Anime and manga series have been coming out for almost a century now, and with modern technology, newer anime and manga are appearing much more attractive. However, what they can’t beat is a compelling and timeless narrative. This is what the manga series Dororo, which first began its serialization on August 27, 1967, achieved. Dororo was created by the legendary creator Osamu Tezuka and serialized in Weekly Shonen Sunday, running for close to a year before being canceled in July of the following year. This tragedy also befell the first anime adaptation, which never fully realized the story.
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However, MAPPA and Tezuka Productions brought the series back, highlighting that the author had never lost hope in the series’ immense potential. The 2019 anime adaptation finally became the source to fully depict the story with modern animation, proving that the series serialized back in 1967 had one of the best and darkest storylines in any anime and manga and needed proper care to tell its whole story. Though Dororo features a story about a boy regaining his humanity, his actions and the process eventually make him lose that humanity. It’s a perfect contrast, told in a way that only a few anime can rival, even amid the abundance of great anime series.
Dororo Was a Masterpiece That Reached Its Full Potential 50 Years After Its First Serialization
Dororo anime’s narrative is set in feudal Japan and follows a man who sacrifices his newborn son’s limbs and organs to demons in exchange for prosperity and wealth for his household. While this should have been enough for the newborn, Hyakkimaru, to die, the curse keeps him alive while depriving him of the basic limbs and organs required to function as a human. Luckily, Hyakkimaru is found by a doctor who reconstructs his body with prosthetics, which are also equipped with weapons. As he grows older and learns about the fate that was bestowed upon him, he embarks on a perilous journey to hunt the demons and reclaim his body and organs.
However, the journey is far more dehumanizing than anyone could have anticipated, which is ironic considering that Hyakkimaru is on a journey to become human. Hyakkimaru faces many hardships that constantly force him to realize how cruel humans can be, and with every organ and human sense he regains, he increasingly realizes the darker side of humanity. However, with the company of another innocent boy named Dororo, Hyakkimaru is able to keep his sanity in check.
The 2019 anime series, spanning 24 episodes, is a start-to-finish masterpiece that will make you ponder how humanity is often driven by greed and power, ultimately pushing people to become less human. With Hyakkimaru walking the path to becoming human while learning about humanity’s darker side, the story captures the journey of a child maturing in a harsh environment, with another boy, Dororo, acting as a ray of sunshine in his life. It is a shame that it took the 2019 anime adaptation for the Dororo series to finally reach its full potential, but nonetheless, it proved that the original series from 59 years ago was always a masterpiece that few series could ever truly match, even today.
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