Dororo Vol. 1
May 12th, 2008
Dororo Vol. 1
By Osamu Tezuka
Published by Vertical Books
A feudal lord enters a mysterious temple during a storm. He has come to bargain with the forty-eight demon statues inside. In exchange for power he offers them each a body part from his unborn son. A monk discovers the scene and is killed by the lord, his death is an offering that seals the pact. The son is born but never shown, his appearance is so gruesome that even the lord is taken aback. The boy that would be known as Hyakkimaru (”hundred demons”) is put in a basket and sent down a river to die.
Dororo tells the story of Hyakkimaru and the titular Dororo, a child bandit with a sordid past of his own, as they wander the countryside slaying demons. Hyakkimaru is aided by his sixth sense (which explains how this deaf, dumb and blind kid gets around) and artificial limbs equipped with a hidden arsenal. It seems outlandish to explain it like that, but the story grows very organically. Tezuka will often break the fourth wall when the plot begins to get far-fetched, as if to personally ask you to suspend your disbelief the way you might ask a neighbor for a cup of sugar. He’s not going to let a little thing like implausibility get in the way of telling a good story; what makes Tezuka’s work masterful is that it never gets in the way of enjoying it, either.
I first read William Gibson’s Neuromancer about six years ago, and it was difficult to shake the images of works it inspired but that I had already seen, like The Matrix and Ghost in the Shell. Similarly, I want to describe Dororo as somewhere between Inu Yasha and Trigun but that seems disgenuine; Tezuka is the trunk of manga’s family tree. His use of drama in this book creates a sense of empathy for the characters so that when the gears switch to horror the impact is greater. And with it’s quick pace it become engrossing almost immediately. I’m eagerly anticipating future volumes.
June 4th, 2008 at 10:05 am
My only experience with Dororo is through the PS2 game Blood Will Tell. I’ve heard that Dororo was sadly unfinished, but that won’t stop me from getting this. Now’s just as good a time as any.
June 4th, 2008 at 10:14 am
Is that PS2 game any good? Collecting and violence go well together in video games, but I haven’t heard much about it.