The anime film adaptation of Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama's 2000 manga series Sand Land has announced its initial release date.Per the official Sand Land Twitter account, the film is slated to release in theaters on Japan on Friday. Aug. 18. There is currently no information regarding when the adaptation will make its way to other markets. The Sand Land film is a co-production between Sunrise, Kamikaze Douga and ANIMA.RELATED: Dragon Ball Hour Battle Hour 2023 Unveils Dragon Ball Budokai Tenkaichi 4

Written and illustrated by Toriyama, Sand Land was originally serialized in Shueisha's Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine in Japan from May 2000 to August 2000. The manga ran for a total of 14 chapters, which were collected into a single tankōbon volume in November 2000. Sand Land ultimately made its way to North America in 2003, being serialized in Viz Media's own English-language Shonen Jump magazine before getting an English-language collected edition that same year.

Sunrise, Kamikaze Douga and ANIMA's anime adaptation of Sand Land was announced with a teaser trailer in December 2022, though it was unclear at the time if the project would be a series, special or film. Bandai Namco Entertainment America's official synopsis for Sand Land reads as follows: "In a desert world where both demons and humans suffer from an extreme water shortage, Beelzebub, the prince of demons, and Rao, a small-town sheriff, form a tag-team and set off on an adventure in search of the Phantom Lake somewhere in the desert."

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Toriyama Discusses Sand Land's Adaptation

To coincide with the release date announcement, Toriyama himself offered his thoughts on the original Sand Land manga and its upcoming adaptation. "After Dragon Ball ended, I experimented with various short works and one-shots, then tried to put all I had into drawing what I figured would be my final work. "This was Sand Land. Thinking about it now, I'm surprised I managed to draw a weekly serialization all by myself without any assistant, even if it was only for a single comic volume's worth," the mangaka said.

"I drew this putting my own likes at the forefront, so anyone who says they enjoy this is a super-fan who really gets me! Something like that, I guess." Toriyama continued. "The images I've seen still had many unfinished parts, but I never expected this to get a visual adaptation after over 20 years, so this kind of quality is like a dream come true."

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Sand Land opens in theaters in Japan on Aug. 18.

Source: Twitter (1, 2)