English Dub Review: Sand Land “The Story of the Fiend Prince”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

In the desolate and barren place known as Sand Land, a local sheriff named Rao recruits two demons, the demon prince Beelzebub and his friend Thief, to help him find a source of water after what they had was monopolized by their king. The three manage to capture a tank from the army, leading to them being chased across the desert and revealing a cover up regarding Rao’s greatest shame in his military career, orchestrated by the manipulative General Zeu. Luckily, with the help of others they come across, they are able to reclaim the water for the people and end the king’s reign and the general’s plans.

OUR TAKE

I first started really getting into manga around 2003, when the first American issue of Shonen Jump hit shelves. Inside were five series, some I knew and some I didn’t; Yu-Gi-Oh!, Dragon Ball Z, Yu Yu Hakusho, some weird pirate story that no one remembers…and Sand Land. I think it was the first time I had heard of another manga written by the now late Akira Toriyama, but my brain immediately clocked the similar artstyle to DBZ, which kept my ten year old attention span for its brief fourteen chapter run. And then it just…stayed in the back of my mind for the next twenty years, up until they finally announced an anime adaptation in December 2022. It would first be released as a film, covering the original story, which released in Japanese theaters in August 2023, but then split up into six episodes for a TV run and the eventual American streaming release, which is what we’re covering here. Luckily, because six episodes is pretty short, the remaining seven episodes will be a new story arc written by Toriyama specifically for the anime. Which just makes it sadder that he didn’t live to see it released, but also makes it feel lucky we still have some stories left to enjoy from the legend himself.

With the production background out of the way, how is the story itself? Well, it’s not exactly what you would expect if you only know Toriyama from Dragon Ball. Sand Land is a VERY different type of story from his other work, aside from a usually comedic tone and being about a small group on a search for something that it shares with early DB. The scope and scale of Sand Land is pretty much contained to a few spots across the desert, namely where the demons reside, the oasis the trio finds, and the King’s castle where the water is dammed up. While there is some fighting near the end, combat is not the center focus, instead being about Rao bonding with his two demon teammates and finding out that Rao’s previous history destroying a whole species because of their weaponry was actually a lie by his superior to keep them from making their own water. Yeah, that’s right, Toriyama gets POLITICAL in this story, where the heroes are seizing the means of production from greedy capitalists and monarchs! Don’t let anybody tell you that manga is only now getting Woke when the creator of Dragon Ball was doing stories like this back in 2000!

The characters unfortunately don’t get a whole lot of time to develop or grow, so their personalities have to be established very quickly. The dynamic between Beelzebub, Thief, and Rao can basically be summed up as “rowdy kid, crafty old guy, and serious old guy” (although Beelzebub is ironically the oldest and Rao the youngest), but they bounce off each other well enough with what time they get. Rao is effectively the main character, as the story focuses on the events of his past and those who were impacted by it or had a part to play in it, and his journey is to redeem himself for his part to pay in a genocide. Meanwhile, Beelzebub and Thief are kinda just along for the ride, but provide good enough banter. The animation also goes a long way to keeping things entertaining, making great use of the machinery that Toriyama was so fond of designing and keeping the 3D animation feeling expressive and vibrant. Overall, these first six episodes and adaptation of the manga are a solid and grounded adventure that holds a bit more weight coming out right after its author’s passing. Next time, we’ll see how the beginning of the new story arc stacks up!