Review of Dororo

After MAPPA’s last incredibly successful project in 2018, Banana Fish, the studio is back to breathe life into another iconic classic manga with a modern interpretation. This time it is the great “father of manga” Osamu Tezuka’s series Dororo. However, MAPPA and director Kazuhiro Furuhashi, of Rurouni Kenshin fame, took more liberties with the source material than usual this time around. Most of the time when this happens, the changes are made to cheapen the source material, to make it shallow enough to fit a large television audience. But with this series that is not the case, MAPPA’s version of Dororo is a refreshingly moderntake on Tezuka’s work which deepens its thematic content and more subtlety develops its characters while still staying true to the spirit of the original. It is very rare to see an adaptation take so many liberties with source material while being so successful.

Dororo is a dark historical fantasy set near the beginning of Japan’s Sengoku period. The series begins with a samurai lord, Daigo, sacrificing his first-born child to demons in exchange for prosperity for his land. However, his son, Hyakkimaru, survives despite missing most of his body. Years later, he is on a quest to get parts of his body back by killing demons and meets a young orphan named Dororo who accompanies him. This basic premise is kept in common with the original 1969 series and Tezuka’s manga, yet many large changes are also made. Beyond obvious differences in art style, while the original Hyakkimaru could still (in a matter somewhat straining suspension of disbelief) speak to the spirit of those around him, this adaptation he is kept mostly silent at first. This was an excellent decision because it means through much of the series Hyakkimaru’s character is developed extremely subtly, allowing his facial expressions, well-placed flashbacks, and his actions to show the story rather than having him directly tell everything right off the bat like the original series did. This also means the story progresses in a far slower, though more believable manner, with both Dororo’s and Hyakkimaru’s revealed several episodes in at spots that make more sense.

That slow, subtle, subdued style of storytelling is ultimately the theme that makes this series so successful. As the series progresses, it takes on a more episodic style through the central bulk of the series, like the original. Hyakkimaru defeats a new demon and gains back his body parts each episode, while slowly developing Dororo and Hyakkimaru’s compelling friendship that keeps the whole series so compelling. This episodic nature is sometimes viewed negatively as mere filler, derisively called a “monster of the week” format. But this take somewhat misses the point. A few of extra stories are added by MAPPA, and they are “filler” in the sense that they do not have huge repercussions for the rest of the story. However, this is filler at its best. Most of the largely stand-alone episodes, both Tezuka’s originals and MAPPA’s additions, with very few exceptions, are compelling stories in their own right. But, more importantly, they are not merely stand-alone filler. They serve the important purpose of relatably, slowly, and subtly developing the main characters in ways that is so rarely successful with filler. It is reminiscent of what made the early episodes of Fullmetal Alchemist so good, but carried on through a larger portion of the series. I will strongly defend episodic so-called “filler” when it is done for the purpose of building characters beautifully, and this is this concept executed at its finest.

This is not to say the series is merely episodic and character-driven series like Natsume’s Book of Friends. After some refreshingly good episodic adventures that develop Hyakkimaru and Dororo’s characters so well, you’ll encounter a key turning point that unveils the backstory of one of the main characters, unveils some fact or character that will become important later on, or will feature a key confrontation that will drive forward the engaging plot of Hyakkimaru’s quest to regain his body and Dororo’s struggle to deal with his traumatic past. Further, this series has extremely well-presented philosophical themes. Through exploring Hyakkimaru’s quest it asks questions like: does one persons’ right to their own life and body supersede the basic well-being of an entire nation? Is it conducive to the cultivation of personal virtue for one to kill even when one is morally permitted to take back what they have rightful ownership over? What would it even mean for one to become a full person if one’s only way of doing so is through morally questionable means? These questions were not taken up quite as explicitly in the original series, but MAPPA’s interpretation also presents the themes the original presented so eloquently on the horrors of war and gender roles in Japanese history. Overall, the plot drove home the themes in a way that intertwines with the dialogue very well and that really hits home the difficulty of the questions.

As compelling as the plot and its thematic questions were, what really keeps made this series so enjoyable was its great, dynamic cast of characters. Taking the best cues from the source material, Hyakkimaru and his friendship with Dororo is the obvious case here. Rarely have I ever seen a friendship between two characters be so compelling. The dynamic between Dororo’s childish tendencies as he playfully tries to overcome his past contrasted with the dark and brooding Hyakkimaru on a morally grey quest who also has childlike experiences as he regains parts of his body is a breath of fresh air. There really is little as enjoyable in a series as seeing Hyakkimaru have a normal, everyday experience for the first time after regaining a body part and having a child guide him through it. That perhaps is only matched by the subtle changes to his character as he develops, such as going from speaking barely complete sentences to briefly yet so beautifully articulating some of the darkest themes of the show.
Yet it’s not just the main two who are so well-developed, there’s also Hyakkimaru’s brother and his entourage we meet later who become some of the most compelling antagonists in recent memory, Hyakkimaru’s mother who becomes sort of a tragic foil for Dororo, and flashbacks to Dororo’s family and her father’s rivals who appear that develop those characters very well. With a few exceptions, almost every minor side character who even appears for just one episode are believably written and well-fleshed out. Even a pair of blood-thirsty sharks who only appear for two episodes somehow become gripping characters. The only major character who is somewhat underdeveloped that we never really get the chance to relate to was the main antagonist, Lord Diago.

The richness of the characters was helped along by some pretty good animation. For the early episodes, Hyakkimaru barely talks and very subtle but stellar character design did almost all the talking. In all, the character design was one of the strongest features of the animation team, which seems to be a reoccurring feature of MAPPA’s work. This is not to say the character was flawless. There were various nods to Tetsuko’s distinctive style that did not mesh very well with the modernizations taken, particularly the inconsistent level of detail in limbs (especially feet). Like some other MAPPA series, there were also noticeable dips in quality during some of the filler episodes, especially towards the end of the series. Framerates would drop to painfully low levels and background sets would be disappointingly devoid of all detail during transition shots. Yet, when the animation was on it was great, stellar even. Do not expect photorealistic levels of set design, it instead opts to match its subdued storytelling with more impressionistic background sets—a style that matches the tone of the series rather well.

As a whole, the directing of the series was not extremely special, but there were particular shots that really stood out. Most of the fight scenes are extremely well choreographed if a little repetitive. But the art direction especially stood out when it showed first-person shots to really drive home relatability to the characters, a style that was displayed at its very best during several fantastic shots in the series finale. The voice acting also really drove home the characters extremely well, with Shoya Chiba’s portrayal of Tahomaru and Hiroki Suzuki’s subtle voice acting for Hyakkimaru being standout performances.

As for the soundtrack, it did not stand out as anything especially memorable but was very fitting for the tone of the series. There were several drum tracks that were clear nods to the original series, which I appreciate. I will say, however, that both the openings were exceptional, both in terms of song choice and art direction. I was unsure if Queen Bee’s “Fire” was the right choice to match the tone of the series at first, but it grew on me and thematically matched the first half of the series very well. Asian Kung Fu Generation’s original track was a safe choice, but it really paid off in that it was everything a good anime intro should be and its accompanying animation depicted Dororo and Hyakkimaru’s compelling friendship as perfectly as it could have.

While not flawless by any means, Dororo is a fantastic series. With its compelling cast of dynamic characters, productively episodic format, historical setting, great fantasy elements, well-choreographed action sequences all well engaging in rich ethical themes it’s almost everything I wish most action/adventure shounen anime could be. It could have been more consistent in art quality, slightly better directed, and it does not have quite the immersive world I want to get lost in to call it a true instant masterpiece, but this series is a modernization of a classic at its best. I highly recommend you watch it as you just might enjoy it as much as I did.

Story: 9/10
Art: 7/10
Sound: 8/10
Character: 10/10
Enjoyment: 10/10
Overall: 9/10