Sand Land is a manga from renowned mangaka Akira Toriyama and a short one at that. I only stumbled upon this manga because I was trying to decide if I should read dragon ball or not and I decided to look at the authors other works and I can confidently say that if this is the quality he provides Im sure Dragon Ball will be a pretty fun read. Plot Sand Land is a story about the world of Sand Land a world in which there is virtually no water and the only way to get the water you need is to either steal it or pay the exuberant prices the king of Sand Land offers. While most of humanity is contempt in going with the awful prices route our favorite misunderstood minority the demons are not they steal water another case of the slightly annoying good but poorly understood group trope. Anyway our heroes journey begins when an old timer shows up around their turf asking for their assistance in finding the phantom lake a secret lake hidden somewhere in Sand Land that if found could once again bring prosperity to the people. The demons of course wanting to help out agree to join him and so their adventure begins. Characters Theres only a few characters in this but Ill overview them anyway. Beelzebub is a young kid who just wants to do the right thing and is willing to sacrifice himself and also maybe shoot down a plane with a tank to do that. We dont get much backstory on him which normally I wouldnt fault for a 14 chapter manga but at the end of the manga he just kinda pops off for some reason and we dont get much of an explanation as to why. But considering how short this is I wasnt too upset. Then theres thief whos basically what would happen if that crazy guy who likes dynamite and a master thief had a child hes fine I guess. And last but not least we have the sheriff the old timer who enlisted the help of the demons. Hes a war vet with a big heart and an even bigger nose for justice. I was pleasantly surprised with how much backstory and development he got I was decently invested in his story and desire to right his past wrongs. This doesnt mean that the characters werent flat though. These were still some very flat characters and to a certain extent I can forgive the manga when you consider how long this is but on the other hand fleshing these characters out a bit more would make it much more satisfying to watch them fight about something that they care for. I wont dock too much for this though the backstory wasnt too bad I guess. To be honest this would have really benefitted from being a longer manga I would have read a new chapter of this each week for sure. Oh well. The art is pretty good. I dont think its anything special in any way but its certainly nothing to scoff at. I did like the framing I wanna mention that. I found it very easy to follow along and also understand the intensity with which things were happening. And in the off chance the art cant convey that to the reader theres dialogue to ensure you know how you should be visualizing the story or at least I thought so maybe you didnt idk The last thing that I wanna talk about is the overall writing in this. Its fine. There are plenty of things in the writing that I enjoyed but Ill leave those out so you can figure out what you like for yourself. And of course there are things that I think could be improved. The pacing in this felt VERY fast and I again want to mention how much better this could have been if it had been longer and was allowed more time to build up the characters and story. On more than one occasion something happens that I dont think was explained or just downright doesnt make sense but Ill again leave those for you to figure out. These things dont really hurt the story they just slightly irked me a bit but to be honest id be surprised if many people found these to be an issue this is not a manga to take particularly seriously. Overall Sand Land is pretty good. I liked the characters but they could have been better. I liked the story and world but they could have been better. I liked the art but it could have been better. And I liked the writing but that could have been polished up too. There is nothing great or inherently wrong with this manga and when you consider this is a 14 chapter manga I think it was hoping to be an average at best manga anyway. So if you have like 45 minutes or an hour or something idk i read slow then maybe check this out I can almost guarantee you wont be disappointed with this since you have no expectations for it anyway. I give Sand Land a 6.9 because funny secks