Sanda Claus? Manga unveils a new Christmas fantasy hero

Review by C.J. Bunce

For Titan Manga’s release of the new English translation of Paru Itagaki’s manga Sanda, today’s review at borg is part of the official book tour launch.

Sanda is an incredibly strange Christmas story–a Christmas tale that isn’t aware of the historical underpinnings of the holiday from either a religious standpoint or a Western cultural standpoint. What does a teenager know about Christmas today in Japan? Not much from a historical standpoint, as Christmas Eve is a secular excuse for couples to go out on dates similar to Valentine’s Day. But kids in Japan still get gifts from the jolly man clad in red, known as Santa-san.

But in Sanda, writer-artist Paru Itagaki throws all of what kids in Japan do and know today out the window–for a look into the future. With that red track suit, it’s also a new look for the future. Did someone borrow The Six Million Dollar Man’s jacket?

Sanda is a dark story, a mystery targeted at teens that carries some heavy themes. At its core it’s a mystery about a dead girl, a socially challenged girl who can’t move on without her, and a little boy who happens to be a descendant of the actual Santa Claus.

That boy is Sanda Kazushige, a short 14-year old kid at Daikoku Welfare Academy, a boarding school in future Japan where he goes through his day like any teen at any school in an Eastern or Western tradition. He sits at the front of his classroom with fellow class representative Shiori Fuyumura before school opens. He might have a crush on her. And she has pulled a knife on him and threatened to kill him.

That kind of plot alone will probably keep this manga out of school libraries in the U.S.–even more so when Fuyu straps a bomb to her chest in the classroom and threatens to kill herself if Sanda doesn’t agree to unveil his hidden Santa Claus powers and help her prove that the dead girl is actually a still alive.

Yes, that’s a very strange beginning for a Christmas tale.

The story explodes in more ways than one into a mash-up of the Tom Hanks movie Big and the Wednesday TV series. Like the heroes and heroines in many dark manga dramas, Fuyu resonates with need of some kind of counseling at a minimum. In any other story her psychological dilemma would result in deaths and that would be the end. But Itagaki’s story is a twisted fantasy where anything can be waiting around the next curve.

Yes, Sanda has Santa Claus “powers,” which are unveiled throughout the first volume’s six chapters. He becomes a full-grown man, which poses even greater problems of cringe for the reader since he’s hanging out with teenagers. To temper that Itagaki frequently draws Sanda as an old and young man side by side so the reader recalls this is a goofy kid stuck in a man’s body, Big style.

Sanda may or may not be aware of his secret, so another element of the story is young Sanda adapting to his new reality. Luckily for him he is able to return to his 14-year-old appearance by eating his favorite jelly beans.

Dark forces begin to build against Sanda, Fuyu, and a boy named Amaya who wants Sanda to bring back Christmas traditions for his own purposes. The principal isn’t who he appears to be, and there may be a larger conspiracy as readers get the first glimpse of some secret program that has been looking for Sanda to return.

Here is a book trailer for Sanda:

Sanda is filled with coming of age themes, confusion, angst, chaos, social dangers, school terrorism, and teen death. This volume includes a helpful character sheet, including details on the school and a look at Itagaki’s creative process. A strange fantasy for older teens that will challenge your view of what makes a Christmas story (like Kim Newman’s A Christmas Ghost Story, reviewed here), look for Sanda at Elite Comics, your local comic shop, or pre-order it now here at Amazon. It’s scheduled for release September 9.