Sand Land

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Sand Land
Sand Land tankōbon cover
サンドランド Sando Rando
Original Creator(s)	Akira Toriyama
Original Work
Title	Sand Land
Format	Manga
Author(s)	Akira Toriyama
Years	2000
Additional Works
Direct Sequels	TV Series
Animated Adaptations	Movie, TV Series
Games	Sand Land

Sand Land is a multimedia franchise dating back a fourteen-chapter manga series by Akira Toriyama. Decades after its original serialization, the franchise was revived for a theatrical film, video game, and finally a television series that acted as both a straight adaptation as well as an official sequel/continuation of the original story.

Plot

In the far future, war has destroyed the entire Earth, leaving only a barren wasteland where the supply of water is controlled by the greedy king. In search of a long-lost lake, Sheriff Rao asked the king of the demons for help...and got the king's son, Beelzebub, and his assistant, Thief. Together the unlikely trio sets off across the desert, facing dragons, bandits and the deadliest foe of all... the King's army itself!

History

Following Dragon Ball's completion, Akira Toriyama produced various one-shots and short works for Shueisha including Alien Peke and Tokimecha in 1996, and Bubul of the Demon Village in 1997. Series with longer runs — serializations that would ultimately comprise a single tankōbon — were also produced, including COWA! in 1997, Kajika in 1998, and Sand Land in 2000.

Sand Land was originally serialized within the pages of Weekly Shōnen Jump in Japan from the 2000 No. 23 (released 09 May 2000) to No. 36/37 (released 08 August 2000 ) issues spanning 14 chapters. The series was compiled into a single tankōbon that November.

A new kanzenban edition was released in Japan in August 2023; that same month, a colorized version of the manga began in Shueisha's Saikyō Jump magazine in its September 2023 issue (released 04 August 2023) which ran straight through to completion in the October 2024 issue (released 04 September 2024).

A Sand Land theatrical film debuted 18 August 2023 in Japan with animation produced by Sunrise, Kamikaze Douga, and Anima. Its home video release in Japan was released 29 May 2024.

Meanwhile, the movie was expanded upon and received its own in-universe continuation by way of Sand Land: The Series, which began streaming worldwide 20 March 2024. Spanning 13 total episodes, the expanded series covers the events of the film (itself covering and expanding upon the events of the original 14-chapter manga series) over the course of the first six episodes in the "Demon Prince arc," and then moves on to all-new content developed in conjunction with original author Akira Toriyama in the "Angelic Hero arc" for the remainder of the series.

Sand Land was Toriyama's third take on a story revolving around a drought, dating all the way back to 1978's Mysterious Rain Jack and then again in 1982's Pink: The Rain Jack Story, a fact he alluded to in his 2023 kanzenban interview.

In America, Sand Land was serialized in English in Viz's monthly Shonen Jump print magazine beginning in the magazine's debut January 2003 issue and running through to completion in the November 2003 issue later that same year, followed by a collected print edition that December.

Media

Debut Chapter Page	Title	Media	Publication/Platform	Creator/Publisher	Timeframe	Chapters/Episodes/Entries
	Sand Land	Manga (Original Serialization)	Weekly Shōnen Jump	Akira Toriyama (Shueisha)	2000	14
	Sand Land	Manga (Collected Edition)	Tankōbon	Shueisha	2000	1
	Sand Land	Manga (Collected Edition)	Kanzenban	Shueisha	2003	1
	Sand Land	Manga (Colorized Serialization)	Saikyō Jump	Shueisha	2023-2024	14
	Sand Land	Movie	Theatrical Film Home Video (Blu-ray/DVD)	Sunrise Kamikaze Douga Anima	2023 2024	1
	Sand Land: The Series	TV Series	Streaming	Disney+ Hulu	2024	13
	Sand Land	Video Game	PlayStation 4 PlayStation 5 Xbox Series X|S PC (Steam)	ILCA Bandai Namco	2024	1
	Sand Land: Master Mechanical Plan	Video Game Guide Book	B5-Size Paperback	Shueisha	2024	1

Legacy

In the third Akira Toriyama's _____piece Theatre REMIX compilation, released 21 June 2004 in Japan, Toriyama noted some of the structural similarities in Sand Land as they related to one of his 1982 one-shots, Pink:

女の子が主人公だけど特に｢描け」って言われた記憶がないなあ。とにかく砂漠が好きなんですよ。砂漠に水がないネタって何回やったことか（笑）…『SAND LAND』とかね。簡単に描けるしね（笑）。ただ実際には行ったことなくて（笑）。実際に見ると違うんでしょうね、スケール観とか。

---

The protagonist is a girl, but I don't remember ever being told "draw that" in particular. At any rate, I like the desert. I wonder how many times I've used a desert without water as material (laughs)... like with Sand Land and such. It's easy to draw, I guess (laughs). I've still never been to a real desert (laughs). If I saw the real thing, it'd probably look a lot different, the scale and everything.
— Akira Toriyama

In the "Special Project: 'Tera-P'" interview within the December 2013 issue of Shueisha's V-Jump magazine, Toriyama noted that the then-new Jaco the Galactic Patrolman was one of his own works that he loved alongside COWA! and Sand Land.

In April 2014, in celebration of the Jaco the Galactic Patrolman collected manga volume release, Shueisha began including new comments from Akira Toriyama on the obi (paper band surrounding the book, generally promotional in nature) of his seven other (non-Dr. Slump and non-Dragon Ball) manga volumes. While each comment was only a short few lines, they provide a quick bit of insight with the occasional nod or comparison to Dragon Ball. Toriyama also contributed a new illustration for each comment showcasing a representative character crossing their arms. These comments were also briefly archived on Shueisha's promotional Jaco the Galactic Patrolman website.]] For Sand Land, Toriyama stated:

男のマンガであります。今読んでもよくがんばったなと感心します。COWA!と並んでお気にいりなのがこいつであります。とりやまあきら

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This is a man's comic. Even reading it now, I admire how hard I worked on it. Next to COWA!, this is my favorite.
— Akira Toriyama

In March 2023, ahead of the Sand Land theatrical film debut, Akira Toriyama provided a short Q&A on the film's official Japanese website:

When and how was Sand Land born?
Dragon Ball had ended, and I had tried my hand at a few different short series and one-shots, so I figured I'd draw a work that poured everything of who I was at the time into it, which I intended to be one last hurrah. Thinking back on it now, even with it being limited to a single volume's worth of material, it was quite a feat to have drawn all that myself, without an assistant, in a weekly series. I'm amazed at it myself.

Knowing that COWA! is number one, are there any parts of Sand Land that you can definitively say are your favorite work?
When I draw comics myself, the contents tend to be rather plain, lightweight fluff, which doesn’t lend itself to finding an audience. The truth is that even here, I held back on the fluff, and worked hard to make it a proper, serious story. Reasonably speaking, my favorite comic should be my most recent one. Thinking back on it now, though, I do feel that, at least in terms of the quality of the art and the vitality of it, the stuff I was drawing around the time of Sand Land was incredible.

Are there any unique charms or characteristics of this work that only you yourself would know, Toriyama-sensei?
For Sand Land, I scanned the inked paper manuscripts into my computer, then using software, I did the blacking and applied tone I made myself to finish it up. I think probably got almost no sleep…. After I'd finished drawing the whole thing, I lost the wooden penholder I had been using ever since before my professional debut. That penholder was one I had whittled down here and there with a knife and sandpaper, and which had worn in perfectly to the shape of my hand through years of use. I bought a new one and tried whittling it down here and there as before, but it just didn’t feel quite right. Since then, I’ve been using it as an excuse for why I hardly ever draw comics anymore. (laughs)

How do you feel about this work being evaluated as one with your "Toriyama-sensei-ness" packed into the characters, machines, world, and story?
Certainly, that might be the case. I feel that I really ought to have given more thought to the readers, but instead, I let my own preferences take center stage. Maybe I'm not cut out to be a professional.

What do you think about its being made into a movie after 23 years?
To me, anyone who tells me that this is fun is truly a god-tier fan who really "gets" me, I suppose is how I feel.

How did you feel when you saw the current in-progress visuals?
The video I saw still had a lot of unfinished bits, but even then I could see well enough that the quality was extraordinarily high. I never dared to think it would ever be animated, so for it to have this kind of quality, it's already a dream come true.

External Links

• https://dragon-ball-official.com/news/01_2349.html
• https://en.dragon-ball-official.com/news/01_2349.html