmen, Kanta defeats the Hulk and grabs the necklace from his neck (of which he was supposed to find) just before a bomb goes off near him, nearly knocking him out. While Kanta's face is in the sand Junko walks up in her own survival suit and helmet, then nabs the necklace from his hand and proceeds to expose that she was hired by the same client. As the episode ends you can sense that this will not be the last time that you see Junko, and you couldn't be more right.
[Img_Inline Caption="Little did Kanta know that his Quail hunting trip was
about to take a turn for the worse." Align="Right"]http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g303/sunabouzu2/suna28x.jpg[/Img_Inline]
The next episode shows a rather down-on-his-luck Kanta searching for a job. In the beginning he runs into a mercenary who calls himself Rain Spider, whose attire could possibly pass him off as V if he decided to wear a Guido Fawkes mask. The two end up with the same job of collecting money from an old man and tear up his home to find something of worth. It's not until the old man's daughter comes that Rain Spider suggests that they sell the girl. The two begin arguing over her and settle upon a dual to decide who will take her. It is just before the dual that one of the strangest yet funniest scenes in the whole series occurs involving a short 30 second rock ballad of both Desert Punk and Rain Spider poorly sung by an old man screaming into the end of his cane as if it were a microphone. The episode ends with neither Desert Punk nor Rain Spider able to defeat the other while the daughter and old man skip town with a shit load of money laughing at how they played up two loan companies as well as two of the toughest mercs in the desert.
The third episode brings Junko to Kanta with a job that can result in a handsome 6 million yen reward. The only problem with this job is there is a catch, which happens to be a hybrid of a tank and a Mississippi fan boat armed with several cannons and machine guns named Fire Dragon Kong. Kanta and Junko team up with the Machine Gun Brothers to try and deliver a valuable package to their client while trying to avoid getting their asses filled with large caliber lead. During one of the times where the group is hiding Junko decides to tell them why they are being chased by Kong. After reaching into her cleavage she pulls out the necklace she took and says "Remember this from episode one?" shattering the fourth wall and forever setting the tone of how serious the show takes itself. After a little run in with Kong where Kanta's trusty shotgun and helmet get smashed he goes on a rampage. At first you think he's going to take his anger out on the drivers of Kong, but instead decides to take his anger out on Junko for dragging him into it, then takes the necklace and taunts the drivers to chase him. As the chase scene progresses we come to see just how many screws Kanta has truly lost and even resorts to threatening to blow up himself and the necklace as well as Junko and the Machine Gun Brothers with a grenade, all while exhibiting a facial expression that clearly displays that he ees fucking cracy mang. After luring Kong under an arch and collapsing it Kanta lets the Machine Gun Brothers blow it to bits. Kanta and the other head their separate ways and it isn't until the fourth episode that we learn that Kanta has received a rather large reward.
[Img_Inline Caption="I did not add that that text. I am dead fucking serious." Align="Left"]http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g303/sunabouzu2/suna60x.jpg[/Img_Inline]
The fourth episode completes the set up for the rest of the series. It begins with Kanta getting in some target practice in an abandoned city with his newly bought M24 and lightened equipment. Within minutes Kanta is fired upon by a marksman who calls himself the Shimmer Sniper. Kanta sets out find him and is continually lured into traps. He later encounters a pink-haired girl with a women's' bowl cut who is quick to follow him as well as drink all his water. Once Kanta comes under attack again however the girl takes his stuff and runs off while the sniper pins him down. After setting off a few colored smoke bombs in his stolen kit he finds where the girl and sniper are hiding and knocks down the structure, burying them. After taking Shimmer's Dragunov, stripping him down to his birthday suit and setting off he is hailed upon by the girl who calls herself Kosuna. She continually begs him to let her be his apprentice, and says she will not leave him alone until he does (which he doesn't)
The middle episodes can mostly be described as "filler" with each one having their own story with rather nice plot twists and ways of showing just how much of a genius Kanta really is. There is also quite the hilarious scene where Kanta suddenly becomes philosophical when he begins debating the advantages of breast size and shape with himself, later concluding that that shape is better than size yet size having its own shape. He encounters Kosuna once more who after showing him a picture of her beautiful, large breasted mother is able to convince Kanta into letting her be his apprentice with the return of beauty and breasts in the next few years.[Img_Inline Caption="Dude, I partied too hard last night." Align="Right"]http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g303/sunabouzu2/suna61q.jpg[/Img_Inline]Faced with this offer Kanta predictably allows Kosuna to follow him. She proves quite quickly that she is not the most dependable apprentice of all time and only seems to piss Kanta off. It isn't until about midway through the series that the viewer begins to sense underlying sibling bond forming between the two as Kosuna begins to pick up Kanta's habits and mannerisms while proving that she is in fact a capable assistant. The two become a rather deadly duo and can almost be described as a slightly dysfunctional Batman and Robin.
[HEADING=3]Dialogue[/HEADING]
The dialogue in Desert Punk is some of the best I have seen and is up there with some of the more highly rated series despite the show not taking itself very seriously. I decided to watch this series in English dubs because I heard it wasn't that bad, and it wasn't. Great in fact. The voice actors put emphasis and emotion into their lines and clearly convey the feelings of their character at the time. The writing is the luscious peanut butter filling inside a Reese's cup and deserves some serious recognition. The dialogue at times is just epic with some of the greatest lines I have heard such as: "Do you know what this rig is hauling?", "You mean it's not hauling shit (literally)?" I often found myself watching the same five seconds of the show many times with the jokes still being funny. What's rather unprecedented to me is that I can actually see myself watching this series once more if just only for the writing (note: The only other series I have ever watched multiple times are 08th MS Team, Rozen Maiden, and Blue Gender).
[Img_Inline Caption="'You mean it's not hauling shit?'" Align="Left"]http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g303/sunabouzu2/suna181q.jpg[/Img_Inline]
[HEADING=3]Sound[/HEADING]
The sound can best be categorized in the field of: as bad as "great" can get (OH SHI-! PARADOX), most likely ending up as an 8/10. Not the best sound quality I have heard, but by no means the worst. The voice acting like I have mentioned is rather nice with the added bonus of being quite clear. The sound effects are varied yet left a bit of room for improvement.
[HEADING=3]Art[/HEADING]
The art, like the sound isn't the best I have seen, but not the worst. The environmental art is spared a lot of criticism since there aren't that many scenes that take place in populated towns as most of the story takes place in the desert. Improving the art overall would be rather pointless since you can only make sand looks so good before it just becomes an overdrawn eyesore. The character animation and motion are good with only a little room for improvement.
[HEADING=3]Final Comments[/HEADING]
I will say I rather enjoyed Desert Punk. I not only wanted to see what happened next, but was actually eager. The experience as a whole reminded me of the time I read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. You open it up and begin to read (or in this case watch) and just feel a natural desire to turn to the next page. Once you're about halfway through it you look at the clock and realize its 2:14 in the morning and you forgot to have dinner and the cat is scratching at your leg to get you to refill its food and water bowls. The ending was rather satisfying and only made the series *that* much better in my eye. Despite the fact that the show rarely seemed to take a serious tone, the instances where it does are quite nice and serve the story well despite it being scattered across 24 episodes (8 of which are fillers). If the show were a cake, the writing and dialogue would be the frosting flowers that everyone desperately wants to eat. There are many recurring jokes throughout the series however it doesn't make the fatal error of Family Guy by just throwing out people you have seen before at random moments. As I have said before in the Overview you will see the poor family several more times, yet their time on screen is quite humorous as they will often put them in dangerous situations which suggests that they are desperate for money ending with the girl asking for food. Even in the finale she asks "It's the last episode, can I have some food now?"
I have heard rumors (the keyword here is: Rumors) from some of my fellow students in my Anime Club that Gonzo had finished the art and script, and handed them over to both a Japanese and English dubbing studios at the same time in order to produce different and more natural results. Whether this is true or not the end results are a great dubs and acting which rival even more highly regarded series.
I say with much joy that Desert Punk earns my Bronze Seal of Approval. If it had been a more serious show then it would have recieved a higher score, but despite this it did rather well for itself and still steals a high score and a spot on my Top Ten List.
[HEADING=2]FINAL SCORE: 7/10[/HEADING]
*Seal of approval under construction*
[small][sup]
Review by: Timotei
Editing by: Amnestic
Inquisition by: Kuchinawa 212
Line ASK Productions 2009[/sup][/small]
[HEADING=3]Valkyria Chronicles[/HEADING] [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.151102-Timotei-Anime-Review-Valkyria-Chronicles#3565921][small](^Link)[/small]
