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Dororo is a series by the exceptionally talented and prolific Osamu Tezuka, Japan’s ‘Godfather of Manga’. While relatively little-known in America, the manga spawned an anime series, a Sega video game, and, most recently, a series of live-action films. American fans can thank publisher Vertical for finally bringing us the original.

The story begins during Japan’s Warring States period, when a daimyo (a feudal lord) conceives a desire to rule all of Japan. To this end he spends the night in a temple famous for its forty-eight fearful statues of demons. The daimyo pleads with the demons to fulfill his dream. In exchange, he offers them his unborn child. The demons accept, and the resulting baby is a disturbing sight: each of the forty-eight demons has taken a body part for himself, and the child looks like a slug with empty eye sockets. The daimyo’s wife wants to keep the baby, but her husband forces her to place it in a basket and send it floating down the river, Moses-style.

Luckily for the kid, he’s found by a kindly doctor who takes him in and feeds him. After a couple years the child learns to communicate telepathically, and to ‘see’ and ‘hear’ using a sixth sense. Encouraged by this development, the doctor gives him a name- Hyakkimaru- and some prosthetic limbs. As Hyakkimari grows and becomes proficient with his artificial body parts, he becomes a magnet for demons of all kinds, who sense his unnaturalness. Afraid for the doctor, Hyakkimaru sets off into the world to find his fortune (but not before the doctor makes some deadly modifications to his prosthetic limbs).

The rest of the volume follows Hyakkimaru as he wanders the countryside, fighting off the demons who are drawn to him. In the course of these battles he discovers that by killing certain demons he can get back body parts; in this volume he regenerates an arm and an eye. But he still doesn’t understand the reason for this. He remains ignorant of his birth father’s bargain, and of the other forty-six demons who are still alive and possess the rest of him.

While passing through a village Hyakkimaru comes across a group of men who are beating up a small boy, a pickpocket who stole their money. Hyakkimari has been raised right, and he rescues the boy. Dororo (a childish mispronunciation of dorobo, the Japanese word for thief), takes a shine to Hyakkimaru’s sword, and follows him, determined to swipe it as soon as he gets a chance. Hyakkimaru finds himself regretting his decision to save the kid, but Dororo proves to be loyal and useful, and the boys gradually become friends.

Many of Tezuka’s later works are dark, disturbing tales. Dororo has its share of creepy, disturbing moments (Dororo’s past is particularly sad) but the dark bits are leavened with humor and action. Tezuka’s characterization is excellent. Hyakkimaru is a badass, but he never shows off, and it is truly painful to see how badly he is treated, often by the very people he has saved from demonic attack, because of his differences. Dororo is a street punk with heart and determination; he has great potential to be annoying but Tezuka avoids those waters. Dororo is pretty obviously a huge influence on numerous modern manga characters, most recently and obviously Naruto. It’s tempting to compare Dororo to Astro Boy, Tezuka’s earlier work about an artificial boy, but of the two Dororo is more complex. Astro Boy was an android learning to feel emotions like a human. Hyakkimaru, on the other hand, is human despite his disabilities, and feels every human emotion. His story is far more tragic and compelling.

As for the art…well, it’s Tezuka; all the characters are drawn in his signature, slightly cartoony style. The demons range from traditional oni-style creatures to pulsating, formless masses of ick. Everything is done with superior attention to detail, from backgrounds to kimono patterns (and to make it more impressive, in the 1960’s artists didn’t have computers to assist him; Dororo is completely hand-drawn).

Vertical has done a beautiful job releasing some older manga titles (they are responsible for the recent hardcover release of Tezuka’s MW). Dororo is no exception. The manga is lovingly printed in a high-quality paperback The translation is careful; this is good, as beside action the story contains a great deal of drama and dialogue. Some readers may have a complaint about a particular aspect of the translation: the use of modern-day phrases (the doctor, for instance, tells Hyakkimaru something to the effect that if they were in a science fiction story he would be called a cyborg; Dororo tells Hyakkimau he has to go through with stealing his sword to ‘protect his rep’). This may seem jarring to some, and I’m not sure if Vertical’s translators are responsible or if Tezuka did indeed place twentieth-century slang in a story about Sengoku-era Japan. But ultimately Dororo is a fantasy, and much can be forgiven fantasy writers (for a more extreme case like this, check out Hiroaki Samura’s Blade of the Immortal).

Tezuka was never able to complete Dororo; the story remains unfinished (though the video game Blood Will Tell offered a hypothetical ending). But it hardly seems to matter. As long as Vertical will keep releasing the series, I’ll keep reading it. And so should you.

Details

Publisher: Vertical
Author: Osamu Tezuka
Pages: 312
Format: Manga
MSRP: $13.95
Date of Publication: 04/29/2008
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http://www.amazon.com/Dororo-1-Osamu-Tezuka/dp/1934287164/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1213921365&sr=8-1