Clockwise from top left: Ami, Junta, Tomoko, Karin.
How It Got There:
I acquired the 1994 anime series DNA^2 (pronounced “DNA two” in Japanese dub, “DNA Squared” in English dub) during TRSI’s 2007 holiday clearance sale because 15 episodes for 20 bucks was apparently too good to pass up at the time. The main review I read before purchase said it was a pretty good shonen comedy so I bit on the deal and didn’t begin watching until last month.
What’s the Lowdown:
Junta Momonari is nervous around most girls like other high-school guys, except that he takes it to the next level and throws up from the uncomfortableness in some situations. A DNA operator named Karin time travels from 100 years in the future to shoot him with a DCM (DNA Control Medicine) bullet to prevent him from turning into the Mega-Playboy, who set off a population bomb by impregnating 100 women who gave birth to 100 eventual Mega-Playboys who each sired 100 Mega-Playboy sons and so on.
Unfortunately, she brings the wrong bullet with her and accelerated the process she intended to halt. So in order to achieve her dream of a “sweet home”, a wonderful husband, and a cute pet (and also avoid being executed!), Karin has to stay and help Junta hook up with his stern childhood friend and neighbor Ami so the Mega-Playboy DNA can be repressed from stabilizing. Her task is made harder when hot classmate Tomoko instantly falls in love when she encounters Junta’s suave alter-ego and Junta confesses his love to Karin.
How It Turned Out:
The series was better than I expected but not “one of the best anime series I have ever seen”, as a box quote from Animetric.com proclaimed. The characters were likeable, the humor wasn’t stupid, and it had a nice story until the OVA, which wasted a lot of time with Junta struggling between himself and being genetically controlled by a power-hungry Time Council madman before finally wrapping the series up with a bittersweet and abrupt ending.
There were the “wake up finding a naked girl sleeping next to you” and close-up cleavage scenes one would typically encounter in a harem anime but those didn’t seem to be overtly exaggerated nor were they numerous. Some of my favorite jokes involved Kotomi, a classmate of Junta’s who farts when she becomes nervous and has the hots for him; Oharu, the AI in Karin’s ship that gives status reports in sing-song; and Yokomori, Karin’s boss who leads off his dimensional messages by exclaiming “Ouch!”
A solid show with a protagonist who quickly develops a spine, DNA^2 has a premise that could be interpreted as an allegory for fighting your destiny or possibly teenage urges — take your pick. The main villain that emerges late in the series, motivated by vengeance for losing Tomoko, shows how far someone can lose themselves by becoming a monster after acquiring the ability to absorb other people’s DNA, gained through another DCM miscue by Karin.
Would I Watch It Again?:
Probably not but I certainly don’t regret watching it. I might dip more into the English dub although I am not anticipating greatness after sampling certain scenes. I would like to try reading the five-volume manga by Masakazu Katsura (author of Video Girl Ai and I”s) because the anime was supposedly did not sell enough to finish properly, prompting the 3-episode OVA I mentioned earlier, according to Katsura’s Wikipedia page. Its 42 chapters haven’t officially been translated into English but it appears that they have been fan translated by a now dormant group so I’ll give it a look.
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