#IReadsYou Manga Review: SANDA VOLUME 1

SANDA VOL. 1

TITAN COMICS/Titan Manga

WRITER-ARTIST: Paru Itagaki

TRANSLATION: Motoko Tamamuro and Jonathan Clements

LETTERS: Bensidi Ayoub

DESIGN: David Colderley

EDITOR: Louis Yamani

ISBN: 978-1787747241; paperback (September 9, 2025)

208pp, B&W, $12.99 U.S., $16.99 CAN, £9.99 UK

Rating: Age 12+

Sanda is a Japanese manga written and drawn by mangaka Paru Itagaki.  The manga was originally serialized in the Japanese shonen manga magazine, Weekly Shonen Champion, from 2021 to 2024.  It was later collected in sixteen tankobon (graphic novel) volumes.  Titan Manga began publishing an English-language graphic novel edition of the series in September 2025.

Sanda Vol. 1 (Chapters 1 to 6) opens in a near-future Japan where Christmas has faded into myth, and it and other traditional holidays are mere legends of the past.  Japan's birth rate has dropped so dramatically that children are now the most precious commodity.  Society has artificially extended adolescence to preserve their youth, and young people's social status is higher than that of adults.

Volume 1 introduces 14-year-old Sanda Kazushige, a middle-school student at Daikoku Welfare Academy who unexpectedly becomes entangled in a strange and dangerous mystery.  His classmate, Fuyumura Shiori, is looking for her missing friend, Ono Ichie.  Fuyumura accuses Sanda of carrying a curse that can help her find Ono.  The curse is that Sanda is a descendant of Santa Claus and also that Santa is sealed inside Sanda.

When Fuyumura breaks the seal, Sanda turns into a tall, muscular, elderly man and thus, begins an adventure of mystery and danger.  Can Sanda and his friends help society remember the true meaning of friendship, trust, and the possibility of magic in a world that has all but forgotten it. 

THE LOWDOWN:  Since October 2023, Titan Manga has provided me with print and PDF copies of their manga publications for review.  One of the latest is Sanda Volume 1.

Sanda Graphic Novel Volume 1 is not my first experience with the manga of Paru Itagaki, as I read and reviewed several volumes her 2016-20 series, Beastars (published in an English-language edition by VIZ Media).  I would say that this first volume of Sanda is as refreshingly surprising and surprisingly refreshing as Beastars Volume 1.

Itagaki's art and graphical style are a lot more formal in Sanda than they are for the loose, psychological, and surreal Beastars.  Sanda eschews surrealism for mystery and secrets, and the art and graphical storytelling delves into enigmas and perplexities.  Nothing is as it seems, and it offers a shocking reveal every chapter.

Sanda's setting may be that of a dystopian near-future, but it feels like the teen leads, Sanda and Fuyumura, are coming-of-age as they try to unravel the secrets and lies of their lives and how it ties into the society in which they live.  That this involves Santa Claus just makes things more delightfully weird and different.

I READS YOU RECOMMENDS:  Fans of mystery manga and of unusual takes on Christmas will want to try Sanda.

A

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"

"SANDA VOLUME 1" is available in a Kindle and a print edition at Amazon.

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The text is copyright © 2026 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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#IReadsYou Review: BEASTARS Volume 1

BEASTARS, VOL. 1
VIZ MEDIA – @VIZMedia

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

MANGAKA: Paru Itagaki
TRANSLATION: Tomoko Kimura
ENGLISH ADAPTATION: Annette Roman
LETTERS: Susan Daigle-Leach
EDITOR: Annette Roman
ISBN: 978-1-9747-0798-0; paperback (July 2019); Rated “T+” for “Older Teen”
216pp, B&W, $12.99 U.S., $17.99 CAN, £8.99 U.K.

Beastars is a manga from creator Paru Itagaki.  It is set in a world of anthropomorphic animals, divided into the carnivores and herbivores.  In this world, eating meat is a felony.  The “Beastar” is a hero who begins as a school leader.  He or she transcends all the mistrust and discrimination that runs life in this world, and then, graduates to become some kind of great public figure who is a world leader.

Beastars, Vol. 1 (Chapters 1 to 7) opens one night at Cherryton Academy, a boarding school for carnivores and herbivores.  Tem, an alpaca and herbivore student, is brutally murdered.  In a school literally divided into predator and prey, a carnivore is assumed to be the perpetrator.  Some eyes direct their gaze at Legoshi, a gray wolf and carnivore student who was Tem's best pal.

Meanwhile, Louis, a red deer from a wealthy and elite family, has ambitions to become a Beastar.  He has the lead in a school production of the play, “Adler,” and hopes that the play, especially his performance, will bring the school closer together.  As friendships maintain a fragile peace, Legoshi begins to mistrust his own feelings and instincts.  Will a fellow student, Haru the dwarf rabbit, be the thing that drives him to let the beast in his soul free?

[This volume includes bonus comics and illustrated text pieces about the design and world of Beastars and about the creative team.]

The Beastars manga manages to surprise me.  I had never heard of it, and did not know what to expect.  Now, it looks like Beastars could be a memorable anthropomorphic comic.

Beastars Graphic Novel Volume 1 introduces an intriguing world.  Creator Paru Itagaki finds ways to insert information about this world of talking animals without overwhelming the narrative with factoids and the readers with too much data.  She is slowly revealing the characters personalities, with the exception of Legoshi, Louis, and Haru.  For those three character, Itagaki dives deeply into them, as much of the narrative, at least at this point, revolves around them.

I could take the easy route and say that this is a high school drama that is an allegory about teenagers trying to fit into high school before they have to learn their place in the world.  It is, but only partly.  Actually, I think Beastars (a VIZ Signature title) is also a timely tale that examines the dynamics of racial and ethnic strife and conflict, both between different groups and within each group's sub-groups.  There is even the hint of class conflict.

So, the first seven chapters of Beastars set an ambitious table for the series.  If upcoming volumes can be as intriguing as this first one, Beastars will be a beast of a graphic novel series.

8 out of 10

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


The text is copyright © 2019 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for syndication rights and fees.

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