Desert Punk

Desert Punk (砂ぼうず) is a post-apocalyptic manga series written and illustrated by Usune Masatoshi, serialized in Enterbrain's Comic Beam since 1997. The published chapters have been collected in 13 volumes.

The manga was adapted into a 24-episode anime television series produced by Gonzo and directed by Takayuki Inagaki with character designs by Takahiro Yoshimatsu and music by Kōhei Tanaka. FUNimation has licensed the series for distribution in the United States.

Plot
After an implied nuclear catastrophe, like many other countries, Japan has been reduced to a desert and the surviving humans seek out a meager living in the hot sands. Desert Punk focuses on the adventures of a desert handyman called Kanta Mizuno, nicknamed Desert Punk (Sunabōzu), due to his seemingly incredible feats of skill and daring while on the job. Throughout the series, he acquires an apprentice and makes a few friends as well as enemies.

Protagonists

 * Desert Punk (砂ぼうず)




 * "Desert Punk"'s real name is Kanta Mizuno (水野 灌太). Also known as the "Demon of the Desert", he is a lecherous mercenary of the Handyman Guild, overly obsessed with big boobs and sex, but is highly professional, accomplishing his task no matter the cost. Although he is thought of as a despicable person, this has no effect on his capabilities of winning when the odds are stacked against him. His legendary reputation of 'always getting the job done' came around due to his grandiose self-advertisement wherever he goes, as well as being enhanced by his uncanny good luck and practicality, combined with a sharp wit, intellect and specialist equipment. He is 17 years old.


 * Desert Punk first meets his 14-year-old apprentice Kosuna in episode four, when she was then apprenticed to the Shimmer Sniper, a man hoping to make a name for himself by killing 'the great Desert Punk'. He fails, and is defeated by Desert Punk, who literally leaves him stranded in the desert lying naked in the sand.


 * Kosuna then deserts her master, and runs after Desert Punk into the distance. Nothing more is heard about Kosuna until episode seven, whereby Kanta is seemingly saved from certain death by Kosuna. Although reluctant at first, he manages to be persuaded by Kosuna to accept her as his apprentice after being shown a photo of a beautiful and large breasted woman in a bikini, whom Kosuna claims to be her mother. In his lustful excitement, he hopes that Kosuna will grow up to be the same, albeit selflessly devoted to Desert Punk due to his careful shaping of her personality over the years. His decision is humorously replayed over the series, especially when he is confronted with Kosuna's initial uselessness and inabilities and has to force himself to restrain his anger in case he damages his future sex slave.


 * The firearm that Desert Punk uses is an old military Winchester Model 1897 shotgun that his father left him as a memento, which has been modified to hold one additional shell. Kanta also uses an array of useful gadgets in his ploys to fool enemies and set traps. On his back, beneath his cape, is a rocket which is used to propel him to high places and swing around on structures in a Spider-Man-like fashion. When enemies fail to notice the cord holding Kanta up, they assume he is flying. He also carries a number of balloons that can be quickly inflated to resemble himself in his desert gear and can therefore be used as decoys. Kanta is also an expert with explosives and grenades. He has been known to rig his own backpack with a smoke bomb of a variety of colors for occasions in which someone steals his gear, a tactic he uses on the Shimmer Sniper when Kosuna stole his gear and brought it back to him.


 * Kosuna (小砂)




 * Real name: Taiko Koizumi (小泉 太湖). Kosuna is the former apprentice of the Shimmer Sniper. Her goal is to become the desert's number one "power babe" mercenary, meaning stronger than any man and more beautiful than any woman. After the Shimmer Sniper is defeated by Kanta, Kosuna follows him and constantly begs to be made his apprentice. Kanta highly objects at first but eventually accepts her after she shows him a picture of a large breasted woman Kosuna claims to be her mother, implying how attractive Kosuna would be in years to come. Kanta, a heavily perverted guy, can't help but accept her, though his personal motives are clearly to groom Kosuna to be his personal mate when she grows up.

Kosuna is young and flat-chested, and quite androgynistic in the manga - something Desert Punk teases her about - causing her to dislike huge chested women like Junko. Kosuna detests Junko's ability to manipulate her master and has attempted to kill her on more than one occasion. Seemingly unable to complete any task by herself at first, she's surprisingly an able assistant and honestly looks up to Kanta, despite his pervertedness. She is very loyal and follows orders with little or no complaints.


 * As the series progresses, Kosuna becomes an excellent merc, skillful in desert survival and assessing emergency situations. Later on, she seems to have become an excellent marksman, sometimes hitting targets that Kanta cannot, either by luck or training with her previous master, even if her weapon is unfamiliar or too heavy. After Desert Punk is seemingly killed in the anime, she takes his place as the new Desert Punk and mentors her own apprentice. Starting in volume 13, which picks up 3 years after volume 12 Kosuna is the series' main character.

Machine Gun Brothers

 * Childhood friends of Desert Punk back from the days when the Punk was still stealing candy from a hard-working street vendor. Nevertheless, when there is a job to be done, these guys are definitely the tricksters of the trade. Smart-alecks to the max, they are always making fun of Desert Punk even though deep down they respect him. They often find themselves deciding whether to save Desert Punk or finish him off, clearly shown when they are talking about how they respect him only when after they were finished state "well, time to go kill him."


 * Their names are based on the seasons of winter, autumn and spring respectively, while their sister's is based on summer.


 * Fuyuo Kawaguchi (川口 冬夫)



Fuyuo is the biggest of the three, and is seen giving orders occasionally. He, along with brothers Akio and Haruo, make up the Machine Gun Brothers, and all are very protective of their sister Natsuko. Fuyuo's weapon of choice is a Browning M2 .50 caliber machine gun with rifle stock and forward grip.
 * Akio Kawaguchi (川口 秋夫)



Akio is the second oldest brother and the biggest smart aleck. Akio uses an M249 SAW.


 * Haruo Kawaguchi (川口 春夫)



The youngest brother, Haruo was a crybaby in his youth and still carries these traits. good frends with Taiko. His weapon is an M60 machine gun.

Others

 * Junko Asagiri (朝霧 純子)




 * A female rival of Desert Punk with extremely large breasts. Known as the "Vixen of the Desert", this beautiful mercenary's first encounter with Desert Punk involves her using her sex appeal to trick him into retrieving an important key from the pudding-obsessed, Hulk-like morphing Mokoto Kawazu, the leader of a desert gang. Junko becomes the object of Kanta's desires, a fact that she continuously takes advantage of in order to manipulate him. Towards the end of the anime series she joins Desert Punk in the government and fights against Kosuna and the anti-government rebellion. It is never confirmed that she and Desert Punk become officially involved with each other.


 * Rain Spider (雨蜘蛛)


 * A male rival of Desert Punk, and an equal match for him in combat. He is renowned as a fearsome debt collector who not only collects the money, but even the soul of his victim. While he has earned his reputation through forceful tactics, he is not against running away when he is at a disadvantage. However, despite appearing to flee several times during the rebellion, he always comes back with help for the rebels.


 * Natsuko Kawaguchi (川口 夏子)


 * Sister of the Machine Gun Brothers. Natsuko was a childhood friend of Kanta and a crybaby (according to him). She has not been in contact with Kanta and her brothers after leaving to work for the Oasis Government, where she has risen to the rank of captain. She is a proficient hand-to-hand combatant and the current idol of Kosuna.


 * In a case of real life mirroring art, Kosuna's seiyū, Chiwa Saito, is a good friend of fellow seiyū Natsuko Kuwatani, who shares the same name, in both kanji and romaji, as Kawaguchi.

Manga
Desert Punk began as a manga series written and illustrated by Usune Masatoshi, which began serialization in Enterbrain's Comic Beam manga magazine on August 5, 1997. Thirteen bound volumes were released in Japan between April 25, 2001 and August 31, 2005 before going on a more than four year long hiatus. The manga restarted serialization in the October 2009 issue of Comic Beam. The manga is significantly different from the anime with a more realistic look and far more common use of black comedy as opposed to quirky and sexual humor. Many changes were made to give the anime a more light hearted feel when adapting it from the manga. The manga also has a different ending than the anime. Also notable is that five story arcs are missing from the anime and at episode 19 the anime separates from the manga, leaving a new 6 episode ending in place of chapters 43 to 86 of the manga.

Anime
During the first half, the series has light-hearted overtones as Kanta and his life in the desert are introduced through his humorous adventures. The show adopts a more serious atmosphere during the second half of the anime as Kanta becomes embroiled in political turmoil that erupts over the Great Kanto Desert. This change in tone is reflected in a change of the opening and closing themes of the series.

Music

 * Opening theme songs
 * 1) "Sand Mission" by Hideaki Takatori (Japanese Version)/Gary Eckert (English Version) (episodes 1–12)
 * 2) "Destiny of the Desert" by Yuka (episodes 13–23)
 * 3) "Shinkirō" ("Mirage") by Yuka (episode 24)
 * Ending theme songs
 * 1) "Sunabōzu Ekaki Uta" ("How to Draw Sunabōzu") by Hideaki Takatori (episodes 1–12)
 * 2) "Shinkirō" ("Mirage") by Yuka (episodes 13–23)
 * 3) "Sand Mission" by Hideaki Takatori (Japanese Version)/Gary Eckert (English Version) (episode 24)
 * Original soundtracks
 * Composed by Kōhei Tanaka