Sand Land, Akira Toriyama's latest anime, makes its way to Disney+ next year
2024 is shaping up to be the year of Sand Land.
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Released as a film in Japan earlier this year, Dragon Ball creator Akira Toryiama's Sand Land is releasing as a series on Disney+ next year.
Back in August, Toriyama's lesser known Sand Land series received its first anime adaptation in the form of a CG film, but so far it's only been available in Japan. Now, the official Sand Land Japanese Twitter account has shared that the series will get a worldwide release spring 2024, as an exclusive release on Disney+. According to the announcement, instead of a film it will be turned into a series, with new scenes not shown in the original film, as well as a story from Toriyama himself.
If you haven't heard of Sand Land before, it wouldn't be all that surprising, as it only ran for a few months in 2000. It's set during a time following years of natural disasters and wars, with no main supply of water to be found. It follows Beelzebub, the prince of demons, joining a group of humans that are trying to survive as they drive around in a tank. The series was meant to be short, as Toriyama just wanted to tell a story about a man and a tank, however he struggled with drawing the tank, though stuck with it; CG feels like it was probably a good choice of style for the movie.
An anime movie isn't the only adaptation that Sand Land is getting, as it's also getting a video game (also simply called Sand Land). So far it's looking like it's shaping up to be a very solid light-action RPG, with our own Dom having gone hands-on with it earlier this year, writing, "the game has something special that makes it stand out from the seemingly endless treadmill of One Piece, Dragon Ball and Naruto titles that help keep Bandai Namco’s coffers looking healthy: it’s got that Toriyama hook."
Next year will also see the arrival of Dragon Ball Daima, a new anime series that is shrinking Goku down once again.
The Sand Land game doesn't currently have a release date, but it is releasing on PS4, PS5, PC, and Xbox Series X in 2024, and the series will also arrive in 2024, some time in Spring.