English Dub Review: Sanda “Zeus, Smasher of Textbooks”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Sanda fights Yaguida while the funeral begins, making a big and sudden impression on all of the students.

OUR TAKE

On the fourth week of Sanda, my true love gave to me: four Santa hugs, three detected lies, more supporting cast, and a buff Santa in his undies! If you were expecting Zeus, god of Greek Mythology, to show up and basically introduce a whole pantheon of mythical progeny similar to Percy Jackson…well, I have to disappoint you because that does not happen. This title doesn’t really have anything to do with the story, unless you streeeeeeetch its meaning to its limits by interpreting it as Sanda, who appears in front of the students with the physique of a Greek God, being the impetus for them suddenly questioning some things in their school’s curriculum, IE the metaphorical textbook. But otherwise, it’s just a weird title, especially since all the kids are calling him God-pa. Anyway, we continue from the end of last week’s episode with Sanda fighting Yaguida and taking full advantage of the fact that he has a burly old man body, even stripping off his underwear to fully freak out his opponent. This culminates with him literally crashing the funeral as the headmaster was going on a diatribe about things being pointless and such just to give the students an odd beacon of hope, and becoming a school folk hero as a result.

However, we make sure to end the episode with a focus on how this is having a toll on Sanda, specifically in that while he’s glad to help people, he wants to be able to be a fourteen year old. He thought he could be that around Fuyumura, though she turns him into Santa in order to thank him and get a great big hug. It’s got to be weird for him having to become a hero and symbol for all of these kids while seemingly not having an outlet to be a kid himself, though we’ll see if that adds up to any big impact on him in the long run. This is a pretty unique take on Santa Claus, not just in being a descendant, but also in that he basically physiologically becomes him and therefore a symbol of rebellion against the strict control of this strange system. Yeah, basically old buff naked Santa Claus is punk rock in this. Though the episode does end on the introduction of a new, nameless character who will no doubt add to further chaos in the coming weeks, so let’s see where that takes us, and if I can keep this song parody making sense throughout the show’s run.