Dororo 1 Paperback – 29 April 2008

Zatoichi? Blind swordsman? Pah! How about a blind swordsman with no arms and no legs either? That would be the condition of Hyakkimaru, his father, samurai general Lord Daigo having forged a deal with forty-eight demons, offering each of them a part of his new-born son in return for bestowing great powers on him. The deformed child is abandoned, but is rescued by a maverick Black Jack-like doctor who creates prosthetic limbs for the child. On discovering from one of the many supernatural creatures drawn to this unusual child that to regain his missing body parts he must find and destroy each of the forty-eight demons, Hyakkimaru becomes a wandering swordsman with weapons in place of his missing limbs. On one of his journeys he encounters Dororo, a fearless child and beggar thief with an equally troubled past.Dororo has an intriguing storyline, one that draws effectively from Japanese ghost and demon mythology. Anyone familiar with Stan Sakai's Usagi Yojimbo will find those themes and the cartoony clear-line drawing here instantly recognisable as owing much to the style of the master Tezuka in Dororo. The tone is also similar, Tezuka having tremendous fun with the possibilities afforded by the plot, the characters and their encounters with various demons, taking this sometimes into dark places, but also making it a consistently entertaining work.

This is the first of the recent run of Vertical translations of vintage Tezuka to be in the original manga format. Personally I have been awaiting Dororo in English for close to four decades. I love that tag line [volume title?] on the back - NOBODY IS BORN WHOLE. The front cover is growing on me. The anatomical background not only reflects Tezuka's physician background, but it also reflects what was taken from Hyakkimaru by his father and the 48 demons. I will be eager to see what the image across the spine portrays when volume 3 arrives this fall. Hyakkimaru's father promised 48 demons a portion each of his soon to born son then literally sends the result down the river in a basket. The basket is found by a doctor who cares for the baby. When the baby communicates telepathically with him, the doctor creates prostatic body parts to replaces those the demon took. Once he becomes proficient at propelling himself, Hyakkimaru leaves the doctor to find and destroy the 48 demons in order to reclaim himself. He is followed by death spirits that can take any form, but that deaf, dumb, blind kid sure wields a mean katana. He rescues and is joined by an even younger sidekick Dororo [the juvenile pronunciation of Dorobo - the word for thief]. Following just the cinematic visuals for forty years I thought that Dororo was a riff on Pinocchio. I was surprised that Hyakkimaru is a 14 year old telepath. Could Dororo in its Sunday Comics volumes and The X-Men at Marvel have reverberated on the same frequency when they first appeared in the 1960's? This Vertical edition pretty much matches the Akita Bunko publication [minus the opening pages in color plus the creature from page 127 backing up the Table of Contents]. After re"reading" and enjoying Dororo visually for decades, I am eagerly await reading the entire saga "dubbed" with "subtitles".

If you've never read a manga by Osamu Tezuka before, Dororo is not the place to start. Almost any of his other works-- Ode to Kirohito, Apollo's Song, Buddha, Phoenix-- will give you a better introduction to the artistic depth and range of the "godfather of manga."If you already like Tezuka, you'll like Dororo. Will you like it as much as the many great Tezuka works released in English over the past few years? Probably not. The artwork in Dororo seems rushed and relatively simplistic by Tezuka's high standards. Its story hints at deeper meanings hidden beneath the surface (as the back cover says, "nobody is born whole") but doesn't pursue those themes with enough depth, at least not in this first volume. We've seen characters much like the wild young thief Dororo in many other Tezuka works (Buddha and Apollo's Song, to name only a few). And, finally, it's unfinished, as Tezuka never gave it an ending.That said, there is something very unique and special about Dororo. It's set in Japan's feudal era and follows a wandering swordsman named Hyakkimaru and his companion, a scrappy thief named Dororo. Hyakkimaru has been cursed and must battle 38 demons to reclaim various parts of his body. Dororo, orphaned, follows Hyakkimaru in a search for a normal life. There is something quite moving about this duo's quest-- to be happy, to be whole, to be safe-- and the incredible obstacles and challenges each must overcome to attain those simple goals. The manga follows many of the feudal genre tropes-- the plight of the peasants, tryannical samurai, ghost and spirits-- but is much darker than the films of Kurosawa and other works I know that portray Japan's samurai days. Finally, without giving anything away, there's a very Tezuka-like chutzpah in the way Hyakkimaru fights.Like many Tezuka works, the second and third acts are best, and readers should keep in mind that this volume is largely an introduction to the characters. The series gets even better as it goes on.

I try and get my hands on all Tezuka's work I can. Phoenix saga was great, Buddha saga was great, Adolf and the list goes on and on. Dororo volume 1 is hot from start to finish. Good action, good art plus an interesting story line = a satisfied Tezuka fan. It almost reminds me a bit of the anime Inuyasha, but done by Tezuka. Volume 2 is on the way and I know Haykkimaru will encounter many more demons and regain what was fausted to the evil spirits by his father. I love being excited for Tezuka. Thanks.

I bought this series because I heard great things about it from the internet. When I first got the book I was very disappointed in the artwork because I'm more used to the more realistic Anime style Mangas. After reading a bit of the book I quickly became acustomed to the artwork because it shows the characters emotions so well. I totally loved this series and would recommend it to anybody.