The opening and ending animations of Santa Claus action anime SANDA have been released on its YouTube channel in advance of the series’ October 3 JST premiere.
The opening animation is storyboarded by Abel Góngora, who was in charge of DAN DA DAN Season 1’s opening and directed the Scott Pilgrim Takes Off series (Gongora also co-directed DAN DA DAN Season 2). It limits the color palette to a contrasting trio of red, white, and black (or some shade of them) and has a textured look and feel to the drawings.
Meanwhile, the ending animation features illustrations and color scripts from Sophie Li, who handled the color scripts for DAN DA DAN. It provides a series of evocative scenes of life, with gentler and more varied colors than its opening counterpart.
The opening song is yama‘s “Adultic Children,” while the ending song is Soshi Sakiyama‘s “Diary.”
SANDA is based on the manga by Beastar‘s Paru Itagaki, which began serialization in Akita Shoten’s Weekly Shonen Champion in 2021 and released its 16th and final volume on October 2024. Prime Video has exclusive worldwide streaming rights and describes the premise as such:
In near-future Japan with ultra-low birthrates, children are treasured but monitored. Santa is banned as dangerous. One snowy December 25th, middle-schooler Kazushige Sanda, descendant of Santa, is attacked by classmate Fuyumura who wants him to find her missing friend, Ono. “Santa, please find my friend.” To protect children from adults, Sanda decides to become Santa and fight the adults.
Titan Manga began publishing the manga in English earlier this month.
Staff
• Director: Tomohisa Shimoyama (Yurei Deco)
• Series composer and scriptwriter: Kimiko Ueno (Ranma ½ remake series composer and co-scriptwriter)
• Character designer and chief animation director: Masamichi Ishiyama (Yurei Deco Episode 9, 10, and 12 sub-character designer)
• Animation production: Science SARU
Cast
• Ayumu Murase as Sanda
• Hiroki Tochi as Santa Claus
• Umeka Shoji as Shiori Fuyumura
• Anna Nagase as Ono
• Yuki Shin as Hitoshi Amaya
• Misato Matsuoka as Niko Kazao
• Toshihiko Seki as Hifumi Oshibu
• Hiroaki Hirata as Saburo Yagiuda
Source: SANDA anime YouTube channel
