Holiday Review #1: SANDA

Well obviously I have to start this year's holiday reviews with the manga about Santa Claus!

SANDA, by Paru Itagaki.  First published in 2021 and first published in North America in 2025.

PLOT:

In the not-too-distant future, the Japanese government has taken drastic measures to combat its declining birthrates.  Children are shielded from the world and their own bodies well into adolescence.  Anything that might serve as a marker of adulthood is suppressed, including the notion of Santa Claus and Christmas.

Shiori Fuyumura believes in Santa Claus.  More specifically, she believes that her middle-school classmate Kazushige Sanda is Santa Claus, and that his powers can help her uncover the truth behind the disappearance of her best friend, all while evading the machinations of their fellow classmates and their ghoulish principal.

STORY:

Paru Itagaki has done it again.  She's managed to take her talent for writing tales about furry high schoolers working through their neuroses and her fondness for buff Santa Clauses and combined them into what might be her most refined and compelling work yet.

While this story is dystopian, Itagaki doesn't necessarily let on to that fact right away.  There's a lot thus far that's inferred only from casual conversation and background details and she mostly avoids the "as you know" style infodumps.  What we can glean about this future Japan is perhaps not as dire a vision as something like Fist of the North Star, but instead one where Japanese society has invested everything into its dwindling population of children, even as its society slowly breaks down from population collapse and climate change.  Yet as precious as these children are, they are tightly segregated from the outside world.  They are given little to no information about themselves, their past, and the world around them, so it's little wonder that a few of them would begin to rebel when confronted with feelings and ideas they can't explain.

While the cast thus far is small, they all play off one another quite well.  Putting aside the fact that he can transform into a hulking, fireproof manifestation of goodness and child-like whimsy. Sanda is just a genuinely sweet, thoughtful kid who is in thoroughly over his head.  He doesn't fully understand the limits and facets of his transformation, but he knows innately that he wants to help Fuyumura and others like her to make them happier.  In contrast to Sanda, Fuyumura doesn't fully understand her gay crush feelings about her best friend Ono, but she's so desperate for answers and so lacking in options that she'll take her quest to its most intense, fatalistic extremes.  Caught in the middle between them is Hitoshi Amaya, Sanda's conniving, canny roommate who is smart enough to figure out Sanda's secret on his own (and just sociopathic enough to initially try to blackmail both Sanda and Fuyumura over it).

More than anything, though, I appreciate that Itagaki writes these three...well, like the sheltered children they are.  There is a logic to all their actions, but it's a logic that feels child-like without being overly naïve or stupid.  There's also a lot of intriguing subtext going on already, be it Sanda struggling to resolve his own youthful perspective with that of his adult alter-ego or the queer undertones of Fuyumura's friendship with Ono (to say nothing of the implications of such a relationship in a world where every child - or any womb capable of bearing them - is precious), and I'm genuinely curious to see just how far this series will take it.

ART:

For the most part, the character designs here are in line with those we saw in Drip Drip, with curiously big, angular eyes and wide froggy mouths that only serve to enhance both the big reactions and the subtle looks.  There's a certain roughness to her linework here, which is most evident in Sanda's sturdy, well-muscled Santa form.  That being said, there are two that really stand out to me.  The first is Fuyumaru, whose unusual height, gangly proportions, haunted eyes, and messy mop of dark hair makes her look like someone who could have stepped out of an old Tim Burton movie.  The second is the school principal, a ghoulish old man obsessed with youth who can transform his face into a flat, immobile rictus-grinned parody of youth but cannot hide the decrepit, creeping hands that betray his true age.  

Despite the oppressive tone of the story, Itagaki's poses and panels are full of life.  She uses this not just for the moments of high drama and action but for comic relief as well.  She also makes good use of splash panels, including some two-page spreads for Sanda's initial, bloody transformation.  Sadly, some of the impact is lost in the print version as the center of these images disappears somewhat into the spine unless you open the volume wide open.  

RATING:

Sanda took a premise as ostensibly silly as "teen boy transforms into buff Santa Claus" and transformed it into a compelling dystopian drama.  It's not very Christmas-y, but it is very good and I'm eager to see just where she takes it.

This manga is published by Titan Manga.  This series is complete in Japan with 16 volumes available.  2 volumes have been released and are currently in print.

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