Sanda (2025)
Season 1
Director: Tomohisa Shimoyama
Studio: Science Saru
Starring: Ayumu Murase, Hiroki Tochi, Umeka Shoji
Episodes: 12
Synopsis:
In a future where declining birthrates have made children a heavily sheltered rarity, a boy learns that he has the power to become Santa Claus.
Impressions:
When I saw the early PV for this, it mildly had my interest, but then I proceeded to sleep on it when it first started airing. It took my sister asking me about it to check it out and once I realized this is a Science Saru production, I had all the more reason to stick with it. Much as Dandadan was last fall, this was my highlight of the season and the one series I most consistently followed. What we have here is a nice little coming-of-age story set in a utopian-dystopia that taps into some rather resonant social issues in Japan. Personally, I'm not much of a fan of the cult of youth, so the play on what it means to be a child and an adult and the misconceptions the young and the old have about each other is fairly interesting. There is some nice character work going on for what is, on the surface, a shounen battle series. In the capable hands of Science Saru, the production values are excellent and the action set pieces lovingly brought to life. I enjoyed this quite a bit and am more than happy to recommend this for your collection.
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