Dororo

What a fantastic journey.

I've seen many people praised this show and it's well deserved, I actually prefered this version over the original mange - something that almost never happens -. Because while the core of the story is the same the tone is darker and the artstyle looks different but those changes ultimately benefit the story.

The writing was better, espacially in terms of characters development. But I don't see enough of praises about how the story dealt with disability.
Having a mc which is disabled is rare enough, but doing it right? Well, damn.

It's one of the best thing I've seen in that regard.
Don't get me wrong, the show won't hammer over your head moral about ableism and such, it's more subtle and therefore, more enjoyable.
During Hyakkimaru's quest, you get to see him discovering things simple as getting used to noises, smell...It's cute but the story doesn't sugarcoat disabilities either.

We see disabled children who gets to shine, to be seen but also the old samourai who helped Dororo and Hyakkimaru when they needed. Those characters aren't token, there to make the abled people shine, sure their stories are sad, but it's not about the audience pitying them. It's about seeing how resilient and strong they were despite losing everything - family, body parts, home and how ruthless war is. __
As for the old samourai, he's blind but he could still fight and save them, yet the story never tried to make a statement about how "a good disable person should act" aka being physically strong __when the show is actually about how to become human, beyond physiological needs.
And I'm not talking about Hyakkimaru getting back part of his body, but about him slowly developping feelings, opening up to people and forming relationship. Which makes one particular arc espacially, hard to watch...

What really set apart this anime from others was Hyakkimaru's wish to be a whole again. At the beginning it was to regain all of his body sensations and functions because what we take for granted such as the smell, the ability to hear or walk is something precious that not everyone gets to experienced. But then his mission took an emotional turn, became even more important to Hyakkimaru when he stopped looking for his body only because it belongs to him (even if that reason alone was good enough) and when he realized that he needed his full body to protect Dororo, someone he loved.

The pacing could have been a bit better, but the animation was nice, the music was great, as was the cast of character, which,even if you met them for a short time, was fleshed out enough.
The second part of the show isn't as strong but overall, this show is a must see. The ending scene is one of the best scene I've seen.