Review of Dororo

Being an Osamu Tezuka story. The anime adaptation had a lot to live up to. Those expectations were compounded by the amount of time it took to get this adaptation. So greatest for Dororo and its creators was to live up to expectations. They did somewhat. There where many flaws in the visuals. The compositing was below average. There were too many shots where the background and the characters where jarringly disjointed. The character weren't on model every time and the fighting scenes were lackluster, save for the first fight scene. It calls into question the directing, which was supposed to be first class. Dororo savinggrace has to be the writing and music.

The writers did a stellar job at adapting the scant source material into a 2 cour show. They transformed a manga that hadn't aged well, despite being a classic, to a modern action-adventure that could've been a classic. Themes were added that hadn't existed that over-hauled the quality. There were times where the story evoked classic Japanese legends. The only disappointment is that they didn't follow through with the mythic Esque storytelling. There wasn't a huge ironic twist (except for Hyakkimaru's quest to be human might turn him into a demon) or a huge lesson in morality.

The depiction of samurai was quite different from your norm. Samurai haven't been romanticized in any way, instead they were quite the villains. It was very refreshing to see, maybe I haven't watched many historical anime but for me it was the first time seeing samurai as villains.

Period appropriate music is always a safe bet and has to be commended when done well. I liked the minimalist approach to the soundtrack. It added an atmospheric mood that gelled well with the entire show.

Dororo could've been a classic but ultimately didn't live up to expectations. Except for the story. It was quite dope.