Sand Land
Written and Drawn by Akira Toriyama
Published by Viz
Read in digital format on Amazon Kindle

The Skinny: Akira Toriyama’s “Mad Max”

With a major adaptation of Akira Toriyama’s short manga Sand Land set to be adapted into a video game this spring, I finally decided to fill a hole in my collection of the great manga artist, and I’m glad I did. This single-volume adventure is a charming delight. Originally published in 2001, the single volume is set in a post-apocalyptic Earth where the remaining survivors live in a desert ruled over by a despotic king with control over the dwindling water supply.
When the elderly Sheriff Rao embarks on a dangerous journey across the desert, he makes a deal with the demons for help, promising them not his soul, but a rare Playstation 6 video game console. Beelzebub, an apparently adolescent prince of the demons agrees to accompany him along with his servant, Thief.
The resulting adventures is a little bit ‘Fist ‘of the North Star,’ a little bit ‘Peewee’s Big Adventure,’ and it oozes Toriyama’s signature humor and charm. From a stolen tank in Toriyama’s signature bulbous design style to a family of bandits dressed as olympic swimmers, this version of the post-apocalypse doesn’t take itself too seriously, while still managing to have a hard-hitting, emotional story at its heart.
While not as long-running or complex as some of his earlier work, Sand Land displays all of the skill and humor that Toriyama is known for but sometimes gets lost amid the big fights and drama of his best-known work. It is a work created by a master given the opportunity to just play without the demands of continuity to previous works. The result is a book that is as joyful as it is dramatic, a satire and critique of hyper-masculine action-zests like Mad Max and Fist of the North Star, and an empathetic post-apocalypse where even the demons aren’t bad guys at heart.
I’m greatly looking forward to the upcoming video game adaptation of this story, coming this spring for PC and Playstation. Even if you don’t have any interest, I recommend picking up this heartwarming story about survival and justice after the end of the world. You can read Sand Land digitally from Viz and other comics retailers, or in print from your Local Comic Shop or wherever you buy manga.