Sanda Anime Prime Video Evaluate: Bizarre, Wild, Great

In manga circles, Paru Itagaki is affectionately revered as a licensed weirdo. Since her debut, the Beastars creator has constructed a repute for crafting fearless, genre-bending tales which are unapologetically offbeat, exerting a magnetic pull that’s daring and weird, but unattainable to faucet the glass and see what wonders won’t ever stop.

Science Saru, in the meantime, has rapidly grow to be an anime darling due to its personal model of visible chaos and thematic daring, with titles like Devilman Crybaby, Preserve Your Arms Off Eizouken, and Dan Da Dan on its glittering resume. So when these two inventive forces collided for the newly launched anime adaptation of Itagaki’s manga, Sanda, it was much less a query of “Will it’s bizarre?” and extra “How bizarre are we speaking?”

Seems: very. Sanda doesn’t simply flirt with the weird—it makes an attempt to out-freak Nightmare Earlier than Christmas by pile-driving right into a snowbank and daring to declare itself the brand new cross-holiday anomaly.

A chaotic mix of Christmas cheer, slasher horror, and gag comedy, Sanda delivers all the above at a breakneck tempo that seems like opening each door of an creation calendar directly, revealing a contemporary, unhinged shock with each scene packed into its premiere episode.

Sanda facilities on a baby-faced center schooler named Sanda Kazushige (Ayumu Murase), whose hapless, extraordinary life takes a pointy flip when his crush, Shiori Fuyumura (Umeka Shoji) discovers his weird secret: he can remodel right into a burly Santa Claus every time he will get “crimson on him”—a loophole she gleefully exploits by stabbing him.

What unfolds is a chaotic mix of Shazam and The Santa Clause, revealing Sanda bears a hereditary curse as a descendant of Saint Nick, magically compelled to grant kids’s needs every time snow begins to fall (and the situations above are met).

Shiroi’s want isn’t some twisted, yandere-coded romance with Sanda—it’s a heartfelt plea to assist her discover her lacking good friend, Ichie Ono (Anna Nagase), who has been presumed useless. With Sanda’s assist, Shiori hopes to reunite with Ichie in time for Christmas, honoring a promise they as soon as made.

To check Sanda’s resolve as Shiori’s reluctant, underwear-clad Santa superhero, their first outing includes thwarting a faculty bombing (that she’s the mastermind behind). All of which is delightfully underscored with the comfortable, menacing hum of vacation carols.

Visually, Sanda stands out as one of many fall season’s most putting oddities, equal components weird and magnetic. Itagaki’s aptitude for offbeat rom-coms and immediately legible character designs shines by means of, with every determine telegraphing their character from the second their faces seem on display (which is very useful given the brisk tempo of its premiere episode!).

From outsized saucer eyes and twitchy beady pupils to jagged silhouettes and wildly different physique varieties, each design—brilliantly realized by Science Saru’s Masamichi Ishiyama—seamlessly reinforces the present’s razor-thin tightrope stroll between horror and slapstick, the place each thrown glare may very well be a risk or a punchline.

What’s extra, Sanda’s daring use of crimson—splashed throughout scenes like a visible siren—amplifies its off-kilter attraction, pulling the viewer’s eye right into a world nonetheless wrapped in thriller. Because the story tiptoes deeper into its cursed Santa lineage, wish-granting compulsion, and surreal dream logic, every crimson accent seems like a breadcrumb main us by means of a vacation fever dream and a homicide thriller that’s solely simply begun to unfold.

As a result of, in fact, there’s a homicide thriller brewing beneath Sanda‘s unsuspecting premise. If Beastars taught followers something, it’s that Paru loves herself a very good whodunit, in addition to scenic lengthy walks by means of her enchanting, imaginative storytelling.

But, for all its aesthetic extra, Sanda’s ensemble channels the scrappy, chaotic attraction of traditional ragtag anime misfits, comparable to these in Akira Toriyama’s Dr. Droop or Rumiko Takahashi’s Urusei Yatsura. From what little its premiere showcases of its assortment of quirky “what’s-their-deal” characters gloriously make each kinetic interplay, be it comedic or menacing, pop with as a lot unpredictable delight to match its beautiful visuals.

Itagaki could also be pigeonholed as manga’s eccentric inventive, however she doesn’t get sufficient credit score as a deeply humorous and emotionally resonant storyteller who is aware of tips on how to construct worlds that tickle your sides, punch you within the coronary heart, and scratch your mind. And Sanda appears poised to unwrap its personal darkish secrets and techniques one episode at a time.

It additionally doesn’t damage that Science Saru’s adaptation amplifies that ethos, turning Sanda right into a sequence that feels tailored for Grownup Swim’s Toonami anime block. It’s refreshingly unorthodox and hilarious, and simply unsettling sufficient to maintain viewers tapping their fingers to see what it’ll do subsequent. And if its premiere is any indication, viewers are in for a chaotic, spellbinding journey.

Sanda is streaming on Prime Video.

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