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Year: 2019
Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy
Episodes: 24
Rating: 4.25 out of 5
Have you ever had any of your senses gone? Are you deaf? Are you blind? Can’t feel anything or taste anything? I’m talking about you having nothing. Oh, and you have no limbs. How do you think you would survive in the world? How would you even survive? Would you have the strength and power to get up and try to change your world for the better with your limitations? How about this. What if your own parents sacrificed you to the demon lords for the wealth and survival of their lands? Would you want revenge for what they did to you? Dororo is an anime where a baby with absolutely nothing goes on a journey to reclaim what was lost to him.
Overview
During the Muromachi period, the greedy and tyrant samurai lord Daigo Kagemitsu is at a crossroads. His lands are dying, and the threat of invasion from other lords is at his doorstep. Lord Daigo wants nothing more than power. Unthinkable power in all the lands. He decides to do the unthinkable by renouncing Buddha and asking a pact of demons to answer his prayers. Lord Daigo loses hope for a second when his prayers are answered by 12 demons who grant his wish for power but at a price. At that moment, Lord Diago’s first-born son was born. The boy is an abomination. The boy is born with no limbs, nose, eyes, ears, skin, or anything remotely human. Yet, the little baby’s will to survive is strong.
The child is disposed of in a river and forgotten. Rather than perishing, the child is saved and found by a medicine man named Jukai, who specializes in giving people prosthetic limbs. Jukai trains the boy to fight and survive in a world filled with unspeakable evils. Even though the boy has no senses, he grows into a strong fighter and sets off into the world to defeat the demons. When the boy defeats his first demon and regains his sense of feeling pain, Jukai names him Hyakkimaru and sends the boy out to reclaim what is rightfully his. With each death of a demon lord, Hyakkimaru regains something that was taken from him. He wanders the land until he meets an orphan boy by the name of Dororo. The pair become friends and walk the lands with a mission to restore Hyakkimaru’s senses.
Review:
Dororo is an anime that can’t be judged by its thumbnail. This anime is freakin amazing, and I am glad that I watched it. I didn’t have many expectations for the anime, but it really exceeded my expectations with its story, action, and animation. This is a series that will draw you in from the opening jump, go hard for a while, give you a breather, and then hit you hard again.
Let’s talk about the story. The story is incredible and fascinating. Warlords will do anything for power and claim they are doing it for the better of their kingdom. Lord Daigo Kagemitsu knows that war is upon his people and that his lands are dying. This homeboy goes to a shrine and prays to 12 demons for help and, in return, gives them anything they want. When you pray to demons, you better watch out. As the saying goes, “You knock at the devil’s door long enough, he is bound to answer.” These fools answer with a great lightning bolt. Daigo Kagemitsu gets a weird X on his forehead, but when he goes to see his newborn, the dude looks like spaghetti and meatballs. The baby has nothing, and it is awful to look at.
What I like about the story is that it shows Hyakkimaru surviving as a baby but becoming a badass fighter with zero senses. He can see the aura of people and the demon within them. The story shows how Hyakkimaru defeats each demon to regain a specific sensation. During his journey, he teams up with Dororo, who dresses as a boy but is actually a girl. As Hyakkimaru defeats each demon and regains a sensation, the land of Lord Daigo starts to fall apart, but Hyakkimaru goes through his own shit. How does one become acquainted with the sense of touch, pain, and sound when one lived around fifteen years without it? The anime shows that in a fascinating way. With each new sense that Hyakkimaru gains, he starts to lose himself because he really starts seeing that the world is a fucked-up place. The dude goes H.A.M. in the action scenes. They are crisp, and with each new gain of senses, he seems to go harder and harder.
On the other hand, we see what Hyakkimaru is doing to Lord Daigo’s land, especially to his mother and younger brother. His mother always thought and prayed that he was still alive and well. His brother, on the other hand, becomes jealous and obsessive because he is not his mother’s favorite, but he doesn’t know why. Dude is having issues on a level that many of us can’t deal with.
The animation starts off standard but changes halfway through the series. The action sequences are great to look at, and they flow well, but they seem different in the latter episodes. It looked and felt as though the anime had been produced by a different studio. I don’t know what happened, but the level of animation went from around six to a nine or ten. The change was when the village of children got massacred. The scene was well done with the fire and showing the hatred he had as he massacres the bandits. I love how the anime shows what Hyakkimaru sees. It is total darkness, but each person has a color. If you are red, you are dying.
As far as characters go, there are really only two that matter: Hyakkimaru and Dororo. Hyakkimaru is a freakin badass. Even though he had nothing as a baby, he grew up to survive the demon world. Raised by Jukai, he was equipped with prostheses that included blades on his arms. With his blades and no feeling, the dude became almost invincible as he jumped into any situation without any thought or concern for his well-being. Dororo is the orphan kid who is a little annoying at the start but becomes a good addition to Hyakkimaru. Dororo had a happy life that turned into a sad and miserable one. Her father was killed, and her mother starved to death, protecting her. Dororo helps in a significant way, and I liked her ending.
Dororo is a great anime. It was a surprise hit for me as I didn’t expect it to be engaging and full of action and demons. This was well worth the watch. The concept of the story is excellent, featuring a warrior who has literally lost everything and is on a journey to reclaim what was lost. Watch this anime. You won’t be disappointed if you enjoy demons, sword fighting, and action.
