Dragon Ball Creator’s Next Project Green-lit for Anime in 2023

At the start of this month, Bandai Namco and Akira Toriyama brought the latter’s long-forgotten manga, SAND LAND, back into the limelight. They announced it as the SAND LAND project but didn’t tell us what it was about.

The franchise revealed with a teaser that more information would be shared during this year’s Jump Festa, and the day is finally here.

Bandai Namco and Akira Toriyama’s SAND LAND project has been green-lit for a screen adaptation in 2023. As seen in the teaser, the installment will be an anime, but the format is yet to be confirmed

Sunrise, Kamikaze Douga, and Anime have been appointed to look after the anime’s production.

【特報】鳥山明原作『SAND LAND(サンドランド)』映像化決定

The trailer begins with a vast barren land, which is the result of a war that destroyed the entire Earth. In this dystopian future, the water supply is controlled by a greedy king, and Sheriff Rao aims to find a long-lost lake to deal with this problem.

Soon after, the video introduces us to the protagonist, Beelzebub, the demon king’s son. Sheriff Rao approaches the king of demons to ask for help, and the latter sends his son Beelzebub and his assistant Thief to solve this.

From here on begins the adventures of this trio to find the lake while battling various foes like the wasteland’s monsters and the greedy king’s army.

Dragon Ball Creator's Next Project Green-lit for Anime in 2023
Beelzebub looking over the wasteland | Source: Official Twitter

As seen from the trailer, the animation looks very similar to Dragon Ball Super’s latest film, Super Hero. It has the same 3D animation style with smooth effects and a soft art style, unlike the majority of the Dragon Ball anime installments.

Considering that the film was the first step Toriyama took to change his style, it only makes sense that SAND LAND would have something similar. This also means that the anime is most likely a film or an OVA, as the manga was a mini-series, and the story wasn’t continued after that.

Many sources say that the adaptation will be an anime film, but we can only confirm it once the franchise says so.

Given that, what do you think the story will be? Will there be some original elements, or will it only adapt the original mini-series from 2000?

About SAND LAND

‘SAND LAND’ is a short manga series by Akira Toriyama. It was serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine from May to August 2000 and was collected into one tankōbon volume in November 2000 by Shueisha.

A CGI anime film adaptation was released in August 2023, and an original net animation (ONA) series will be streamed worldwide on Disney+ and Hulu in Q2 2024. An action role-playing video game developed by ILCA and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment is set to be released in April 2024.

The story is set in a war-torn future where only a barren wasteland is left and a greedy king controls the water supply. It follows the demon king’s son Beelzebub, his assistant Thief, and Sheriff Rao on a quest to find a long-lost river. The trio encounters many foes on their adventurous journey, including the greedy king’s army.

Source: Official Website

Epic Dope Staff

Epic Dope Staff

Our talented team of Freelance writers - Always on the lookout - pour their energies into a wide range of topics bringing to our audience what they crave - fun up-to-date news, reviews, fan theories and much much more.

Comments

Leave a Reply