Ah, Christmas-time. The season of gift-giving, time spent with family and sitting on the lap of a six-foot-six behemoth of a man with rippling pectorals and a gravelly voice.
At least, that's what my current favorite Prime Video anime would have you believe. Sanda is the sleeper hit of the season (as long as you have Prime Video, of course), and tells the tale of a dystopian society in which childhood is revered, aging is abhorred, and Santa is actually a 14-year-old child who can transform into a superpowered buff old man.
In as much, it's a triumph, deftly blending horror themes with coming of age, melancholy with the spirit of Christmas and graphic violence with moments of serenity. It's ridiculous in places – by which I mean for most of the 12-episode first season – but, much like Beastars, this opinion-dividing series will be a breath of fresh air to some and a heaving huff of toxic waste for others. I think it's fantastic.
Santa Claus is coming to town
Sanda sets the scene in a world where declining birth rates have ravaged society and children are now practically worshipped as the last bastion of humanity… until, of course, time takes its toll and puberty hits.
In this world, children are protected at all costs, to the extent of being exempt from prosecution of crimes and even prevented from sleeping, all in the hopes that it will delay the inevitable shift towards adult thinking and physiology. Their only hope, of course, is Santa Claus, but his existence has been inexplicably wiped from memory.
Unfortunately, the man in red has been cursed, tethered to the family line of the Sanda family, only to appear when a descendant dons the color red (or, more commonly throughout the series, when protagonist Kazushige Sanda bleeds from taking a hit).
Fuelled by the power of children's faith and his ability to grant their wishes, Itagaki's Santa Claus is ripped, gruff, and absurdly superpowered, but with a heart of gold all the same. Oh, and also feet that can turn into skis to be used as weapons.
All I want for Christmas is you…
Of course, what really makes Sanda special isn't the slightly absurd concept. Nor is it the beautifully sketchy art style; it's the characters and conflicts.
A suffocating repression runs deep in the DNA of Sanda, with every character battling against their inner selves in (often vain) attempts to fit the mold in an increasingly dark and abstract society. That manifests in everything from murderous children to horrifically mutilated elders desperate to maintain their youth, and naturally in Kazushige's frantic attempts to keep his identity as Santa Claus a secret.
Unexpectedly, it's a theme perhaps rendered most beautifully in the LGBTQ+ undertones of two characters: Shiori Fuyumura and Ichie Ono. The two characters straddle puberty, battling to understand their own feelings in a world that would most certainly view them as burdensome.
Throughout the series, teenage love of all creeds color sthe narrative with the same nostalgic haze I loved from both Beastars and Dandadan, with the varying levels of maturity among the cast highlighting the tenterhooks on which teenage relationships hang. Tender moments collide headfirst with heartwrenching tragedy, and for a moment you can forget this is a show about a 14-year-old who turns into buff Santa.
Do they know it's Christmas?
Sanda is far from perfect, and it's almost certainly an acquired taste, one that took me a few episodes to develop. If you're willing to look past its quirks and oft-morbid themes, it'll likely be the most unique and interesting thing you can brag to friends and colleagues about watching in the new year.
Season 1 wrapped on Prime Video earlier this month, and while we don't yet have much information about future seasons, we do know the manga is ongoing, so there's more source material out there for a potential season 2 and 3 in the years to come.
That being said, I worry whether it'll get there as long as it's on Prime Video. It lacks the broad audience appeal it needs to thrive on a platform with so few viewers who primarily enjoy animation, so if I can ask anything of you this Christmas, dear viewer, it's this; give Sanda a chance, and let me know in the comments below what you think of this whacky festive animation.
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