Dororo to Hyakkimaru

Title:Dororo to Hyakkimaru
Dororo and Hyakkimaru
どろろと百鬼丸
Overall:Watch
Keywords: , , , , , ,
Notables: Original Concept - TEZUKA Osamu
R1 License - Discotek
R1 License - Subtitled Only
Hyakkimaru is a young man who lacks 48 body parts because they were taken from him by demons before birth, as payment by his father, Kagemitsu Daigo, to obtain his wish to take over the country. When the baby boy was born he was missing 48 parts of his body, and thus was abandoned—thrown into a river. Hyakkimaru has grown up and now has obtained fake body parts so he can eliminate the 48 demons that were made from his body, and to retrieve his missing parts. Along for the adventure is the boy thief, Dororo, with whom he becomes friends.
(Summary Courtesy of Anime News Network)


26-episode TV anime that premiered on April 6, 1969.
Animated by Mushi Production.
Licensed by Discotek.
See series remake, Dororo.
OverallArtAnimationCharacter Design MusicSeries StoryEpisode StoryReviewer
Watch 6 5 6 7 6 6 Ggultra2764 [series:3857#1552]
I'm mainly familiar with Osamu Tezuka's dark fantasy/ historical manga series from my exposure to the 2019 remake of the series that would come out for it 50 years later, which I did have the opportunity to see last year. This older adaptation appears to simplify a good deal of the supernatural lore and character depth found from the remake with Hyakkimaru appearing to have psychic abilities for sensing his surroundings and communicating with others, Dororo being more hot-headed and bratty, and Daigo Kagemitsu portrayed as a pure villain. Plus, the number of demons that Hyakkimaru has to slay to reclaim his body parts is 48 instead of 12 from the remake. It looked like reducing the demon count for the remake was to allow the series to focus more on developing its story and characters instead of Hyakkimaru's slaying of demons he encounters on his journey. Granted, simpler storytelling was the norm with TV anime of the 1960s. But said simplicity does have its ups and downs throughout Dororo's run.

Far as pros go, the 1969 Dororo anime actually does a pretty solid job of story building for its first half and dabbling into horror with its presentation. The story developments within Dororo for its first half are divided up into 2 to 3 episode arcs. Some story arcs dabble into Dororo and Hyakkimaru attempting to investigate and slay a demon within any village they travel to, while others serve to explore backstory with the pasts of our two lead characters. It looked like the series was planning to gradually develop our two lead characters throughout their journey, notably when Hyakkimaru does eventually come to confront members of his biological family in the later part of the anime's first half. Far as the horror goes, the anime's black and white presentation helps enhance the visuals with depicting how monstrous the demons confronted by Hyakkimaru are and setting up story arcs across 2 to 3 episodes helps create slow enough pacing to create genuine suspense out of the confrontations that Hyakkimaru and others have with enemy threats. I understand the anime was originally meant to be in color, but made black and white due to budgetary constraints. As commented, this aesthetic decision actually helps benefit the anime's element of horror. Adding to this, the anime is surprisingly violent for its time period with plenty of spilled blood and dismemberment found throughout its run. I didn't mind the violent content in question as I felt it necessary to reflect the brutal nature of Japan's feudal era with the corruption of the samurai class and the demons that exploited the suffering of humans they haunted. But I was under the impression that there weren't TV anime with that level of violence during that era since they were largely aimed for younger audiences.

Setting aside praises, the 1969 Dororo anime has a good number of issues. The second half of the anime deviates from the plot structure of its first half by largely focusing on episodic plots exploring Hyakkimaru's slaying of demons. This leads to the series taking a big hit with its focus on further exploring its plot and characters, as well as greatly reducing the suspense of Hyakkimaru's encounters with demons confronted since the demon-focused plots have quicker pacing and are resolved within the span of a single episode. Apparently due to Osamu Tezuka abruptly ending the Dororo manga series, many episodes for the TV anime's second half were exclusive for the anime and this shows with the hit in quality for the show's storytelling within its second half. Not helping matters is the final episode being rather compressed and lacking proper buildup with showing Hyakkimaru's final confrontation with his evil birth father and the very sloppy handling of Dororo's gender reveal.

The simplicity of the storytelling does also work against my reception to Hyakkimaru's character. The so-called psychic powers that he has for interacting with others and following his surroundings in spite of lacking much of his body parts and functions reeks of lazy convenience written into the series and this element of his character is actually never mentioned or explored until a later episode has him make a passing mention of this after regaining the ability to talk. Matter of fact, the anime has some noticeable inconsistencies with Hyakkimaru regaining specific body parts or functions in spite of still shown using his body prosthetics all the way up to the final episodes of the series. The 2019 remake does a much better job of portraying the difficulties that Hyakkimaru has with moving around and interacting with others outside of demon slaying until he gradually regains more of his body parts and functions.

While I'll admit Dororo is a unique beast for its time with its elements of horror and solid first half, it gets quite sloppy in its second half with changing up its plot structure and rushing with its finale, as well as offering enough issues with Hyakkimaru's character in believably portraying his disabilities. While I'd at least recommend seeing the 1969 Dororo anime once due to its historical value, I still find the 2019 remake to be the definitive version of Dororo to check out due to its stronger plot building and character development.

Last updated Sunday, June 14 2020. Created Sunday, June 14 2020.

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