Anime Review: Sands of Destruction

When I first heard of the FUNimation anime title Sands of Destruction, I thought to myself, “This will be an interesting series to watch.” Little did I know that the anime is based on a 2010 Nintendo DS role-playing game published by SEGA. Now, we’ve grown used to many movie adaptations of video games, and video game adaptations of movies, that almost always end up sucking. With that said, does this anime series turn out well? That’s for me to know, and you to soon discover in my review of FUNimation’s Sands of Destruction series.

Sands of Destruction is a 13 episode series that takes place in a world very different from our own. How is it different? Well, on this planet, humanity is ruled by the beast. What are these beasts? Think of it as if animals evolved enough to be like normal people. We’ve all seen anthropomorphic representations of beasts, so it should be easy to imagine. Why is humanity under beast rule? Years before the anime, a war broke out between humanity and the anthropomorphic beasts; a war that humanity seems to have lost. There are a few groups trying to break free, however, because who wants to be controlled and ruled just because you’re human?

We start our adventure with Kyrie Illunis, a simple young human boy who’s skilled at being a wondering cook. We are introduced to him as he serves tables in a beast-only place. There is nothing like a nice disguises to get a job and make some money, right? Now, it’s only the first bit of the series and trouble is already happening outside. Oh no, the World Salvation Committee! What is the World Salvation Committee? It is the antithesis of the World Destruction Committee, composed of beasts trying to save the world from their counterpart committee. What is the World Destruction Committee? Lead by the human Morte Urshela, holder of the Destruct Code, the World Destruction Committee holds the key to destroying the world, and is bent on doing just that. Why does she want to destroy the world? Remember that war I mentioned? Her brother died at the hands of the beasts, and her revenge will be the destruction of everything. Little do we know, Kyrie may hold the key to saving the world. You’ll need to watch the entire series for yourself to find out, though.

How is the story in Sands of Destruction? To me, it performed quite well, especially given what I said above about the general quality of video game to movie adaptations. Shall I name a few movies from our past? Let’s not get into it. But this is an anime title, so could it be different? I’d say yes, since you don’t have directors trying to go in a wildly different direction from the stories we know. For once, I’ve found a series based on a video game that has me wanting to purchase and play the game at some point. Yes, it’s an older game, but in this case, it speaks to the quality of the anime. Would the game be as good as the anime series? Until I play it, obviously, I can’t be sure. When I do, though, I’ll update you.

The graphics and audio throughout the series were solid and very detailed, especially when it came from battles scenes and other cut scenes. They did a great job of keeping the viewer pulled in. To me, some anime titles will allow the viewer to see art styles that might seem half done, but you can tell the animators have been putting in some effort so at anytime one has to sit back and think, “The animators have done a good job with providing an entertaining show.” Did the anime do well as a whole? Yes, I enjoyed each episode as I watched, which in turned pushed me into wanting to purchase the game.

The voice acting for the series was spot, and the animation synched the lips to the voices perfectly. In the past, I’ve seen some titles where the synching has been a second or two off, but with Sands of Destruction, you can see that work was put into the series to make sure it was done right before pushing to DVD. Of course, you have to take account that some anime titles are right from Japan, so making sure the lips move to English words is a big task. I can’t understand Japanese myself, but I did watch the series a second time with English subtitles, and even then the acting was just as good.

Overall, I felt as if the series could’ve been longer, rather than just 13 episodes. But when it comes to a video game adaption, I can see where one would like to keep it short enough to explain the story the best it can. I’d rather a series get to the point rather than out of nowhere throw in a twist that isn’t needed. As I said above with the voice acting, they’ve made sure to perfect the synching of lips to voice, which is something I’ve seen poorly done in past anime titles. It’s a good series, but as I said, I felt as if more “adventures” could’ve been included. Will we be seeing more video game based anime titles in our future from FUNimation? That’s likely and hopefully they’re somewhat longer and provide what I enjoy watching.

Sands of Destruction has been provided by FUNimation Entertainment for review purposes. For more information on the anime series Sands of Destruction or FUNimation, please visit their website.