Kanta Mizuno

This article is about the title character. For the manga and anime series, see Desert Punk Series.

Kanta Mizuno

Anime
Manga
Handyman suit
Bandit disguise
Bandana
8th Army uniform

Kanji name

水野灌太 (Kanta Mizuno)
砂ぼうず (Sunabōzu)
砂漠の妖怪 (Ghost of the Desert)

Alternate names

Desert Punk (Sunabouzu)
Ghost of the Desert
Master
Devil

Voice actors

Japanese

Chihiro Suzuki

English

Eric Vale

Personal statistics

Age

17 (beginning of story)
18 (beginning of war)
21-22 (end of war)
31-32 (end of story)^[1]

Gender

Male

Hair color

Black

Species

Human

Loyalties and affiliations

Current partner(s)

Previous partner(s)

Current occupation(s)

Mercenary, frontline commander of the West's 8th Army

Appearances

Debut (manga)

Volume 1, Chapter 1

Debut (anime)

Demon and Boobies

Kanta Mizuno (水（みず）野（の）灌（かん）太（た） Mizuno Kanta), known more commonly as Desert Punk (砂ぼうず Sunabōzu) or the Ghost of the Desert (砂漠の妖怪 Sabaku no Youkai), is a handyman and the main protagonist of the manga and anime series Desert Punk.

Appearance

Kanta is a 17 year old man (later age 21) and is rather short, and gets plenty of comments and insults for his height. He has medium-length black hair, brown eyes, and has a skinny build. When he's not indoors, he wears a Zero-Type Helmet System that keeps his body cool during the day and warm at night. Most of his clothing is made of aramid fibers, including his cape, gloves, pants, boots, and his sunshade with the red sun-and-horizon symbol of his mercenary guild. Later in the series, Kanta keeps his sunshade off and wears a red bandana around his head. He also later wears a dark outfit with a spiked Stahlhelm in place of his sunshade.

Personality

Kanta is an extremely cynical person. He does not particularly care about or like anyone, and has virtually no regard for human life. This is highlighted when he states that he respects the Oasis Government for how they run the Great Kanto Desert; leaving survival almost completely up to the people. His inner sadist even stretches out to the Machine Gun Brothers, who he calls his best friends, when in reality they are just the people who have known him the longest.

He is quite lecherous and opportunistic, and is not above kidnapping or bribery in order to have sex with women he finds attractive. A running gag in the series is his "love" for Junko Asagiri, who tricks and uses him various times throughout the series' run. Kanta is fully aware of Junko's vexatious ways, but simply finds her so attractive that he does not care. He is rather intelligent and adept with a wide array of weaponry, which gets him out of many situations, along with his sharp mind and quick instinct. He is very adamant in completing any job given to him willing to do anything to complete his tasks, even if it involves underhanded tactics, using people, or betraying allies.

Tactics and weaponry

Kanta utilizes a great variety of weapons combined with his quick thinking and ability to adapt to situations minute by minute. His main weapon is a Winchester Model 1897 shotgun gifted to him by his late father. The shotgun can be filled with different types of ammunition, such as flashbangs, smokescreens, and 16mm grenade rounds. He also has a combat knife and a Smith & Wesson Model 10 as a side pistol. At one point Kanta had enough money and bought his dream M40A1 sniper rifle, but quickly lost it when a bullet damaged it. The rifle is later used by his apprentice.

Kanta's personal motto is to be ready to do anything to get the job done. His main strategy during battle is to deceive the enemy and remain hidden when possible. He uses smokescreens to escape open sight, and uses his rocket winch to fly around and avoid gunfire. Kanta further deceives the enemy by inflating one or multiple dummy balloons to confuse the enemy about his true location. He also possesses grenades but does not use them often, and he has paralysis gas spray that he has only used once in the series. Kanta uses C-4 explosives frequently, and he has a special powder bomb in his bag of supplies in case it is stolen.

Biography

Origins

Prior to becoming a mercenary, Kanta spent his childhood in Water Station 30 with the Machine Gun Brothers and their sister, Natsuko Kawaguchi. He was just as mischievous as a child as he is as an adult, and usually forced the three brothers to steal things with or for him. At some point in time, his father attempted to take him to the Oasis for a chance at a decent life, but to no avail. Kanta's father is presumed dead as he does not appear in the series except in one flashback in which he is a silhouette. Kanta's most used gun in the series, a Winchester Model 1897, is a memento left by his father. He has had multiple masters who trained him in handyman work, with his last master being Gendō Koidemizu.

Plot Overview (spoilers)

When Kanta is introduced, he quickly shows off his skills as a mercenary, but his weakness is made far too clear: he cannot resist attractive women. This leads to women like Junko Asagiri and Noriko Koike tricking him. For the first half of the series, Kanta goes on comical missions that introduces the central characters and his morbid personality. Along the way, he meets a young girl named Taiko Koizumi, who wants to be a great mercenary just like Kanta. He turns her down multiple times but eventually agrees to help her after she promises that she will grow huge breasts when she grows up. He registers her under his name in Mugenya's Handyman Guild, and she gains the nickname "Kosuna."

After taking out the Kawazu Clan and getting tricked by Junko (before meeting Koizumi), Kanta meets Rain Spider, another mercenary who is just as strong as him and the two of them clash with each other occasionally. As time passes, he continues to take jobs from his mercenary guild and trains Koizumi on missions, including a big job where Kaoru Kaizuka hires them to destroy a killer robot. Many of his jobs involve breaking up bandits, and the villains of the desert know about Kanta's reputation. Kanta also frequently goes in and out of debt due to all the expenses of his line of work.

Later on, he unwillingly becomes apart of Kaizuka's political uprising (RHG) that wishes to change the living situation of the desert. During this time, Kosuna eventually becomes independent of Kanta and he tells her that she is a true mercenary after the training he gave her. Kanta, Kosuna, and the rebel group go on multiple missions to help the RHG win the elections within the West Oasis Government, and at one point they have to fight the cyborg soldiers that wish to stop them. After fighting the cyborgs and Nanba, two robot soldiers, Ayukawa and Samesuga, attempt to capture Desert Punk and interrogate him. Despite their efficient combat strategies, Kanta manages to evade them and even blows apart Ayukawa in a trap, stealing one of his robotic parts to give to Kaizuka. During her brief independence from Kanta, Kosuna takes on a young boy, Mitsuru Koidemizu, as her apprentice. Kosuna still takes orders from Natsuko Kawaguchi, but she still strives to be a well-known mercenary.

Betrayal and wartime

While Natsuko and Kaizuka's group prepare things on their end, Junko meets up with Koji Okawa to strike a deal to help the West Oasis Government fight the rebel faction within the Government. When Junko raids and destroys the rebel group's robot laboratory, Natsuko, her brothers and Kosuna come to find Kaizuka since they have not heard from Kaizuka or Kanta. As they stakeout near the burning laboratory, Kanta shows himself and surrounds the group, revealing that he and Junko have switched sides and now fight for the West Government against the rebel faction. He only allows Kosuna the choice of joining him, but she refuses, and the group escapes. At this point, Kanta becomes the main antagonist of the manga.

Kanta Stahlhelm — Kanta's new outfit, standing in front of two robot soldiers

After joining the West Oasis Government, he becomes the frontline commander of a newly formed unit known as the 8th Army, a battalion made up of Undead soldiers (Kanta refers to them as "Guardians"). At the same time, the South Oasis crosses the West-South border and captures the D-3 Resource Mining Village belonging to the West. To retake the village after Tsutomu Mukai's efforts fail, he decides to let the 8th Army join the mission and debut on the battlefield. Kanta has very little intel to work with, but he manages to scout the area and find the fleeing Southerners, so he has the robot soldiers massacre all the Southerners with ease and avoid Southern artillery. After this, his troops recapture D-3, making the 8th Army's debut a success.

The war between West and South begins, and Kanta meets up with Junko after his victory to collaborate. Some time during the war, he takes Tsurara as an underling in his army. Kanta's robot army prolongs the war for a few years, and his army eventually tries to go after the teru teru bōzu but fail due to Koizumi's newly-gained detection ability deemed "clairvoyance."^[2]

Last activities and end of war (spoilers)

Kanta plans another operation with Tsurara to capture Natsuko's forces and Taiko. He gathers many Undead soldiers and has one Undead act as a decoy to trick Taiko and Mitsuru. After the two chop the robot's head and arm off, the robot's head is found by Tsurara, and Kanta's capture operation commences. The robot's headless body walks independently, which Taiko detects with her chaser ability. She shoots the robot, but then senses more Undead soldiers in the area, realizing that she is in a trap. She and Mitsuru save Akio from being captured and then she goes to find Natsuko. Soon, Taiko finds Natsuko, who tells the former to escape since it is a trap. In front of them, three Hulons stand, and a sniper begins shooting at the group. The Hulons subdue Mitsuru and the sniper knocks Taiko unconscious with a stun bullet, making Natsuko surrender unconditionally.

Three days after Taiko is captured, Kanta visits her as she sits in a hospital bed, and she wakes up. She is terrified to see him and thinks he is there to torture her, but he tells her that her group lost. He informs her about her allies' capture as well, including the 8th Army's combination of robot soldiers and Hulons. Kanta shows her his right arm which is cybernetic, stating that it was a sacrifice he made to become the leader of the robot army. She asks him if he got to enjoy luxuries after joining the West Oasis Government, and he responds that he was hoping he would be able to chase women, but had to do a lot of middle management work and had complaints from above and below. As he leaves, he tells Taiko that she lied about her promise to grow huge breasts since she is still flat-chested.

After a few days in custody, Taiko steps out of her room and talks with Kanta, Tsurara, and Natsuko, who inform her that the anti-government faction has agreed to stop fighting with the West Government. Kanta tells Taiko about a city 500 kilometers to the west of the Great Kanto Desert, and the place is called Kansai City. According to Natsuko, the discovery of the city and competition to explore it is the real reason that the war between the West and South Oases started. Kanta reminds Taiko that resource depletion is a problem in the desert as well as the decreasing energy from the super concrete of underground cities.

Kanta tells Taiko that the government wants her and Mitsuru to be the leaders of the city expedition as they lead the Hulons of the 8th Army. She eventually accepts, and Kanta accompanies her. The expedition takes 10 years to build a path between the Great Kanto Desert and Kansai City, and when they arrive, the city's inhabitants stand there, and Kanta grins upon seeing them. It is revealed in the far future that the city's Hulon residents were enslaved by Kanta, and the people thought of him as a devil. The people were in great despair until a savior called "Mitsuru" arrived and helped the Hulons drive Kanta and his robots back to the east. A carving of Kanta in his handyman outfit is in the city's Valley of Heroes, where he is referred to as the devil.^[3]

Relationships with other characters

Taiko Koizumi (Kosuna)

When Kanta first meets Taiko, he begrudgingly shares his supplies with her and think she is just a wandering traveler. After Kanta defeats the Shimmering Sniper, Taiko begs him to take her as an apprentice, but Kanta is annoyed and leaves her behind. Later on, Taiko saves Desert Punk from a bandit holding him at gunpoint, and Kanta recognizes her. He still rejects her pleas for apprenticeship, but he reconsiders when she shows him a picture of a big-breasted woman who is allegedly Taiko's mom (the picture is actually from a smutty magazine). She gains the nickname "Kosuna," meaning "little sand."

During her apprenticeship, Kanta gives her an M79 for a firearm, and he treats her horribly. Eventually, Kanta gains respect for her because of her adamant personality, and he declares her an official mercenary. After Kaizuka's robots are sold to the highest bidder and Kanta switches sides, Kosuna decides she cannot side with her former master since she would just remain a sidekick, and that would prevent her from becoming the Great Kanto Desert's number one skilled beauty.

Junko Asagiri

In the beginning of the series, Kanta is very distrustful of Junko since she tricked him the first time they met, and she usually has ulterior motives or betrays him in the end. Kanta nevertheless gets jealous of other people who have their eyes on Junko, as he did when she told him that Seiji Tanigawa wanted to force her into marriage. Later in the series, Kanta and Junko work together as partners, but it is unknown if the two of them have consummated their relationship.

Rain Spider (Amagumo)

Kanta and Rain Spider are a foil to each other, having the same strength and strategies and not being able to beat the other. They admire each other's strength and have the same capabilities. Nonetheless, they are far from friends and they are always on opposite sides of conflict, including their first fight and far later in the war between the South and West Oases.

Kawaguchi brothers

Kanta grew up with the three brothers and had them do bad things with him, including theft and bullying other children like Kouji Kawazu. After the brothers find out about that Kanta tried to rape their sister Natsuko, they beat him up, and their relationship with him has been hatred ever since. Of the three brothers, Kanta dislikes Akio Kawaguchi the most.^[4] Despite this, Kanta works with the three brothers on occasion since they are members of the same mercenary guild, and Kanta also drags them into Natsuko's rebel group without her knowledge.

Quotes

"I'm known far and wide for always carrying out my jobs. I don't want to lose that reputation... so I'll do anything."^[5]
"Yes! Fighting and living are the same! Ever-changing conditions! Unpredictable storms of change! One must promptly and accurately ascertain situations during these and move with swiftness and flexibility! Confidence backed up by your flexible brain and abundant experience! The only way to achieve that is to experience many things, and the ones who can do that while earning money are those known as handymen!"^[6]
"Government dog? Sure, whatever. I don't care what you call me! Just think about it. We're enemies of a huge company now. Even after this, they're just gonna send more and more after us. In which case... the only choice is to crush the whole company. Defeat the enemy! No matter the cost, and as completely as possible!"^[7]

About Kanta

"I THOUGHT I recognized that scoundrel from somewhere before... Yes, those eyes... His eyes have the light of a well-sharpened, bared knife... Such disturbing eyes!" ―Kaoru Kaizuka^[8]
"The Sunabōzu, was it? I've never seen anyone with such eyes before!" ―Seiji Tanigawa^[7]
"Just look at him [Kanta]. In all my 55 years I've never seen anyone as despicable as him. He's cowardly, stingy, scrawny, and spiteful... And I don't know why, but he's garishly overbearing. But what ticks me off the most is that this bastard treks across this hellish Great Kanto Desert with the shabby shotgun he got as a memento from his old man. A .308 and .223. A rocket launcher with grenades. He's even made sport of an armed hovercraft and continues to live a happy-go-lucky life. All with that run-of-the-mill shotgun. Not to mention it's plainly obvious he's lived a dirty, scummy life." ―Igarashi^[9]
"Rumor has it that you [Kanta] are a demon-like guy who is violent and ready to do anything to get the job done: raping women, eating children's hearts, burning villages, and shooting anything that moves without hesistation." ―Ikeda^[10]
"The one in charge of the operation is the disciple of that bastard [Kanta]. The one as tough as a venomous desert lizard and as vengeful as the bite of an army ant. That fucking bastard. He would pull through any carnage even if it meant killing his own parents." ―Akio Kawaguchi^[11]

Trivia

The name Kanta means "pour, irrigation" (灌) (kan) and "thick, big, great" (太) (ta); Kanta's surname Mizuno means "water" (水) (mizu) and "field, wilderness" (野) (no).
Kanta's house number is 666, a number commonly associated with demons.^[12]
In a popularity contest, Kanta ranked 2nd with 4,957 votes.^[13]
Although he is the title character, Kanta does not have the most chapter appearances of the characters; Taiko Koizumi has the most. Kanta appears in all episodes of the anime except for episode 21, where he is mentioned throughout but does not appear.
Kanta's English voice actor, Eric Vale, has stated that his favorite character and anime that he worked on is Desert Punk.^[14]^[15]