Sand Land: The Series

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'llhave 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 therest 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 atimeless 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 themanga 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.