Does Sand Land have any connection to Dragon Ball?

When legendary creative minds like Akira Toriyama craft completely new stories, one of the first things fans look for is references to their previous works. For Sand Land, that means digging through the desert and fighting demons to see if it shares a connection to Dragon Ball. 

Sand Land was originally published as a short series in 2000, right as Dragon Ball Z continued to explode in popularity in the West and Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past hit PlayStation in Japan. The sci-fi comedy adventure was one of Toriyama’s last original works until he returned to the Dragon Ball universe in 2013, which begs the question, is Sand Land connected to Dragon Ball in any way?

Is Sand Land connected to Dragon Ball or Dragon Ball Z?

Because Akira Toriyama has a distinct and recognizable art style, most of his original work shares similar designs regarding character faces and features. Sand Land does look very similar to Dragon Ball with some of the designs for characters, monsters, and machines, however, it only has a few passing connections to Toriyama’s most popular series. 

I noted in my Sand Land review that the story throws me back to classic Dragon Ball and the focus on a group adventuring together, however, no characters, settings, or major factors from Sand Land are directly referential to Dragon Ball. There is a connection in small details, such as the currency in both worlds being Zeni or Capsules being used to transport vehicles and other objects easily, 

The biggest connection to Dragon Ball in Sand Land is the design of its vehicles. The Power Armor Beezlebub can pilot looks very similar to the Pilaf Machine without a few parts, though, this could simply be down to Toriyama’s unique way of drawing robots. The only direct inclusion seems to be the one-off Pirate Robot featured in the Dragon Ball manga chapter 74 as the Skeletor enemy type you face as a boss and can later grind for resources. 

Is Dabura from Dragon Ball Z in Sand Land? 

While no Dragon Ball character appears in Sand Land, some fans think Beelzebub’s father, Demon King Lucifer, looks far too similar to Dragon Ball Z’s Demon King Dabura to be a coincidence. Despite some similarities, however, the two characters have not been confirmed to be the same being. 

Dabura is named Satan or Lucifer in various translations of Dragon Ball, but is known as the King of the Demon Realm and has several distinct physical differences from Sand Land’s own Demon King. Beyond that, Toriyama is known for drawing similar characters and reusing base designs across multiple projects, with most of his projects having at least a few examples of same-face syndrome popping up. 

Does Sand Land take place in a Dragon Ball universe? 

Just like with the Dabura conversation, some Dragon Ball fans think that Sand Land does have a connection to the series by taking place in one of the multiple universes established to exist in Dragon Ball Super. This could be true, but Toriyama never stated this.

Outside of a few glimpses during the Universe 6 and Tournament of Power sagas, at least for anime-only viewers, we don’t know a lot about the universes beyond Universe 7, which is home to Goku and his friends. Since we know so little about them, there is always a chance Sand Land takes place on an alternate Earth or some random planet in another one of Dragon Ball’s universes, though we might never know for sure.