One of late Akira Toriyama’s most interesting Japanese manga series Sand Land might have been fairly underrated or neglected in the past. However, that has changed in the past couple of years. The attempt to celebrate Toriyama’s work includes the release of a movie and an anime that has helped push the series.
Another latest endeavor to further expand the reach of the series is the upcoming video game adaptation. The game adaptation of Sand Land is being developed by ILCA. Interestingly, it is the team that worked on last year’s One Piece Odyssey. The upcoming game will explore how Fiend Prince and his companion’s adventures bring life back to a desolate wasteland.
Makers want Sand Land to reach a larger audience
In an interview with The Gamer, Sand Land‘s producer, Keishu Minami, spilled the tea about adapting and expanding Akira Toriyama’s manga. He explains how generally, when people hear of Akira Toriyama the first and probably only thing that they think about is Dragon Ball. Talking of Dragon Ball he says,
“It is so well-known that there is no one in the world who does not know about it, but the worldview that Toriyama-sensei depicts is not limited to Dragon Ball.”
However, he adds how the team’s vision was to change that when they decided to adopt Sand Land. He says,
“We wanted to bring to the fans the variety of perspectives and charms his worlds have to offer. We can reach out to some audiences through the manga but the game and anime series introduce new ways to deliver the story to a wider audience.”
The upcoming Sand Land game is a testament to how the legendary mangaka’s designs have brought Toriyama’s lesser-known work to life so accurately. Although other mangas like Chrono Trigger and Dragon Quest have been through a similar process before, Sand Land stands as one of the most accurate ones, thanks to its bold cel-shading and intricately designed vehicles.
Akira Toriyama’s Sand Land Gets a Demo, and It’ll Make You Forget About His Other, More Famous Works
Or for that matter even something so detailed as the interior of the tan, which is being recreated even though it would rarely be seen in the game.
What inspired the Toriyama-mechs?
The tank vehicles seen in the game may look like they came straight out of Toriyama’s notebook. However, the fact is that they were actually designed by ILCA solely for the game taking inspiration from Toriyama’s work.
Talking about the tank designs, Minami says,
“First of all, we considered the vehicle designs that would fit the world of Sand Land. We wanted to create a game which could incorporate Toriyama-mechs to venture into the world so we created the vehicles not from scratch but got inspiration from Toriyama-sensei’s artwork books and other mangas.”
Breathing life into Toriyama’s most personal work and bringing it to the screen is no cakewalk. However, after the unfortunate passing away of Japanese manga artist and character designer, Akira Toriyama, honoring his iconic work becomes even more important.
Toriyama passed away earlier last month at the age of 68 years. Notably, the Sand Land game marks one of the first projects released since his passing. Thus it will be a posthumous tribute to the manga creator. Sand Land game is all set to release on April 25, 2024, on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X and Series S, and PC.
