When I first saw the visuals for Toriyama Akira's SandLand, I just thought it was Go! Go! Ackman set in the desert which Sandland is. I had no interest in watching SandLand, even with the Toriyama name. Reason being that I did not like where Dragonball became, Goku getting even more hair colours, all sort of fushion characters and Vegeta getting screwed all the time. I have a friend who is big into the current Dragonball stuff but it feels like a series that should have ended long ago and I thought Toriyama's best days were behind him.
Since I have Disney+ for Gannibal, I decided to give SandLand a go and I was hooked from the beginning. SandLand is set in a country where water is scarce and humans think demons are all not good and responsible for all the bad things in the country. The demons all look like they belong as monsters in DragonQuest. The main character Beelzebub, the prince demon is another Go!Go! Ackman. His funny trait being he think he is a bad demon when he isn't and he is another Goku.
What makes SandLand work is the Rao. He enlists Beelzebub's help and has the best backstory in anime. From the first episode, SandLand had me hooked when I realised the show was about racism, corruption and not getting tricked by government propaganda. This why I feel in love with anime in the first place. Shows for kids that deal with mature issues in a way that is entertaining and not preachy.
I love the tank battles. I never knew tank battles could be so exciting and I wanted more. Should I start watching Girls Und Panzer? I wanted more single episode stories of our group of adventurers and their tank.
Watching SandLand, I am reminded of Toriyama who started Dragonball as an adventure story with a young Goku, Buruma and Oolong. This feeling of fun and sense of adventure.The only negative is that Belz is kinda of overpowered when he did not need to be. Toriyama does power him down in the second half though.
I want more adventures in Sandland, especially with the tank. That is the heart of the show. The 3 characters going around in the tank. I will definitely buy the game when it goes on sale unless the game is that bad. Very watchable anime.
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