AKA: 砂ぼうず (Sunabouzu), Sunabozu

Genre: Post-apocalyptic comedy

Length: Television series, 24 episodes, 23 minutes each

Distributor: R1 DVD from FUNimation

Content Rating: 13+ (violence, fan service, adult themes)

Related Series: N/A

Also Recommended: Akira, Grenadier, and ... uh ... Dune

Notes:

Rating:

Desert Punk

Synopsis

In the future, Japan has been turned into the giant Kanto desert. In a world where people struggle to get by, around half of the population seems to have taken to either criminality or bounty hunting. Or both.

Meet Sunabouzu (The Desert Punk), a bounty hunter of a rather ... short stature. However, despite his size, he has acquired quite a reputation for never having failed in his missions due to a craftiness that is said to be unrivalled among his peers.

Review

Everyone, come and watch him fail a mission. One episode was all it took, and it was all due to a rather giant set of breasts belonging to someone we shall heretofore refer to as Boing-chan, simply because that's what Sunabouzu has chosen to refer to her as. Besides, it's her most notable attribute anyway.

Desert Punk is what we may call another title in the long line of movies and series starring anti-heroes, which I honestly have problems seeing the appeal of. It's the newest thing in our main characters, seemingly mostly made up of bounty hunters, thieves or just plain perverts, and Sunabouzu is actually all these three combined into one diminutive anti-hero package I found amusing for about two episodes or so. Sunabozu went from good to bad in some sort of reversed graph compared to .... say, Divergence Eve. The first episode was excellent. The second was fun. The third? Well, let's just say I started noting a recurring theme I started find grating, and it all went pretty much downhill from there.

It's a shame too, because Desert Punk's art and animation is actually quite good, especially when you consider the fact that -- if you plan to watch this title -- I hope you don't mind the scenery to consist of deserts, deserts, and deserts. Oh, and then some more deserts. Character designs are actually quite good, and the whole thing just worked on a visual level. Even the opening theme -- and the ending theme, for that matter -- worked wonderfully.

But then, Desert Punk as a whole seems to have the same one track mind as its own main character and namesake. He swindles, cheats, and dismisses anyone, unless they're female and have a rather nice body. The only people who like him are the people who haven't known him for very long, or the women who know how to push his buttons. Just about everyone else seems to hate his guts, or at least doesn't think twice about leaving him to his death in whatever situation he finds himself in. So yeah ... I'm not impressed, ok?

And Sunabouzu pretty much dominates the entire show, just so that's clear. If you plan to enjoy this show, you better like the main character or at least find some enjoyment in what he does. I'm not saying you need to find criminal activities appealing to do so, but you should brace yourself for the main character acting like a complete jackass with no moral standards whatsoever. And with a complete lack of control over his hormones, for that matter. At least he usually gets what's coming to him, I suppose.

That's pretty much what's going on in Desert Punk during the episodes I've seen. I suppose there's always a chance things heat up (no pun intended) in the later episodes, but right now, I don't really feel like watching any more of this unless I really have to. And I don't.

Let's just say that the show goes from four to two in the duration of six episodes. So, averages say three, though feel free to add a star depending on whether you think the plot and the characters sound interesting. — Stig Høgset

Recommended Audience: Pretty much general violence and some fairly light fanservice. Moral standards are rather low, though, so handle at your own discretion.