English Dub Review: Sanda “Pale Blue Pall”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Sanda challenges Oshibu in his Santa form to finally get the kids to believe in him, and Fuyumura’s reconciliation with Ono is cut short by tragedy.

OUR TAKE

On the twelfth week of Sanda, my true love gave to me: Twelve surgery scares, eleven burning buildings, ten bullets fired, nine old lady massages, eight heart attackings, seven kids a-killing, six organ transplants, five wet dreams, four old man hugs, three detected lies, more supporting cast, and a buff Santa in his undies! We’ve come to the final episode of Sanda for the time being, just shy of a week before Christmas, and six days into Hanukkah! Alas, there doesn’t seem to be much in the way of announcing a second season, even though there’s still two thirds of the manga left to cover, so we’ll just have to hope for a Christmas miracle. In the meantime, we gotta talk about this last episode, which was…MOSTLY good. That MOSTLY part comes mainly from Sanda’s last battle with Oshibu, as once again the young man portraying aging and maturity battles the old man who has done everything to run from his aging and is obsessed with looking and acting young. And while Sanda felt he had an obligation to fight Namatame in his kid form, he’s more than willing to face down an adult with an adult body, and is showing clear signs of maturing as he decides what him using Santa Claus as an idea should do to inspire children to believe in their wishes.

The one fruitcake in this bag of Christmas treats is Ono and her rather sudden death. I mean, it feels sudden to me, but it was telegraphed a bit with all of her moments of doubling over in pain and saying that she felt like she was going to die, but…I’ll be honest, I thought that was going to turn out to be hyperbole of some kind. The explanation given is that because she slept for a whole day, her puberty kicked in too fast and her body couldn’t handle it, which is…honestly an absurd thing to say. Yes, this is a world where a teenage boy can transform into a muscular senior citizen that can sprout skis from his feet, but when it comes to the rules of biology and puberty, they’re pretty cut and dry. So yeah, THAT threw me for a bit of a loop and damaged my enjoyment of the episode, but it did lead to a fine ending moment where Sanda and Fuyumura grieve her death and Sanda comforts her as himself and not Santa. It’s still weird to just end the show there though, so hopefully the other two thirds of the manga can be adapted sometime soon. Maybe around the holidays like this one was? In the meantime, let’s look back on this Winter Wonderland of craziness in the Season Review.