It’s time for fans to rejoice as Akira Toriyama’s Sand Land manga gets a video game announcement and an upcoming release of the film adaptation. The Sand Land manga ran its course from May to August in the year 2000. The movie is all set to come out in August this year.
The initial glimpses of Sand Land do seem to indicate a stark similarity between the animation done here and the ones employed for the development of the Dragonball Super series and its consequent films (take Dragonball Super Super Heroes for one example). What will it be about? We got you covered. Here’s everything in store for the fans with the upcoming movie release and the video game announcement.
Sand Land Manga: What is it about?
The short manga is set up in Sand Land, after disastrous years of war, water becomes a scarce resource. The greedy king of the Sand Land seals up a lake making it his supply and expensive to the general public to establish himself as a monopoly. This greed is distasteful to Sheriff Rao and he decides to turn to the demons of Sand Land for help.
The demon prince Beelzebub, along with his friend begins their quest of stopping the evil practices of the king and returning water to Sand Land. Akira Toriyama started the manga with a simple interest in drawing tanks, but soon afterwards he was tired of drawing tanks but continued to draw the story nonetheless. The film adaptation and the video game will follow the storyline of the manga.
Everything we know about the Sand Land film adaptation so far
The Sand Land anime movie adaptation was announced near the end of 2022, almost after 2 decades of the manga’s initial run. The announcement was shortly accompanied by a short trailer and a website for all the updates. The animation production of the movie is handled by multiple studios including studios Anima, Kamikaze Douga, and Sunrise.
The movie will use CGI but that doesn’t seem to affect the art style of Akira Toriyama. One can easily make out the art style to be his. The animation also looks promising so far. The stark comparison can be made of course, with the animation design of Dragonball Super by TOEI.
The movie will release on August 18, 2023, in Japan with no international release dates confirmed as of yet. The character of Beelzebub will be voiced by Mutsumi Tamura, Sheriff Rao by Kazuhiro Yamaji, Theif by Chō, General Zeu by Nobuo Tobita and General Are by Satoshi Tsuruoka.
Sand Land video game announcement
JUMP FESTA 2023 will be held from Dec 17th for 2 days! The SAND LAND photo spot will be at the Bandai Namco Entertainment booth.
Come visit us and get the original SAND LANDtote-bag!
▼Check out details herehttps://t.co/UFEzGC4Ayk#SANDLAND #JUMPFESTA— SAND LAND【OFFICIAL】 (@sandland_pj) December 15, 2022
Bandai Namco Entertainment announced the video game along with a trailer. Another form of media besides the movie just makes the return of Sand Land more grand. No release date has been confirmed for the game so far.
The game will be an action RPG based on the manga. It is being developed by ILCA. Windows, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Xbox series X/S are all the platforms where one will be able to play the game.
Conclusion
The upcoming years look bright for Sand Land fans. Despite the usage of CGI which is generally criticized by the anime community, the Sand Land movie adaptation is only getting more hyped with every passing day. Now with the video game in the mix, the hype will reach new heights. It’s always a delight to see a proclaimed artist’s underrated works get the same recognition as their more famous works.