DNA Hunter 1-3 Review

Reviewed by astroknight  on  7/20/2004

The Little Details

Running Time: 84 min. (28 min. each on 3 DVDs)

Production Date: 2002

Director: Takeshi Masui

Cast: Animated, but featuring the voices of Kylie Ireland and Misty Rain

The Short Story

Initial Expectations: This one sounds like fun, so although I know it’s going to be a lousy and cheaply done DVD, I’m looking forward to the feature.

Initial Reaction: It’s a decent story with the sex blending in nicely most of the time.

Who Should Watch It : Anybody who wants a story with a little sex fitting into it

Who Should Avoid It: Anybody who wants a lot of animated sex or darker sex

The Technical Stuff

Audio /Video Quality: The audio and video both appear very good for what the source is like. The animation isn’t that developed, think Pokemon, but there isn’t any noticeable pixelation or remnants to hold it back further.

Music: None

Menus: The main menu is nicely animated, and gives a very good first impression. The chapter menu lets you choose a scene based on a small clip of each scene and a title for that scene.

The Feature

The DNA Hunter Box Set consists of DNA Hunter 1, DNA Hunter 2, and DNA Hunter 3. As I’ve went through them in detail on their own, I’ll cover a few general points here and leave out most of the specific details on the episodes.

DNA Hunter revolves around Mai, voiced by Kylie Ireland, a woman who lost her fiancé in a mountain climbing accident. Although a few months go by, she never stops loving him and decides that she wants to have her baby by a procedure he said he was working on. The procedure uses DNA from a strand of hair, fleck or skin, or even saliva left on a cigarette butt to create the baby rather than sex. It’s still experimental and extremely expensive, so Mai cuts a deal to become a DNA Hunter. As a DNA Hunter, she works for female clients who want to have the baby of a specific man. Mai and the other hunters have sex with the men and collect their ejaculate. As she does the job, though, she senses something else might be going on as well.

Throughout the three episodes of DNA Hunter, the plot develops nicely. The first episode does a very nice job of spotlighting Mai and her quest to have Youji’s baby. You can see that she’s not completely comfortable with the job, but is willing to endure most anything for the baby. You also see a slight hint that something might not be quite kosher with the company she works for. As the next two episodes progress, the dark side and risks of the job come out, along with some of the secrets of the company and a little character for Mai’s fellow DNA hunters. It’s nicely done and blends the sex in very well, and almost as well as in many classic adult films.

In addition to being nicely blended with the story, the sex has a nice variety to it. Perhaps the biggest complaint I have on Japanese animated adult cartoons is that they often gravitate heavily to the dark side of sex. There’s a lot of rape and drugging of women for sex, as well as violence with sex. That isn’t the case with DNA Hunter. Yes, there is some of it, but there’s as much if not more sex that’s consensual. There’s also a bright side to much of the sex. There’s obvious good guys and bad guys in the movie, and you don’t see the good guys raping anybody, or even the ones you’re not sure of. The variety of sex in DNA Hunter went a long way in helping me to enjoy the movie.

The biggest problem with the DNA Hunter Box Set is the job that NuTech did on it. The transfer appears to be well done, but this entire set could have very easily fit onto one DVD rather than splitting it over three. The feature is well under an hour and a half, and every DVD has the same extras on it. I can’t be certain, but I’m pretty sure that the entire series could have been fit onto one DVD-5 disc. This should significantly cut the cost to produce this box set and allow it to compete much better against the other anime titles that are out there. Central Park, who from what I’ve seen I think is one of the top companies putting out DVDs like this currently, has been doing this with their titles. They even including extras to give new viewers an introduction to anime. NuTech, however, can’t get beyond a photo gallery and trailers. All told, I can’t help but get the feeling of being nickled and dimed and that NuTech as a company doesn’t really care what they give me as long as they get paid. It’s not a feeling I can think of any decent and reputable company wanting to give their customers, but that doesn’t seem to matter to them.

DNA Hunter is a nicely done series that could be so much better if NuTech would put a little care into their product. The plot is nicely done, while the sex is varied and blends into it very well. The biggest problem is NuTech not appearing to want to get too far beyond the technology that was around when DVD was first introduced. Although I like the series, I have a hard time recommending anybody buy it for this reason. There’s companies like Central Park out there that will give you a similar feature with a better package for less money. If you’re interested in DNA Hunter, which I can fully understand as it is a good concept that’s executed pretty well, give one of the episodes a rental and decide for yourself if you think it’s worth the big bucks that NuTech does.

The Extra Stuff

The A-side of the DVD contains a few photo galleries and website information. The feature gallery lasts nearly four minutes with about six seconds per full screen photo. Kylie Ireland and Misty Rain each get their own photo galleries also, with each of them running about two and a quarter minutes with six seconds per nice looking full screen photo. There’s The B-side of the DVD contains trailers for most of NuTech’s animated releases. Sadly, these are the same extras on every DVD in this series.

The Down -n- Dirty Sex Stuff

Themes: Anime, B&D, group, anal, non-consensual sex, hot wax, gangbang, squirting, lesbian, and DP

Raincoat Factor: Low

Condom Usage: None, since social diseases haven’t become a problem among animated characters yet

The Bottom Line:

Currently, the DNA Hunter Box Set can be found online for between $18 and $60 with stores offering it pretty much everywhere in between. At the low end I’d recommend this, but over that I’d go with renting it. The story is nicely done here, and the sex blends in well. It has a nice transfer, but sadly there isn’t anything worth mentioning for extras.

Note to NuTech: Please enter the current century with your DVDs. Your competition would have released this all on one DVD and probably done it cheaper. As is, you look outdated and like you don’t care about your customers.

If you have any questions or comments, please e-mail me .

Other reviews by Astroknight