For Dragon Ball alone, Akira Toriyama is one of my favourite comics creators ever but, having recently read the first volume of Dr Slump and now Sand Land, he unfortunately doesn’t seem to have made any great books outside of Dragon Ball!
Sand Land is derivative of any post-apocalyptic story, though, with the emphasis on tanks and vehicles racing across the desert, it really feels like Mad Max manga for kiddles. Water is a commodity in this dry world and a group of characters set out to find a free water source for the people - the evil King and his forces set out to stop them.
It’s a pretty boring quest for the most part. Nothing terribly interesting happens, the world is unremarkable and the characters are dull. Also I was distracted by how limited Toriyama’s art is - so many of the characters look like Dragon Ball characters! Shiba is like Hercule, Prince Beelzebub is like Son Goku, and Satan IS Dabura! The tank design was cool and Toriyama is still king of the fight scenes - the only part of the book that really grabbed me was when Prince Beelzebub/Goku took on the insect monster towards the end.
Sand Land is a readable comic but not a very compelling one - even as an Akira Toriyama fan I wouldn’t recommend it.
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