Dororo by Ozamu Tezuka 5 Stars Worthy Manga

Dororo by Ozamu Tezuka 5 Stars Worthy Manga
Reviewed by Teresita Blanco

Today, I wanted to review the great graphic novel Dororo. I liked it because it had an interesting concept. The manga starts with Lord Daigo visiting a temple. The temple was infamous for having some statues of 48 demons. It was said that when the sculptors finished making the statues, they were driven insane.

Anyhow, Daigo promised those demons 48 body parts of his firstborn, in exchange for a Kingdom. The demons took the deal. When Daigo's son was born he was missing a lot of body parts. He barely looked human. The father forced the mother to abandon the child.

From that scene on, it switches to the child, called Hyakkimaru, already full grown. You only find out that it is he, when he removes one of his prosthetic hands. The hand served as a sheaf for a samurai sword. Later in the chapter, Hyakkimaru,  meets the little bandit Dororo.

Dororo is a renown bandit who becomes obsessed with obtaining Hyakkimaru's sword. Hiakkimaru tries to shoo him away. Since he lost his body parts, demons have been chasing after him. As he defeats those 48 demons, he regains a body part.

The book itself is more about the child Dororo. He lives in a harsh world where the samurai bully the poor. His parents where farmers who turned to banditry to survive. Even the main character Hyakkimaru shows the full extent of the samurai's cruelty. Both being victims of the same society must work together to survive in such a harsh world.

At a certain, the story gets a bit Oedipus Rex. Battle wise, Hyakkimaru was pretty cool. Its a bummer how such a cute looking character can butcher so many people. Chapter wise, I liked best the pathetic flashback of Dororo. It was something else. You know, when he was thinking about his mother and father.

I also liked one with the demon stealing face. A demon chick lured Dororo to her lair. She started raising him as her own. Along the way, she started developing feelings for the kid.  There is an interesting twist about Dororo, but I don't want to spoil the ending. In any case, Dororo is a 5 stars worthy manga. A lot of other mangas were based on it, like Berserk and Inuyasha. I think it got made into a movie or something, but whatever.