So was that Krampus, then?

We’re getting to the point in Sanda where this adaptation’s intentions are going to become clear. The manga ran for 16 volumes, the anime is listed with 12 episodes. Doing a full treatment in that time would obviously be impossible, but Science SARU is showing no signs of hurrying things. We’re at about 33 chapters through 9 eps, and there were about 140 chapters in total. I see no indication that the series is overwhelmingly popular in Japan, and I don’t think for a nanosecond we’re going to get the four seasons it would take to adapt them at the current pace. So what’s the plan?

Beats me. When a production committee picks up a finished manga the expectation is that they’re going to do some sort of self-contained work. But here? I don’t vibe that – I feel like the anime is just going to stop. The fact that Sanda is the work of a pretty major mangaka is a wild card here, and could conceivably get the show a second season. But it seems more likely to me we’re going to get a read the manga ending. There are so many loose ends in the plot right now I just see no way to even attempt to tie them up in three episodes.

I appreciate the fearlessness of this series, that’s for sure. I haven’t been a huge Amaya-kun fan but you really have to feel for him here. His friend asks him to shoot him over and over, to toughen him up so Santa can’t be killed by Namatame-san. That’s necessary because despite Tetsudome-san’s admonitions, Santa is adamant that he isn’t going to kill or even fight a child. And this is especially problematic because during another encounter on the quad Sanda inadvertently reveals his secret identity to Namatame (though the evidence suggests she already knew it anyway).

That training session with the old lady, painful as it was, drew out the existence of “Black Santa“. This Santa can presumably fight or at least “punish” bad children (again – Krampus?) but that’s of no import if Sanda doesn’t want to let him. We’re hearing Sanda and Santa’s inner voices in unison more and more now, which suggests that the line between them is weakening (which further suggests Sanda is growing up). Namatame’s backstory certainly gave us an idea of what made have driven her to become the person she is, but it doesn’t make her any less of a sociopath now. And letting her torture but not kill him doesn’t seem like much of a plan.

Meanwhile Oono is putting her relationship with Fuyumura to the test. She feels Fuyumura slipping away from her (quite accurately) but isn’t willing to let it happen without a fight. Even she’s aware than having the pair of them strip naked has a strong air of wrongness to it – they may be the same chronological age but it’s obvious that in this twisted reality, that’s meaningless. It’s beyond telling that Fuyumura winds up fleeing into Sanda’s arms, even if she begs him to bring back the Oono she knew. I don’t think Santa can do that, and I don’t think Fuyumura’s feelings can ever be transferred to the person Oono has become.

Between Namatame’s pledge to kill all adults at the Peak of Youth ceremony and the fact that Ooshibu has confronted her in the midst of one of her strange seizures, it’s becoming very easy to see a bad end coming for Oono-san. Within the confines of the story I don’t see a way back for her – she stands as an aberration in this place as she is now. It’s probably more a question now of how her exit from the plot is going to happen than whether it will happen or not.