Sand Land

Alright, this is my first review so excuse me if it sucks. Anyways, Sandland is a short manga written and drawn by Dragon Ball Z creator Akira Toryima. With that said you can clearly tell because his unique art style is obviously throughout the story. Some people don't like his style, some people do. I for one enjoy it. Though it's a quick read Toryima really fleshes out this whole post-apocalyptic world (which I love) that has character of it's own. Sure there's obviously cliche's but they blend so easily with the unique parts of the story that I hardly noticedthem. All in all I enjoyed the story, it isn't his best work, but it's a quick fun read that has his good art and unique knack for storytelling.

A fun little one-shot, similar to Toriyama's previous series "Pink" which also has similar themes regarding a lack of water. While Pink feels like something out of Star Wars, like Tatooine, Sand Land adds much of the same demon flavored, wholesome charm that exists in another Toriyama manga, Cowa!. The way Toriyama envisions demons as not necessarily evil creatures is something he consistently plays with, even down to Majin Buu who is technically not at all evil. The strength of his ability to write these evil, yet charming characters is one element that helps establish Beelzebub. General Shiba is another great character filled with personality,who has a similar feel to Goku, making you want to root for him, hoping he achieves his goals. The one limitation of this manga is the time, and real lack of a strong enemy and confrontational climax. The King never really gets his day, despite his monopoly on power ending. While this manga is cleanly wrapped up, it feels like the story in between could have added a lot more to the mix that would significantly beef up the content and memorability. Otherwise, this was a pretty decent manga and for it's size and expansion of an even shorter manga, this was quite enjoyable to read.

It is fun to read something else than Dragon Ball and Dr Slump by Toriyama. It's an ok one, where the art shines the most. The story however moves at lightning speed, it's almost ridiculous at times. Every problem or conflict they encounter is solved with one sentence or a few panels. Every character feels so gullible. Never deep diving into any lore or thing that happens. SandLand just feels like world building in a light prequel before the main story starts off. But it's a quick read so I would still say go for it if you want some more Toriyama