I'm not one for reviews, for they require a lot of forethought and the arrangement of thoughts in a concise manner, but there's something about Dororo that's giving me strange feelings and I have to pen these thoughts before they're lost forever.

I went in blind. Didn't even know that there was a prequel to this. I discovered Dororo by looking at the fandoms list of a user on ao3 and decided to google it. Skimming my eyes over the description and the cute kid in the torn green jacket and spiky ponytail, I decided to go for it. Big mistake, because maybe if I'd looked at the tags I would have been significantly less scarred than I am now.

Dororo is an exercise, of sorts, in morality. Throughout the show, you will witness characters struggling with the choices they make, the choices others have made which leave you constantly wondering whether or not what they did right. There's a lot of grey areas here and I found myself not being able to completely side with anyone. Aside from Daigo, he can rot in his guilt for all I care.

The show pulled no punches in regards to what humans are capable of. Oh yeah, at some points I found myself open mouthed with shock at some of the scenes. Namely, Mio and the orphans. Midoro. Mutsu and Hyogo. A quite sadness for Nui, Tahomaru and Jukai.

It started out as promising but I feel like the show lost all steam in the second half. The writing seemed almost lazy at some points. The acts of cruelty in the later half seemed more for show than as tools that lent to the plot. Things seemed so muddled and messy in the second half that I was surprised by the events in the last episode. For I was convinced that Hyakkimaru would die or Dororo would. That things would go to absolute shit.

Another thing to note is the irony of Hyakkimaru regaining his humanity only to become inhumane at some point. But he didn't completely lose himself and for that... maybe I'm a bit relieved.

Biwamaru was another interesting character. I found myself to have gotten a bit fond of the old man by the end of the series and was rather pleased he made it out alive.

Other than that, I don't really have much to say. I can't even tell if I hate or like the anime... just that Dororo, as a character, grew on me and the relationship between her and Hyakkimaru is something to be cherished.

Another thing I'd like to point out is to look up Dororo for certain triggers and stuff because this is not a show for the fainthearted or squeamish.