Customer Reviews

Dororo Volume 1 (v. 1)

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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".

Sort of a segue between Tezuka's more lighthearted work of the 50s and 60s (plenty of which is still quite dark at times) and his very adult work of the 70s, Dororo is disturbing and horrifying at times but still couched in a (really genius) action plot, and still full of ridiculous puns and gags. What's more, Tezuka here is, in a strange way, at his most Jack Kirby-esque in that he merges goofy and fun old school storytelling with crazy ideas and incredible pathos.

Haunting and sickening, but also really great and fun and bad-ass, it's just a great read. The image of Hyakkimaru as a baby will haunt you.

Dororo is very exiting, with decent graphics and excellent writing. The book is interesting right from the start and really keeps you at the edge of your seat throughout the whole story. The title comes from the Japanese word dorobo which means thief, but children who cannot pronounce it properly often say dororo. Dororo's name fits him very well because he is both a young child and a thief.

Beyond Dororo, the other main character's name is Hyakkimaru. Before Hyakkimaru was born, his father Lord Daigo gained power by making an exchange with 48 demons, letting each one of them take a body part from his child in exchange for helping him to rule over the land. When Hyakkimaru was born he was missing his eyes, arms, legs, nose, and way more. His father abandoned him after birth, but a kind doctor found him and raised him like his own son.

To help get around, the doctor built prosthetics for all of Hyakkimaru's missing body parts. Many years later, monsters began taking over the doctor's house. The doctor then built new prosthetic arms with built-in blades so that Hyakkimaru could defend himself. The doctor soon discovered that the ghouls were after Hyakkimaru so he told him to flee from the danger.

During his travels Hyakkimaru met Dororo who he rescued from a monster. After seeing Hyakkimaru fight, Dororo decided that he must have Hyakkimaru's sword. He follows him around to steal it, but eventually they became friends. They travel to many different places and help many different people but keep getting shunned and forced to move on. For the most part people despise Dororo for being a thief, but they don't like Hyakkimaru for a variety of reasons.

Hyakkimaru and Dororo have many adventures together. For example, they come across a village where a saint lives who gives her money to help the people. Unfortunately every time she distributes here wealth a monster comes along and steals it. Hyakkimaru and Dororo investigate the situation and discover that the so-called saint is actually the monster herself.

Overall this is a very fine book. Dororo would best appeal to people who like samurai and feudal Japan, but it would be a very good read for just about anyone.

Dororo takes place in ancient Japan. It is complete with monks and samuri, ghosts and demons. A truly delightful and exciting story that explores what it is to be human in so many different ways. The tale is about Dororo, a child thief who pairs up with Hyakkimaru- a young swordsman who was born without 48 body parts (thanks to his father's deal with 48 demons). If you enjoy a well told story that has heart, this one won't disappoint.

The first volume of "Dororo" has been put together by Vertical with wonderful aesthetics.

The story itself is fairly self explanatory; I'm sure if you've read this far you already know that it's protagonist, Hyakkimaru, is in search of his body parts, each protected by a demon which he must first kill. Sold off by his father in infancy, Dororo is picked up by a doctor and given prosthetics -- arms, legs, eyes, the whole works. He trains with them and eventually becomes a skillful swordsman without the use of any natural body parts (his own arms are actually swords!). Tezuka does a wonderful job of keeping the pace up. You never go more than a few pages without Hyakkimaru drawing his swords (uh, arms).

At just three volumes, Vertical could've easily published this as one single work. Hefty though it would've been, given the right (read: hardcover!) treatment, I'd trust it in the hands of Vertical. Otherwise, the publication is beautiful - sturdy cover, intricate and graphic cover art and Tezuka's drawings are all intact. This is some truly beautiful stuff to look at. I go about snatching up any Tezuka I can find and while this doesn't stand apart from things like "Apollo's Song", it's Tezuka nonetheless and that means it's better than 90% of anything else your comic-loving hands could find.

Volumes 2 & 3 look to be even better and with the upcoming re-publication of "Black Jack" forthcoming, it's a great time to fall back in love with Tezuka!

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.

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.

Great Manga, too bad about the translation. Another beautiful presentation of Tezuka's work by Vertical. I just wish they would stop the insertion of unnecessary urban slang and colloquialisms into these fantastic stories. They stand well enough on their own. Hang the translator! Hang the editor! But keep the books coming!