Story:
We open with a Samurai lord, Daigo, entering the Hall of Demons that resides in his domain. You know, the ordinary kind you can find in any area. We have ours across the street from my apartment complex. He beseeches the demons to give him prosperity and, in exchange, they can take anything they want from him. Cue him dropping his trousers and really emphasising the "anything."The Hall gets struck by lightning, leaving him with a scar. Later on, we see his wife give birth only to have the building struck by a flash. He finds that the demons have taken his son's eyes, ears, skin, arms, legs and possibly tongue since he can't talk. But maybe they just took his voice in order to sing fabulously.
He's thrilled that the deal's been accepted and orders the midwife to drown the baby. He reassures his wife that he would never survive and they can just make another one. Which I'm sure is exactly what she wants to hear in that situation. The midwife takes pity on the hideously deformed baby and sets him loose in a boat. We cut to years later where a heavily prosthetic young man named Hyakkimaru is wandering in order to hunt demons and reclaim the parts they've taken from him. He starts journeying with a young street rat named Dororo and there we have the plot.
There are a couple narrative issues I have with the series. The more pervasive one is that There's not a satisfying explanation for why the demons want these body parts. There's a half assed statement about them wanting to be closer to humans and later they introduce this idea that they're somehow using the parts to awaken but we meet a lot of monsters that are running around and they clearly have enough power to rip a child into pieces seconds after its born while also being powerful enough to summon lightning storms but we're supposed to believe they need human parts to manifest physically? Wouldn't that be a bit like me being able to cause explosions with my mind and levitate but not being able to open a jar of pickles without help?
There are also some cases of overly convenient circumstances. For instance, there's a scene where Hyakkimaru gets pretty horribly injured fighting a demon, but he's able to repair all the damage immediately by going back and killing it. Don't you wish you could do that in a war situation? Get shot multiple times, just quickly kill the guy who shot you and watch the bullet wounds vanish. I'll give it a pass when the parts that were stolen reattach due to him breaking the curse, but mending injuries he sustained in battle is far too convenient. The old priest also shows up at just the right moment quite a few times. I know he has an actual name, but I'm calling him Steerforth.
With that being said, the premise is a very compelling one. I also appreciate that it can be more than a little dark without going too far. Legitimately, this is a far more optimistic series than you would expect. And I always appreciate it when something can be on the darker side but incorporate lighter elements and make them work. That's rare. Dororo is also a compelling series. It has something of an episodic formula but with a definite sense of progression. The ending is pretty nicely handled too.
Characters:
The biggest issue with the characterisation is that there are quite a few one episode characters who are just very basic and don't have any real depth.
I appreciate that Hyakkimaru's family is not solely portrayed negatively. It would be easy to just make them one note villains who struck a deal with demons for their own gain. Instead, we get a lot about the conditions of Daigo's lands before he made the deal and we see some real positive traits from him. Especially where Tahoumaru is concerned. The series also brings up the legitimate question of whether Daigo and his people would be better off if they did sacrifice Hyakkimaru. Which really helps you understand the antagonists. And his mother is very conflicted, wanting to protect Hyakkimaru but also feeling that her duty to her husband is to support his decision.
Dororo & Hyakkimaru are pretty great characters too. Hyakkimaru has a very compelling inner clash with his humanity conflicting with his more guttural, violent tendencies. Dororo is a very street smart child but is still, in many significant ways, very childish. We see them in their better moments, worst moments, vulnerable moments and moments of strength. Which is a significant level of depth.
Art:
The big issue with the art is that some of the scenes that are supposed to look horrifying do come across as goofy. Like, when Hyakkimaru regains certain parts or the demon shark. I'm sorry, it looks silly.
The teeth and feet can look bizarre at times too. There are points where they'll show a character's bare feet and they'll look like they have two toes, one significantly bigger. Like they're supposed to be wearing socks with their sandals even though no one would do that and they clearly aren't. The teeth just frequently have that weirdly sharp, jagged quality.
But when they get the designs right, they really get them right. There are quite a few very strongly designed demons in the series. The action sequences are pretty bloody but also nicely intense and interesting to watch. The backgrounds are very well detailed too.
Sound:
I have to give credit to Suzuki Hiroki, Suzuki Rio, Chiba Shoya, Matsuda Kenichirou & Munakata Mariko. While all the performances are solid, the five of them are exceptional. Ike Yoshihiro's sound track is pretty nicely done. The only aspect of the music I didn't really like were the theme tunes. Especially Kaen.
Ho-yay:
There's not really any. There's not much in terms of romance in general.
Areas of Improvement:
Give the demons a more satisfactory motivation for wanting a child's body parts. Maybe human parts freely given grant them more power or, maybe integrating human flesh into them allows them to flawlessly disguise as human. You'd just have to rework some stories involving other monsters to give their human forms a clear flaw.
Let Dororo & Hyakkimaru solve their problems without Steerforth coming to the rescue so often.
Lose the magic recovery of battle wounds. I get it, there's magic in this world. But it's never really shown to have curative properties except, somehow, when a person kills a demon that injured them and gets the wound immediately repaired. It just comes across as a lazy way to let Hyakkimaru have more grievous injuries without them mattering in the long term.
Final Thoughts:
With everything considered, I did enjoy Dororo. It may have faults, but it also has quite a few admirable qualities. It's an entertaining adventure with demons, sword play and a pair of non-blood siblings who have very little just trying to make it. If you're a fan of that kind of story, you'll probably enjoy it. For myself, I'm going to go so far as to give it an 8/10.
