Sand Land #1-14

Sand Land #1-14

Originally released in 2000

Written by Akira Toriyama

Art by Akira Toriyama

After two major hits with Dr. Slump and Dragon Ball, Akira Toriyama switched gears, sticking to the occasional smaller series.  After Dragon Ball, he likely didn't have anything to prove (and likely made enough money from it that he'd never have to work again), so I can see why he did that.  Sand Land is one of those series - set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, the country that Sand Land is set in is ruled by a tyrannical water-hoarding king and populated by human survivors and various demons.

Despite their reputation, the demons aren't that bad.  Their prince, Beelzebub, brags about his evil deeds (which aren't all that impressive), and demons (the ones that we see, anyway) don't try to kill people.

A human named Sheriff Rao is heading south to find a rumoured water source, and he looks for Beelzebub for protection.  Demons need water as well, so Beelzebub agrees to help. (Getting a reward also motivates him to agree)

From there, it's a road trip through a desert wasteland, trying to escape bandits and the King's army, which is led by the ancient General Zeu. The series has a charm similar to the early chapters of Dragon Ball, and Toriyama's character and monster designs remain on point.

Toriyama enjoys drawing detailed vehicles, which extends to this series as well. Tanks, jeeps, and airships are well-crafted with interior and exterior shots, and Sheriff Rao's history with the military means that the tank in particular gets a lot of use.

The character designs are solid, giving us a good idea of what the characters are like despite the series' brief runtime. (Even if some are borrowed from Toriyama's other works, such as the demon king Lucifer, who is basically Dabura from Dragon Ball)

The designs do a good job at getting across what a character is like from a glance, from Beelzebub's childish nature to Rao being someone who's seen too much to General Zeu clinging to life by force. Some of them can be a bit plain, but they're still interesting to look at.

There are some morals here about not letting prejudice control your actions, or that you shouldn't blindly follow orders or believe everything that you're told, which are executed well considering how short this series is.  We don't get a ton of backstory on Beelzebub or his demon companion Thief, but Rao's history is well-written.

All in all, this was a fun little experiment by Toriyama.  This series suddenly got a resurgence in the past few years, getting an anime adaptation and a video game - I'm not sure why, but it's nice to see Toriyama's works outside of Dragon Ball getting acknowledged. It's a fun bite-sized manga that works as an introduction to Toriyama's style in a way that doesn't require much commitment - it's only one volume long, with each chapter being about 14 pages instead of the usual 17 or 19.