Review of Dororo

! SPOILERS AHEAD! So I just finished watching Dororo and I’m sorry to say that this has to be one of the biggest dissapointments of 2019 as far as anime goes. Dororo starts off very strong. The art is solid, animation fluid with a very small number of still images, the characters, Dororo and Hyakkimaru are interesting and fun to watch as they travel across Japan searching for demons. Other characters such as the epic grandpa, the mysterious man, who raised Hyakkimaru and the members of Hyakkimaru’s family are all interesting enough for the viewer to look forward to learning more about them. You get excited tosee what kind of problem or quest will Dororo and Hyakkimaru encounter next. What body part will Hyakkimaru get back? Will he know how to use it? How will he react when he finally gets to hear and see and feel? All of these questions were flying through my head as I impatiently waited another week to see what comes next.

The conflict between Hyakkimaru and his family was also one of the things I really looked forward to. As his father, who believed/hoped that his first son was already dead, his mother praying day to day so that her son is still alive (or regreting letting him go), and his brother Tahoumaru, who has never been told about his older brother, therefore he doesn’t even know he exists. To the viewer it’s quite obvious that they will eventually reunite, but it’s this kind of predictibility that I personally love and I couldn’t wait to see how the family will react, when they find out that Hyakkimaru is not only alive, but is slowly getting all the body parts that were taken away from him back.

The pacing of the first half of the show is good enough to where the viewer doesn’t get bored easily.

As for the music, I love both of the openings, especially the first one, since it achieved to be one of the most memorable openings of the season. Sadly, as for the soundtrack, most of it was pretty forgettable.

If I could rate the first half of the show alone, I would give it a 10/10 and I would’ve thrown it into my favourites without a second thought, but that’s where the second half of the show comes in.

SECOND HALF

Let’s start with the art and animation:
You notice as you transition into the second half of the show, the animation budget drops drastically. The episodes are filled with still images and most of the time, even the still images look straight up horrible. And when there is no movement in the characters, your eyes wonder to the plain, boring and washed out, poorly drawn background. Actually, all of the colors seem more washed out then before, not sure if it was intentional to have some kind of older look or something, but it just doesn’t work and it’s not very pleasing to look at. At some point I thought, maybe they were saving all the good stuff for the climax, but no. The last episode looks as horrible as all the other, if not worse.

Characters:
I noticed that, for some reason, after Hyakkimaru finally meets his family, ALL of the characters become either very one dimentional or their goals and motivation change completely.
Hyakkimaru goes from a boy who’s clearly shown some love and empathy, to a one dimentional "I want my body back, out of my way" guy, who often pushes Dororo away, only to later wonder around trying to find/save Dororo. His motivations jump form "get body back" to "all I need is Dororo" randomly and it can get annoying very quickly.
Dororo didn’t actually change all that much. But she still did. Unlike in the first half, where Hyakkimaru is the one depending on Dororo, to lead and guide him through out the adventures, in the second half, Dororo drags behind Hyakkimaru (partially trying to stop him) and gets kidnapped so many times, needing Hyakkimaru to rescue her. It was a shame, since Dororo seemed like the type of character that could find a way to escape these kind of situations on her own, but, I guess not.
The grandpa goes from epic side character to savior ex-machina. He only appeared in the most "ooohh man if only there was someone to help us right now" moments. Plus most of his dialogues consisted of "dis boi gonna be a demon", which was also a shame, because the grandpa was my favourite character in the first half, before they made him so one dimentional.
As for the man that raised Hyakkimaru, I have nothing against him in any way, even in the second half. I really loved the episode where he and Hyakkimaru meet after some time, Hyakkimaru talks to him and calls him mom, it was really like the only time I got actually emotional in the second half of the show.
Hyakkimaru’s brother goes from kind hearted and pitiful towards his older brother, to an evil douge that would rather get possesed by a demon then give up trying to kill his brother. And yes, I know, he was just listening to what his father said, trying to impress him and I guess also doing the right thing by trying to kill his brother, since if he didn’t, it would destroy their land, but after his change in motivation, he never shows any signs of the empathy he had before, and it just makes his character unlikable and, if I may say so, ONE DIMENTIONAL.
Thankfully, Hyakkimaru’s parents remain mostly the same as before.

Story and pacing:
So, basically, the second half of the show wasted time on these pointless episodic stories, instead of actually progressing the plot. Which, those were actually part of the first half as well, but as episodes went by, they got really repetitive, predictable and boring. At least in the first half, Hyakkimaru would gain something from these filler episodes, be it a body part or some kind of experience, that would later influence his actions and helped to build his character. I don’t know why the show acted as if it had time for some pointless filler episodes, ’cause it didn’t. Episodes like this can be used in long, ongoing shows like One Piece, Naruto etc., not in a 24 episodes per entire show anime, that is very close to ending and still has underveloped climax aproach (if I may call it that).

The ending, aka the last two episodes, could easily be a whole paragraph alone, or an entire hour long presentation about how NOT to end an anime. I won’t spoil the ending here, but let me just say, that that was one of the most rushed, confusing, and unsatisfying endings I have ever seen. I still refuse to believe, that a show that started so well, had so much potencial and had so many ways to end, ended like this. If they don’t make an OVA episode, fixing at least some things that they had done, I am suing the studio.

Like I already said, if I could, I would divide the ratings for the first and second half. The first half gets a 10/10, amazing, beautiful, will rewatch pretending it ends at episode 12. The second half gets a 2/10, one word. DISSAPOINTMENT. Overall, I give it a 5/10.

Thank you for reading my first review. Sorry it’s so long, I just had a lot to say.