Sand Land: The Series

Good shounen anime for what it is. Story from one of the biggest influences in anime/manga Akira Toriyama (May he rest in peace.) Especially recommended for the younger kids to watch. Tanks, guns, and a little blood in the show. Labelled as a comedy but not all that humorous for a mature audience at least. Regardless, as a working adult, the anime as a whole brings a smile to my face.

Art/Animation: Not for everyone. CGI animation which isn't everybody's taste but has a blend of 2d in it. I think it's well animated and the characters look like they were the characters were ... almost ripped straight from a Toriyama's manga panel. Backgrounds aren't too detailed. The vehicles in the show are really well done.

Characters: Not a very character driven story. Beezlebub is the goku of the series. He's a kid and he is overpowered. Where it really shines is with the Sheriff Rao and his backstory. Not many anime have a clearly older gentleman as a main character. The other character of the trio is just kind of there. Would have been interesting to have a different fiend join the party.

Story: Pretty simple plot. Set in a desert land aka "Sand Land". It's hard to come by water. Sheriff goes out in search of water and teams up with a pair of demons/fiends. After episode 6 is to anime original and I look forward to watching the rest.

One of Toriyama's most dramatic works is finally adapted and extended!
Sand Land, being short, is a raw and exciting story full of the mangaka's classic humor.

Humans and demons coexist, although distanced by their mutual hatred, more than 50 years of drought could end them, until a Sheriff decides to put an end to it by making a deal with the demons to find a source of water that, according to legend, It would be so big that it would return water to all of Sand Land. BUT beyond the horizon, there would be mysteries and interests about water and war, which our protagonists would face. ... A story with many values ​​about caring for water, prejudice, teamwork, camaraderie and of course, remorse and redemption (you will surely love General Shiva, the goat).
If we wanted to summarize the intentions of the story, I would say that the movie is an extended version of the original manga, the series is an extended version of the movie, and the video game is an extended version of the series. xD

This series brings the sand land movie divided in the first 6 chapters. The remaining 7 is the continuation with a new arc in which Toriyama participated a lot (including the video game). This part is very good and you get attached to the new characters like Ann and Lilith, also we discover that there are angels, some of them very resentful... An arc full of action, even Satan himself participates! And the ending, although somewhat predictable, was very acceptable and concludes Beelzebub's journey to become stronger.

Animation: Many are not fans of CGI, but it was generally maintained with very good CGI during all chapters, there are also 2D scenes in flashbacks or important events very well done in the second arc, a decent quality for a series. Both for those who read the manga and those who didn't, this is your chance to see the extended story of this wonderful world left to us by the author.

A simple but fun story with some pretty heavy themes of guilt and discrimination if you peel back the curtain a bit.

A couple convenient 'heres this power I've had all along, even though I've never shown it before' to fix the situation' moments - but they're far from egregious. The story knows exactly what it's trying to be and does it well.

The edition of the extra arc from the original manga was a welcome addition from the late & great Toriyama. May be rest in peace.

A fun show for fans of Toriyama's work, but nothing revolutionary. If you go into it expecting as much, you'll ... have a good time. 7/10

I'm not the biggest Akira Toriyama fan. I think DBZ is one of the worst shounen series ive ever watched and arale is a series i similarly found to be not a pleasant read. However this series has made me appreciate the man greatly.

STORY : The overarching story of both of its two arcs while simple are quite unique in concept as we dont often see premises like these in anime. The Beat by Beat plot however is an amazingly paced thrill ride that keeps you hooked with how cleverly everything is tied together. The last 3 episodes were a tad bit predictable but the ... rest of the series is expertly crafted

CHARACTERS : General Shiba is in the running for my favourite main character of 2024 so far and the side cast is almost equally as lovable. The only thing holding this show back is that the antagonistic force while not bad is just ok. Mooniel was great at the start and bread was consistently a solid antagonistic force, but Commander zeyu and the king were pretty boring.

SOUND : The score is great throughout and gives the action scenes a lot of weight. The voice acting in the Dub is very impressive as well.
However the most impressive thing however was the sound design for all the weapons. None of them sounded like the traditional anime 'pew pew' guns but they added actual audio of what sounded like extremely real weaponry. It's hard to put into words but it helped the tone of the action scenes a lot.

VISUALS : THIS SHOW IS BEAUTIFULL!!!!. From the 2D to the CG this show looks phenomenal and the character designs are great as well.

OVERALL : 8.5 I DEFINITELY RECCOMEND!!!!!!!!!

10/10 - This score is based on my enjoyment with the show, not meant as an objective value of the quality, although I will say as an objective score it's pretty much up there as well, in my opinion.

First up, it's a 3D anime done right and the animators have utilized the advantages of the animation style very well during action scenes. Toriyama's cartoonish style translates well into the visuals/textures and while it can all get a little game'ish occasionally, I think it looks great. Unlike the vomit inducing visual disaster of Trigun Stampede, the frame rate and animation is smooth throughout.

Sand Land is a ... timeless adventure show and shounen of old, it's full of wonder, fun and well rounded characters with easy to understand morals without being shallow and fun storytelling that varies in themes from lighthearted to some fairly dark stuff.

Probably the single best thing is that the one season contains two main stories without dragging anything out, with so much going on that it's never boring. It's like being back in the 90's again where the quality is the focus, sans the brain dead marketing that keeps trying to milk an adaptation for as long as possible. This is, in my opinion, something you should get on hard media and pass on to the kids and their kids, I really think this is an instant classic.
That means that my bias is also in play, that this is a review based on my dissatisfaction with most anime made today that rely too much on irony, tropes and narcissistic drama, while Sand Land is wholesome, relies on visual gags and whimsy.

I had to force myself to not binge the episodes, it's too good of a mood enhancer to waste in a single setting.

I have always liked the manga and it was great to see such a good anime adaptation of it. I never managed to get around to watching the movie so I was glad that the first half of the series was the original story. I also really enjoyed the addition of the Forest Land arc as the second half of the series. True to Toriyama's storytelling skills, the characters were engaging, funny, and felt fully realized. The back story lent to motivations and underscored actions. The ending was satisfying. I think that animating the story also helped it and made it more engaging than the ... manga was.

If you enjoyed the manga or enjoyed other Toriyama series, then you will likely enjoy Sand Land. You might also enjoy it if you like dystopian stories where people fight against power. If you don't like any of that, then you probably won't like this series.

It was a rather good anime, had some more emotional moments especially when dealing with the Sheriff's background.
While it's more on the childish side, especially as far as humor goes, there is still plenty to enjoy as an adult.

A short but good anime, definitely worth checking out. The second half of it has a different plot, the main focus of the series wraps up after about six episodes. After that the plot changes up, still enjoyable.

The Art style is a mix of 3D and 2D animation, certainly not for everyone, it is one of the better ones for animation type.

Mostly a rather light ... hearted adventure story with easily liked character, written by a legend.

Its ok. Watched it alongside playing the game. Story is bland. Not much in it. Akira has a huge reputation. And deservedly so for his influence on the industry. But its mostly nostalgia. Story has never been his strong points. Its very simple and one dimensional like Dragon Ball. Though i did enjoy Sand Land more. Maybe for its shorter lenght as it didnt manage to get old and repetetive as ig would in a 100-200 ep show.

Music mediocre. Already forgot the OP and ED. Not a fan of the style and art. Use of CGI. I think as a complement to playing the ... game or fans of Toriyama id recommend a watch.

Great anime and 100% worth the watch however I wouldn't call it a masterpiece.
The first 6 episodes follows the original (source material) manga. The story, plot and animation is well designed and easy to follow. While the animation might not be for everyone, I personally loved it, the sound quality was a nice touch which gave the overall setting a real impact.

Without diving into any spoilers, the Manga was short lived, the whole concept originally started when Akira Toriyama drew a tank he loved and then later turned it into a Manga. The overall concept is very basic however loveable. I guess this is ... a mix of bad and good because it's a simple anime, nothing more, nothing less. You can clearly see after the 3rd episode that the story is wrapping up, it's quite predictable of how the story is going to end after the 6th episode. (part 1)

I give credit for Akira trying to expand on making a part 2 however I personally found part 2 quite bland and the characters didn't personally grab me. The main issue with Sand Land is there isn't any major character development, other then your main 3 characters, everyone feels they are just there for the sake of the story. With new original characters being designed for part 2, it feels like there's alot of missing development in the original characters from part 1. Sand Land feels like a big universe but isn't widely expanded on, I feel we only were treated a part 2 because Bandai was making a video game, a trading card game and expanding on their toy collection. There will be no season 2, even if Akira was alive right now, there never was enough source material to continue this Manga further. As I stated earlier in my review that the whole plot of Sand Land is around a tank that Akira drew when he was younger. I don't believe the manga was intended to be expanded on from the original source material and you can see that in the story.

While my review may sound harsh, by all means I am not calling Sand Land bad. I really enjoyed part 1 however, part 2 fell off for me and felt a bit forced. Overall if I had to combine my rating I would say it's OK at its best. I believe if you want the true Sand Land experience, just watch the movie that came out in 2023 or just watch the first 6 episodes of the 2024 anime and call it a day.