Akira Toriyama’s unique imagination has no limits. He first won us over through Arale’s humor and the hilarious Dr. Slump. Then he took the excitement and adventure to a cosmic scale with Son Goku and Dragon Ball. then they came Kajika, Cowa! or the indomitable Neko Majin. What will be next? Rather, who: Beelzebubthe prince of demons and protagonist of Sand Land, He will make the leap beyond paper, wasting that restless, mischievous and fighting spirit so characteristic of the universal author.
Under the code name SAND LAND projectBandai Namco and Shueisha itself (the well-known publisher of the Shonen JUMP) have initiated a plan to convert the series of stories published in the year 2000 into what they call a full IP. In other words: the big plan is to take the 14 chapters written and drawn by Toriyama and turn them, from there, into different kinds of content, including an animation work by Sunrise Studio.
The theory is very good, but in the end we return to the starting square: What is Sand Land? Needless to say that in iGamesNews We are very fans of Akira Toriyama’s work, so we are going to review the original manga and, from there, we will consider the interesting future of the manga. SAND LAND project and its diabolical protagonist: none other than the son of Satan. The King of evil!
After Arale and Son Goku, Beelzebub arrives!
about 50 years ago, the Earth was devastated by natural catastrophes, wars between nations and human greed itself. The world that remains is a huge desert with a worrying scarcity of water and two factions doomed to misunderstand each other: the humans, who caused the disaster, and the demons, led by Satan himself, who are also affected by scarcity and misery.
The little water that remained belonged to the spring of a greedy king who took advantage of the extreme drought to enrich himself with the price of water. The demons survived however they could, of course, since they don’t deal with humans, except to hold up their stagecoaches with the intention of obtaining food and bottles belonging to the royal seal. Precisely for this reason, the arrival of the old Rao
Rao doesn’t look like an explorer or an adventurer. He is actually the sheriff of a well-aged town with an idea, a plan and a hope. Something as scarce as water. After witnessing and studying the presence of finches every year, he came to the conclusion that the legend about the ghost lake they must be true. A new source of water and hope.
However, despite his determination to find the source, Rao is fully aware that no human would be able to go far enough into the desert to find the Ghost Lake. At least, not without the help of demons. So he wants to make a deal with Satan himself.
Aware of the human’s worth and noble intentions, as well as the demons’ need for water, Satan makes a decision: he will send his own son, Beelzebubto find that source. Thus he will kill two birds with one stone, since the little demon is as mischievous as he is restless. In fact, despite his youth and his appearance, he is tremendously strong. He is the son of the Demon King, no less!
This unlikely pair is joined by Thief, an ancient demon chosen by Beelzebub himself for his wisdom and knowledge. Although, logically, the journey of this small entourage will not be on foot: in addition to a plan, or part of it, Rao has his own vehicle and some food.
What none of the three suspects is that this It’s just the beginning of a great adventure with room for heroics, recklessness and even rides through the desert in a fun tank with that distinctive design of Toriyama’s vehicles.
Sand Land, the successful manga that Akira Toriyama made for fun
after finishing Dragon Ballin June 1995, Akira Toriyama I had no intention of starting a long story. Quite the opposite: he wanted to make short stories that he would entertain himself with and characters that he felt comfortable with. Little by little he was picking up the pace with works like Kajika y Cowa!, in which he addressed fantasy, humor and, from time to time, offered a little action to the reader. After all, he was always a big fan of martial arts movies.
His plans didn’t change much after the turn of the millennium.
Unlike his previous works, Sand Land He had an advantage for Toriyama: before starting the project, he had fully structured the plot, with its beginning, its end, and everything that will happen in between. Which, on the other hand, implied not being able to carry out those changes on the fly and from one week to the next so characteristic of Dragon Ball.
If it had depended on Toriyama, he would have gotten rid of the tank while he was drawing, but with the work already finished, in the end it must be admitted that it is part of the iconography of the manga. Almost as much as its protagonists.
Sand Land was published weekly in the Weekly Shonen JUMP between June and September of the year 2000, reaping great success among readers and positioning itself as one of his most outstanding works. Not long after, in the year 2001, Planeta DeAgostini Comics published it in Europe in a single volume, relaunching it almost ten years later. in a higher quality format.
In both cases, playing in another league -logically- if we compare it with Dragon Ball o Dr. Slump. At least, until now. The plan behind SAND LAND projectis to turn that not so well-known work into a new multi-project that results in new productions and media.
The project SAND LAND
will bring together various collaborators to create a wide variety of content and turn SAND LAND into a full IP. The project will begin with the co-production of an animated work by Bandai Namco Filmworks’ Sunrise Studio, Kamikaze Douga Co., Ltd., and ANIMA Inc.
Will we see the fearless prince of demons and the intrepid Rao in video games? As you will see, that is not something that can be ruled out.
The future of the project SAND LAND
The December 6, 2022 began the deployment of what is now known as the SAND LAND project. On the eve of the annual Jump Festa ’23 event, Bandai Namco itself offered a first preview in which it was made clear that one of its next priorities would be to turn the Sand Land story into its own franchise. A week later, the plan was somewhat more defined.
The first step towards this great project involves the premiere in 2023 of Sand Land, a digital animation project with a visual section very similar to that of Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero developed by Sunrise Studio together with Bandai Namco Filmworks, Kamikaze Douga Co., Ltd., and ANIMA Inc. In fact, the fact that Bandai Namco’s European and American divisions have picked up on the news suggests that the premiere will be worldwide.
It has not yet been made clear if the project will be released on the big screen or in a domestic format. Or how it will be distributed globally, but what is certain is that it will be the beginning of its own franchise based on the license from Akira Toriyama and Shueisha itself.
What can we expect from this? Basically, everything that usually surrounds the premiere of a great anime production, which includes merchandising, minor works on paper, and if the response from the public is correct, your own video game.
Bandai Namco has a spectacular portfolio of anime-based licenses ranging from Dragon Ball to Naruto and One Piece. Traditionally, you have launched a new project related to Dragon Ball on an annual basis (in 2023 we will see the Next-Gen versions of Dragon Ball FighterZ and Dragon Ball Kakarot).
and even though Sand Land has not been connected to the universe of Dragon WorldAlthough there are similarities, it will serve wonderfully to extend Toriyama’s legacy beyond the paper.
And we are not going to deny it: the possibilities of Sand Land As a video game, combining adventure, action, exploration and tank management, they are not enough for a single game, but for their own series of video games. For now, Bandai Namco summons us to 2023 in order to see the deployment of the SAND LAND project. We’ll be alert.
