Dororo

Older classics from the history books getting back to modern times seems to be one of MAPPA’s hobbies in recent years. We’ve had Ushio to Tora from Summer 2015 and more recently Banana Fish from Summer 2018. Dororo’s remake under MAPPA’s umbrella made an outstanding impression and gives more reasons to bring old classics back. What a time to be alive in this timeline. The original series aired some 50 years ago in the late 1960s. Most of us probably weren’t alive back then to see this older timer. Manga with content revolving around demons seemed like a popular trend among children those days. The brainchild behind this work is Osamu Tezuka, who is regarded as a “the father of manga”. With famous franchises like Black Jack and Astro Boy, he goes down in history is a legendary figure. Dororo is a dark fantasy adventurous tale with supernatural elements and dealing with characters’ emotional journey of discovery. From its very few episodes, I noticed an old school feeling that blends with modern quality productions. The original series had a much simpler animation style with cartoony character designs and black and white quality. MAPPA and Tezuka Productions decided to take their style to bring these characters to modern standards. Immediately, I felt as if the show had a credible outline for its artwork. Consisting of 24 episodes, the roadmap of the show also gives an easy pacing for new viewers. Do note that I have not read the manga but jumping into this anime isn’t much of a problem. We have two main characters – Hyakkimaru and Dororo traveling together during the Sengoku period. Hyakkimaru is the limbless ronin due to circumstances of his birth while Dororo is the thief who joins as his partner during their journey. The two forges a unique bond despite their contrasting differences. And throughout their journey, they face many obstacles ranging from powerful demons, saving people, and overcoming their own personal struggles. At the heart of the show, Dororo is known for its moody and dark tones. There’s the theme of revenge born from the beginning. The episodic structure (as some fans dubs it as ‘monster of the week’) is a typical style of storytelling for this show. However, Dororo’s intriguing content comes from character development. This is especially true for Hyakkimaru as he begins to develop human characteristics, feelings, and becoming more of himself. Being accompanied by Dororo, they begin to understand each more and more with each progressing episode. At some point, we even see Hyakkimaru laughing, which is something he’d probably never expected from himself. Dororo is also a character that injects a dose of playful energy into the show. Let’s face it, Dororo is a kid but sometimes shows the mature personality of an adult. As a show about survival in a dark and grim world, the duo relies on each other every step of the way. In the latter half of the show, Hyakkimaru’s mentality contains both of a human and demon. His desire to protect Dororo may also be his greatest weakness as he is forced to rely on his demonic side. It makes the overall show very thrilling as viewers will anticipate the consequences of his actions. In Dororo, notice how almost every character our duo encounter faces some sort of challenge in their lives. Whether it’s about personal relationships or just to survive, this anime makes it clear that it’s not an easy world to be in. There’s carnage with gory content as the show establishes itself as a dark fantasy. The monsters are characterized with a fusion between classic and modern designs while taking ideas from folklore. There’s also a question to be addressed – what really makes a monster? Is human another word for monster? There’s a sense of grey morality explored in later episodes that will no doubt be controversial. This includes the actions of Kagemitsu Daigo and Tahomaru. For their motives and actions that greatly influenced the show’s plot, they can be viewed as monsters. In other words, if we behave like beasts, we are no better than the beasts themselves. Nonetheless, I don’t see Dororo as a complicated storyteller. The episodic nature and dark fantasy elements brings together a classic adventure. It holds itself together as a visual masterpiece with its aesthetics. Particularly, I find some episodes with the black and white coloring to fit perfectly. What also amazes me is how Dororo doesn’t make battles feel pointless. There’s action to follow, behaviors to observe, and see how each fight progresses change for characters. Hell, such a show with all this despair even has its happy moments. The show’s humor comes off naturally thanks to Dororo’s personality. It doesn’t play out forcefully with questionable dialogues and character interactions. Instead, the character chemistry between our two main leads is what does the talking. The more you watch this anime, the more you’ll feel attached to our duo. It’s not a question of how but the way they develop together in their journey. For being an iconic classic, Dororo’s modern adaptation will easily get people into the mood for those who has a taste for dark fantasy. Even if you don’t belong in that category, that’s alright because it’s a chance to experience the artistic creativity of Osamu Tezuka. And I’m so glad to be alive in this timeline to experience it.

In this day and age we have been presented with remakes of classic anime from various decades. From Magical Circle Guruguru, Fruits Basket, Legend of the Galactic Heroes and Bogglepop Phantom. With the few exceptions that shall not be named theses remakes have been well received by fans and critics. This leads me to on of the more recent anime remakes Dororo. Unlike any other remake minus Fruits Basket 2019 I had high expectations as this being done one of my favourite directors Kazuhiro Furuhashi the same director that gave us the underrated cop drama Your Under Arrest, the flawed but highly enjoyable Rurouni Kenshin adaptations and the atmospheric Hunter x Hunter 1999. Fortunately the series managed to almost perfectly deliver my high expectations as this is easily one of the best anime remake I have seen period. The story follows a ronin named Hyakkimaru who is born malformed and is required to kill demons to obtain his missing body parts. He is accompanied by a troublesome orphan thief called Dororo during his travel. From there the duo roamed around various countries, hunting for ghouls and demons. There a lot of things to like about Dororo. For starters this show is very dark both visually and narratively. It's Sengoku-era of Japan after all. The most darkest period for Japan. The dark nature of Dororo is only enchanted with the show asking us the viewer various deep questions what makes us human and what defines a machine and what makes a monster. Hyakkimaru character arc is a brilliant case study of this. From the first episode he has a personality of a machine where he hunts down demons without breaking a sweat. As he gains more body parts he starts to becomes more human where he starts to understand the world that he is in but at the same time Hyakkimaru's journey of collecting body part's is slowly breaking him mentally. Not only the harsh reality of the world starts to mentally creep him he also has to face the fact that he has killed various people along he's journey hunt and as a result it makes Hyakkimaru less of an actual human. This is Dororo biggest strengths by a long shot as it makes you the viewer think about all the actions that Hyakkimaru has done thought he's body part journey. This is the main reason why it was hard for me to call Dororo a full out episodic series. Similar to Cowboy Bebop and to a less extant Ouran High School Host Club the series has all the elements of a standard episodic series yet the characters are developing along with the plot. When the series starts taking the overarching plot approach towards the end it's feels natural thanks to the series strong direction and build up. It didn't pull it's overarching plot from its ass as every single episode of Dororo had a purpose despite it being mostly episodic. The second best thing about Dororo is how brilliant the world-building is. The series is set in Sengoku-era of one of the most darkest periods for japan yet it does a splendid job of making the world of Dororo feels alive thanks to the spectacular attention to detail towards various locations and races. Unfortunately Dororo does have some minor faults. To say that at times Dororo doesn't have enough substance at times is an understatement. Granted that compared to any other MAPPA series excluding Banana Fish. Dororo has the most substance thanks to it's setting, characters writing and thematic exploration but at same time Dororo clearly had its fair share style over substance moments where the writing was put in a bus in favour of visual presentation at times. This also leads to my second and final problem with Dororo the inconsistent quality of the episodic episodes. Granted there was not an episode in Dororo that I consider to be bad or even average but I still felt like some episodes had clearly better written than others. The weakest episodes of Dororo went for the more typical approach by featuring less memorable one off characters and stories. Regardless theses two flaws did not shut down the adventurous party that was Dororo. A silent protagonist in any fictional work is very hard to pull off as can easily becomes blank stake for that particular work. Fortunately Hyakkimaru doesn't fall into the same traps of other silent protagonists he is an interesting character from start to finish. His character arc was well-handled thanks to great writing, and he's just a sympathetic character overall despite him being mostly silent. Similar to a silent protagonist a child protagonist in any fictional work is very hard because they can easily be the most annoying thing in your story. Fortunately the character Dororo doesn't fall into the same traps as most other child protagonists as he's a great and enjoyable character. She's the perfect companion for Hyakkimaru as she tries to best to help Hyakkimaru succeeds of his journey of getting his body parts back. Her personality is full of life and humanity despite being a child living in a harsh world. The best part about these two protagonist is their strong character chemistry with each other. I really loved the dynamic duo of Dororo and Hyakkimaru as they have a strong and unbreakable bond. Both Dororo and Hyakkimaru would do anything to ensure that their partner is safe from danger. The rest of the characters were good. Some of them are better than others, but they all served they roles and purpose in the story. If, I had two words to describe the visuals of Dororo it would be atmospheric and gorgeous. MAPPA did a fantastic job of bring this classic series to life with its beautiful soft colour palette, well-drawn characters designs and splendid background secretly that is filled with attention to detail. This is only enchanted with the fantastic visual direction. When the show decides to have a flashback the entire show minus the blood goes to black and white which homages the visual presentation of the original series. The animation was for the most part is beautifully choreographed and well-animated. It does dip at times notably episode 14-15 but it never dipped to a point of being ugly. The soundtrack is outstanding. The series uses a mixture of Melancholic and Japanese folk music pieces only enhances the plot and setting. The same thing can be said for all the opening and ending themes that Dororo has to offer. The voice acting is strange in a good way. The Seiyuus that did the voices for Dororo and especially Hyakkimaru were newcomers. With this in mind you would think that the voice acting would be bad because of this but no. In fact, they were amazing as they fitted with they respective roles perfectly. My favourite Seiyuu out of the two is Rio Suzuki as Dororo as she did an outstanding job at being the cheeky Dororo to life. There is currently no English Dub as from June 2019 then again the show has gained a big following from both vintages and casuals watching meaning the series will someday get a quality dub and I hope Bangzoom will be the ones that will dub it. Dororo is what an anime remake should be. It takes everything that was great about the original series from 1960s and expanded it to new heights with its beautiful presentation, smooth soundtrack, strong characters and intriguing plot that has a purpose. It did have a few faults along the way but the faults didn't shut down the grim and fascinating party. Amazing job MAPPA. You finally made a modern anime classic.

*Given the nature of the series itself, it’s hard for me to discuss it without at least mentioning mild spoilers. Also, there’s a RWBY spoiler in here. Proceed with caution.* With the exception of One Punch Man Season 2, Dororo is probably the most deflating anime I’ve seen so far in 2019. That’s honestly a real shame cuz on top of being a popular retelling of an anime from the ’60s, it's a 2000s samurai anime displaced in time. Furthermore, one of the main protagonists fights demons and samurai with swords for limbs! That sounds pretty cool, doesn’t it? Then halfway through the show, you realize the cool moments are rendered moot and surrounded by mediocrity. Even worse, the show lost a lot of stream after peaking early on, causing the second half to become especially bothersome given the lackluster writing that permeates it. If nothing else, Dororo makes for a generally well-produced spectacle of samurai battles and bloodbaths. Even outside of the fight scenes, there are some incredibly well-animated sequences, like whenever demonic lightning would flash or when people or demons were burnt to ashes. At their best, the battles are crisp, fluid, and decently choreographed, with lots of sakuga moments where characters clash blades and get hacked to pieces. At their worst, they’re short, barely animated, and often replaced by animation shortcuts like static character portraits flashing in one after another, or slash marks on a black screen being followed up by a lack of anything satisfying, juicy, or vivid. The production values also worsen throughout the third quarter of the show in general, with bad CGI water, unriveting choreography and barely-animated fight scenes, several awkward shots and animation cuts, and overall inferior character models and animation throughout. None of this is horrible, not even the infamous episode 15 barring a few terrible sequences, but it does show that the production is a tad uneven. As for the character designs, at least for most of the main duo, they’re fairly attractive and mostly on-model barring a few stylistic changes throughout episodes and fight scenes (which are as hit or miss as the episodes themselves). Most of the secondary and tertiary characters are not very distinct or interesting and suffer from off-model syndrome a tad more, but it’s never anything heinous. As for the designs of the demons that are slain throughout the show, the only interesting ones were the ghost foxes that appeared halfway into the show, as well as a possessed horse near the end of the show. I also like the monochrome aesthetic, as it complements the atmosphere and designs of the show, especially when the animation kicks into high gear. It’s probably one of MAPPA’s more well-produced titles, even if nothing here is especially exciting. That’s where most of the compliments end, as the writing leaves a lot to be desired. I like the idea they were going with. It would have been interesting to see how the episodic stories impact Dororo and especially Hyakkimaru in their journey to slay demons and regain the latter’s humanity and body parts, which were robbed from him at birth. Having their escapades intertwine with the story of a falling kingdom and a family whose secrets unravel as specific members learn of Hyakkimaru’s survival could have been exciting. An overarching narrative where the characters often deal with episodic occurrences is certainly nothing bad, nor anything groundbreaking. One-off episodes are a great way of allowing for action spectacles and powerful moments that could impact character arcs tremendously. They also allow for more diverse narratives and world-building. Series such as Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, and Moribito are excellent examples of this. Dororo fails in all regards here, as most of the stories follow the exact same narrative beats and character archetypes, causing the side stories to lose any identity and worth by the second half. The show has a disconcerting number of one-off femme fatales, ridiculous psychopaths working with demons, and rambunctious kids wandering around to find a mother or sister figure they care about, both in the main story and the one-off episodes and arcs. If the one-off characters were more interesting and varied, or if the protagonists were more engaging, this wouldn’t be a big deal. Another major issue is how none of the side stories leave any real impact on our main duo. The only thing of note in most of these is how Hyakkimaru gets his body parts back. They did have an arc where Hyakkimaru had to deal with the shock of having ears again, forcing him to slowly and painfully adjust to the act of hearing. Had the series explored that concept with his other body parts and spaced them out better to allow for said exploration, I likely would have cared about Hyakkimaru a lot more. Sadly, at most, we get one-off lines about the differences in what he can do with his swords, only for him to still do the same things he always did, but with one less sword limb or with longer reach. Even worse, most of his developments after that point feel less gradual or tactile, and more “start and stop”. The worst examples are when in between episodes 12 and 13, he goes from barely uttering words to forming a complete sentence, or when in episode 20, he flips out due to a demon not granting him a body part back (an occurrence that has happened a few times by this point) and becomes a raging beast who wants his body and Dororo back during the final arc of the show before arbitrarily becoming more level-headed again in the finale. Backtracking to the non-impact issue, in the fifth episode, Hyakkimaru finds himself being taken care of by someone who he ends up having an affection towards. Meanwhile, Dororo interacts with her and the kids she’s taking care of, all while giving Hyakkimaru time to recover. At the end of episode 6, everyone who took care of them there dies, and Hyakkimaru goes on a rampage, killing almost everyone who murdered them. You’d think such an event would leave an impact on both of them, especially Hyakkimaru who finally found someone else he cared about that could help him. Apart from minor flashbacks in the middle of Dororo getting angry at someone, and a scene of another secondary character comforting Dororo, it means absolutely nothing and doesn’t get referenced in any meaningful way. I’m left with flashbacks to RWBY, when in Volume 3 Ruby watches Roman Torchwick get eaten after beating her up and challenging her heroic idealism with talk of how cold and nihilistic reality is. This scene comes between the death of two of her friends for an added gut punch. This is prime real estate for her to develop as a character (the main one at that) before Volume 4 completely has her going nowhere with this outside of two scenes of her feeling scared and horrible for what happened, causing her to completely abandon this idea outside of one scene in Volume 5 where she brings up the deaths of her friends. Hell, even that had more of an impact than what happened in this arc, which is still the most emotionally resonant arc in the series! None of this would matter too much if the characters were dynamic and colorful, cuz that would make it so even if an episode is only there for variety, it’s still engaging. Unfortunately, Dororo’s characters barely go beyond their character archetypes, and the ones who aren’t stock characters often leave a lot to be desired. I already discussed how poorly they handled Hyakkimaru’s development, which is a real shame since there are moments where he comes off as fun, even adorable with how he has to learn to really socialize with others on a level beyond that of a toddler. Dororo, by contrast, is far more lighthearted, sometimes even naive regarding “right and wrong”, as she’s a child. She’s an orphan that has watched her parents die and seen villages burn, and that completely clashes with how naive she is and how horrifying such viole…

Samurai (or bushi) were an integral component of Japanese history, impacting several aspects of society that still resonate in the modern day culture. Their influence can be traced back to the Heian Period — around the late 8th to early 9th century — where they served the landed interests of the nobles who were preoccupied with the affairs of the imperial court. Due to the diminishment of the emperor’s dominance over the country, the warrior class sought to fill the power void that culminated in the creation of the shogunate (a military government). With political power and military might on their side, the samurai were poised to seize control of the country. After the Genpei War of 1180 to 1185, in which the Minamoto clan prevailed over the Taira clan, the Kamakura Shogunate was formed, leaving the emperors and court nobility as mere figureheads, while the real power was wielded by the samurai who served the Daimyo (a vassal of the Shogun). Samurai without a lord or master were considered rōnin — also known as a “drifter” or “wanderer” — who resorted to a life of crime to maintain their ruthless aura and keep themselves from starving. Because of a general lack of knowledge, romanticizing samurai (particularly rōnin) in fictional works has become rather common in recent decades. Hence, why Osamu Tezuka — the mangaka of Dororo — decided to amalgamate the samurai heritage with surrealistic demons to create an interesting narrative about a boy (Hyakkimaru) who roams the countryside to recover the limbs that were “stolen” from him, due to his father’s plead for power. In this regard, the story follows a predictable pattern of presenting new demons/monsters to be defeated by the accomplished samurai (Hyakkimaru) and the cunning orphan (Dororo). Biwamaru — an old, blind man — also swoops in from time to time to help the two when the circumstances seem too dire (a fine example of plot-armor). Besides the built in redundancy and overt plot conveniences, Dororo also suffers from inconsistent pacing. Often times, the story meanders for large segments of time before commencing the next exhilarating battle. This would not preclude the viewer from enjoying the show if the battles themselves delivered a worthwhile experience. Yet the various scuffles seem like a blurred, unimaginative mishmash of gore and randomness. No demon/monster did anything worth remembering, making each episode seem rather trivial. Furthermore, numerous fights had inconsequential dialogue or cut away scenes that dragged out the proceedings unnecessarily — making the pacing quite unbearable. Hyakkimaru, the focal point of the series, was primarily used to fight demons to reclaim his stolen body parts. Because of his unfortunate disposition, his development as a character was restricted. As a consequence, Dororo was intended to bridge the gap by showing compassion to the various villagers the two came into contact with, and provide comedic relief from the grim adventures they engaged in. That being said, Dororo’s childish antics were far from hilarious, and more often than not, were quite irksome. He also served as a male, ‘damsel in distress’ for Hyakkimaru to save/protect on several occasions; except when Dororo got his arm stuck under some rocks in episode 20, and Hyakkimaru — unable to dislodge Dororo’s arm — proceeded to bash his head against said rocks in rage. Perhaps Hyakkimaru thought the magical force of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (permanent brain damage) would propel the rocks somewhere else. But despite his best efforts, telekinesis (and common sense) were not on his side. And if it weren’t for Biwamaru conveniently saving the day, that would have been the end of Hyakkimaru and Dororo’s adventures. Similar to MAPPA’s previous production, Banana Fish, Dororo displays egregious actions — like rape and murder — to allow the viewer to sympathize with the characters and better understand their emotional suffering. A wise decision, only if the mistreated characters were fleshed out enough to permit the viewer to actually care about their suffering. Sure. The natural inclination for any sane human is to commiserate with the offended individual, but artistic mediums require a scrupulous approach; otherwise, the desired outcome comes off as cheap window dressing. Speaking of cheap, Dororo’s animation was rather tacky for a modern anime. It certainly did not offend the eyes, but neither did it generate a distinguished brilliance or captivate the viewer. It, more or less, resembled the unremarkable, ordinary characters with its general lack of lively essence. If Dororo, however, maintained this garden-variety quality for the duration the series, then all would have been well; however, it got worse. Episode 15 was an abomination. Hyakkimaru’s running through the forest looked like an early 90’s Mario game. Character aesthetics were hazy, unfocused, and rough. And the red hue of the fire blended in with the orange shading of the house (contrasting colors would have made the event more impactful). The subsequent episodes, unfortunately, did not ameliorate these problems. While there were terrible portions of Dororo, it was not an unspeakable mess. It was just an aseptic story that overly relied on sanguinary scenes to deceive the viewer into thinking it was greater than it truly was.

Tales of samurai and supernatural beings are commonplace in Japanese culture, and Dororo, an old anime that has gotten a reboot after decades, is one such story. This anime tells your typical story of a man wronged by practically everything ever who goes on a journey to discover himself. No, not in a spiritual sense or whatever like you might suspect. This dude is literally searching for his body parts. Which, might I add, were sacrificed to demons by his dad. Yeah, it's pretty intense. Unfortunately, while the creator of Dororo thought up quite the dark and gruesome setting for his work, he failed to convey a significant message due to a variety of both narrative and technical flaws. The stoy centers around Hyakkimaru and his child companion Dororo as they travel around the country slaying demons who have stolen Hyakkimaru's body parts. They also encounter both friend and foe along the way. The problem is that this anime lacks central direction. It takes an episodic approach for the most part that features a bunch of hit or miss (for me they mostly miss, bruh) side stories that don't really go anywhere. They feature new characters who are usually killed off or never seen again and the episodes don't really contribute to the narrative. I mean Hyakkimaru just comes in, kills some monsters, grows some body parts, and then moves on with Dororo in tow. There's next to no development of any character in such episodes and they have practically no impact on the overarching story. Only a few of the mid and the last several episodes tackle the the central conflict between Hyakkimaru and his family. And these episodes actually aren't that bad. They address themes such as the value of one weighed against the value of a land filled with many and feature some interesting confrontations. Had this anime been one cour and more focused, I might have actually found it to be decent. Unfortunately, it's just held back by a plethora of bland and in some cases plain bad episodes. One of my problems is that I don't really get a lot of the traditional Japanese monsters/spirits. Call me uncultured or whatever, but when I see a dude riding sharks or a giant floating baby head thingy, I can't take the story seriously. I think the plot is at its best when it doesn't have a bunch of weird creatures that spawn out of nowhere to randomly help or hinder the protagonist. Plus most of the demons that Hyakkimaru fights are usually bland creatures with no originality. Now there are a select few that I did enjoy and thought were handled well, like the spider lady. Nonetheless, I found most of these monsters to be pretty mediocre. I get that this is a supernatural show and not some historical documentary, but I honestly think that its fantasy elements were generally utilized poorly. Studio MAPPA obviously isn't known for having pristine animation, but their works usually incorporate eye catching color schemes and the like to make up for the generally average animation of their shows. Yet with Dororo, I just couldn't help but be bored by its visual presentation. I get that its monochrome look fits with the style of the story it's trying to tell, but its dull and uninspired visage left more to be desired. Top that off with the plain character designs and uninspired backgrounds, and you get what I find to be a poorly animated anime. The most annoying aspect of Dororo would have to be the voice of the titular character herself. I rarely give harsh criticism on voice acting, but this seiyuu unfortunately deserves it. I would cringe internally almost every time she spoke. My poor eardrums just couldn't take it! Okay, I might be exaggerating a bit, but I just didn't like her performance. Maybe her voice sits fine with you, but I for one just couldn't wait for her to stop talking. The other voices were, uh, fine I guess? None of them were really that memorable to be honest. Speaking of forgettable, how about dem characters! I've already mentioned how annoying I find Dororo to be, but how about everyone else? The best one to start with would of course be Hyakkimaru. He has a pretty messed up origin story, which was the sole reason as to why I bothered to watch this anime in the first place. His character is basically what you would expect from a lifeless husk of a man...you know, lifeless. And empty. He's honestly a pretty boring character who instead of developing just seems to get more angry as the show goes on. Which I guess you could call development from a certain point of view, but I don't see it that way. His stagnant nature only serves to hurt the story. The saving grace would be the bond between Hyakkimaru and Dororo. I thought their chemistry was good, and the development of their relationship was handled a lot better then the development of their individual characters. As I mentioned before, the rest of the cast are pretty bland, though there are a few stand outs who, uh, still don't really stand out that much. I'll give some of them a brief mention. There's this old priest dude who is wise and stuff but doesn't really contribute to the story. There's a cute girl named Mio who had potential, but was grossly underutilized. Hyakkimaru's parents are ok, and they honestly fulfil their role well enough. I think Tahoumaru was handled well for five seconds before they turned him into a carbon copy of his father. The last character I'd like to mention is Itachi, who actually ended up being my favorite character in the show despite his small amount of screen time. The way the anime made him out to be so despicable yet make me actually like him by the end was impressive, and I have to commend the good writing of his character. Since I don't want to be all edgy and depressing like this anime, let's end on some positives! Dororo boasts some pretty great music, and I do enjoy the more traditional Japanese pieces. The first opening theme song is of course the highlight of the sound department. It gets bonus points for fitting perfectly in my own vocal range, so I sing it like, a lot (to the misfortune of those around me I'm sure). As much as I bashed Dororo's execution, I do think that the premise is quite interesting and unique. Hyakkimaru's predicament really is a cool concept. I just wish it was handled more appropriately. And as much as I disliked the show's episodic approach, I did end up liking a few of the stories. Though of course the main conflict between Hyakkimaru and his family ended up being the best part of the show that kept it from sinking into awful territory in my eyes. Being grim and violent doesn't automatically make something deep and thought provoking. Dororo tries hard to tackle dark concepts, and you know what? It succeeds. It just fails to do anything significant with its dark material in my eyes, and it ended up being quite mediocre because of it.

It's now time for another episode of Literaturenerd's too late reviews. Dororo was hot shit 2 years ago, but already most people have forgotten about it. A lot of critics felt this series was overhyped and it certainly was in 2019, but when you're focused on countering the hype wave, there's a tendency to downplay and go too far the other way. Dororo is actually a pretty good anime, it just didn't quite live up to its full potential. Dororo was based on a very old shonen from 1967 penned by Osamu Tezuka himself! Tezuka wanted to create a shonen version of traditional Japanese ghost stories, so I warn you the premise is pretty ridiculous. However, traditional Japanese ghost stories aren't aiming for realism. While Dororo isn't perfect and isn't considered up there with Tezuka's top works like Buddha and Phoenix, Tezuka was always a masterful storyteller who created fun plots, loveable characters, and infused his stories with a warmhearted humanism. There is plenty to like here in Dororo and this anime was directed by Kazuhiro Furuhashi of Rurouni Kenshin fame. Dororo is about an evil Lord during the Sengoku Era who sacrifices his first born son named Hyakimaru to demons in exchange for power. The demons take Hyakimaru's eyes, ears, skin, central nervous system, heart, etc. The child is basically just a skeleton with a little muscle over his bones. However, Hyakimaru's righteous indignation is SO great that he refuses to die! He is sent downriver like baby Moses and is found by the world's greatest medical doctor. This doctor is named Jukai and he is probably the best character in this series. He was once a brutal samurai serving a ruthless lord and committed many atrocities. However, he was so filled with guilt and disgusted with himself that he threw himself off a cliff and into the sea. Fortunately, he was recovered by a Dutch ship who saved him and taught him the most advanced medical science known to Europe. With this new knowledge and his own genius, Jukai was able to make prosthetics hundreds of years more advanced than his peers and dedicates his life to treating the injured and repenting for his sins. In his spare time, he also carves LOTS of Buddha statues. Before you ask, yes he inspired the sculptor from Sekiro. Sadly, Jukai really isn't in this anime for more than a couple episodes. In fact, Hyakimaru himself doesn't get enough development and doesn't regain his speech until the very end of the series. Instead, most of the dialogue and the lion's share of the screen time is absorbed by a streetwise orphan named Dororo. The manga was for a young audience, so it made sense for Tezuka to add a child character. Not to mention the fact that manga is supposed to have dialogue and Hyakimaru can't talk. So Dororo's inclusion was a necessity. However, the 2019 anime is a lot darker and edgier than the original manga. They wanted to make a violent gore fest for older teens, but then the main character is this obnoxious little brat that talks big and needs to be rescued in every episode! Dororo is like if Scrappy Doo fused with Short Round from Temple of Doom. Why is he even in this freaking reboot?! Dororo adds very little to the actual plot, which is about Hyakimaru hunting down the demons one by one in order to get his organs back and eventually gather the strength to gain revenge on his father. I think the 2019 anime could have told Hyakimaru's story through facial expression and atmosphere with little dialogue and it would have been really cool. It feels like a wasted opportunity, but they REALLY wanted to be faithful to the manga. Speaking of which, the 1969 anime adaptation changed the manga's ending because they knew anime viewers would hate it. It worked in the manga because it was only 3 volumes, but when you stretch out the anime to a bunch of episodes, the manga's ending feels incredibly anti-climactic and frustrating. The 2019 Dororo actually followed the manga's ending and oh boy were people mad! Mushi Productions called that shit way back in 1969! They knew exactly how audiences would react. Even if you discount the ending, Dororo the 2019 anime really loses steam in the second half. This is unfortunate since the front half is really strong and showcases both Tezuka's strengths and Furuhashi's strengths as a director. Sadly, this wasn't an OVA that could run exactly as long as it needed. I think 12 episodes would have been too short and 24 episodes was too long. Ideally it should have run for about 16 episodes, but a TV anime can't do that. The art and soundtrack are serviceable for the most part. The action in the first half of the series looks pretty damn impressive although it starts to get stale by the end. Then we have the elephant in the room. As several critics before me have mentioned, it also has this hilariously bad CG fire that looks like they were using Windows Movie Maker from 2009. It looks like something you'd see in a Youtube abridged parody from 10 years ago. None Piece had better fire effects than Dororo. So after everything I said, should you watch Dororo? You should definitely watch the first 10-12 episodes. Then if you want to continue you can. Just know that the back half is a little rough and kind of goes downhill. It's not Game of Thrones bad or anything, but definitely ends with a whimper instead of a bang.

Dororo (2019) is a real gem of an anime. It has a very interesting and dark story and shows steady yet justified character development. Hyakkimaru and dororo are the main charterers and well-focused on. In only a span of 24 episodes, the viewer gets very well attached to the main characters and envision their ups and downs. The main reason I liked this anime was its very unique storyline and beautiful character development. Music- 8/10 (battle music and openings are good) Story- 9/10 (great and interesting story but fast-paced ending) Animation- 9/10 In conclusion, it is a must-watch anime and is definitely worth your time.

Dororo starts out promising. The story of a silent monster slayer followed by a comedic relief sidekick isn't exactly groundbreaking, but when done well, it can work. Hyakkimaru, in particular, had a lot of potential for growth, both as a character and as a fighter, thanks to the whole body part gimmick. And while I am usually not a fan of comedic side characters, Dororo is likable enough, or to be more precise, he doesn't make me want to kill myself, unlike the kid from Claymore, so that is a definitive plus. The presentation does leave a lot to be desired, both in terms of animation and especially music (the first opening is absolutely atrocious), but it gets the job done well enough and there is nothing that I would call an outright eyesore. The demon designs aren't exactly great either (Wow, an animal/insect but big, never seen that one before) but it's not a dealbreaker. In all honesty, while this show never had the potential to be a perfect ten out of ten, I can see how things could come together for a solid seven or maybe even eight. Thankfully, you don't have to take my word for it, since the first few episodes are very good. Sadly, the show quickly starts to lose steam and begins to suffer from two major issues. The episodic approach, and the Tahoumaru substory. The episodic approach starts out well enough, but it quickly reaches its limit and fails to evolve into anything noteworthy. As a result, pretty much the entire show consists of one or two episodes long arcs, filled with one-note characters and ending in a battle with the villain of the week. None of these segments lead to anything even mildly interesting, and they have absolutely no lasting impact on either of our main heroes. This is in part because Hyakkimaru simply doesn't have a character (at least until the very last arc). He is the stereotypical 'greatest swordsman who has ever lived' and that's pretty much it for him. They tried to give him something with him having to adapt to his new body parts, but this gets almost immediately dropped. On the fighting side, things aren't much better. As already stated, Hyakkimaru starts of as the greatest guy ever and ends the show in the exact same place. What is even more bewildering is the fact that the story already had two built in ways for Hyakkimaru to grow. You can either have him get stronger as he regains his body and unlocks new moves, or you can have him get weaker as he can no longer rely on his sci-fi prosthetics to carry him through combat and any damage he takes on his real body will be permanent. For some reason, they decided to do neither and so him regaining his lost body is completely irrelevant. As for Dororo, there is little to say. The story fundamentally isn't about her, so she cannot progress anywhere and her looking for a new family is phoned in at best. She does get a backstory, but it's trying so hard to make you feel sad that it comes of as funny. And now we get to the Tahoumaru substory, also known as the demon plot canyon. The basic premise of Dororo is simple: 'A Greedy lord summons a bunch of demons and gives them the body of his firstborn son in exchange for protecting his realm. The son survived because each demon can't devour more than one of his body parts.' This show really doesn't know how to handle the demons and so it defaults to making shit up as the story progresses, with no consistency or regard to how these changes will affect the story as a whole. This results in even the shows' most basic premise making absolutely zero sense. If I had to rewrite the premise with the knowledge I have now, it would look something like this: 'A Greedy lord summons a bunch of demons who were already there and gives them the body of his firstborn son, even though he could have given them literally anything else (the lives/bodies of his enemies included). In exchange, most of these demons fucked off somewhere else and some straight up decided to terrorize the lord's lands. Thanks to this, the land now prospers. The son survived because each demon can't devour more than one of his body parts except for the times they can.' Since the Tahoumaru arc is all about entangling this mystery, it suffers greatly. This isn't helped by the fact that everyone involved is a cardboard cutout with nothing redeeming about them. And then we get to the whole 'The deal was broken' part of the story. Just like anything else related to the demons, the deal made with them is also really poorly defined and constantly changes. And so we get scenes upon scenes of characters discussing the deal and constantly coming up with new, contradictory ways the deal works. Here are some from the top of my head: The deal is off because Hyakkimaru broke it. The deal is off because Tahoumaru broke it. The deal is not off but Tahoumaru may cancel it at any point if he so wishes. The deal is off, but it will be back if they kill Hyakkimaru. The deal was never on in the first place. The deal is still on, but it will be broken some day. This gets so bad that even Daigo, the guy who made the deal, straight up says that he has no idea how the deal he made works. What were the terms and conditions on the fucking thing? I could go on, but I think you get the picture. The story makes absolutely zero sense. Now that might sound pretty bad, but don't worry, the second half of the show is much, much worse. Prepare yourself, because I am about to drop the most difficult moral conundrum ever conceived. Are you ready? Well, ready or not, here I come. Is killing demons bad? If you answered no, then congratulations, you have a brain. It would not be an overstatement to say that Dororo may be one of the most black and white stories out there. Hyakkimaru good, demons bad. For some reason, the second half of the season keeps on insisting that this is a morally gray situation with no clear good or bad guys. The show constantly beats you over the head with this ridiculous idea that demons killing random people is actually really good and that Hyakkimaru doesn't actually have any claim to his own body. Who the fuck wrote this? They even go with the 'Whose blood do you have on those swords' cliché two separate times and both of them completely flop. This isn't helped by the fact that they ran out of clichés to base their characters on and so the last few arcs consist purely of demon worshiping murderers whose only calling in life is killing innocent people. The presentation also takes a massive hit. I hope you like stills because that's what you're getting. And on the rare occasion a scene actually gets animated, it looks absolutely atrocious. And to finish the whole mess, the ending is so mindbogglingly retarded I think it gave me brain damage. When Hyakkimaru says the ol reliable 'You and I are the same', I nearly dropped the show right there. The only reason I finished the show was so I could write this review.

After a 12-hour marathon of the series with Gigguk, I found that while the show has a lot of potential, it's hindered by a low budget, inconsistent animation, and poor pacing in the storytelling. The initial concept is straightforward yet rich with potential: A daimyo sacrifices his firstborn child to demons in exchange for power and prosperity, and the child must battle 12 demons to regain his humanity. The title "Dororo" doesn't hold much significance for me, even though some argue that Dororo is Hyakkimaru's reason to fight and stay sane. In truth, it's his family's rejection and his adoptive father's world that ground Hyakkimaru. Aside from treasure hunting and a tragic past, Dororo doesn't add much to the story. The anime can be divided into two arcs. The first 12 episodes are definitely the high point. Despite some inconsistent animation and odd pacing, the plot has a clear focus, and each standalone episode is memorable with just the right amount of brutality and fatality. The animation quality in the second arc decreases significantly; episode 15 has become a meme in the anime community, even though plot-wise, it's a good episode. The latter half's animation quality is acceptable, but the plot feels somewhat aimless. The final climax is also dull, with many characters making questionable decisions. Overall, with a better budget, animation, and pacing, this show could be much better because some standalone episodes have really good plots. I was surprised to see it has such a high score on MyAnimeList.

Miracles do exist and Dororo is proof of that. By all accounts something like Dororo should never have been made. I’m not saying it’s bad, in fact quite the contrary. The Dororo manga is old, really old. Up until late last year I had never heard of it before. Typically the only anime that gets green lit is stuff that is relevant. Stuff that people are currently talking about. Pretty much the opposite of Dororo. Yet someone took a chance and decided to adapt it and I could not be more happy with their decision. The story of Dororo is quite simple and easy to follow. It’s the story of a young man on a quest to regain what was stolen from him. In his current state you could call him an inhuman monster. Probably a bit harsh but when you have been robbed of everything that makes you physically human what are you left with. As the story goes on our main character Hyakkimaru regains those lost limbs but at what cost. I really loved the theme that Dororo went with. It’s all about give and take. For every piece of your human body you try to obtain, a bit of your humanity is lost. It’s a complex question ripe for intelligent discussion and Dororo handles that question masterfully. While most of our focus and attention story wise is put on Hyakkimaru the anime is called Dororo for a reason. As an audience we are seeing things play out mostly through Dororo’s eyes who exists mostly as comic relief to keep the show lighthearted enough so that we are not bogged down by Hyakkimaru’s unending quest for vengeance. Dororo plays a perfect host for this journey and a great companion. Just because Dororo is a kid doesn’t mean they can’t be useful. In fact that’s something I want to point out. Typically child characters in anime are a nuisance. They are annoying, a liability in any given situation and frankly there to cause problems. The thing I like about Dororo is that Dororo is intelligent. Dororo helps our protagonist on his journey. Not just with the demons but also making sure Hyakkimaru does not fully lose what little humanity he has left. Other characters that have relevance include a wise wandering old man who you could call a sensei for Hyakkimaru when it comes to navigating this world. Sometimes he pops in to lend a helping hand but is never overbearing nor a deus ex machina, and he is always giving sagely words of wisdom both to the main characters and us as well. Of course what story is complete without an antagonist. The antagonist for Dororo revolves around Hyu’s father and brother even. What I like about Dororo’s portrayal of the antagonists is their motives for their actions make sense. They are not bad for the sake of being bad. Any other story and they would be the heroes instead. A well fleshed out hero for a story is nice but a well fleshed out villain can definitely elevate some series to the level of greatness. Throw in some meaningful side characters and Dororo has all the makings of a fantastic anime. The art and animation for this story received quite the facelift. The original manga that I peeked has a comic like cartoony style of animation that may have worked for the time it was made but would need to be updated for a modern audience. The choice to update the designs was a great decision on the studios part. As for animation, wow. I was not expecting a show like Dororo to look as good as it did. Everything moved and flowed nicely. Most action scenes featured breathtaking sequences that you rarely see these days. There was a bit of a hiccup for one episode which depending on your taste could be very good or very bad. Fortunately it only lasts for one episode and then everything goes back to normal afterwards. The sound for Dororo was great especially the first opening song. It’s straight fire which going by some of the lyrics is an accurate description. The ending song is nice too, almost has a sort of ballad feel to it. The 2nd OP and ED are good too but the first set is what defines the series sound wise. I really hope that more studios in the future look to anime like Dororo and decide to take a chance on older works. There are so many great stories out there that deserve to be adapted and given the same respect that Dororo was given. This is certainly a classic in the making.

This show is really boring, tried to hold out to the end to see if it was worth it, it was not worth it. Super boring and unsatisfying ending. Would not recommend. go watch Samurai shamploo or Katanagatari. They are also slightly episodic and about sword fighting. And just way better written. The pacing is slow, the episodic episodes are really boring, in the overarching plot has a really unsatisfying ending. Main character is quiet and uninteresting. Fight scenes are kind of boring. This show is really boring, tried to hold out to the end to see if it was worth it, it was not worth it. Super boring and unsatisfying ending. Would not recommend. go watch Samurai shamploo or Katanagatari. They are also slightly episodic and about sword fighting. And just way better written. The pacing is slow, the episodic episodes are really boring, in the overarching plot has a really unsatisfying ending. Main character is quiet and uninteresting. Fight scenes are kind of boring.

Dororo has one major issue keeping it down, in this review I will explain where it went wrong. This anime starts amazing, good premise, pretty good animation, and great introduction and ending songs! IF I had stopped in the middle of this anime I would have probably rated a 10/10. Unfortunately, I kept watching until the end, and saw the awful ending in store. Dororo gives me the same feeling that failing a test does, or getting yelled at by your boss, or thinking your late to an event when your perfectly on time. I do not typically cry at anime, but I almost did, not out of sadness, but sheer disappointment. This anime ends so poorly I nearly cried, I was genuinely saddened by the downfall. Anyways, other than the ending, the villain's motivation at the end makes no sense, towards the end animation becomes worse until the characters are missing frames occasionally, the new opening at the middle-end is not as much of a banger. Basically, everything gets WORSE and not BETTER. If you are currently watching/going to see Dororo, I would recommend stopping at around episode 20 before the ending so you do not have to see that mostrosity.

"Party is over." Yeah, you bet your a** this party's over alright... It has been already 4 years since I last picked up my pen a.k.a. keyboard, to actually write a review. And while I originally intended to do a review on an anime I actually like, followed by a 5-Part JoJo review, I somehow just felt this one way more. Which is pretty ironic, because well, it's about a boy who doesn't really feel a whole lot, you know? DISCLAIMER: No, this is not a trollpost, and I appreciate comments and encourage discussions. Also, this Review should (to my recollection) contain no spoilers. Enjoy! DISCLAIMER#2: There wasn't really a need to edit this after the ending, but I didn't want it to be preliminary. *Shrugs* So, I heard, the best point to start is at the beginning, so lets do just that. When I took a look at AniChart for what I wanted to watch in 2019's winter season, Dororo was something that literally jumped at me. The story sounded promising, I love the setting, and heck, even Studio MAPPA had a bit of credit for me at this point, because I really enjoyed Zombieland Saga the season prior, and even their Kakegurui adaptation didn't suck a**. If I had taken a look at what other atrocities made their way out of this hellish pit, I would've probably skipped this one and wouldn't have to write this. Well, my fail. Like I said, the setting is naturally great. We have the Sengoku Jidai, including demons/yokai and the whole plethora of japanese folklore. This is like a treasure trove of story telling. But sadly, the anime didn't do a whole lot with it. This story could've used a Cthullu monster instead of japanese demons, or even some evil scientists, who dish out free money for donating children to them. The same can be said about the story arc. On paper the story sounds simply amazing. However, if we take a closer look at the story and condense in simple words what happens, most of this amazement goes flying. Because, this is what the story turned out to be: Roadtrip, in which the maincharacter kills the villain of the day to gain a powerup, before facing the final boss. For a game in the year 1996 this would have been pretty interesting. Because in a game we ourselves are the ones doing the fighting. In an anime, this is absolutely repetitive and unengaging. This isn't however the final nail in the coffin, because we might have still good characters, right? Wrong. Unfortunately, I can't say that the characters had any more favorable treatment than the story. Because, lets face it, the characters are that flat, I feel sorry for the sheet of paper I would have to compare them to. Hyakkimaru sounds on paper, just like the whole story, interesting. That guy has so many chances to develop in all kind of interesting characters. He could become a villain, a hero, everything in between. But instead, by not giving him a way to convey emotions (Inner monologue would've been a good idea, because hey, that guy still can THINK, right?) MAPPA made Hyakkimaru into nothing more than a robot, who kills demons. Title - Namesake Dororo isn't any better. Contrary, even worse. I couldn't describe it any better, so I just quote Karhu's review: 'Dororo [...] is a generic brat who is at best uninteresting and at worst annoying' My sentiments exactly. From a writers standpoint, I feel like Dororo's only reason for existence is as a mouthpiece for Hyakkimaru. Are theside characters any better? No. Of course not, why would they? At best, the sidecharacters are cliché but halfway decently executed, at worst, they are as much of an annoyance as Dororo. But hey, perhaps we can still save this anime with MAPPA's production values, right? Again, no. Unfortunately, MAPPA attempted to not just air one, but two anime in the Winter 2019 season, with the other one being Kakegurui xx. Of course as someone, who doesn't work in the industry I can't say with any confidence how much this affected Dororo (and Kakegurui xx for that matter), but Dororo's Art and Sound is far from stunning. The characters look to me like a discountversion of Naruto: Shippuuden's more samurailike and older characters (Like Madara or Hashirama). The animations are somewhat fluid for the most part, but taking a look at especially the fightscenes I can clearly tell that nobody at MAPPA ever thought of the implications of having two wakizashi as arms. The scenes are random and badly choreographed and just hurt to me as ex-Kendoka. However, one thing I HAVE to give credit for are the backgrounds. Sure, it isn't even close to the level of the likes such as Mo Dao Zu Shi, but the backgrounds sure enough are decent. As for sound design, I could pretty much just go ahead and copy the Art part, and replace the art terms with sound terms. The seiyuu didn't do much to impress me, with Suzuki Rio, Dororo' seiyuu, as extraordinarily annoying (however, I don't blame her, I think that she got hired to do that). I absolutely hate the opening and ending songs. Sure, 'Kaen', the opening song by Ziyoou-vachi, is extremely popular. I am aware of that fact. And if you like it, fine, listen to it all you want. However, thinking about it from a rating standpoint, how much does this OP actually fit the anime? The short but nonetheless shocking answer: 0. I don't know who came up with this, but when I think of Sengoku Japan I certainly don't think of high screeches, which yell FAAAAIYAAAA into my ear. I think of something like Wagakki Band. The second opening, fittingly titled 'Dororo' doesn't fare much better. I already mentioned, how the character artworks feel to me like discount Naruto Artworks, right? Well, same thing. ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION did an awesome job with Haruka Kanata back in the day when Naruto was all the hype. And even now, Haruka Kanata's Bass Line is just so darn awesome, and the song still exudes energy and excitement like I exude sweat after 3 hours basketball in a gym with bad aircirculation. 'Dororo' however doesnt. In fact, I think that this is one of the weakest songs I heard by ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION ever. And once again, mirroring the Art department, the classic japanese BGM reminds me again, why I picked up Dororo. Thats what I wanted, a good combination of historically acurate Sengoku Jidai merged with the japanese folclore, supported by those classic japanese sounds of Shakuhachi, Shamisen and Koto. Well, unfortunately I only got the decent Soundtrack, which feels to me like haughty laughter. 'We could've made the anime you wanted! Are you not entertained?!' After writing all this I probably don't need to mention, that I didn't enjoy this anime one bit even though I looked forward to the first episode, right? Well, duh. I will watch the rest of this trainwreck and hope to find at least something of value, but I highly doubt it. I have one last thing to mention though: Through the whole anime I got the feeling, that the main reason for this whole anime is a (not so) subtle critic of the Sengoku Jidai and praise of the modern times. In that way Dororo ties into the same line of anime such as Samurai Champloo and Cowboy Bebop. Most poeple who watched Bebop and Champloo probably also like Dororo. And as you might guess, yes, I hate all three of these (Champloo not as much, but still...). I absolutely despise such messages, because they tend to be uninformed and preacherous. Of course, the Sengoku period had dark phases, and so did every other period of human civilization (including today), but strangely enough all those idiots tend to target the european and japanese medieval periods first. But ranting aside, here's the WTLRAH;DRATS (Way too long rambling and hating, didn't read all that s**t) a.k.a. TL;DR: Good Ideas condensed to generic boredom, no use of it's unique chances, cheap production values except for Backgroundarts and Backgroundmusic. Highly unenjoyable.

Dororo is a 2019 anime and one of the very best. How do I know this? Well where should I start? Dororo is an adaptation from a manga penned by the most influential figure in the history of manga, Osamu Tezuka. The man has constantly been referred to as "the father of manga", mostly by people inexperienced with a single one of his works. But what does that matter? He birthed classic franchises like Astro Boy and Black Jack, both of which have had an obvious influence on anime and manga moving forward. So what if he wrote dozens of other manga you've never heard of that weren't popular, didn't sell and collectively almost killed the industry? That's of little importance here. In the world of today, Tezuka is synonymous with 'good' and if I repeat his name enough, you'll see that too. Tezuka. Tezuka. Tezuka. Tezuka. Tezuka. Not sold yet? Not to worry, because Dororo was adapted by the fantastic team over at Studio MAPPA, who have worked on adapting old forgotten manga for today's audience. They did it with Ushio no Tora, a generic shounen that followed the footsteps of its predecessors but could never fit their shoes, and only added animation and music to turn the series into an outdated one. Last year they tried their hand with BANANA Fish, but rather than adding to the story, it managed to regress it down to the main homosexual romance with even duller visuals than the freakin' black-and-white manga. But have no fear, MAPPA is basically the continuation of Madhouse's best talent (even though barely any of the old Madhouse staff are with MAPPA nowadays but who cares about actual research amirite!). So maybe the names of studios are too vague to rely on (no shit). But Dororo is different! It features the likes of Kazuhiro Furuhashi on staff, who directed classics from the 90's such as Rurouni Kenshin and the original anime for Hunter x Hunter. It is a fact (Wikipedia sourced) that he is amongst anime's foremost directors, even today, with his last directed work being none other than the worst of Netflix's original anime, Neo Yokio. What about Osamu Kobayashi? The man behind Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad and Paradise Kiss? Yes he was also part of the staff here, with the position of storyboarding, key animation, in-between animator and episode director. That's a lot of work, even if it's only credited to the first ED and literally nothing else for the show. And speaking of, those openings and endings were such bangers. Really incredible stuff, because they matter SO MUCH when reviewing the quality of a show. Alright, it appears that rattling off names attached won't convince you either, so lets talk about the show. Dororo features the UNLIKELY pairing between a loudmouth child and a silent, stoic badass. It's SO UNIQUE that for how influential Tezuka's work was, something like this hasn't been replicated in anime since (they have). Nevertheless the two set out on a journey full of action and supernatural elements that effectively distance itself from the homosexual happy-go-crappy anime also airing. Kimetsu no Yaiba? That began one season later - doesn't count. Dororo is such an interesting show; so grounded in the historical setting, Tezuka format and folklore of Japan that gives it a timeless nature, but also subversive in its own right. There are no tropes present here as the duo follow their path, defeating whatever monster they have to face each episode to achieve their goal. Wait, was that a contradiction?.... Moving on. What's really interesting about this version of Dororo lies in the presentation. It's just so cinematic: the backgrounds, the cinematography, such fluid animation, the way sound is edited to each scene, etc. If I could praise it like this all the time, I might confuse it for the second season of Mob Psycho 100, a legitimately well-made anime production-wise. The series initially does impress with its production quality, but it does *slightly* decline the closer to the midway point you get, until episode 15 hits you square in the eyes, and you wonder why you can't see the faces of different characters until you realize they weren't even drawn in. The action scenes however are the prominent highlights of the show visually. They're smooth, crisp and feel like authentic battles between swordsman. The way the show adds tension to these moments is also noteworthy purely for how smart the staff were. Static pictures of each character used in several instances, as well as zooming in and out of still images are not only very effective in building suspense, but also work as cost-effective methods while on a budget. And the best part is that they worked. How? Because everyone who praised the show so highly failed to ever mention them in their reviews ;) I can understand though, if I were keeping up with 20 other seasonal anime to review every 3 months then I'd probably forget a couple things as well, no matter how obvious they are. Once again, I can't help but point out just how great this series is. Dororo really broke onto the scene with a strong sense of masterful storytelling (Tezuka). Despite drifting away from the original source on numerous occasions, the series keeps the heart of Dororo alive with every budget cut at their disposal. It's like watching a movie if you've never seen a feature film before, bringing with it this Disney-esque (LMAO WUT?) essence, that you can't help but feel warm and cozy inside watching one guy slice numerous others. I should have prefaced this by saying I barely watched Dororo, or remember it for that matter, but that's ok, I still love Dororo, as I do Tezuka, and MAPPA, (and helpfuls). Now excuse me while I give more fellatio to the series and Tezuka in private. While I'm gone, here's some food for thought: try to get to know what you plan on dickriding before you start putting out like a hoe.

"Dororo" deeply resonated with me, leaving an impact that few animes have managed to achieve. Characters: I was utterly enamored by the entire cast. The dynamics between them felt real and layered, touching upon their individual aims and deep-seated motivations. As I followed their journey, I couldn't help but get attached, feeling their struggles. Their purposes weren't just story points; to me, they seemed like heartfelt confessions of their very souls. Art: The artistry in "Dororo" is hauntingly beautiful. Its vivid depictions were so intense that, on more than one occasion, I found myself having nightmares after some of the more episodes. However, these very images also made the anime unforgettable, retaining a vivid spot in my memories. Plot: The storyline, for me, was a solid 10/10. It was more than just a narrative; it was an exploration of emotions I've sometimes felt but struggled to articulate. The way it showcased the despicable side of humanity, emphasizing greed, misplaced priorities, stark poverty, and undeniable cruelty, hit close to home. The plot didn't just depict a tale; it mirrored the raw complexities of human nature. In sum, "Dororo" was a personal journey for me, a tale that stirred emotions, brought introspection, and showcased the intricate dance of light and shadow within humanity.

A kid exiled from their parents' warmth, only to deliver a harsh payback years later. A man meditates on top of a mountain, only to find out everything he was praying for had already faded away, stories of redemption, regret and overcoming hardships like these give off a strange nostalgic vibe of a rainy night, embraced by your grandmother as she tells you about some urban legend whilst you're sipping from your warm bowl of soup, holding on to her on the rough parts of the story, waiting for the conclusion to drop so that you can fill up the lost bits of the story on your own later, probably as you dream hoping it doesn't turn into a fever hell. “Grandson/Granddaughter, shall we start?”, “Yes Granny, what are story are you going to tell us today, is it the bunny one?!”, mysteriously ignores you as she proceeds into her storytelling; “A long, long time ago, demons existed, and a boy named Hyakkimaru was born...” A modern take on an already pretty established series, “Hyakkimaru” get mass attention from the fans on its airing season, reviving its old forgotten stories, it founded a great following from both returning old and brand fresh new fans. A show like nothing we're used to especially lately, with gloomy colors, heavily traditional, and aggressively dark and controversial for its airing time. - Story (8.5/10): In a world where demons have the superstitious upper hand, corruption is the common language, wars everywhere, famine every day and genocide is a solution for everything. A samurai ruler sacrifices his newborn son for the demons in order for his land to nourish, as his ruling mind convinced him that sacrificing a potential heir is a small price for his people's salvation. Several demons reacted, each of them consumed something off of the poor little kid, and it just happens that one of them fails at consuming whatever was left from a rusty skeleton and a mush of rotten flesh, no eyes, no ears, no limbs and not even a healthy mind. Given all the odds against him, he still survived under the care of a monk-looking doctor that has taken from providing prosthetic limbs for the dead and the sick a profession, a weird flex, but it only gets weirder from here on. Hyakkimaru was the named given to the cursed poor kid, he had spent plenty of years under the care of the doctor until it was time for him to leave and walk his own path of restoring what was taken from him, defeating demon after demon, until that one day he met a mysterious kid. enter Dororo. - Art (8.5/10): It was visually interesting, to say the least. It feels as if Dororo took the same old school art style every other show used back in the day, added in some seasoning by none other than the kitchen donkey himself and threw it on a plate for consumption and that was probably the best thing to do for an old series such as it was, it definitely helped make it easier to watch through episode by episode. For a seasonal series, it's disappointing how it lacked a definitive consistency through its serialization, some episode were just the best out of all airing shows, whilst others did not scale up to the same standards, almost as if you were watching a different show altogether. The animation was, at the hight of it, breathtaking. For an action show, you bet you're getting a fight at least once an episode, and for the major ones? Enter movie quality scenes, even for a couple of seconds. The hand to hand and swordfight feels natural and exciting, no such reusable snaps or slacking low-rate frames to drag down the rest of the production. - Sound (9/10): Let me get this right off the way first, the opening and ending songs in this show are party bangers, every single one of them. And I'm confident enough to call the first opening as the best in the crown, really inspiring and with great vocal cords, something you definitely don't see in every Anime. The ending theme songs are probably the least spoken about on every show, and you can't help but understand why seeing how most people see them as skippable extra topping that is just there to fill up the 24 minutes mark but not with “Dororo”. The voice acting in this show is a little bit weird, I don't know if it's just me, but I can't help but feel a very old school vibe from it, it's almost visible to the naked eye how for example, Dororo's voice feels like it was recorded two decades ago, and it's not necessarily a bad thing, it just worked so well with everything else. - Character (8/10): From a newborn to a full-on adult. It feels like you've been raising a child on your own for decades, mostly because of how frequently Hyakkimaru's personality changes as he wins something of his back, he may have never experienced hearing in his life, but when he finally hears something, it just changes him, it flips his world, it influences his fighting style, it even alters his behavior and interaction to the world, and that was just an example of what a single sense does to him, and you can only imagine how different of a person he is at the end of the series from what he started off as in the beginning. A lot of minor characters come and go, pulls off some plot-changing decisions and then disappear until they face the consequences back. - Enjoyment (9/10): This was definitely one of those shows that makes you feel empty after you finish it, you get too interested on a weekly basis, and then suddenly it's the end. I'm not a big fan of how it ended, but I can think of a lot of other ways it could have been bad, so I'll suttle with how it turned out for the sake of being faithful for what it set out for. I really enjoyed the fights, I enjoyed the characters, I loved the songs and the visuals, I wrote theories, I basically had a phenomenal experience with the series, I felt connected, concerned, mild feelings of anger, happiness, and sadness, it was one heck of a rollercoaster. - Overall (8.6/10): As someone who hasn't seen the original series yet (as of writing this review), I was definitely hooked. If I remember correctly, it was around the 5th or the sth episode were it all clicked for me, but going back, the first episodes were very high quality too. I would definitely recommend diving into this series, especially for fantasy/mystery/action fans out there, watching the original does not really matter, it takes nothing out from the experience, and I would probably guess that it's the proper way to experience the series.

“The path I take, does not lead that way. I am human. Don’t you become a demon either. Live on as a human.” I won't say too much in this review. Over the past several months I've had so much to say about, what I believe is, the best anime of 2019 thus far. But now that its over, I'm content saying less rather than much. **vague SPOILERS ahead** Dororo is unlike much of the media coming out of Japan concerning the samurai. We've see a great deal of glory hoisted onto these "heroes," of the past. Dororo is an anime that is not afraid to criticize this history, while also telling an extremely original story. This review will probably get lost in the end of season ocean of reviews, but I feel my final impressions are important to write down. In the beginning it is the sins of the father which creates pain and suffering. We have all seen this before. But in the end, it is the sins of the father which promise life and stability in Dororo. Maybe that is the difference in leaving a male or female behind to succeed you in an unforgiving world. The line between man and demon becomes increasingly blurred as Dororo moves progresses, what were once hated antagonists become sympathetic men, and beloved protagonists display flashes of the demon within. Maybe the point of Dororo is to show that while we all may harbor these demons, it is within our power to be eaten by desire, or to conquer it. The final episode shows us a protagonist who has long wanted, no longer chasing after "things," finally happy with just having a full body. Society tells us that we never have enough, that we have to want, but Hyakkimaru finds happiness by obtaining simply what most of us are born with, a body of ones own. I see this story as a coming of age tale from two different perspectives. Hyakkimaru is the yang, Dororo the Yin. The taichi symbol shows that within black there is white, and within white there is black. The growth of these two ^ throughout the series is similar to other anime in someways, but different in many. The conclusion was executed perfectly by MAPPA and the production maintained an efficient work schedule. The love put into this anime is so much more evident than many others, and now that I've watched it weekly, I'll have to experience the entire story as one. I hope everyone else enjoyed this anime as much as I did!! Live on as humans! :)

Dororo is interesting. At the very least, I can guarantee that it's not a copy-paste trashy isekai and actually tries to explore some themes, which for an anime from 2019 is quite impressive on its own. Unfortunately, the execution process of said themes is flawed towards the end. But despite these flaws, I believe it's absolutely not a waste of time. The story is about a boy whos body (or most of it) was sold to demons by his father, in return for a kingdom's protection from wars and natural disasters. The boy then grows up and embarks on a journey to defeat all the demons to get his body back and as he does this, the deal with the demons becomes null. Disregarding the obvious impossible scenario presented (it's fiction you dummy, who cares), the big overarching theme/question presented is the following: Is it morally acceptable to make trades like these and how justified is the sacrificed person to screw everything and put their own interests above those of thousands of people. I personally love questions like these mostly because they have no easy answer and depending on your moral framework, you can get to completely different answers. I'm inclined to say that a society that sacrifices a small portion of the population for the benefit of another is not functional and fundamentally everybody is justified to fight violently for their own freedom and self-determination, but you can easily make an utilitarian argument that sacrificing half a body for the wellbeing of many is totally worth it. And what is the answer that Dororo arrives at? Well... Kind of like mine...? Maybe...? My main criticism is that Dororo doesn't seem to have an answer at all and jumps from theme to theme in a very unorganized manner. Starting with a great conflict between the 2 solutions that were presented, we jump to "bad things are bad" to "it doesn't matter, as long as you stay human" whatever that f-ing means, to blaming everything on demons and only one line was said that maybe a kingdom built on someone's sacrifice is not a good kingdom. This is honestly very bad and represents the most important reason why I can't give this anime a higher score. Furthermore, it's incredibly annoying how at the same time the main characters are acting in weird ways and change their minds from one second to another. As the characters go in with a goal in mind, at the end literally everyone relevant ends up changing their minds completely. This is very important to outline, because for an anime that tries to explore some themes more seriously, the conclusion is paramount. It's what everything moves towards and this is where all the impact is. When executed correctly, it makes a masterpiece. And this ain't it. To draw a parallel, I'll talk about Shinsekai Yori, another anime which explores several big moral themes. In that anime, there is a very clear line the author moves you on as you explore ideas. Funny enough, it's similar to a journey every person takes in real life from "the world might not be as it seems" to "there's a lot of unfair stuff happening" to finally culminate with "there's a reason why things are they way they are, as uncool as they are" and "things just aren't easy to fix" and FU, you don't get a good ending, there is no good ending (damn, I love that anime). There aren't any inconsistencies regarding this narrative thread and even with the many different events that happen, the theme persists and is slowly moving towards its natural resolution. This is what Dororo is missing in its final several episodes, despite an excellent buildup. And ending aside, that buildup is truly amazing. The anime throws Hyakkymaru into tragic situations, which depending on how you argue, might even be his own fault. It makes you, the viewer, see the gravity of the situation and how horrible the consequences of his actions are. Another theme that was explored very well is how Hyakkimaru gains his body parts one by one and starts exploring the newfound world and more importantly - his own emotions, just like a child. The anime is not afraid to paint him in a negative light as he goes into fits of rage or is plainly egoistical, to the point where the one that seems way more mature is the actual kid that's with him. This feeling is constantly reinforced, as characters around him are concerned whatever he'll end up being a force for good or not. The supporting cast is not bad and contributes nicely to the main themes. The only thing that isn't centered on what I already mentioned, is the story of Dororo, who is the second main character and the evolution of the friendship between these 2 mains. This is also executed well enough and I like the final conclusion that Dororo's subplot arrives at. I can honestly think of a few things that I dislike about this part of the story, but overall it's decent. I'm also forced to mention the great work that studio Mappa did. The animation quality might not be consistently stellar all the time, but the direction, pacing/flow, timing, music... and just literally everything else you might think about is close to perfect. Go ahead and check how many views on YT the first opening has. It's great. So in the end... I'm always glad to see anime that actually try something great and fail, instead of your average braindead stuff. This is why you should go and watch Dororo. And if you like this kind of theme exploration and don't mind a slower pacing (and gay stuff), go for Shinsekai Yori as well.

Episode one of Dororo had a beautifully choreographed fight scene betweeen Hyakkimaru and the demon. The way Hyakkimaru catapults himself through his surroundings slicing, through the sight of darkness within the demon. It sold me on the show and had me hyped to watch it weekly. However, to my disappointment the show had a very stagnant middle section. It introduced some awesome characters, and brilliant plotlines, however it lost the 'it' factor that really drew me in intially. The fight scenes no longer lived up to the beautiful fight choreography shown in the first few episodes, and the brilliant story direction. However, what really redeemed the show from its lackluster midsection, was the shakespearean ideas brought forth in the final four episodes. There was a huge theme on morality and ethics, bringing forth ideas of good and evil, combined with ambition and struggle. The story clearly takes a lot of ideas from Shakespearean stories such as Macbeth, and with the presence of a complicated relationship between Hyakkimaru and Tahomaru a Romeo and Juliet twist. Kazuhiro Furuhashi did a brilliant job of providing the audience with an ethical debate, allowing us to reflect on what the best thing to do is. The open-ended finish worked to Dororo's advantage, wrapping up the story we have been following and letting us question what happens next. The art style is very modern, and gives a slick polish to the old-school style of story written by the god of Manga, Osamu Tezuka. The soundtrack has an oldschool, semi-0riental style which appeases the ears, and ramps up its flair during the action scenes. Both of the of the openings are fantastic, and introduce the episodes beautifully. Recommend this if you want to delve into a grand demon-slaying epic whilst delving into an ethical and moral debate.

I have decided not to focus too much on the references the anime has given us about the history of Japan and more on the story the anime has given us. The story feels like an action shonen. In this series, there's a bit of character growth, literally and figuratively, although it's mainly the two protagonists who've gained this benefit it seems. The plot is very straightforward as are the characters' actions, which makes it very easy to follow. The art style is also very fitting for the anime, the landscapes especially capture the essence of Japan's history. The animations are also sufficient. Considering how long ago the manga for the anime was first serialised, it makes sense that there's a massive pile of flaws in the anime. The adaptation has done a good enough job of conveying the intentions from the original manga. (Yapping section) Definitely would've liked more gore from this series but seeing that MAPPA's in charge of animating it would've been too much to ask for. Except the two protagonists of the story and maybe a few other nobodies with sob stories that I've forgotten about because they were that uninteresting, the rest of the supporting cast have the most predictable actions and are so linear with their thinking, that you'd think they were the created using a chatbot. Because the action and the story is both lacking, I then try to console myself in the spectacular animation that MAPPA has to offer for me. In the early episodes the graphics seem to be alright, but every episode that goes on after, it seems to be diminishing in quality until the faces are so obscure, you're better off drawing a stick figure.