Sand Land: The Series

In anticipation for Dragon Ball Daima, I decided to take a look back at the Sand Land animated series I watched last Spring. Which was a pretty rough month for me if I'm being completely honest. I'm a huge Dragon Ball fan and after I heard that Akira Toriyama passed away, this show was just the therapy I needed. I really engaging quest through desert involving demons, mystery, and dynamic action sequences was just what the doctor ordered. It's so simple and yet it has a surprising amount of depth to it. And think it just goes to show how good Toriyama is at character writing.

This adventure centers around Sheriff Rao, who has formed an alliance with the demons in order to find the secret oasis of the desert to save both of there homes from the water crisis. Teaming up with the reckless Fiend Prince Beelzebub and his timid caretaker Thief. And later on in the new Forest Land section of the story, Ann from the resistance army. And personally, while I really enjoyed this show, it did feel a bit unbalanced. I thought the Sand Land portion was great and the new Forest Land portion was just good. Not because I didn't like the characters introduced in Forest Land, but rather because they didn't have a ton to do in the climax.

I usually compared Ann to Bulma seeing that they both enjoy tinkering with machines and enjoy riding fast moving vehicles. Though the biggest difference is that Bulma was designed to be a supporting character covering Goku's weaknesses using her intelligence and inventing skills to remove obstacles. While Ann could've worked as a main character seeing that she was on a mission to save her family and lived a hard life, though she doesn't do a ton of fighting in the story, that could've benefited from a few more episodes to expand her character. She's not bad, I just wish I got to learn more about her character.

With that being said, the story itself is still really good. Albeit a bit similar to OG Dragon Ball, the structure was completely intentional, seeing that Toriyama wanted to return to a storytelling format that would be impossible to include in modern Dragon Ball. Make no mistake, Dragon Ball Z is an amazing series, but it goes for an action focused style of storytelling rather than an energetic adventure like the original series. New worlds were being built, but were explored in a much more tense and dangerous fashion. Dragon Ball hunting was still entertaining, but it could now be pulled off in a day now that the characters possessed the ability to fly at great speeds.

And that's where Sand Land comes in. Allowing Toriyama to return to his old favorite storytelling style, where a group of misfits go on an adventure to find a legendary treasure. And having read all of the Dragon Ball manga, it feels incredibly satisfying to return to this format. I brings back so much nostalgia. The characters and setting may be completely different, but the experience feels so fresh and rejuvenating. It's a a great example of taking a somewhat familiar story and adding a handful of unique elements to make it feel like a spring breeze.

Over the years I've seen plenty of stories where supposed villains become the good guys and I can usually predict what's going to happen. But at the same time, I still really like that style of storytelling and Toriyama still does a fantastic job humanizing evil looking characters. I won't go into spoilers, but there is a really tragic twist surrounding Rao's character that leads to a ton of great reactions, that made me fall in love of the narrative. Setting the stage for the perfect climax, in the Sand Land portion of the story. Like I said earlier, Forest Land needed to flesh out its new characters a bit longer. That won't stop me from recording this incredible mini series. Definitely go check it out when you have the chance.