Hogan Reviews

As a quick little break between older anime reviews I took a look at the adaptation of the sadly now late but certainly still great Akira Toriyama’s Sand Land over the last week or two, that’s the anime series that’s half a cut-up version of the film and half an original story, not the film adaptation or the video game adaptation… that’s a lot of adaptation for a short manga one-off from over 20 years ago! Anyway, these episodes are the film cut up into six with some added bits, but given I never watched the film it was all new to me (beyond a vague memory of having checked up about the manga online in some form or fashion over the years…) So let’s take a look!

The story takes place in the titular Land of Sand, which has been made barren after a dreadful war and a massive explosion caused by an experimental weapon being detonated. The only water left in Sand Land is being held by the King, who is then charging extortionate amounts of money for the regular people to buy it, so proper on-the-nose upper-class arsehole-ary. This leads to local sheriff Rao to go searching for a legendary spring in hopes of finding water source not guarded by the royal army, and in order to do it he arrives at a nearby Fiend village to ask for their help after finding out that they’ve been stealing water from the Royal Guard for their own use. Initially Prince Beelzebub disregards the idea of working with the humans who always hate them but he is excited by the idea of going on an adventure, and to his surprise he’s soon told by his father Lucifer (who is literally Dabura from Dragon Ball Z with a slightly different outfit) to do it anyway. He takes an old-man looking Fiend simply called Thief and soon the trio head out into the deserty wastes to find the spring. The big thing to take away here is that the Fiends are actually nice, for the most part, Beelzebub’s idea of being a nasty Fiend is staying up late playing computer games, so their evilness is overstated by humanity, meanwhile Rao reveals he fought in the war and therefor has actually killed his own kind, something far… FAR worse than anything the Fiends have done, to each other or humans.

Rao takes on some random Mad Max-like thugs.

After run-in with a group of bandits leaves their car out of action Beelzebub and Thief spy a Royal Guard tank nearby and to their surprise he is happy to take it, saying he’s no friend of the King (which again, given the whole water hoarding, not really a shocker). They manage to take the tank with little trouble and Beelz and Thief even take turns driving it, much to their pleasure. This leads to an important scene where at a campfire Rao reveals he was present where the weapon, created by the Picchi people, went off as he was leading the tank regiment that attacked them, and that his wife was killed in the resultant blast. Thief on the other hand reveals the truth: the Picchi were using a substance known as Aquarium to create an infinite water source for all the people of Sand Land and the King, or really his corrupt General Zeu, didn’t want to lose his grip on the water monopoly and was getting tired of Rao, then known as General Shiba, and his more rebellious ways so he sent them to the Picchi and intentionally detonated their water machine claiming it was a bomb to literally kill two birds with one stone. So as if he needed another reason to hate the King and his former commanding officer, this was the clincher.

Beelzebub enjoys himself on the eve before the big battle in a scene used in 101 promo shots!

After an encounter with a group of weird mercenaries called The Swimmers (who are literally guys dressed in speedos and swim caps despite being the middle of the desert) the group ends up in tank v tank battle with a royal tank squad led by General Are, whose father died in the explosion that Rao survived. After the former Shiba outsmarted his division and brought them down he tells Are the truth that he himself has just learned before heading out, where Beelz soon finds the hidden spring only to find out its actually a safe haven for the few surviving Picchi, so they decide to not make the place public and instead take the fight straight to the Royal water reserve…

It’s a fun series with great classic Toriyama character and especially machine designs, but I will admit the CG animation can be a little distracting. I’ve been over this a few times on this blog, but I just don’t like it the vast majority of the time, it’s normally spotting recycled walking or gesturing animations that does it. Sand Land has the recent Dragon Ball Super Super Hero style heavily cell-shaded look with often more traditional backgrounds, and that does help, but only so far. Still though, I enjoyed the simple but effective plot and villains, and our unusual group of protagonists too.

Overall Thoughts:

Got to love the Toriyama vehicle designs, obviously it was something he couldn’t do often in Dragon Ball as it went along.

Sand Land’s first arc, or its original story run from the manga, is a simple plot of searching for a legendary thing while facing down a corrupt regime, with added Toriyama favourite plot of desert people needing water, and it works perfectly well. Beelzebub and Rao are a great double act and the latter’s backstory is surprisingly dark in places. The animation isn’t my cup of tea, but thankfully the Toriyama designs for both people and machines kept me entertained enough that I didn’t really notice in the end. A good watch, overall.

As if things couldn’t get any more horrible when they arrive they see that the entire water shortage wasn’t due to any war or bomb at all and in fact the King and Zeu had a dam erected to stop the flow of the water into Sand Land for the express purpose of then selling it. As they arrive Zeu and his force take off in a massive flying airship and soon send out “Insect Men” that give Beelzebub some trouble as Rao and Thief make their way on board the ship. When all seems lost Beelz unleashes a demonic power he’d stored up by “absorbing darkness” from the moon the previous night and finishes off the Insect Men while Rao appears before Zeu, who is in a weird floating mechanical ball…  thing.

Zeu panics as his plans unravel… after countless years on top, so… not too bad really.

The two have a bit of a shootout with Rao coming out on top and then he spares the General his life only for him to get up and try to kill him, but Zeu is then kicked into the far distance by a sudden leaping strike by Beelzebub. With the Royal Army (including Are, who arrived to help them out in honour of his father) now on former General Shiba’s side they blast the dam walls until the water pours out and returns life to the rivers of Sand Land. Their job more than complete, everyone heads back home, with Rao refusing an offer to return to service.