Desert Punk: Volume 5

Introduction

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 a.k.a. Kanta Mizuno. 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 penultimate set of four episodes of Desert Punk is presented here on this disc from MVM, along with a handful of extra features.


17. Junko and Pursuer
18. Frustration and Despair
If you missed the delectable delights of Junko Asagiri in volume 4, then the first two-part episode of volume 5 sets things to rights, as Kanta gets as close to melon heaven as he has yet. Junko's in trouble, being chased by a relentless and technologically advanced fiend, and there's only one person she can turn to, Desert Punk. His usual reluctance lasts longer than usual in the face of constant mammary bombardment, so Junko goes a step further than before. She offers herself up on a plate to Kanta, if he can save her, and if he can make her fall in love with him. There's a catch in there somewhere, but Kanta isn't seeing it. Kosuna sees it straight away, but Kanta never thinks with his brain. Junko's pursuer is an engineer with Uzumaki Chemicals, a man named Tanigawa. Junko got close to Tanigawa to sniff out some industrial secrets; only he went and fell in love with her. Now he's left his company, and stolen their latest desert suit prototype to hunt her down and take her for his bride. The trouble is that the suit is made with forbidden Lost Technology, it's seriously illegal, and Uzumaki want it back. They've sent 3 mercenaries armed with the same suits to hunt down Tanigawa, and rub out any witnesses. This state of the art battle suit has Sunabozu outgunned and outwitted. If Kanta is to prevail, he'll have to turn to the last place he ought to for help, the Oasis government, but he's about to learn that getting into bed with politicians is a big mistake.


19. Above and Below
Desert Punk is depressed following Junko's arrest. Not for the loss of such splendiferous jugs, but for that parting shot that aimed right at Kanta's weak spot. He doesn't have long to mope though, as he and Kosuna soon have a new job and a new client. The head of the Chinoike Archaeology Team needs him to find a missing soldier in a ruined city. The first thing that happens is that the Kawaguchi brothers ambush them. The brothers are also looking for a missing soldier, their sister Natsuko, and their missing soldier and Chinoike's missing soldier are one and the same. Underneath the ruined city is yet another ruin, a vast underground cavern of a city, and unlike all the other plundered sites across the desert, this one is still full of riches. But Desert Punk is the first to realise all isn't as it seems. Chinoike isn't just another government archaeologist, he knows too much about this ruin, and the fact that it's connected to the Government headquarters at Oasis. Natsuko isn't missing either, she's part of a rebellion against the government, and this isn't a search and rescue mission, it's a recruitment pitch by idealistic freedom fighters who want to make the world a better place for everyone to live in peace and harmony. And then the government attacks.


20. Reverse and Handy
Kanta must have died and gone to heaven. He wakes up in a hospital bed, with Junko in a tight nurse's outfit, ministering to his every need. Actually, he's in the RHG headquarters, the hidden rebel base, and it's old home week. Junko, Natsuko and the idealistic young soldier Masaru Kaido are all there to give him the recruitment pitch again, and all that idealism is still turning Kanta's stomach. He likes the Oasis Government, he can make money from the Oasis Government, and in a world where people stab each other in the back, a Handyman can always prosper. Then the leader of the Reverse Handyman Group, magnate Kaoru Kaizaka shows up with a more realistic pitch. The world is changing, finally healing itself after hundreds of years of desolation, and while the Oasis Government are about preserving the status quo, the RHG will help the healing process along. And Kanta can either help, or be shot. And then the government attacks again. The government have Dark Age weaponry in the form of android killing machines on their side, and the RHG are outclassed and outgunned. It's time to step into action. Kanta tells Kosuna that she has graduated, and she's all ready to take on the android out front by herself, while he sneaks out back to face the inevitable rear assault. Actually the plan is to sneak out back and run for it. How was he to know there would actually be a rear assault?

Picture

This was one of Gonzo's last 4:3 anime, and naturally the transfer reflects that. The live action opening sequence that I've whinged about for the last 12 episodes has gone, as this volume debuts two new credit sequences, but this time around, there is evidence of that odd vertical banding in the episodes on this disc. It's subtle, and doesn't affect the viewing experience, but if you look for it you will notice it. 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.

There was a brief burst of pixellation for a frame, 57:54 into the disc.

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. As the series has progressed, I've fallen out of love with the dub, as the preponderance of masks has ebbed, and the actors are once again constrained by the need to match lip flaps. The dub has started sounding awkward and cumbersome in comparison to the early episodes, and I find that I've switched back to the original language now. I must admit that re-recording the theme songs with English lyrics is never advisable.

Extras

We begin with a 10-minute interview with Yuka, who sings the new opening and closing themes. She talks about the songs, and her experience in recording them, as well as her career as a whole. She also gives her impression of the show, the characters, and the boobs.

The Desert Punk Radio - Final Show Taping Footage is pretty self-explanatory. It lasts 16 minutes, and offers snippets of Chihiro Suzuki (Kanta), Chiwa Saito (Kosuna), and guest Tomo Kotani (Junko) interacting with the live studio audience. It's broken up with a plethora of 'funny' captions, but it's still worth a quick watch, and there is the special guest, director Takayuki Inagaki.

There are the textless credit sequences of course (the new ones), and the whole thing is rounded off with trailers for Slayers Next and Gunparade March.

Conclusion

Desert Punk is really getting exciting now, and it isn't just because of the return of Junko Asagiri. Well, that's part of it of course, there's no getting away from the fact that Junko, as a sardonic, manipulative, devious and attractive foil for Desert Punk is probably the strongest character in the show, and it's always better with her than without her. Volume 5 is also where Kosuna comes into her own, showing a sadistic side to her personality, especially when it comes to dealing with the afore-mentioned Junko. But what really makes Volume 5 stand out is that this is where the endgame for the show starts. With far reaching conspiracies, and the wheels within wheels that have been revealed over the past four volumes, as well as the ten-year time frame that has been mentioned on more than one occasion, you'd have been forgiven for thinking that Desert Punk was playing the long game. However, Gonzo have appeared to do what they usually do with ongoing manga series, that is develop their own separate ending for the story, rather than follow the manga slavishly. This is where that ending begins, and Kaoru Kaizaka states that he was mistaken about the ten-year wait.


Gonzo also have developed a habit of late, of cramming all the major characters of a show into the ending at the last minute, just to remind people what they have been watching. It's pretty on screen, but it makes very little sense in terms of decent storytelling, and here at least Gonzo get the family reunion done early enough for a hopefully decent and well-paced conclusion to the series. There's plenty of dark conspiracy to resolve as yet, and four episodes is the least you would expect to tell that story.


First, we have to get the last of the stand-alone stories out of the way, and that's Junko's little 2-part shotgun wedding problem. Desert suit engineer Tanigawa is the one holding the hi-tech shotgun, and Junko is fleeing from gullible mark to gullible mark, looking for someone to help her escape. Eventually she alights on Kanta, but this time around he's wise to her womanly wiles, and needs a little more persuading. A fee of 2 million is just the start, and so the mayhem begins. But there is a lot of stuff happening in the background of this story that pays off at the end of the disc, as does much of the world building that has taken place over the stretch of the series. We see the new suits based on illegal Dark Age technology, and we meet their creator Tanigawa. We also meet a couple of mysterious observers who are keeping an eye on the happenings in the desert. Most importantly we see government officials arrest Junko, and tear up the 2 million contract that they themselves are duty-bound to honour, delivering a kicking to Kanta in the process.


You would think that would sow the seeds of rebellion in our antihero, but he stays resolutely mercenary in the final two episodes on the disc, where the conclusion of the story commences. It's the government's betrayal that made the rebels think that Desert Punk was worth recruiting, and as we see, the rebels comprise many of the notable figures we encountered earlier in the series. There's the ex-soldier turned full-blown idealist Masaru Kaido, there's Kanta's childhood nemesis Natsuko Kawaguchi and her brothers, Junko's back as well, as is the Game of Life billionaire Kaoru Kaizaka. The androids that attack the rebels are similar to the Guardian that Kanta and Kosuna faced when they last worked for Kaizaka, again illicit Dark Age technology, speaking of which Tanigawa also shows up again, with some new suits for Kanta and Kosuna to use. The various aspects of this story are coming together in a rather interesting way, certainly making the anticipation for the final volume all the sweeter, and for a Gonzo show, it doesn't feel at all contrived.


Of course there is the almighty cliffhanger in the tail, meaning a two-month wait before it is resolved. Desert Punk has varied from essential to average and back again over the series, and has been thoroughly entertaining more often than not. The series looks set for a sweet conclusion in the final volume, and I hope Gonzo pull it off. A little political incorrectness goes a long way.