DNA² Review

By sothis Published: January 26, 2005

STORY

6 / 10

As the name would imply, DNA is about ... dna! Specifically, the dna of a young man named Junta who is destined to become the Mega-Playboy. In the future, the world is overpopulated and this Mega-Playboy is the most notorious cause, having fathered 100 children, who each had 100 children, and so on! Karin is sent back in time to stop Junta from becoming the Mega-Playboy, and thus the story begins...

The saving grace of DNA is definitely the humor that stems from Junta's affliction. Whenever he sees a woman's body or anything remotely close to sexual, he vomits everywhere (which is animated hilariously as well, I might add). This humor lasts throughout the series, and also extends to more crude things such as one of the girls who has a slight problem with flatulence when nervous. Though the humor is quite hilarious whenever it's brought up, it falls by the wayside in relation to the somewhat failing plot. DNA starts out relatively interesting, you see. The story is fairly unique and it seems the combination of humor and transformations will make for a great watch. Unfortunately, after the first few episodes the series digresses into something that feels like a typical harem show, and comes off as flat and uninteresting. Everyone wants Junta, and he wants everyone (when hes transformed). We also get a heavy dose of matchmaking from Karin, as she tries to hook up Junta with his childhood friend Ami (who is incredibly annoying and dull, I might add), and a plethora of females at Junta's beck and call.

Even though the story degenerates into a harem comedy of sorts, it manages to fail even further in the last few episodes, with completely unnecessary material thrown in. The last few episodes, quite frankly, should not have existed and really messed up the flow and mood of the story. Without spoiling, I'll just say it involves some sort of ultimate power and a rival that really shouldn't be in the first place. Lots of fighting and angst ensues, leading up to a reasonable but uninspiring ending. In general, I was fairly disappointed with DNA's story by the end. Started off solid (and is an interesting idea, hence the 6), but became somewhat of a bore and a chore to finish.

ANIMATION

7 / 10

The animation, though seeming a bit dated, was still interesting. The characters reminded me of Ah My Goddess OVA days, but definitely more well done. Colors were all over the map, which wasn't necessarily a good thing. I enjoyed the vibrancy of the scenes with Junta's playboy transformation, but scenes with Karin in her ship were drab and colorless since her hair and clothing were white and light pastels, and the ship was white. The transformations themselves consisted of Junta's character becoming softer and sexy, with plenty of hilarious sparkles to go around. The only thing I didn't like about the character designs was Junta's DBZ style hair that looked WAY too huge. No special effects that I can remember were used.

The series definitely had its fair share of ecchi and panty shots, but unlike some series where it annoys me, it made the comedy more hilarious in this one. Simply because, well, every time Junta would see such a thing, he would puke, which was always good for a laugh (just see the screenshots!). The ecchi was mostly panty shots or cleavage, nothing like full nudity, which was a plus (since I don't enjoy such things).

SOUND

7 / 10

DNA has one of the catchiest intro songs I've heard in a long time, with a male singer and peppy J-pop in the background. The rest of the music was upbeat synthy beats with plenty of wacky special effects, especially for the sparkles. It was good and fit the mood well, so I don't really have much more to say about it. Voice acting was great for everyone involved.

CHARACTERS

5.5 / 10

DNA has a cast of characters who, for the most part, end up falling flat. Junta is the main character and the most interesting, nonetheless, due to his chronic vomiting whenever he is in an even remotely sexual situation with a female. Due to how it was animated, this ends up being comical every time we see it, and he's a better character because of it. It's also amusing to see his complete opposites of a bumbling boy to a suave man, sparkles and all. Karin would have been a strong independant woman type, until she fell for Junta and became ditzy. Really, that's the problem with every other female in the show: they fall into the stereotypical harem role and fall all over Junta.. ALL of them. Granted, unlike some harem comedies where the guys are complete and utter losers (thus making you wonder WHY all these females want the same person), Junta definitely has it going on when he turns into the Mega-Playboy. Regardless, the characters seemed to lose any speck of interesting features once they decided to follow Junta around and become woman #872. Ami, Junta's childhood friend, was terribly boyish and too reserved for anyone to care about, really, yet we were supposed to feel sorry for her and her relationship with Junta. I didn't buy it. The only other character of note is Junta's rival of sorts, who ends up going from a jealous boyfriend to something totally ridiculous in the last few episodes of the series. Poorly planned.

In general, though Junta was amusing, most of the characters weren't developed, or were developed but then became a generic harem stereotype. The relationships were also shallow, given the harem-ness to the series.

OVERALL

6 / 10

Overall, DNA really started out strong. The story in the beginning seemed interesting, the humor was plentiful, and nothing was inherently bad. As the series went on, however, it digressed into a simple harem comedy that was tedious to watch and uninteresting in general. Top it off with the weirdness of the last few episodes, and stereotypical (in a bad way) characters, and you have a series that definitely has its good and bad points. If you are looking for a silly romance type show with a harem twist, you'd probably enjoy this. Just don't expect it to be fantastic and you'll probably walk away feeling ok.