Review of Dororo

Basically “Anniki” x200. Dororo was certainly an interesting show but I felt like it could've been done much better. I would say that this show had tons of potential and it didn't live up to all of it. However, that's not to say that I didn't have a good time with the show. I began watching all the way back in February but put in on-hold until recently, last month to be specific. Back when I saw this is spring, I went into this one completely blind with no expectations. This was not only the first seasonal anime that I've watched to completion but also myfirst episodic and historical animu, which is quite cool.

But the thing is that I wasn’t the biggest fan of this style of episodic direction. This makes it so that a lot of episodes are worse in terms of animation quality and following the plot than others. I felt like they should’ve cut down some episodes and focused more on its plot, which I felt was the best thing about this show.

I felt like Dororo really delivered plotwise. That they’re two kids that have had to grow up in a tough and unfair environment felt brutal and made the world of Dororo bleak, heavy and dark. One of them being sacrificed by his own father, who is the ruler of the whole country, and the other one becoming an orphan by the age of 9 and having to cope and survive with no money or shelter. It makes you empathize with them easier and when you see them succeed it makes your heart warm up, like f.ex with Hyakkimaru slowly gaining back his limbs and senses. Like I stated before, my biggest complaint is that it felt like the plot could’ve been more focused and tighter, since some episodes went off into completely different directions, almost feeling like a filler in a long-running shounen show like f.ex Naruto or Dragon Ball.

The style and atmosphere of the show were calming yet cold-hearted and brutal. Even though the world in this show is not a world you would want to live in, it’s tough and brutal with demons, monsters, and people killing each other for land or food, samurai getting eaten alive, but it still looks pretty gorgeous to me, with its mountains, I also loved the style they were speaking in, it fits well into the Sengoku period in Japan and it sounds pleasant to the eardrums.

Most of the characters were great, there was still an old man who went around with a stick giving random advice to Hyakkimaru and Dororo, I mean how often do you see that type of character in an anime? Hyakkimaru was by far my favorite character in the show by his characterization being really strong. He has a wish to fulfill, to regain his body, that’s sick. His family however sucks and he has to fight against them in order to fight. I really like Dororo, except for her screaming Aniki she was the humanity that Hyakkimaru needed. Because she is a kid, she lacked some characterization but the whole thing about her having this map on her back was the coolest thing about her and a really great plot device as well.

I would say that the fighting in Dororo, it’s not Brotherhood-tier, but it looked really good and all of the fight scenes between Hyakkimaru and his brother were the best ones in the show. It felt like the animators really pour their hearts and souls into making those scenes.

The show had an amazing final conclusion that was satisfying and had a time skip that you might not be prepared for, so yes this is a slight spoiler but it’s the last 10 minutes so it doesn't really matter all too much.

Overall, I liked Dororo quite a lot. But, I heavily disliked the episodic style of the show because of them focusing less on the plot and more on unnecessary side characters that won’t appear later. And since Dororo had such a ridiculously good plot, it felt like wasted potential to me for not fully utilizing it. It could also be because episodic shows might be more character-driven and looser, which I suppose a lot of episodic shows are. Then again, I have to watch more episodic stuff to draw any conclusion.