This week I'm reviewing Sands of Destruction. Here we have an anime, mostly for children and young teens. It’s only 13 episodes long, but I would have liked more. The story mostly revolves around three young adventurers in their travels to reveal the secretes of the mythical device known as the destruct code. All three have different reasons for traveling together, but the end result is the same.
Some of the subject matter might be a bit too heavy for younger kids to understand. The show’s universe revolves around a war between humans and beast men. Humans have been enslaved after centuries of fighting, thus being seen as less than human. One of the main characters is a victim of this war, losing her brother and father in battles. Because of her past and seeing the history of the world, she has decided that the world is too evil and full of suffering, and that it would be better if everything was destroyed. This is where the destruct code comes in.
The show begins with her already having acquired the destruct code, and there is a warrant out for her arrest. While in a tavern she gets into a scuffle with The World Salvation Committee, and ends up fleeing with a human waiter that was posing as a beast man. They run into a little bear with super strength and get struck in an ocean of sand. I forgot to mention that all the oceans are made of sand.
Some of the messages that can be learned from this series are, the importance of friendship and team work, overcoming prejudice, and not losing hope that good will overcome evil. The story lines of each episode are usually pretty simple and easy to understand. The violence doesn’t get to rowdy, but towards the end parents of younger kids, that might have an aversion to letting them see violence, might want to prescreen the episodes before letting their children watch. There is also some light cursing from the bad guys, and to be quite honest I’m not sure how bad it gets due to the fact that swear words tend to blend right into normal speech, so watch out if that might be an issue.
For the most part the voice acting in the English dub is good. Although, it can get a little mellow dramatic. There is one character that can get pretty annoying at first. The cute miniature yellow bear can’t finish a sentence without saying the word “kuma”. After about episode 5 you get used to this, and might even find it endearing of the little guy.
All in all I would have to say this wasn’t a bad show, but I couldn’t say that is was a great show. I’m sure kids will love it, but adults might find it a bit childish. I myself get caught up into stories and like to see how they end, so I’ll sit through them for the long hull, but most of you guys might want to skip this show if you want something with more substance. I give this show 6 pikachu thunder bolts out of 10.
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