There is no such thing as Christmas anymore. No one exchanges presents. It doesn’t even get cold. But Fuyumura is desperate to bring Christmas back…all she needs to do so is to find Santa Claus—and she thinks she has: he’s her classmate, Kazushige Sanda. But, uh, her reasons are a little mad, and her methods even more so, including stabbing Sanda until he turns into the jolly old guy. Is she insane, or does Fuyumura know what she’s doing? And if so, can Santa be the hero that she really needs him to be?
Is it too early to declare the anime of the season? The anime of the year? Okay, Twwk, take a breath and slow it down. Here’s a more reasonable starter: SANDA brings all the intelligence and coolness you expect from Science SARU and delivers a clever, funny, charming, bloody, and even heart-warming first episode of what might be the first truly great Christmas anime series. It starts with our odd couple, whose dynamic closely resembles that between the titular character and Enid in Wednesday; Fuyumura is dark, violent, and to the point, while Sanda is cute and overly optimistic. Their back and forth is fun, but takes a huge step up in scale because of the extreme ends that Fuyumura is willing to go to and Sanda’s relationship to Santa (I’ll avoid any more spoilers than that!), not to mention what Fuyumura’s wish is, which in itself brings an ERASED-style dread-inducing element to the series. But though the stakes are high, everything is tinged with either dark humor—perhaps most on display when jingling sounds accompany blood drips, followed by Silent Night playing in the background—or clever takes on Christmas (see the three rules that end the episode), which makes episode one so much fun. Added to this, is the wonderful animation you’d expect out of Science SARU, with an array of memorable character designs, including some that are Burtoneque, rendered with heavy lines in a dark, fantastical style; others that are simpler, resembling comics like The Adventures of Tintin and Peanuts; and topped off with a muscular, older Santa in a style that I’ve seen illustrated by Japanese artists for many years. Even though this series is airing on Amazon Prime, I beg you, do not sleep on it—it is creative and hilarious and cool, and while some of our Christian readership may balk at yet another series that says Christmas is about Santa, or the yuri undertones in the episode, I think we’re ultimately also going to see some thematic elements that will speak to the love brought to us during that first Christmas. There’s so much going for this show—it’s a real present to us as viewers during this fall anime season!
SANDA can be streamed on Amazon Prime.
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