Review of Dororo

It's now time for another episode of Literaturenerd's too late reviews. Dororo was hot shit 2 years ago, but already most people have forgotten about it. A lot of critics felt this series was overhyped and it certainly was in 2019, but when you're focused on countering the hype wave, there's a tendency to downplay and go too far the other way. Dororo is actually a pretty good anime, it just didn't quite live up to its full potential. Dororo was based on a very old shonen from 1967 penned by Osamu Tezuka himself! Tezuka wanted to create a shonen version of traditional Japanese ghoststories, so I warn you the premise is pretty ridiculous. However, traditional Japanese ghost stories aren't aiming for realism. While Dororo isn't perfect and isn't considered up there with Tezuka's top works like Buddha and Phoenix, Tezuka was always a masterful storyteller who created fun plots, loveable characters, and infused his stories with a warmhearted humanism. There is plenty to like here in Dororo and this anime was directed by Kazuhiro Furuhashi of Rurouni Kenshin fame.

Dororo is about an evil Lord during the Sengoku Era who sacrifices his first born son named Hyakimaru to demons in exchange for power. The demons take Hyakimaru's eyes, ears, skin, central nervous system, heart, etc. The child is basically just a skeleton with a little muscle over his bones. However, Hyakimaru's righteous indignation is SO great that he refuses to die! He is sent downriver like baby Moses and is found by the world's greatest medical doctor. This doctor is named Jukai and he is probably the best character in this series. He was once a brutal samurai serving a ruthless lord and committed many atrocities. However, he was so filled with guilt and disgusted with himself that he threw himself off a cliff and into the sea. Fortunately, he was recovered by a Dutch ship who saved him and taught him the most advanced medical science known to Europe. With this new knowledge and his own genius, Jukai was able to make prosthetics hundreds of years more advanced than his peers and dedicates his life to treating the injured and repenting for his sins. In his spare time, he also carves LOTS of Buddha statues. Before you ask, yes he inspired the sculptor from Sekiro. Sadly, Jukai really isn't in this anime for more than a couple episodes. In fact, Hyakimaru himself doesn't get enough development and doesn't regain his speech until the very end of the series. Instead, most of the dialogue and the lion's share of the screen time is absorbed by a streetwise orphan named Dororo.

The manga was for a young audience, so it made sense for Tezuka to add a child character. Not to mention the fact that manga is supposed to have dialogue and Hyakimaru can't talk. So Dororo's inclusion was a necessity. However, the 2019 anime is a lot darker and edgier than the original manga. They wanted to make a violent gore fest for older teens, but then the main character is this obnoxious little brat that talks big and needs to be rescued in every episode! Dororo is like if Scrappy Doo fused with Short Round from Temple of Doom. Why is he even in this freaking reboot?! Dororo adds very little to the actual plot, which is about Hyakimaru hunting down the demons one by one in order to get his organs back and eventually gather the strength to gain revenge on his father. I think the 2019 anime could have told Hyakimaru's story through facial expression and atmosphere with little dialogue and it would have been really cool. It feels like a wasted opportunity, but they REALLY wanted to be faithful to the manga. Speaking of which, the 1969 anime adaptation changed the manga's ending because they knew anime viewers would hate it. It worked in the manga because it was only 3 volumes, but when you stretch out the anime to a bunch of episodes, the manga's ending feels incredibly anti-climactic and frustrating. The 2019 Dororo actually followed the manga's ending and oh boy were people mad! Mushi Productions called that shit way back in 1969! They knew exactly how audiences would react. Even if you discount the ending, Dororo the 2019 anime really loses steam in the second half. This is unfortunate since the front half is really strong and showcases both Tezuka's strengths and Furuhashi's strengths as a director. Sadly, this wasn't an OVA that could run exactly as long as it needed. I think 12 episodes would have been too short and 24 episodes was too long. Ideally it should have run for about 16 episodes, but a TV anime can't do that.

The art and soundtrack are serviceable for the most part. The action in the first half of the series looks pretty damn impressive although it starts to get stale by the end. Then we have the elephant in the room. As several critics before me have mentioned, it also has this hilariously bad CG fire that looks like they were using Windows Movie Maker from 2009. It looks like something you'd see in a Youtube abridged parody from 10 years ago. None Piece had better fire effects than Dororo.

So after everything I said, should you watch Dororo? You should definitely watch the first 10-12 episodes. Then if you want to continue you can. Just know that the back half is a little rough and kind of goes downhill. It's not Game of Thrones bad or anything, but definitely ends with a whimper instead of a bang.