Dororo is an anime from 2019 and it is an adaptation of the manga of the same name by Osamu Tezuka. Fifty years ago was the original anime adaptation of Dororo. But of course, I'm here to talk about the new 2019 anime.

The 2019 anime by Mappa most certainly is an adaptation of the original manga. But I would definitely refer to it more as a reimagining than a straight adaptation. In so that while the original was plenty dark already, this anime really focuses on being a dark and gritty action series.

It's weird to talk about this as again, a lot of the really dark elements of Dororo 2019 are of course ripped straight from the original. As all forms of Dororo of course start out the same exact way.

A lord by the name of Daigo Kagemitsu sacrifices the body of his first born son to demons. He chucks a mere baby to the demons for their blessing upon him and his land. And aforementioned baby loses all of his body parts.

His arms, his legs, his eyes, his skin... nearly everything. Leaving naught but a misshapen creature merely clinging to life. Then after being found and saved by a wandering medicine seller, this cursed and abandoned child is eventually fitted with prosthetic limbs and body parts. Then when the demons come knocking, Hyakkimaru is fitted with blades in his prosthetic limbs, enabling him to combat the demons and spirits that hound him.

And thus, he begins his journey of killing demons to reclaim his many lost body parts.

...After everything I’ve just described, I think you could agree that doing this series in a darker way essentially writes itself. You dim down a lot of the comedy and/or light hearted moments that were present in the manga and give the demons a more gritty appearance, and you’re basically there.

Additionally, Hyakkimaru’s character is completely different in the 2019 version. As he doesn’t even get his voice back until Dororo is already traveling with him. Even then, he is still much quieter. So much so that rather than his pesky sidekick, Dororo is essentially his handler so to speak. As Hyakkimaru is solely focused on finding more demons to kill to get his body parts back than actually interacting with others. Not that he could at all at the start. No eyes, no voice, no ears, no nose, can't feel anything because obviously he has no skin...

The 2019 anime really makes use of this element. Because in the manga as well as the original anime, Hyakkimaru basically could still communicate and see. Even when he didn't have his actual voice, he could speak telepathically. Taking that away and really focusing on all the different prosthetic pieces that composes of Hyakkimaru's body immediately results in a completely different character. Additionally, Dororo 2019 actually gives us a look at how Hyakkimaru sees the world.

Except for the auras of other living beings, Hyakkimaru vision is pretty much complete darkness. The auras of demons are of course red, which enables Hyakkimaru to be capable of telling what is a target and what isn't.

Due to various plot circumstances, Hyakkimaru actually ends up turning his blades towards humans and kills several of them at a point. This causes his aura to pick up a tinge of red. That adds a whole new layer implicating that through these violent battles against demonkind as well as humanity, Hyakkimaru actually is risking his humanity. While I feel this element of this adaptation could have been utilized a bit more overall, I did like all of those moments where we saw Hyakkimaru or the elderly monk’s vision of the auras.

But after so much ominous foreshadowing about Hyakkimaru potentially losing his humanity, I kind of shrugged after a while. Okay yes, obviously, killing humans is bad. But there’s no shortage of samurai that are just complete assholes in Dororo. Maybe it IS a bit demonic to think that yeah okay they deserved to die. But they certainly didn't do themselves any favors...

Additionally, that brings me to another element of this version of Dororo…

Daigo Kagemitsu and his land are way more expanded on in the 2019 version, as well as the actual effects of his deal with the demons. This also goes for his second son, Tahomaru. My appreciation for this anime only grew even further when I went back and watched the 1969 version which of course, focuses much more on Hyakkimaru and Dororo wandering around and battling different monsters.

~~Daigo's villain level is even dialed back a bit. Certainly, he's still selfish and did a horrible thing to Hyakkimaru, but part of his motivation in Dororo 2019 was improving his land for his people as it was repeatedly wracked by war and droughts. Daigo in 1969 was completely irredeemable.~~

Because you know, they could have just done the "monster a week" thing again exactly. I mean hell, they do do that. But I loved the expanding on Hyakkimaru's family and showing us the land of Daigo worsening as more and more demons are killed by Hyakkimaru.

It doesn't necessarily work 100% of the time...

...but I'm of the opinion that if you're going to remake something... then at least do it in a different way. Unless of course if the original itself was bad, then yeah, do the exact same thing but try and actually fix it in the process if you can. This was of course not the case with Dororo 1969. Leading to two pretty different adaptations of the same manga that I enjoyed about the same, but admittedly, I enjoyed each for different reasons.

Like it's hard to think of the last action series I watched and thought "wow that's so fucking cool" more than when I saw this mute, pale, and emotionless Hyakkimaru pull his prosthetic arms off to reveal swords and just dive off a bridge to fuck up a sludge demon.

...This probably goes without saying, but I do definitely like the remake version of Hyakkimaru more than the original. The "more realistic approach" of Dororo 2019 really makes Hyakkimaru more... I don't want to use the word frightening but...

As I mentioned before, even in the original manga Hyakkimaru can basically still more or less talk. ~~Admittedly, he's not actually really talking but still.~~ This version, by the time we join him on his journey, he still doesn't even have a real face.

~~Seeing Hyakkimaru's exposed and skinless face rightfully causes Dororo a bit more of a fright than the original Hyakkimaru simply popping out his fake eyeballs.~~

#Conclusion#

Dororo 2019 is personally one of my favorite series to come out of this year. But at the same time, it's more than that. It's proof that a remake or a new adaptation of a previously adapted series doesn't have to be a soulless attempt at... well, a remake. You can take the material and go in a different direction with it. Put a different spin on it.

~~And also simultaneously adapt stuff that the original couldn't because the manga wasn't finished at the time.~~

If done well and with the effort put into it, it can actually function and stand on its own as another yet separate adaptation of the manga. Even when I did bring up Dororo 1969 in this review, it was not to Dororo 2019's detriment. As a matter of fact, as I've more or less stated at this point, I enjoyed parts of Dororo 2019 more than I did Dororo 1969.

But of course, it was because of Dororo 2019 that I went back and watched Dororo 1969. Admittedly at first, I just wanted to compare the two. But I gradually found that they don't really need to be compared. They both have their own flaws, but they're both different and respectable enough adaptations of the original Osamu Tezuka manga.

Except how dare you have Nota show up just to get bullied.

~~Nota wasn't even in the original ma~~

Dororo 2019 is a darker and more modern (obviously) take that has a much heavier emphasis on the action of the series and I loved it to bits. Even if approaching the end there was a point where I felt they needed to rein it back in a little bit when

...But yeah, I love Dororo 2019. And Dororo 1969. And the original manga, though I still ~~shamefully~~ haven't finished reading the whole thing at the time of this review.

Dororo 2019 is a 9.5 out of 10 for me.