Where Does The Sand Land Anime End In The Manga?

While still grieving Akira Toriyama’s passing, at least he left us with not just his Dragonball legacy, but a “new” anime series and subsequent video game to enjoy.

However, Sand Land may be being referred to as Toriyama’s “last” work, but it was hardly his most recent.

Toriyama lives on in Dragonball and Dr. Slump fame, but since first being published in Shounen Jump in 1978, he has been a frequent contributor of one-shots and limited series to the publication since, and Sand Land is one of those.

Where Does The Sand Land Anime End in The Manga?

The Sand Land anime is actually not just a full adaptation of the 14-chapter manga, but an expanded adaptation.

Everything after episode six is additional content. Essentially, the anime created a whole new arc for the story.

Sand Land also had a movie released in August 2023. The movie is a full adaptation of the manga story as well, but without the additional content that the anime features. This means if you are a manga purist, then then movie is the adaptation for you.

Is The Sand Land Anime Like The Video Game?

Japan really tripled down on Sand Land by releasing a movie, an anime series, and a game adaptation of what is, again, a single volume, 14-chapter manga in the span of a year. However, playing the game, you would come to understand that the movie was for the manga fans, while the anime was hyping you for the game.

The Sand Land game is an adaptation of the Sand Land manga story, but also adapts the additional arc of the anime.

However, do keep in mind that Sand Land the game is a game and not an anime, so it must have a different style of storytelling to balance narrative and gameplay. This means it is locked into a mostly linear perspective following Beelzebub. So while the manga and anime versions shows off various perspectives, including what the antagonists are up to, you lack that in the Sand Land game, and you feel it in the somewhat lackluster-by-comparison narrative.

While the Sand Land manga, movie, and even the anime series tell a compact narrative, as Sand Land must feature gameplay and is an open world game, it does noticeably loosen the taut pacing of the story, and not always in a good way.