Dororo
Encyclopedia
is a Japan
ese manga
series from the critically acclaimed manga creator
Osamu Tezuka
in the late 1960s. The anime
television series (1969) based on the manga consists of 26 half-hour episodes. It was made into a live-action film in 2007.
During the late 1960s, manga
featuring goblins
was popular among kids. Dororo was serialized in Weekly Shōnen Sunday for three years.
Tezuka's childhood memory of his friends pronouncing as dororo inspired the title of this work. In the live action movie series, the name is explained to be a southern term for Hyakkimaru, meaning "Little Monster."
The anime series bears the distinction of being the first entry in what is now known as the "World Masterpiece Theater
" series.
, which revolves around a ronin
during the Sengoku period
. He was born malformed, limbless and without facial features or internal organs. This was the result of his birth father daimyo
Daigo Kagemitsu forging a pact with 48 sealed demon
s so that he might rule the world. In return, he promised the demons could each obtain a piece of his unborn child's body. This enabled them to roam free and commit atrocities along the countryside.
After his mother was forced to set him adrift on the river, lest he be killed by his father, the infant was subsequently found and raised by Dr. Honma, a medicine man who used healing magic and alchemical methods to give the child prostheses crafted from the remains of children who had died in the war. The boy became nearly invincible against any mortal blow as a result of the protheses and healing magic. Grafted into his left arm was a very special blade that a travelling storyteller presented to Dr. Honma, believing it was fated to be within his possession given that ever since the boy had been discovered, the doctor had been visited by goblin
s. As revealed in a short tale about the blade's origin, the blade had been forged out of vengeance to kill goblins as well as other supernatural entities.
After the doctor was forced to send him on his way because he was attracting demons, the young man learned from a ghostly voice of the curse that had be set upon him at birth and that by killing the demons responsible he could reclaim the stolen pieces of his body and thus regain his humanity. Across his travels, he earned the name among other names for his inhuman nature. On one such hunt of a demon, Hyakkimaru came across a young orphan thief named Dororo who thereafter travels by his side through the war-torn countryside.
made a Dororo-based video game for the PlayStation 2
console in 2004. It was released in the USA and Europe under the title Blood Will Tell
. The game's artwork was done by renowned manga artist Hiroaki Samura
. In light of other survival horror games being released the same year, such as Doom 3
, Resident Evil 4
, and Onimusha 3, Dororo never had a chance of getting noticed by critics and casual gamers, and was thus not very successful for the company. [It's also currently out of print, and only available via used-game retailers.] In fact, Dororo only had an average of 69% at Game Rankings
, but it developed a cult following with more seasoned gamers.
As an interesting side note, Dororo is most often construed as a man, or young boy, often being called as such, but, in the final chapter, you see that he is in fact a she, after Hyakkimaru makes a comment one chapter before about how she will grow into a fine young woman. She does, when she is seen five years later.
and Satoshi Tsumabuki
and directed by Akihiko Shiota
. It was filmed in New Zealand and is currently available on DVD in Japan, the United States and the United Kingdom. Universal Pictures
picked up the US rights, while MVM Films
have the UK rights. The film's storyline has some major differences from that of the manga, most notably Dororo being a young woman, as envisioned in the video game, assuming the identity of a man. In spite of others seeing through her brash and often violent exterior, Dororo rarely concedes to her true emotions and refuses to be a "proper" woman. Hyakkimaru is also younger than his namesake in the manga, and less bitter about his circumstances, as well.
When her father was killed by Daigo when he attempted to call the warlord out, a girl and her mother escaped into the wilderness. At her mother's dying request, in order to carry on her father's insurmountable vendatta against Daigo, the girl takes on a man's identity and grows up without a permanent home or any friends. As a result, she become a thief to make a living. Throughout her life, she'd denied any name, citing that the best thieves never revealed their names as doing so meant they could be hunted and arrested. Only after travelling with Hyakkimaru did she decide to take on the name "Dororo", as that name had been one of many that Hyakkimaru had acquired during his previous travels. Although Hyakkimaru explained it as meaning "Little Monster," she felt that it suited her better while Hyakkimaru suited him.
Throughout the film, Hyakkimaru regains parts of his body by seeking out and killing the 48 demons, to which his unborn body had unrightly sold. Among the demons Hyakkimaru encounters are a Jorōgumo
, the moth demoness who abducted abandoned children in order to feed her Hanyō offspring, a cherry blossom tree monster and a lizard monster. After killing a Daitengu and regaining his right arm, Hyakkimaru learns that his curse was his birth father's doing and this man was in fact Daigo. Killing a pair of dog demons who tormented him about this revelation, Hyakkimaru gains his real eyes and is later confronted at daybreak by Tahōmaru, the man he learned to be his younger brother. Expressing jealous rage towards Hyakkimaru due to their mother's feelings for him, Tahōmaru's resulting anger brings about a confrontation in which he is accidentally killed by Hyakkimaru. By then, Daigo arrives and cuts down his wife while she, despite her own despair over Tahōmaru's death, tries to persuade Daigo to spare Hyakkimaru's life, now their only living son. Though he came close to killing his father, Hyakkimaru refused and spared his father while telling him to strive for and create the utopia that Tahōmaru had once envisioned. However, with the promise of reviving Tahōmaru from the dead, Daigo sold his body to one of the demons with whom he made the original pact. Dororo tried to convince Daigo not to do it, telling him that the demon would use his body to rule the land and cause greater despair and suffering among the people. Daigo accepted the proposal nonetheless, but was able to muster enough control to hold the monster at bay for Hyakkimaru to kill him. Once dead, Hyakkimaru regained his heart, yet complained that the pain in his chest did not subside afterward, an indication that he was feeling remorse for the first time in his life. Though later offered the throne, Hyakkimaru declines and entrusts his brother with it as he and Dororo continue their quest to kill the remaining 24 demons.
in the "Best U.S. Edition of International Material—Japan" division.
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese manga
Manga
Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
series from the critically acclaimed manga creator
Mangaka
is the Japanese word for a comic artist or cartoonist. Outside of Japan, manga usually refers to a Japanese comic book and mangaka refers to the author of the manga, who is usually Japanese...
Osamu Tezuka
Osamu Tezuka
was a Japanese cartoonist, manga artist, animator, producer, activist and medical doctor, although he never practiced medicine. Born in Osaka Prefecture, he is best known as the creator of Astro Boy, Kimba the White Lion and Black Jack...
in the late 1960s. The anime
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
television series (1969) based on the manga consists of 26 half-hour episodes. It was made into a live-action film in 2007.
During the late 1960s, manga
Manga
Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
featuring goblins
Yōkai
are a class of supernatural monsters in Japanese folklore. The word yōkai is made up of the kanji for "otherworldly" and "weird". Yōkai range eclectically from the malevolent to the mischievous, or occasionally bring good fortune to those who encounter them...
was popular among kids. Dororo was serialized in Weekly Shōnen Sunday for three years.
Tezuka's childhood memory of his friends pronouncing as dororo inspired the title of this work. In the live action movie series, the name is explained to be a southern term for Hyakkimaru, meaning "Little Monster."
The anime series bears the distinction of being the first entry in what is now known as the "World Masterpiece Theater
World Masterpiece Theater
is a Japanese TV anime staple that showcased an animated version of a different classical book or story each year on 7:30p.m. on Sunday. It originally aired from 1969 to 1997 then resumed in 2007....
" series.
Plot
"Dororo" is a thriller MangaManga
Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
, which revolves around a ronin
Ronin
A or rounin was a Bushi with no lord or master during the feudal period of Japan. A samurai became masterless from the death or fall of his master, or after the loss of his master's favor or privilege....
during the Sengoku period
Sengoku period
The or Warring States period in Japanese history was a time of social upheaval, political intrigue, and nearly constant military conflict that lasted roughly from the middle of the 15th century to the beginning of the 17th century. The name "Sengoku" was adopted by Japanese historians in reference...
. He was born malformed, limbless and without facial features or internal organs. This was the result of his birth father daimyo
Daimyo
is a generic term referring to the powerful territorial lords in pre-modern Japan who ruled most of the country from their vast, hereditary land holdings...
Daigo Kagemitsu forging a pact with 48 sealed demon
Demon
call - 1347 531 7769 for more infoIn Ancient Near Eastern religions as well as in the Abrahamic traditions, including ancient and medieval Christian demonology, a demon is considered an "unclean spirit" which may cause demonic possession, to be addressed with an act of exorcism...
s so that he might rule the world. In return, he promised the demons could each obtain a piece of his unborn child's body. This enabled them to roam free and commit atrocities along the countryside.
After his mother was forced to set him adrift on the river, lest he be killed by his father, the infant was subsequently found and raised by Dr. Honma, a medicine man who used healing magic and alchemical methods to give the child prostheses crafted from the remains of children who had died in the war. The boy became nearly invincible against any mortal blow as a result of the protheses and healing magic. Grafted into his left arm was a very special blade that a travelling storyteller presented to Dr. Honma, believing it was fated to be within his possession given that ever since the boy had been discovered, the doctor had been visited by goblin
Goblin
A goblin is a legendary evil or mischievous illiterate creature, a grotesquely evil or evil-like phantom.They are attributed with various abilities, temperaments and appearances depending on the story and country of origin. In some cases, goblins have been classified as constantly annoying little...
s. As revealed in a short tale about the blade's origin, the blade had been forged out of vengeance to kill goblins as well as other supernatural entities.
After the doctor was forced to send him on his way because he was attracting demons, the young man learned from a ghostly voice of the curse that had be set upon him at birth and that by killing the demons responsible he could reclaim the stolen pieces of his body and thus regain his humanity. Across his travels, he earned the name among other names for his inhuman nature. On one such hunt of a demon, Hyakkimaru came across a young orphan thief named Dororo who thereafter travels by his side through the war-torn countryside.
Characters
| Character Name | Japanese voice actor (Anime) | Japanese voice actor (VG) | English voice actor (VG) | Actor (live film) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hyakkimaru (百鬼丸) | Nachi Nozawa Nachi Nozawa was a Japanese seiyū, actor, and theatre director from Tokyo. He was affiliated with Office PAC at the time of his death. His real name was... |
Tomokazu Sugita Tomokazu Sugita is a Japanese voice actor employed by Atomic Monkey. Best known for his role as Gintoki in Gintama, he also voices Kyon in The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. He is also one of the three hosts on the radio show Bururaji promoting the videogame Blazblue which is produced and released on Nico Nico... |
Chris Murphy Chris Murphy Chris Murphy may refer to:*Chris Murphy , member of the band Sloan*Chris Murphy , member of the British ska band [spunge]*Chris Murphy , Australian Idol finalist in 2006... |
Satoshi Tsumabuki Satoshi Tsumabuki is a Japanese actor. His breakthrough film was Waterboys for which he was nominated for the 'Best Actor' award at the Japanese Academy Awards, and won the 'Newcomer of the Year' prize... |
| Dororo (どろろ) | Minori Matsushima Minori Matsushima , born December 1, 1940, in Chiba Prefecture, is a veteran female seiyū. She currently works for Aoni Production.She is most known for the roles of Candice White , Meat-kun , Sayaka Yumi , Hiroshi , Dororo , and Gyopi .-Notable voice roles:*Candice "Candy" White in Candy Candy *Alexandria Meat in... |
Ikue Ohtani | Bret Walter | Kou Shibasaki Kou Shibasaki , born Yukie Yamamura, on August 5, 1981 in Toshima, Tokyo, Japan is a Japanese singer and actress.-Music career:Shibasaki made her debut in the music industry in 2002 with her first single Trust My Feelings, but she became recognized for her second single Tsuki no shizuku which was used for the... |
| Daigo Kagemitsu (醍醐景光) | Gorō Naya Goro Naya is a Japanese actor, voice actor, narrator and theatre director from Hakodate, Hokkaidō. He is a drop-out of the legal education division of Ritsumeikan University. He is connected to Theatre Echo. He is the older brother of actor and seiyū Rokurō Naya. He is the husband of actress and seiyū... |
Akio Ōtsuka | Kevin Blackton | Kiichi Nakai |
| Tahōmaru (多宝丸) | Shūsei Nakamura Shusei Nakamura is a former Japanese voice actor. Throughout his career he was represented by 81 Produce and later Production Baobab. He has referred to both Tokyo and Nagano Prefecture as his hometown.... |
Takeshi Kusao Takeshi Kusao is a Japanese voice actor who works for Aoni Production.Among his many roles, he is best known as the voices of Future Trunks , Hanamichi Sakuragi , Lamune , Ryo Sanada , Cless Alvein , Yukimura Sanada , and Dororo is a Japanese voice actor who works for Aoni Production.Among his many roles, he is... |
Kevin Miller Kevin Miller (voice actor) Kevin Miller is an American voice actor. Miller moved to San Jose, California in 1997, starting his business in voice acting there. Miller is famously known as the voice of Sly Cooper, a main character from the video game series of the same name. He had also worked for Sega, Namco, The Learning... |
Eita Eita is a Japanese actor from Tokyo, Japan. His birth name is . He has appeared in many Japanese television dramas and movies; most notable is the TV series Water Boys... |
| Jukai (寿海) | N/A | Kiyoshi Kobayashi Kiyoshi Kobayashi is a Japanese actor, seiyū and narrator from Tokyo. He is currently attached to the Tokyo Actor's Consumer's Cooperative Society... |
Adam Harrington Adam Harrington (actor) Adam John Harrington is an Canadian-American actor and producer. He is known for his role as Roy Earle in the video game L.A. Noire.-Personal life:... |
Yoshio Harada Yoshio Harada was a Japanese actor best known for playing rebels in a career that spanned six decades.-Career:Born in Tokyo, Harada joined the Haiyūza theater troupe in 1966 and made his television debut in 1967 with "Tenka no seinen" and his film debut in 1968 with Fukushū no uta ga kikoeru. He came to fame... |
| Biwa-hōshi (琵琶法師) | Junpei Takiguchi Junpei Takiguchi , better known by the stage name , was a Japanese voice actor and narrator from Chiba Prefecture.Besides his many narration and dubbing roles, he was also known for his roles in Time Bokan , Yatterman , Mazinger Z , Tekkaman: The Space Knight and for his narration roles in Burari Tochūgesha no... |
Katsuo Nakamura Katsuo Nakamura is a Japanese actor. He won the award for best supporting actor at the 5th Japan Academy Prize and at the 6th Hochi Film Award for Kagero-za, Buriki no kunsho, Shikake-nin Baian... |
||
| Mio (みお) | Reiko Mutō Reiko Muto was a Japanese voice actress. She is best known for playing the voice of Elizabeth Taylor in Japanese dubbed television and films, and playing main characters in Marvelous Melmo , Astro Boy as Uran , and Moomin... |
Yuki Makishima Yuki Makishima was born on September 9, 1976 in Kobe. She is a voice actress and pop singer.-Anime roles:*Tokimeki Memorial Only Love as Sayuri Amamiya*Argento Soma as Violetta *Black Jack as Mother... |
Evelyn Huynh |
Video game
Developer SegaSega
, usually styled as SEGA, is a multinational video game software developer and an arcade software and hardware development company headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo, Japan, with various offices around the world...
made a Dororo-based video game for the PlayStation 2
PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...
console in 2004. It was released in the USA and Europe under the title Blood Will Tell
Blood Will Tell
Blood Will Tell, released as in Japan, is a PlayStation 2 game released by Sega. It is based on the Japanese manga series Dororo, which was created by Osamu Tezuka. It concerns a hero named Hyakkimaru, who has had much of his body stolen by forty-eight fiends, and has prosthetic replacements...
. The game's artwork was done by renowned manga artist Hiroaki Samura
Hiroaki Samura
is a Japanese writer/illustrator and creator of Blade of the Immortal, as well as several other short works. He has also done various illustrations for magazines and ero guro work. He has an ero guro book out that is mostly a compilation of some of the work he has created.His favourite bands are...
. In light of other survival horror games being released the same year, such as Doom 3
Doom 3
Doom 3 is a science fiction horror video game developed by id Software and published by Activision. An example of the first-person shooter genre, Doom 3 was first released for Microsoft Windows on August 3, 2004. The game was later adapted for Linux, as well as being ported by Aspyr Media for Mac...
, Resident Evil 4
Resident Evil 4
Resident Evil 4, known in Japan as , is a survival horror third-person shooter video game developed by Capcom Production Studio 4 and published by multiple publishers, including Capcom, Ubisoft, Nintendo Australia, Red Ant Enterprises and THQ Asia Pacific...
, and Onimusha 3, Dororo never had a chance of getting noticed by critics and casual gamers, and was thus not very successful for the company. [It's also currently out of print, and only available via used-game retailers.] In fact, Dororo only had an average of 69% at Game Rankings
Game Rankings
GameRankings is a website that collects review scores from both offline and online sources to give an average rating. It indexes over 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 games.GameRankings is owned by CBS Interactive...
, but it developed a cult following with more seasoned gamers.
As an interesting side note, Dororo is most often construed as a man, or young boy, often being called as such, but, in the final chapter, you see that he is in fact a she, after Hyakkimaru makes a comment one chapter before about how she will grow into a fine young woman. She does, when she is seen five years later.
Live-action film
Dororo has been made into a live-action film starring Kou ShibasakiKou Shibasaki
, born Yukie Yamamura, on August 5, 1981 in Toshima, Tokyo, Japan is a Japanese singer and actress.-Music career:Shibasaki made her debut in the music industry in 2002 with her first single Trust My Feelings, but she became recognized for her second single Tsuki no shizuku which was used for the...
and Satoshi Tsumabuki
Satoshi Tsumabuki
is a Japanese actor. His breakthrough film was Waterboys for which he was nominated for the 'Best Actor' award at the Japanese Academy Awards, and won the 'Newcomer of the Year' prize...
and directed by Akihiko Shiota
Akihiko Shiota
is a Japanese film director and screenwriter.-Career:Born in Kyoto Prefecture, Shiota attended Rikkyō University, where he began making 8mm films in the tradition of other Rikkyō students like Kiyoshi Kurosawa...
. It was filmed in New Zealand and is currently available on DVD in Japan, the United States and the United Kingdom. Universal Pictures
Universal Pictures
-1920:* White Youth* The Flaming Disc* Am I Dreaming?* The Dragon's Net* The Adorable Savage* Putting It Over* The Line Runners-1921:* The Fire Eater* A Battle of Wits* Dream Girl* The Millionaire...
picked up the US rights, while MVM Films
MVM Films
MVM Films is a British distributor of Japanese animation. The company sublicenses anime titles from US Anime companies such as Media Blasters, Geneon, Nozomi Entertainment, Urban Vision, AnimEigo, and US Manga Corps, which do not have a UK presence, and releases them on Region 2 DVD...
have the UK rights. The film's storyline has some major differences from that of the manga, most notably Dororo being a young woman, as envisioned in the video game, assuming the identity of a man. In spite of others seeing through her brash and often violent exterior, Dororo rarely concedes to her true emotions and refuses to be a "proper" woman. Hyakkimaru is also younger than his namesake in the manga, and less bitter about his circumstances, as well.
When her father was killed by Daigo when he attempted to call the warlord out, a girl and her mother escaped into the wilderness. At her mother's dying request, in order to carry on her father's insurmountable vendatta against Daigo, the girl takes on a man's identity and grows up without a permanent home or any friends. As a result, she become a thief to make a living. Throughout her life, she'd denied any name, citing that the best thieves never revealed their names as doing so meant they could be hunted and arrested. Only after travelling with Hyakkimaru did she decide to take on the name "Dororo", as that name had been one of many that Hyakkimaru had acquired during his previous travels. Although Hyakkimaru explained it as meaning "Little Monster," she felt that it suited her better while Hyakkimaru suited him.
Throughout the film, Hyakkimaru regains parts of his body by seeking out and killing the 48 demons, to which his unborn body had unrightly sold. Among the demons Hyakkimaru encounters are a Jorōgumo
Jorogumo
Jorōgumo is a type of Yōkai, a creature, ghost or goblin of Japanese folklore. According to some stories, a Jorōgumo is a spider that can change its appearance into that of a seductive woman....
, the moth demoness who abducted abandoned children in order to feed her Hanyō offspring, a cherry blossom tree monster and a lizard monster. After killing a Daitengu and regaining his right arm, Hyakkimaru learns that his curse was his birth father's doing and this man was in fact Daigo. Killing a pair of dog demons who tormented him about this revelation, Hyakkimaru gains his real eyes and is later confronted at daybreak by Tahōmaru, the man he learned to be his younger brother. Expressing jealous rage towards Hyakkimaru due to their mother's feelings for him, Tahōmaru's resulting anger brings about a confrontation in which he is accidentally killed by Hyakkimaru. By then, Daigo arrives and cuts down his wife while she, despite her own despair over Tahōmaru's death, tries to persuade Daigo to spare Hyakkimaru's life, now their only living son. Though he came close to killing his father, Hyakkimaru refused and spared his father while telling him to strive for and create the utopia that Tahōmaru had once envisioned. However, with the promise of reviving Tahōmaru from the dead, Daigo sold his body to one of the demons with whom he made the original pact. Dororo tried to convince Daigo not to do it, telling him that the demon would use his body to rule the land and cause greater despair and suffering among the people. Daigo accepted the proposal nonetheless, but was able to muster enough control to hold the monster at bay for Hyakkimaru to kill him. Once dead, Hyakkimaru regained his heart, yet complained that the pain in his chest did not subside afterward, an indication that he was feeling remorse for the first time in his life. Though later offered the throne, Hyakkimaru declines and entrusts his brother with it as he and Dororo continue their quest to kill the remaining 24 demons.
English Translation
In 2008, Vertical Inc. released an English translation of Dororo in three volumes. In 2009, it won the Eisner AwardEisner Award
The Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, commonly shortened to the Eisner Awards, and sometimes referred to as the Oscar Awards of the Comics Industry, are prizes given for creative achievement in American comic books. The Eisner Awards were first conferred in 1988, created in response to the...
in the "Best U.S. Edition of International Material—Japan" division.
See also
- List of Osamu Tezuka anime
- List of Osamu Tezuka manga
- Osamu TezukaOsamu Tezukawas a Japanese cartoonist, manga artist, animator, producer, activist and medical doctor, although he never practiced medicine. Born in Osaka Prefecture, he is best known as the creator of Astro Boy, Kimba the White Lion and Black Jack...
- Osamu Tezuka's Star SystemOsamu Tezuka's Star SystemOver the course of his career, Osamu Tezuka reused the same characters in different roles in different stories. The way that Tezuka used the characters in his "star system" can be seen as somewhat analoguous to a film director frequently casting members of a regular "stable" of actors in different...
External links
- Dororo at Tezuka Osamu @ World — Official site for Tezuka Osamu's works
- Dororo.jp — Official site for the Dororo live-action film
- Official Dororo Page at publisher Vertical, Inc.