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Dororo manga, volumes 1-3
Mar. 12th, 2012 12:44 pmI freely admit, picked up the manga to read because of the blue ninja frog in Keroro Gunsou.
.... That and it's freaking Tezuka Osamu, the BAMF Godfather of Manga.
Oddly enough, Dororo (A kiddie way of saying 'Dorobu', or 'Thief') isn't the main character. Dorobo is the sidekick to Hyakki-maru (100 Deamon-Male), whose Father started this whole thing years before we meet Dororo by offering pieces of his soon-to-be born child to 48 Devils in exchange for becoming the ruler.
When Hyakki-maru is born, missing massive parts of himself, he knows for sure his wish has been granted. The Mother convinces the Father to put the baby in a basket and set it adrift, rather than killing the infant outright.
Fortunately, Hyakki-maru is picked up by a Doctor, who not only raises him, but gives him prosthetic limbs, spine, eyes, ears, nose, the missing piece. His prosthetic arms come off, not only do they work as hands, but they're scabbards for the katana attached to his arms.
Which looks frikking awesome on the action shots, but a tad confusing in the elbow department.
Every time he kills one of the 48 Devils, he gets a body part back. In the meantime, he gets by using bamf telepathy.
Dororo is a child thief who refuses to back down, and laughs when caught or beaten. Dororo's got a couple of major secrets that unfold as the series goes on.
And together, they fight crime. GORY crime.
And by crime, I mean Youkai and various Deamons that are running around killing people for food, Samurai who are running around killing people because they can, and random people who are running around killing people for money, food, and because they can.
It's like Pyschic Steampunk Ronin meets Ghost Stories with Blood and Guts everywhere. Set in the same time period as Inuyasha. (Hmmm...bad plot bunny, bad....)
Fight scenes are amazing, the characters are lush, and the story had me up until almost 2am reading it. I want to know more about the 'caustic water made from green plums' he uses for purification purposes too. Yay, research!
The only complaint I had is the ending, which is a bit... abrupt. 3 volumes of build-up, to be (sorta) wrapped up in 4 pages. It's like Tezuka decided he had other stuff to work on and ended it as quickly as possible.
I understand that the 2007 live action movie (which looks AMAZING) corrects this. It looks like it's on Netflix, so will be watching it soon. <3
Overall, 4 out of 5 stars, mostly for the ending, and I'm not sure how well the Tezuka-ness will translate over to most people, there's always complex issues under the layers.
.... That and it's freaking Tezuka Osamu, the BAMF Godfather of Manga.
Oddly enough, Dororo (A kiddie way of saying 'Dorobu', or 'Thief') isn't the main character. Dorobo is the sidekick to Hyakki-maru (100 Deamon-Male), whose Father started this whole thing years before we meet Dororo by offering pieces of his soon-to-be born child to 48 Devils in exchange for becoming the ruler.
When Hyakki-maru is born, missing massive parts of himself, he knows for sure his wish has been granted. The Mother convinces the Father to put the baby in a basket and set it adrift, rather than killing the infant outright.
Fortunately, Hyakki-maru is picked up by a Doctor, who not only raises him, but gives him prosthetic limbs, spine, eyes, ears, nose, the missing piece. His prosthetic arms come off, not only do they work as hands, but they're scabbards for the katana attached to his arms.
Which looks frikking awesome on the action shots, but a tad confusing in the elbow department.
Every time he kills one of the 48 Devils, he gets a body part back. In the meantime, he gets by using bamf telepathy.
Dororo is a child thief who refuses to back down, and laughs when caught or beaten. Dororo's got a couple of major secrets that unfold as the series goes on.
And together, they fight crime. GORY crime.
And by crime, I mean Youkai and various Deamons that are running around killing people for food, Samurai who are running around killing people because they can, and random people who are running around killing people for money, food, and because they can.
It's like Pyschic Steampunk Ronin meets Ghost Stories with Blood and Guts everywhere. Set in the same time period as Inuyasha. (Hmmm...bad plot bunny, bad....)
Fight scenes are amazing, the characters are lush, and the story had me up until almost 2am reading it. I want to know more about the 'caustic water made from green plums' he uses for purification purposes too. Yay, research!
The only complaint I had is the ending, which is a bit... abrupt. 3 volumes of build-up, to be (sorta) wrapped up in 4 pages. It's like Tezuka decided he had other stuff to work on and ended it as quickly as possible.
I understand that the 2007 live action movie (which looks AMAZING) corrects this. It looks like it's on Netflix, so will be watching it soon. <3
Overall, 4 out of 5 stars, mostly for the ending, and I'm not sure how well the Tezuka-ness will translate over to most people, there's always complex issues under the layers.
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