Alternative
Дороро; どろろ; 도로로; dololo; 多羅羅; Duō luó luó; 妙小子; Miào xiǎozi
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Summary
Dororo is a thriller manga, which revolves around a ronin during the Sengoku period. He was born malformed, limbless and without facial features or internal organs. This was the result of his birth father daimyo Daigo Kagemitsu forging a pact with 48 sealed demons so that he might rule the world. In return, he promised the demons could each obtain a piece of his unborn child's body. This enabled them to roam free and commit atrocities along the countryside. After his mother was forced to set him adrift on the river, lest he be killed by his father, the infant was subsequently found and raised by Dr. Honma, a medicine man who used healing magic and alchemical methods to give the child prostheses crafted from the remains of children who had died in the war. The boy became nearly invincible against any mortal blow as a result of the prostheses and healing magic. Grafted into his left arm was a very special blade that a travelling storyteller presented to Dr. Honma, believing it was fated to be within his possession given that ever since the boy had been discovered, the doctor had been visited by goblins. As revealed in a short tale about the blade's origin, the blade had been forged out of vengeance to kill goblins as well as other supernatural entities. After the doctor was forced to send him on his way because he was attracting demons, the young man learned from a ghostly voice of the curse that had be set upon him at birth and that by killing the demons responsible he could reclaim the stolen pieces of his body and thus regain his humanity. Across his travels, he earned the name “Hyakkimaru” (????) among other names for his inhuman nature. On one such hunt of a demon, Hyakkimaru came across a young orphan thief named Dororo who thereafter travels by his side through the war-torn countryside.
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MANGA DISCUSSION
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Z80_Man
The art is extremely strange. The very first mangas (or their ancestor) probably used to be a similar style, but it’s overall quite difficult to decipher. The lack of greys and use of full black instead, doesn’t help. Though it can sometimes be very artistic, especiall the decor. But characters are too simplistic and difficult to relate to.
It’s a pity, because the story itself is a pure masterpiece (though the scenes editing is a bit over the place).
In the end, I strongly recommend watching the anime instead. The art is gorgeous and the scenes are sequenced much more smoothly and naturally.
It felt really strange here the story almost starts with Hyakkimaru finding his first love killed by the soldiers, while it happened in the very middle of the story in the anime, at a point where he had already recovered some of his organs and was already travelling with Dororo for a long time, having already started to open up to others (obviously, considering he was already able to have feelings). The scene getting trown to our faces like this without any context really feels strange, whereas the whole relation with the war orphans was slowly brought up in the anime.
Anyway, watch the anime, really. Well, it’s a classic, so I guess many people should know about it already.