Dororo, one of the most talked-about and hyped anime of winter 2019, so what’s it about, well get ready for I’m gonna give you everything you need to know about it (well at least that’s what I aim to give). In case you didn’t know about it, here’s a little something about Dororo.

First of all, Dororo is a readaptation of Dororo to Hyakkimaru, an old anime that was aired in the late 1960s. This anime is an adaptation of the manga written by none other than the god of mangas Osamu Tezuka Live-action of this manga was also adapted but here I’ll be focusing on 2019 Dororo.

dororo

Dororo Plot

The story takes place in the Edo period of Japan where the samurai were regarded as the highest class of people. Daigo Kagemitsu, the Lord of Ishikawa, strikes a deal with the demons to make his domain not only prosper but become the most powerful. The demons, in return for his power, takes 12 body parts of his firstborn son as a sacrifice. Hence his first son was born without 12 major body parts including hands, limbs, skin, eyes, etc. Eventually, Daigo proceeds to dispose of his son, who though alive, had no significance to Daigo. The maid who was in charge of disposing of the newborn child didn’t kill him but instead kept him in a small boat and left it to fend for itself in a stream.

Fortunately, the child is found by a prosthetic maker, who raises him. The child grows up to be Hyakkimaru, and along with an acquaintance he meets Dororo, Hyakkimaru now goes on a journey to kill the demons who took his body parts and avenge for his hard childhood.

That’s a little plot right there, now, the reason why I just love Dororo is that firstly the animation is on point! Like Mappa did a great job on detailed action scenes too. And it opening, my gosh its awesome! I legit played fire Dororo first opening on repeat for an entire week. It is just that awesome. It’s ending too is amazing. One thing you should
know here is that the 2019 Dororo does not entirely follow the original manga, it has its deviations, like in the manga, Hyakkimaru had 48 missing body parts, and in Dororo it was reduced to 12,and I think this deviation is also one of the reasons why I love it. Even if it does not follow the manga entirely, the storyline is the same, fighting the
demons to get his body parts back and eventually encounter his father, the man behind all the hardships. If you still haven’t watched Dororo, watch it, it has just 24 eps.

you should watch dororo

Dororo Characters

Now, let’s talk about the main characters in Dororo. Let’s start with the main protagonists! Dororo and Hyakkimaru!
Hyakkimaru, as I’ve mentioned before, is the child sacrificed by Daigo to strike a deal with the demons. He grows up to be a healthy teenager even though he lacks proper human interaction. On his journey to kill demons to retrieve his lost body parts, he meets Dororo, a young kid of 8 who lives by fooling and robbing others. Hyakkimaru
saves Dororo from a group of bandits that Dororo tried to fool. After Dororo finds out that Hyakkimaru lacks sense organs, Dororo decides to accompany Hyakkimaru on his adventure, addressing him as Aniki or brother.

You’ll find how beautiful their bond is, how strong it gets with each passage of episode, Hyakkimaru who had no proper human interaction slowly starts to value people and finds himself becoming a fine human being. Hyakkimaru has one of the best character developments in the anime. Next, well talk about Jukai, Jukai was a doctor who heals the sick and makes prostheses for the unfortunate. He was also Hyakkimarus parental guardian. He saved
Hyakkimaru, raised him to be a fine boy, and also gave him the name Hyakkimaru that as much I’ll talk about him, or it’ll be a spoiler hehe. Now let me introduce to you, a blind old priest, who though blind, can differentiate
between evil and good by the colour of their soul.

When the priest first meets the duo, the priest remembers seeing Hyakkimarus soul when he was drifting in the stream, he didn’t think that the almost lifeless child could have survived this long. He tells Dororo how Hyakkimaru can differentiate evil and good, that is, by the colour of their soul Evil soul had a red hue to their soul while good ones were white. Hence this was how Hyakkimaru had been slaying demons and not hurting humans all these years. In the whole of the series, this priest helps out the duo in many ways.

review on dororo

Let go on ahead and go to the next main character, Tahomaru. Tahomaru is Daigo’s second son and Hyakkimarus younger brother. Tahomaru throughout all his life only wanted his mother full attention. Though being a samurai with true beliefs, he always felt neglected by his mother. Thus when he finds out the true identity about Hyakkimaru,
he swears to demolish the threat of his land, hence begins a serious sibling rivalry. Here too I won’t be saying much about Tahomaru or you’ll get spoiled, so I’ll stop here. Finally, let’s talk about the man who started everything, Daigo Kagemitsu. Daigo Kagemitsu was the Lord of land that was always hit by epidemics. So, to make his land
prosperous, he strikes a deal with the demon. He has a heart of stone when it comes to his land, and will do anything and everything to keep his power, so far as to make their sons enemy.

Let also add a little something about Hyakkimaru and Tahomaru mother here. She’s a kind-hearted woman who is living in guilt for not being able to do anything when her first son was sacrificed and was disposed of like some insignificant being. This being a case, she couldn’t give her full attention to Tahomaru, always living in a dazed state. Later she does apologize to Tahomaru for her behaviour, but well come to that later. There are also other characters like Mio, a girl that catches Hyakkimarus attention. Hyogo, Mutsu, Tahomaru bodyguard ish and many more. Watch the series for further detail.

All in all, Dororo is an amazing anime with the beautiful art style, heart-touching character developments, and awesome soundtracks. Every episode of Dororo makes me yearn for more and this is exactly why I want a season 2.

*spoiler alert *

Let talk a little about the last episode here. This one episode made me so so frustrated I felt like throwing my phone away. First of all, the brothers fight and finally at the end console their misunderstandings, their mother comes and apologizes to both her son for her behaviour, everything gets messed up from here, this is purely my opinion, but… Why did Tahomaru, their mother and Jukai have to lose their life? If there was an escape route, why didn’t they all escape? Is this what happens in the manga too, I don’t know because I have not read it yet, but I’m pretty sure everyone who have watched the final episodes felt tormented at that episode. And that’s, not the end, what happens to Daigo? Does he live or is he dead? They didn’t make that part clear. To add, Hyakkimaru separates himself from Dororo and there’s a time SKIP! Dororo is now a fully grown young woman! What happened to Hyakkimaru, where is he?

He can’t just leave her alone after he gets all his body parts back!!! I need a season 2 to get rid of this confusion, it’s not fair, you can’t just cut it there. Though I don’t think there will be a season two, I do hope they make a little something to get rid of these hurried scenes. Not gonna lie, I just adore Dororo but the last episode
left a void in my heart.

Well, that’s all I have to say about Dororo, many of you might have a different opinion regarding the last part, it’s exclusively a personal opinion. Id rate Dororo 8/10 because its a really good anime all in all.

So, that’s all for Dororo review. Hope you like it and I hope you will put Dororo in your watchlist soon enough.

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