Whether you’re an avid anime fan or just a casual viewer who watches anime from time to time, you must’ve heard of, or even watched, a classic anime called Dragon Ball before. As such, the name Akira Toriyama must be quite familiar to your ear. After all, he is the original creator of this iconic and beloved series.
What most people may not realize, however, is the fact that Akira Toriyama actually produced quite a few other great stories throughout his long and illustrious career. Some are quite lengthy, such as Dr. Slump, while others are short manga that are still as fun and as exciting as Dragon Ball. Sand Land is one of those short manga. Originally published in the year 2000, this lovely little story finally received a proper anime adaptation in 2023.
The Story
The story of Sand Land takes place in a barren wasteland devoid of any water. The only water supply available in the country is controlled by the government, and they sell it at an absurdly high price. The situation gets so bad to the point that demon folks begin to rob government officials to take any bottle water that they have on board.
One day, an old sheriff visits the demon’s village and asks for their assistance in searching for a mythical lake that can be the new water source for the people. Since everybody desperately needs water at this point, the prince of the demon, Beelzebub, agrees to help him. So begins the journey of an old man, the prince of demon, and an old demon named Thief, as they drive across the Sand Land, searching for the legendary water supply. Throughout their journey, the trio will come across ludicrous criminals, incompetent government’s army, and accidentally uncover one of the biggest secrets of the greedy government.
The Characters
As mentioned before, there are three main characters in Sand Land. An old sheriff named Rao who seems to hide the truth about his identity. An energetic and kind-hearted prince of demon named Beelzebub. And finally, an old and grumpy demon named Thief who is surprisingly more useful than he looks. There are quite a few other characters that they will encounter throughout their journey, with the most notable ones being a group of criminals called the Swimmers and a small tank division of the Sand Land military.
Rao will be voiced by Kazuhiro Yamaji. He is known for giving the voice to some of the most iconic characters in anime, such as Kenny Ackerman in Attack on Titan, Silver Fang in One Punch Man, and his most recent role is as Rozan Shinoyama in Death Mount Dead Play. Beelzebub will be voiced by Mutsumi Tamura, who is well known for her role as Alibaba in Magi: The Kingdom of Magic, and Taiju Oki in Dr. Stone. The voice actor for Thief is Cho, the man behind Brook in One Piece, and Kazuo Yamashita in Kengan Ashura.
The Staff And Animation
Sand Land is the result of a collaborative project between Sunrise, Kamikaze Douga and Anima. This movie will be full CGI, just like the latest Dragon Ball movie, Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero. Some people might have doubts or apprehension when it comes to full CGI anime and prefer to see the traditional hand-drawn anime instead, which is understandable. However, once you see how good Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero turned out to be, you’ll know that Sand Land will be a feast for your eyes.
Sand Land will be directed by Toshihisa Yokoshima. While this is not his first directorial work, this will be the first time Yokoshima directed such a massive mainstream title. The one who is responsible for turning Akira Toriyama’s wonderful manga into a screenplay is Hayashi Mori, the man behind the 2022 hidden gem movie called Drifting Home. The one who is responsible as the sound director is Yoshikazu Iwanami (Ajin: Demi Human, Fate/Zero). The theme song is called “Utopia”, performed by “imase”.
Release Date
As a part of Summer 2023 anime, Sand Land is scheduled to be released in Japan on August 18, 2023. There’s no news about the worldwide release date yet, nor whether Sand Land will land on any global streaming platform or not. Usually, we’ll get more news about this as we approach the official Japanese release date. So stay tuned till then.
Interestingly enough, other than the movie adaptation, Bandai Namco Entertainment also announced during the Summer Game Fest on June 8th that there will be a game adaptation of Sand Land. It will be an action RPG, and it will be developed by ILCA using the Unreal Engine 5. This game is planned to be available on Playstation 4/5, Xbox Series S/X, and also Windows PC. There’s no official release date yet for this game.