The Fall Anime 2025 Preview Guide - SANDA

In a near-future Japan, Christmas has faded into myth, and the birth rate has dropped so dramatically that children are now the most precious commodity. Society has artificially extended adolescence to preserve its youth, and traditional holidays, like Christmas, are a mere legend of the past. Sanda Kazushige is a middle school student who unexpectedly becomes entangled in a strange and dangerous mystery. When his classmate, Fuyumura Shiori, accuses him of carrying a curse that could help find her missing friend, Ono Ichie, Sanda's life takes a dramatic turn. Together, they embark on an incredible adventure to unravel the truth behind Ichie's disappearance and uncover the hidden magic of Christmas itself.

SANDA is based on the manga series by Paru Itagaki. The anime series is streaming on Amazon Prime Video on Fridays.

I am the absolute wrong person to comment on anything Christmasy. Case in point: when I was in preschool (and again in kindergarten and first grade), I told all of my classmates that Santa isn't real because I thought they should know their parents were lying to them. This did not endear me to anyone, nor did my sharp rebuttal of someone who attempted to sell me on the “Chanuka elf.” So I have a hard time connecting with the central premise of SANDA, which I realize is weird because I routinely walked into closets looking for Narnia. Oh well.

Still, I do applaud Paru Itagaki's idea here. In her story's world, Santa isn't a person so much as a curse that befalls a certain family, in this case, the Sandas. Before climate change was a thing, Santa Claus came every Christmas, but with the demise of the four seasons and people no longer observing that holiday, Santa has become a myth…one that fourteen-year-old Fuyumura desperately wants to believe is real. That's because her friend Ono vanished months ago and has recently been officially declared dead, and she believes that the only person who can grant her wish to see her again is Santa Claus. Better than the Tooth Fairy, I suppose.

How she figured out that her friend SANDA is, in fact, the bearer of the Santa Curse is a mystery. She's not sure what exactly Santa can do, but she's pretty sure that he's the answer, and she also thinks she can activate the curse if she follows certain steps. How she got from “he needs to put on something red” to “if I stab him in the heart, his blood will dye his shirt” just illustrates how utterly desperate this poor kid is. Or that she's gone mad from lack of sleep, which, judging by the circles under her eyes, seems as good a guess as any. Fortunately for SANDA, she's right, but I don't know that she'd care that much if she wasn't, meltdown notwithstanding. This is, after all, a girl who is willing to blow herself up if Santa won't help her.

The art is my favorite part of this. Itagaki's fluid, almost sketchy artwork sings here, from everyone's insanely wide eyes to the jagged muscles on Jacked Santa's abdomen. (Also, she's no coward; Santa has nipples.) Movement is dynamic, and the final scene involving fire is striking to watch, like a stained-glass window shattering in front of your eyes. The dub is also shockingly good for Amazon, and I appreciate how the English voice actors take care to annunciate the difference between “Santa” and “SANDA.” I'm not keen on watching more of this because I really dislike Christmas media, but this is still more palatable than I thought it would be.