Desert Punk

By: Robert Murphy

In the wake of a post-apocalyptic Japan, people are struggling to get by in their day to day lives in the giant desert ruins of what was once Japan’s peaceful tamed landscape and as it is to be expected with any dramatized apocalyptic world, lawlessness and criminal activity are a common occurrence. On the opposite side of this, many people have taken up arms in a good way or I guess you could say “better” way by becoming bounty hunters and taking out some of the world’s more dangerous criminals. Here enters our main protagonist, Sunabouzu, although many refer to him only as The Desert Punk who is a bounty hunter with somewhat of a reputation for himself, which mainly come from his perverted nature and short stature more or less. However, he is also known for the fact that he always gets his target and makes his bounty, having never once lost one of them due to his incredible craftiness and mischievous way of going about his job, unless there are a pair of breasts involved that is.

 The man behind the mask

Desert Punk follows the story of Sunabouzu as he travels from on job to another just trying to make his way like anyone else and as you can already tell by my description of him, he is not really a noble person or the hero of this tale. Pretty much all that interests him is making money, that and being a little bit of a pervert….okay a giant breast groping pervert if you want to get technical and it comes quite frequently in the show. The running theme behind “Desert Punk” seems to be to try and create another anti-hero for fans to love while he cheats, lies and generally tries to act like a big shot bounty hunter each episode and it almost works for about two episodes. The first episode you find yourself laughing at the ridiculous antics and perversion as he takes down some thugs in the desert but then you realize that’s pretty much the whole show as it starts all over again next time. And while I do enjoy a good mildly perverted/womanizing character in a show, it has to be done right and Sunabouzu doesn’t do it right at all as he more or less comes off as a little kid that you would find on the Internet thinking it’s cool to talk about boobies. This feeling is wholly shared by everyone that surrounds him in the show as well because he is universally hated by everyone in the show and you realize that anyone who doesn’t hasn’t known him very long.

 Dah hell's going on here?

Two things that I believe save the show however are one the guns and two the great level of design work that has been put forth in the show itself. Guns are an everyday thing in the “Desert Punk” world which you would find obvious since what is a post-apocalyptic world without gun touting bad guys and boy are there some enjoyable firearms to be seen. For instance, Desert Punk uses a very unique weapon a Winchester 1897 pump action 12-gauge shotgun which is his signature weapon throughout the series and modifies with an extended magazine tube later on. Alongside the impressive gun selection is the impressive level of design work that went into “Desert Punk”, characters are well put together and even background characters appear to be more than just blobs of the same generic faces. Although most of what you are left to see is desert, desert and oh hey look at that some destroyed buildings…..and more desert, it’s still visually well put together.

 Ba boing

“Desert Punk” does feature a good amount of guns for you anime gun lovers out there, alongside a well put together setting but you know that’s about that. Outside of Sunabouzu not many characters stick out and he does in fact take up most, if not all of the screen time and if you are like me and didn’t find his immaturity all that appealing. I'm not saying you need to find criminal activities or perverted antics appealing, 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 but the good news is he usually gets what he deserves in the end.

Good:

-Enjoyable gun show/selection

-Graphically the show is well put together and enjoyable

Bad:

-Each episode features the same theme with no real progression in the story

-Perverted, childish, and all around jackass of a main character, which I normally like, but this time was boring with no real appeal

-Not many other characters to speak of and the ones that are there aren’t that appealing

Scully Rating: 5.0 out of 10