DNA2

Summary: >

Karin is an agent from the future, sent to prevent the overpopulation of the Earth. The cause of this is a single guy named Junta. Which you wouldn't expect because he becomes ill around women; even throwing up when seeing them undressed. Somehow Junta eventually becomes the "mega playboy": a guy with supremely awesome genes giving him super human strength. It also causes women to instantly fall in love and throw themselves at him. Junta will have 100 children, and his male descendants also have 100 children, and so forth until the earth reaches critical levels of overpopulation.

Karin's job is to change a person's DNA for the betterment of society, so this task doesn't seem difficult. Karin however has a knack for major screw-ups and this time shoots Junta with a DNA altering bullet that changes him INTO the mega playboy instead of preventing it. With no other bullets, she has to fix the situation manually. As luck would have it, Junta's childhood friend likes him yet is unaffected by the mega playboy gene. Karin believes if she can hook those two up, Junta's genes will never activate and humanity will be saved. That gets tough as girls get exposed to the mega playboy side and cause relationship complications.

Thoughts: >

Titles showcasing cute girls have been a staple of anime for decades. Often these titles get forgotten over time as there is little to differentiate them from the current crop of the same thing. DNA2 is another one of these, however there's enough unusual stuff involved, it still may be worth checking out.

Despite it's 90s vintage, DNA2 sticks to the popular attractive character designs of Masakazu Katsura (who's made other series like Video Girl Ai and I''s among others). This gives the show an attractive timeless apperence instead of looking like "another one of those 90s titles". While it may be science fiction, using the term is almost an insult to science considering the massive paradox plot hole in the premise, and countless logic failures concerning stopping the mega playboy (condoms?, vasectomy?, castration?). But if you can ignore that, there's more than enough weird stuff in this anime to hook you in.

It might appear that the point of DNA2 is fan service, but there's a decent story buried in there. It's a cute complex love story, that's lively enough to keep it interesting. I wouldn't say it improves with time, but I did find that DNA2 grew on me the more I watched. It putters out towards the end where it becomes more action oriented. After 12 TV episodes, it concludes in three OVAs that should be only one. These focus on action, and hardly anything happens that's worth mentioning: a weak ending for an otherwise decent show. I wouldn't say the action stuff is bad, but that's not the reason I started watching DNA2.

It's very much a 90s kind of anime (poor dub and all). Still, it has a quirky premise, lively characters and the story is better than expected. I wouldn't go so far as to say DNA2 is a forgotten classic, but there's enough holding it together to make it worth checking out.

Screen Caps: >