I consider myself to be someone who proudly wears his heart on his sleeve, but even then, I don’t usually get emotional over the death of celebrities.I was sad when Kevin Conroy passed away last yearand got a lump in my throat when rewatching Friends following Matthew Perry’s death, but I’ve never let myself go any further.
That all changed earlier this month when legendary mangaka Akira Toriyama, the creator ofDragon Balland Dr Slump, passed away. I’m a lifelong Dragon Ball fan, and the impact Toriyama’s work has had on me over the years is difficult to put into words. I cried like a baby when I heard the news and spent most of the daygetting teary-eyed at all the tributes from fans and other iconic artists and creators.
It’s nearly been a month since Toriyama passed away, but I still find myself getting wistfulwhenever I see a new trailer for Dragon Ball: Sparking Zeroor when his art pops up on my timeline. As much as I expected to find Dragon Ball tough to rewatch since it’s been with me all my life, I was surprised to find that I’ve had an even harder time withSand Land’s resurgence.
Sand Land might not be as well known as Goku and Arale’s adventures, but its previously niche status as a one-shot manga from 2000 and deeper themes of ecologism and prejudice made it feel like one of Toriyama’s more intimate works. Having read through Sand Land before it became mainstream, it felt like a personal story just for me, one that I was happy to see more people get on board with, but still, something that had a special, almost private place in my heart. I was sharing Dragon Ball with the whole world, but as a kid, Sand Land was mine.
This made previewing the video game adaptation a very strange time. Just weeks after Toriyama had passed away, I had the chance to sit down and play around four hours of the upcoming open-world adventure, and found it surprisingly emotional as I saw the world I had experienced many years ago brought back for a whole new generation.
Beyond finding the vehicle combat to be in-depth and engaging (even if the on-foot sections are a little barebones), what stood out to me the most during my time with Sand Land is how faithful it is to the original story. It clearly understands the characters, world, and themes that were introduced in the manga and lovingly builds on them, giving us even more time to see Beelzebub’s relationship with Rao and Thief grow as they journey across a desolate wasteland.
The focus on vehicles, something that Toriyama was especially passionate about and what actually led to Sand Land’s creation in the first place, also had me grinning from ear to ear. Beyond knowing his impact on games like Blue Dragon and Dragon Quest, I have no idea if Toriyama was ever a gamer himself, but I couldn’t stop myself from thinking that he would have loved seeing his world and drawings adapted so lovingly to the medium.
As emotional as it was hearing Toriyama’s dialogue spoken word-for-word as Beelzebub, Rao, and Thief drove around in a tank, what hit the hardest was getting a sneak peek at how the Sand Land game expands on the original world with Forest Land. This new area, which Toriyama had a big hand in creating, is the heart of a brand-new story for Beelzebub, and one that feels like it’s just scratching the surface of how much potential the world of Sand Land has outside of its one-shot beginnings.
I have no idea what the future holds for Sand Land, Dragon Ball,Dragon Quest, or anything else that Toriyama lent his immeasurable talent to, but I do know that we’re lucky to have seen so much of his work adapted across so many mediums. Time will only tell if the Sand Land game lives up to expectations, but the love and care that has been put into its world makes for a heartfelt final tribute.
