Review by C.J. Bunce
The first volume of the manga story Sanda (reviewed here) was as strange as it sounds–a Christmas story of the future where Christmas isn’t really celebrated, but where a kid inherits the mantle of Santa Claus as a sort of superpower. Today’s Japan finds Christmas Eve as 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. Writer-artist Paru Itagaki ignores all that and uses the jolly old elf as only the starting point for his story of teens struggling with the same coming of age choices that today’s kids encounter. Now the second volume of Sanda (available now here at Amazon) has arrived, and it’s even less about Santa Claus than the first.
In the first volume readers met 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 either an Eastern or Western tradition. He has a crush on the awkward, tall, socially challenged Shiori Fuyumura–even if she pulls a knife on him. Now an anime production, this second volume sees the two friends search for missing girl Ichie Obo while uncovering a conspiracy that threatens their world and the magic of Christmas in the year 2080.
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 descendant is Sanda the boy, and his embarrassment with turning from boy into grey-haired adult Santa is more of a factor in the second volume.
The good news in the second volume is that Ichie Obo isn’t dead. Shiori struggles with who she is and who she loves. Any thought of the story having holiday themes is long gone as the story slides into becoming more about teens, teen humor, and balancing the concepts of puberty and adulthood. The jokes reach to even younger age humor, about Sanda flashing into Santa in public as a naked man as the source of humor. The best new feature is the discovery of a conspiracy called the St. Nick Pursuit Unit, which is trying to subdue Sanda.
As in the first volume, the second volume of Sanda is filled with coming of age themes, confusion, angst, chaos, social dangers, school terrorism, and teen death. 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. The first volume is available here, and the third volume is available for pre-order now here.
