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Wednesday, March 22, 2023, saw the website for Akira Toriyama’s Sand Land project announce that the series’ manga will be receiving an anime film adaptation. Set to premiere in Japanese theaters on August 18, 2023, the film will be produced by Sunrise Studios, Kamikaze Douga, and Anima.
The announcement comes on World Water Day, likely done on purpose to mirror Sand Land’s core setting of a world without water. Alongside the announcement of the film adaptation and the film’s release date, several character visuals were also unveiled. The project was previously announced in December 2022 as a “screen adaptation.”
Dragon Ball creator, author, and illustrator Akira Toriyama set to return to theaters in 2023 with Sand Land film adaptation
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As mentioned above, Akira Toriyama’s upcoming anime film project, Sand Land, was announced earlier today and is set to premiere in theaters on August 18, 2023. The news comes roughly three months after the project’s initial announcement, which is when fans first learned that an adaptation of the manga series was on the way.
What's especially exciting about this latest news is that three different animation studios will be producing the series, suggesting a massive budget and high-quality potential. The released character visuals, featuring Beelzebub, Thief, and Rao, all further suggest that the upcoming adaptation will be of incredibly high quality.
The series was originally written by Toriyama and serialized in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump magazine from May to August 2000. A single compilation volume covering the entire series was published in November of the same year. This series is his third serialized manga, following 1980’s Dr. Slump and the world-famous Dragon Ball series from 1984 to 1995.
As mentioned above, Sand Land is set in a future Earth, where war has destroyed the planet and left only a barren wasteland where the water supply is controlled by a greedy king. Sheriff Rao asks the king of the demons for help to look for a lake, but instead got the king’s son Beelzebub, and his assistant, Thief.
The trio sets off across the desert, facing dragons, bandits, and confusingly, the King’s army itself. The series is described as an adventure genre, albeit featuring some tank-based action and shonen-esque battles throughout. For the most part, however, the series focuses on the heroic trio’s adventures as they try to restore the world’s water supply.
Aside from being the creator of Dragon Ball, Toriyama is best known for his aforementioned Dr. Slump manga series. He’s also well-known as the character designer for the Dragon Quest, Blue Dragon, and Chrono Trigger video games.
Follow along for more anime, manga, film, and live-action news as 2023 progresses.
