Sand Land is a short manga series by Akira Toriyama which was serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump from May to August 2000, and compiled into a single volume.
The story takes place in a desert wasteland where humans and demons coexist, although not peacefully. While the demons do not kill, they enjoy making trouble for humans. They are reduced to stealing precious water from the king's supply... Then a human sheriff comes and requests their help in finding the elusive Phantom Lake... Though the King's army is determined not to let him find it. Thankfully, the sheriff and his allies manage to steal themselves a tank to help them on their quest.
A project
was announced by Bandai Namco over 23 years later, revealed to be an anime movie produced by Sunrise, Kamikaze Douga and Anima with Toho handling the distribution. The movie was released on August 18, 2023. The film would be followed up by a cour-long anime, Sand Land: The Series, in March of 2024, split into two arcs: the "Prince of Fiends" arc, which is the film cut into the anime's first six episodes, and the "Angellic Heroes" arc, which sees the cast explore a part of the world called Forest Land.
A video game adaptation, developed by ILCAnote and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment (with cutscenes by Graphinica), was confirmed to be in development at the Summer Game Fest on June 8, 2023 and was released on April 25th, 2024.
Tropes:
- Adaptation Expansion:
- In the anime's first episode, Thief's recap of the state of the desert is instead relayed through Rao's interactions with the people of the town he watches over. The child Beelzebub gives water to is also revealed to be from Rao's town, and Rao learning of Belz' act of kindness from the kid is what moves him to seek out a demon to assist him in his search for a water source.
- Rao has more notified horror at the war's true motive, admitting that humans were the true demons.
- Are makes a second call to Zeu after talking with the king just to be sure of the truth about the Picchi. The call also reveals that Zeu became a surrogate father to Are after the war, explaining his hesitance to make a Heel–Face Turn.
- Instead of Zeu carrying one Insect Man in a cage, he unleashes several from a giant Aquanium-powered airship. This forces the heroes to make a Tactical Withdrawal until the Insect Men catch up and make dents in the tank.
- All-CGI Cartoon: The anime adaptation is this, although it's cel shaded to mimic Toriyama's artwork. With some effects and characters being animated with 2D animation.
- As You Know: In the first chapter, Thief kindly explains to the prince how the world came to be a complete utter desert where there's no water anywhere, something Beelzebub already knew.
- The Atoner: Rao, especially when he found out that the race he exterminated was actually working on a water-producing machine to solve the drought.
- Atrocious Arthropods: The Bug Man Zeu unleashes on Beelzebub. It is powerful enough to actually overwhelm him... at first.
- Badass Normal: Rao. Of course, he was one of the youngest generals in existence...
- Beelzebub: The name of the protagonist.
- Big Bad: The King of Sand Land. Or so it appears at first; it's actually General Zeu.
- Big Dam Plot: Inverted. The King's secret water source is revealed to be the river, dammed-up so far away from the remnants of civilization that they were led to believe it was dried up by the drought. Once General Zeu is exposed and defeated, The main group and the Swimmers blows it open to return water to the people.
- Brand X: In the anime, the PlayStation 6 has its logo obscured and its games not mentioned by name, only being referred to as a "really old" system with hard-to-find games.
- Could Say It, But...: After learning the truth about what happened to the Picchi people, General Are taps into our heroes' stolen tank and muses to himself out loud about how bad it would be if they found out the King's water source was at the end of the river.
- Cyborg: General Zeu, though his cybernetic implants are less of a power up and more of a life support system.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Demons in general. They may like mischief and cause trouble from time to time, but mostly keep to themselves and don't harm humans.
- Darker and Edgier: Despite having similar mystical and sci-fi motifs akin to Toriyama's more mainstream works, the manga is a decidedly lo-fi road trip affair with rather grounded goals and regrets that facilitate the fantastical action and set pieces.
- Didn't See That Coming: Commander Zeu was so focused on killing Rao and Beelzebub that he didn't even see General Are shot him.
- Dragon-in-Chief: Commander Zeu is actually the dominant mastermind behind the villains.
- Establishing Character Moment: After raiding the military Jeep for water, Beelzebub is shown to have a caring side when he gives some of it to a human child he stumbles upon. Since this action takes place offscreen in the anime, the first onscreen moment that shows this side of him is instead using some of his water to rehydrate a nearly dry Slime.
- The Family That Slays Together: The Swimmers are a gang of bandits composed of a father and his three sons.
- Fake Static: General Are pulls this when Commander Zeu contacts him to question his orders. This led Zeu to realize Rao gotten to him.
- Great Offscreen War: The majority of the conflict that started the Sand Era took place offscreen.
- Harmless Villain: The King, because he's not actually in charge.
- Heel–Face Turn: General Are, although the potential was already there after learning the truth behind the mission that killed his father who was part of General Shiba's squadron. More notably the Swimmers.
- Here We Go Again!: The ending, where Rao once again asks Beelzebub for help on another adventure. Beelzebub is more than happy to accept. Not so much for Thief.
- Hidden Elf Village: When the heroes finally find Phantom Lake, they find it inhabited by the survivors of the Picchi massacre. They opt to leave them be rather than let the remaining people be wiped out.
- Information Wants to Be Free: The main characters' quest to find an oasis is opposed by the King's government, which controls the only other source of water.
- Ironic Name: The Swimmer Gang is made entirely of people who can't swim. The family head wishes to have enough water to teach his children to do so. One of the sons has an equally as ironic name: Guppy is the largest and fattest of the family.
- Kamaitachi: One shows up as part of Prince Beelzebub's raiding party. When one of the humans tries to use holy water on the Prince, he intercepts it, pointing out that such items don't work on Japanese demons.
- The Man Behind the Man: Commander Zeu is this to the King, who's just a useless figure head.
- Non-Action Guy: Thief. He'd rather stay home than go on Beezlebub's adventures. But he does help.
- Our Demons Are Different: There are Japanese demons and demons from Abrahamic religions. Note that Holy Water does not work on the former. Presumably, demons from other religions and myths exist, with Lucifer ruling them all.
- Pet the Dog: Belz noticed a human boy staring at him and the demons carrying water. Belz gives a case to the boy.
- Poke the Poodle: Belz claims demons are really evil, like how he stayed awake all night and then went to bed without brushing his teeth. When Rao says he killed people, Belz and Thief remained in shock.
- Production Throwback: There are a couple of nods to Toriyama's work on Dragon Quest:
- When Belz returns to his village early in the manga, Thief shows him that a Slime apparently fell asleep in the sun and died.
- Rao gets Beelzebub to join him by offering him a PlayStation 6 and a copy of Dragon Quest XIII.
- Really 700 Years Old: Demons are old enough to remember how the world used to look like before the drought. Beelzebub states he doesn't know his age but is possibly around 2500 years old, and Thief is a "little older than that". Rao, an old man by human standards, can't help but consider himself a baby by comparison.
- Reused Character Design: Beezlebub's father looks like Dabra. It's not generally known if is the same character, but fans like to think so. Then again, Akira Toriyama was known for doing this all the time.
- The Reveal: Rao is a supposedly dead military man whose squadron and family were wiped out in an explosion that they inadvertently caused.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: Beelzebub, the Prince of Fiends himself, often goes out to the desert to steal water for the demon village. When Rao asks for a demon to assist him in finding the Phantom Lake, the boy is the first one to respond, and he proves himself to be very helpful during the journey.
- The Sacred Darkness: Belz is able to absorb the Power of the Night and utilize it for good.
- Sand Worm: Sand Dragon actually, the Geji Dragon, a giant worm-like dragon that chases Beelzebub' group after they leave the Demon Village, and destroyed the supplies.
- The Scapegoat: The human population blamed the demons for the drought that affected the world, despite said drought affecting them too.
- Shout-Out: Lucifer was seen reading Faust.
- Spared by the Adaptation: The dead Slime in the beginning of the manga is only dehydrated in the anime, as Beelzebub is implied to have revived it when he pours his water onto it while remarking that it will be fine.
- Tank Goodness: A short ways into the story the group steal one of the king's tanks and spend most of the rest of the story traveling in it.
- Villain with Good Publicity: The King. Or maybe Zeu, as the King is more puppet than anything.
- Xanatos Speed Chess: Zeu is forced to do this in the end. Doesn't work.
