Review of Dororo

Dororo is a fantastic story about struggle, balance and humanity. It's a fantastic story, gone to waste. I had high hopes for this anime considering it's background, premise and reputation of being an underrated gem. Sadly, I was kinda disappointed STORY (spoilers so skip this segment if you haven't seen it): The story has such an amazing premise and the themes presented throughout the show are super interesting. However, the story only come into focus for an episode or two and then the show sidetracks into filler-like monster of the week episodes, episodes that usually end up as forgettable (like wtf was up with the moth?). Nowthe main story being told is really cool and when it shows up I was always invested, the whole relationship between Hyakkimaru and Tahomaru was probably my favorite part about the story. The climax of the show alone boosts its score from a 4 to a 5 which is to say that it was really well done and satisfying. The fact that Hyakkimaru doesn't kill his father after the death of his brother, mother and surrogate father shows how much he's grown. Too bad he got character development on the last episode.

The story is also my biggest problem with the show: Ditch all the side quests and have every episode focus on telling us more about Dororo, Hyakkimaru or hell even Tahomaru's bodyguards because they were underutilized. Like why have the OP feature Mio so much when she's only around for two episodes. If you ask me they shouldn't have killed Mio and the oldest kid from that "orphanage" (you know what I mean) and had them be more prominent characters in the story. Hell, the whole centipede arc could have been those two instead of Saru and his sister, that would have made that episode more important as well as given us more time with actual, important characters because lord knows we never see Saru again.

So in conclusion: Show is too long, cut some stuff out and don't kill off potential main characters.

ART: The art style is very reminiscent of Avatar: The Last Airbender. I was kinda excited because, in the OP, we see Dororo drawn in a more 60s manga type vibe. But we never actually see something like this in the actual show, which confused me a little. The show still does a fine job of giving us a more old school look, with more painted backgrounds and a bleaker color palette (which also plays into the overall dark and bleak setting of the show).
The fights more often than not look amazing (Especially the last fight like holy fuck). The show does take a TREMENDOUS dip in the middle (around ep 15). Like it was laughable at some points.
Still, this does not shine away from an art style that does its job

SOUND: The sound design really isn't anything special, don't have much to say. The music serves the scenery well and it doesn't steal the show nor is it lacking in any places, it's silent when it should be. OP 1 slaps and OP 2 was okay, the first opening is amazing though.

CHARACTER: Now, this is where the show really falls flat for me. There really isn't anything in either Dororo or Hyakkimaru that makes me think "hmm, I like this character, I'm rooting for 'em" which sucks cus, y'know, they're our main characters.
I mentioned it before a little but we're not given a ton of development for either Hyakkimaru or Dororo. In fact, when it comes to Dororo, the show feels like it doesn't know what it wants her to be. She's either a fun, mischievous racal or she's an angel with a moral compass made of fucking gold or something. She has a tragic past which isn't really paid off, the person responsible for her tragic past isn't really given any sort of punishment or direct reconciliation from Dororo. They just sorta die and Dororo switches between hating and liking them.

Now onto Hyakkimaru: This, I think, posed a challenge from the very beginning. The fact that he doesn't have anything to say, think or feel for two thirds of the story pushes all responsibility to carry the story onto Dororo and since Dororo is the way she is (like I mentioned) it doesn't really work. I wish Hyakkimaru could have regained his voice a little earlier or that he could have started talking in full sentences earlier. Now yeah, it makes sense for someone who just got a voice to not be able to speak perfectly right away and that is an aspect I actually kinda like, it does make our duo suffer overall. Hyakkimaru also comes off as a bit of a dick at times, acting solely out of his own selfishness. His justification for murdering demons and, sometimes, humans is just "I want my body back" and while that's well and good, the fact that the other side of that coin is "if you get your body back an entire land of people will perish to famine and disease" means that we should be getting some other motivation from our main character, who we should be rooting for.

OVERALL: This show has a lot of good things in it; a great premise for a story, a great relationship between protagonist and antagonist, great fight scenes and a unique world. All of this is, however, is bogged down by dips in production quality, bad pacing, under developed characters and a lack of focus. I wanted to see it, I have now seen it, I will never watch it again. 5/10 Hyakkimaru low-key hot tho.