Sanda Episode 4 Review: Sanda Becomes The Nude God

A new episode of Sanda is here, and things quickly become very serious. Let us find out how the episode really went.

Sanda Overview

Sanda (stylized as SANDA) is a Japanese manga created by Paru Itagaki, who both wrote and illustrated the series. It ran in Weekly Shōnen Champion, Akita Shoten’s shōnen manga magazine, from July 2021 to July 2024, and was later compiled into 16 tankōbon volumes. An anime adaptation by Science SARU began airing in October 2025.

The story unfolds in a futuristic Japan struggling with an alarming decline in birth rates. The protagonist, Kazushige Sanda, is unexpectedly revealed to be a descendant of Santa Claus by his classmate, Shiori Fuyumura. The two set out together to uncover the mystery behind the disappearance of Fuyumura’s friend, Ichie Ono. In the year 2080, a time when severe population decline has led the government to impose strict control measures on minors. These include assigning marriage partners at birth, restricting children’s sleep to slow their growth.

In July 2024, it was revealed that Sanda would be adapted into an anime television series produced by Science SARU. The project is helmed by Tomohisa Shimoyama as director, with Kimiko Ueno handling both the series composition and screenplay. Masamichi Ishiyama serves as the character designer and chief animation director, while the music is composed by Tomoyuki Tanaka.

The anime debuted on October 4, 2025, airing within the Animeism programming block across MBS, TBS, CBC TV, and BS-TBS. Its opening theme, titled “Adult Chick Children”, is performed by Yama, and the ending theme, “Diary”, is sung by Soushi Sakiyama. The series is also available for global streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

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Sanda Episode 4 Review

This episode of Sanda begins with Sanda stopping his shooter from hurting him again. Sanda does not seem very fazed about someone trying to kill him, as he goes on to ask whether he’s actually a danger to others because of all the powerful weapons he has. This scene was absolutely hilarious, but we also get some very important information about the world here. Apparently, in this world, everything is preordained, where even education and marriage are planned.

So the reason people do not want Santa Claus to exist is that they need children who will live their preordained lives and do what they’re told. With the arrival of a legendary character such as Santa Claus, it can have an opposite effect on the children who are currently coddled by the government. Later, we also find out how the children are stopped from doing many things, including having no physical contact with the opposite gender before marriage.

But the most shocking aspect of this entire anime is definitely the fact that there is a new Yuri angle to this whole thing. Fuyumura is actually in love with Ono, who also loves her romantically. So the buildup that happened between Sanda and Fuyumura was just a distraction.

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But the anime has more interesting concepts, as the people here are banned from worshipping or believing in a higher power. According to the principle, to counteract the ultra-declining and ultra-ageing society, one must stop believing in these things. In such a scenario, when an adult male Sanda with his nude physical body comes out in front of everyone, it becomes an entirely different kind of chaos.

Verdict

Today’s episode was absolutely brilliant, and it showed just how good this series is as a whole. I definitely believe this can become a really good new-gen Shonen anime in the future.

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