Dororo to Hyakkimaru

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 is48 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.

*SPOILER WARNING* Daigo Kagemitsu is a man who desires power. Political power, to be exact. One night, he decides to sacrifice forty-eight of his unborn child's body parts to forty-eight demons to gain more power within Japan. When the child was born, it only had a head and a torso. The baby, soon after it was born, became an orphan. One day, a doctor named, Juko, found the baby and decided to take care of it. He named it, Hyakkimaru. As Hyakkimaru got older, Juko had to create prosthetic body parts for him, and that's when Hyakkimaru noticed that monsters were around him ona constant basis. He was being haunted by the forty-eight demons, and was told personally that if he wanted his original body parts back, he must slay all of the forty-eight demons. Whenever he defeats a demon, one of his body parts is returned to him. Hyakkimaru, while on his journey, saves a young boy by the name of, Dororo. Dororo is a orphan just like Hyakkimaru, and after being saved by him, he admires Hyakkimaru and chooses to follow him on this dangerous journey. Dororo to Hyakkimaru is a pretty good show. The only major flaw that I noticed while watching was with some of Hyakkimaru's body parts. I mentioned earlier that when a demon is slain, Hyakkimaru gains a body part. Halfway into the show, Hyakkimaru is given a voice. He says, "Dororo, I can finally speak!" Up until that point in the storyline, Hyakkimaru was a mute, yet he speaks for the entire show. Dororo responds with, "But you've been speaking this entire time." Hyakkimaru explains to Dororo that he hears everything he says in his mind or some bullshit like that. Same thing goes for his eyes and ears; he was incapable of seeing and hearing from the very beginning, yet he interacts with other characters within the show, and slays demons ಠ_ಠ. Hyakkimaru is practically a Japanese Hellen Keller! That flaw aside, the show is good. I can see a lot of people turning away from this show, because of how it looks and it's age. Personally, I'm not bothered with how the show looks. I'm not that ignorant to the point where I would avoid a show just because of the way it looks. The story is good, the music is catchy, especially "Dororo no uta," and the two main characters are cool. Dororo is a little annoying and gets Hyakkimaru in trouble sometimes, but he has his good moments. I'll give this show a 7.3/10, the last episode is probably the best episode.

The original Dororo anime I initially picked this up to see how it compared to it's remake, and though it is interesting to see the styles of different times telling one story and how anime has evolved over the years, i can't help but feel a vail of disappointment on the route the original adaptation decided to take with it's storytelling The show went from a very slow start, dragging out each mission into double episodes, then rushed thru one of the most emotional and integral parts of the story, then went back to more side missions, this time changing the formula to slaying demons every episodeinstead of every 2, all culminating in an extreamly rushed ending squished into a single episode Thing is, the disappointment doesn't come from the story, which has quite a few differences from it's 2019 counterpart, not being good, but rather the opposite, the story is good and has lots of potential, the emotional scenes can make you shed tears, but these moments are rushed by in less than half an episode while exessive screentime is being given to a loop of an axe cutting down a tree

Wow. Despite being an anime from the 60s, Dororo to Hyakkimaru does not disappoint. The story itself is super interesting, and tugs at the heart in a tragic way. Even though the story definitely has its comedic and cute points (the dog omg), it really shows the traumas of war and poverty and the lengths people go to just to survive. I think the funny thing is this story really should be called "Hyakkimaru to Dororo" because the story's main protagonist is hands down Hyakkimaru, while Dororo is a sidekick (with a twist. I was NOT expecting that at the end. Very cool to throwthat in there). Really great to watch! I haven't watched the modern version yet, but I'm starting with this one and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

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