Desert Punk is a pretty old manga, and the official English translation for the later volumes doesn't exist (yet). This is quite a shame, as I personally found the later volumes way more interesting than the first few, which have our protagonist Kanta roaming around the "Great Kanto Desert" as a mercenary/handyman for hire. Kanta is an extremely unlikeable protagonist who is greedy, selfish, evil (literally), and of course lecherous, but he also possesses great intelligence and adaptability to survive in the harsh desert environment, which requires full body suits, weapons, oxygen cylinders, coolers, among many other tools and garbs. The environment and concepts of thisworld really shine in the manga. Unlike most manga that tend to over-explain anything out of the ordinary, Desert Punk allows the reader to piece together and figure out life in this world. It also does a good job introducing new and unique enemies and situations while ramping up the tension and suspense. This leads to amazing action scenes, which are complemented by some really good art. The author may not be the best at drawing people, but his eye for background details, weapons, and environments creates some amazing battles throughout the manga.

Initially, I found the manga "different" than most, but still plagued by unnecessary dialogue, character tropes, and a plot that leads nowhere. However, a little more than halfway through the manga, when the time-skip happens, we now follow Kanta's (former) apprentice Taiko Koizumi and Mitsuru as "Moles" trying to make the best of the ongoing war between the South and West governments. The fights become less plagued by stupid character immunity and dumb endings, and are really fleshed out, with the enemies being just as important. More of the plot is also slowly revealed, as well as character aspirations (for most characters). Unfortunately, this build-up was for nothing since the manga then swiftly managed to end within 2 chapters of something that had been building up for pretty much 50 chapters or more of the time-skip arc. All in all, Desert Punk has some really cool aspects that make it worth a read if you have the patience for it!