Review of Dororo
The worst thing that could possibly happen to a certain anime is to have a much more popular show that airs in the same season. In other words, if your show isn't a brainless battle shonen it will definitely be overshadowed. But a lot of times it only takes the show itself to make even fans fall out of love with it. And Dororo fans can blame Demon slayer for hogging all the attention, but there is more to this. The story takes place in medieval Japan where all the feudal lords decided to play Civilization 6 IRL instead of doing something meaningful. One of thembeing on the verge of loosing resorts to cheating; it is asking demons for help and promising everything in return. Later on, his wife gives a birth to his son, who have no eyes, no nose, no skin, and no limbs. The son became a victim of his father's promise and Daigo happily accepts this outcome in anticipation of prosperity the demons will give him, which makes him the worst father since Evangelion. In the end, the newborn baby is adopted by a craftsman who replaces all the missing parts with prosthesis. After growing up, Hyakkimaru embarks upon a journey to recover his body parts, but given how superior these prosthesis are in this setting I wander why he would risk his life to recover them.
The story structure of finding and killing demons is the only thing this anime has in common with Demon slayer. The fight scenes aren't the selling point here but rather the wholesome sibling-like ( not anime-like ) relationship between Hyakkimaru and Dororo, the side stories, which greatly affect the main duo, and the emotional satisfaction from seeing Hyakkimaru recovering his senses and experiencing rain for the first time. In addition all of that is complemented by the confidence of the direction, the amazing cinematography, and the music. The technical execution can't be separated from the story and vice versa. They complete each other just like pineapples complete the pizza. And if you had to suppress your urge to vomit upon reading my analogy, there is a chance you are not going to enjoy the first part as much as I did.
During the production of the second part, Mappa employees realized that they are doing Attack on Titan next year so Dororo was handed to art college students as their assignment. Only this can explain why the anime has lost all its charm. "Bad" would be a wrong word to describe it, "unimpressive" is more fitting. The story got repetitive, the character development got stale, the first opening could've been used in the second cour, but it was replaced with the forgettable one. The biggest issue is probably the "central" storyline, which despite having the most screen time made no impression on me. This is just a bunch of sticks duct-taped together that was supposed to morally challenge the viewers but, unfortunately, it fell short. One arc shows the exact same situation, where few innocent people get sacrificed in order to keep the rest save, and the show never tries to build a conflict out of it and doesn't justify anyone. The "core" storyline, on the other hand, where Hyakkimaru is learning the difference between being a human and having a human appearance is much more personal and thus more captivating.
The high quality gets back in the third part. And even if the second part already left a bad taste in my mouth, I still can't say that the weakest parts eclipse the strongest ones. I will forget the lows anyway but I will still remember Dororo for its highs. It's also nice to see a finished anime every once in a while, although, the ending is open so there can be a sequel, I would prefer Mappa to make OVAs which would fix the middle part.