Review: “Sand Land: The Series”: A bittersweet farewell for Toriyama fans

Sandland: The Series should have been one of the breakthrough blockbusters of 2024, but it came and went very unnoticed because it was licensed by Hulu, which has been notorious for its inability to promote the licensed anime in recent years. The Animayhem branding for their adult anime and cartoons fizzled out and went nowhere. Okay, enough talk about how this series got robbed. Sandland is an emotional journey for many fans of its creator, the late Akira Toriyama, creator of Dragon Ballone of the most iconic manga/anime franchises of all time. The first half of it is an adaptation of his 2000 manga and the second half is an original story created by him. Sandland ended up being the second to last anime he was ever involved in, which should make this series a big deal. So how does this series live up to the hype? There are plot spoilers in the next paragraph, but if you don’t want spoilers, I’ll just say that it’s an entertaining show that’s worth watching.

Sandland: The Series is the story of two demons and an old man searching for water in a desert wasteland. The demons in the series are characters who are very distrustful of humans, but are not the monsters that people think humans are. The conflict is a simple story of good versus evil about battling an evil king who is trying to make it harder for the common people to access water in order to make himself richer and more powerful.

The old man, Rao, was a member of the king’s army, but he felt

extreme guilt over the evil deeds committed under the orders of the evil monarch. Although he is frail and old, he is a tough old guy who can probably give Master Roshi a good fight. Because of his hatred of killing, he gets a magical stun gun in the second story arc. Beelzebub, a 2500-year-old demon child, is a small character who can fight giant robots and other threats and is the same kind of tiny powerhouse that Kid Goku was. He loves video games and is very lazy, even though he is a great fighter. Thief, an elderly demon, is the weak link, as he was mainly a nag for comic relief. Later in the series, Princess Ann shows up as an alibi woman who also doesn’t make much of an impression. Admittedly, the short length of the series did a lot to hinder potential character development, as Dragon Ball And Dragon Ball Z got many, many more episodes to develop stories and characters.

The story essentially boils down to a very War of stars-a hilarious tale of good and evil, with an evil leader who uses a Death Star as a weapon, a princess who is part of a rebellion, and plot elements obviously borrowed from a galaxy far, far away. The desert setting is actually reminiscent of Tatooine. The series contains a notable and probably to some extent controversial reversal of good angels and evil demons. Toriyama probably didn’t believe in either entity, so one should note the artistic license in Western religions’ depiction of these entities before labeling this series “satanic.” The story isn’t revolutionary, but it’s entertaining and effective for a 13-episode miniseries, and Rao and Beelzebub are great co-protagonists.

His action scenes have the same epic, bombastic style that Dragon Ball Z such an iconic anime. Unlike Dragon Ball ZThere are many more vehicle/tank combat scenes that prevent this series from feeling like a complete remake of Toriyama’s masterpiece. How Dragon Ball Super: Superhero before this one is mostly done in CGI style, but it is pretty solid by the standards of anime CGI. Sure, American television CGI series like Arcane And Blue-Eyed Samurai They look prettier and probably had a much higher production budget, but that is not Example: Arm Disaster on level. The graphics have a video game-like charm, as Toriyama is also known for his video game characters that he designs for popular video games such as Dragon Quest And Chrono trigger. Perhaps the series was overshadowed by more eye-catching shows like Demon Slayer and Jujutsu Kaisenbut the series mentioned above have taken action anime to such a high level that almost no anime can reach it. Sandland may not reach the highs of those titles, but it is still well above average. The character designs are clearly Toriyama and his distinctive style of designing cool and memorable characters, although it doesn’t have the testosterone-soaked style associated with Dragon Ball Z.

With only thirteen episodes, it never lived up to expectations. iconic epic of the Dragon Ball franchise, but as a very good action anime miniseries it works. Dragon Ball is still the template that most modern fighting shonen are based on, with virtually every modern series in the series stealing a plot, characterization, lore, image or other element from the series. It is safe to say that if the Sandland Manga came out in 2000, it didn’t change anime and manga forever like Dragon Ball did. Even if it wasn’t the genre changer, it could probably compete with titles like Jujutsu Kaisen if it was a fully developed series instead of a thirteen episode miniseries. For Toriyama fans, this was a must-see, even if it went under the radar of many fans because Hulu didn’t hype the penultimate Toriyama anime. I’m sure Dragon Ball Z will be described as the true swan song of Toriyama. Sandland: The Series is still pure Toriyama and pure joy. Toriyama was the greatest battle shonen author of all time and he will be missed.

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