My first review! I hope it is at least ok, aha〜
*With regards to Dororo's pronouns, I am going to use he\him. Although he has a female's physical anatomy, his mind and expression say otherwise, as he (1) uses "ore" and speaks in a masculine fashion, (2) dresses in more masculine clothing, and (3) insists himself that he is a boy, not a girl.
StoryI will admit personally-- I did not have much of an interest in Dororo initially. I guess I wasn't reading the synopsis carefully enough, or I wasn't in the mood for shounen, or something along those lines. But, after seeing its high ratings and praise, I got curious, so I decided to give this anime a shot, and I don't regret it one single bit.
The story is somewhat episodic because they seem to split the whole story into mini arcs, but definitely, they have the "keystone" overarching plot of Hyakkimaru, the protagonist, having to confront his father, who had made a deal with Hell's demons as Hyakkimaru continues to regain his stolen body parts with the help of a young thief named Dororo.
Because of these two aspects-- the smaller story arcs and the larger, overarching, and broad storyline-- this story is rich, and it feels full overall. Although each "arc" has its own end to it, there's always something new introduced that makes you want to find out what happens next, bringing you in and engaging you to the next episode with little flaw.
I'm glad that this anime is receiving more than 12 episodes, because the 12th episode didn't satisfy me quite enough, story wise, and I'm light-years away from getting tired of Hyakkimaru and Dororo.
My only complaint about the story is flashbacks. I think the scenes themselves are very well-done and they give more depth to the corresponding character, but some of them feel a little bit draggy to me, and some of them I feel aren't the best-placed either. Of course, that's not to say every flashback was bad-- some were done quite impeccably, cleverly.
AnimationWow... if only every anime had the animation quality that Dororo has.
Given that this is a shounen anime, rich with fantasy, supernatural, and action elements, the quality of animation really enriches the watching experience.
The animation is probably one of the stronger aspects in this anime, and it's imperative to depict the action scenes or scenes with a lot of movement. It definitely feels like a video rather than, say, going back and forth between two photos or simply moving the camera or shot a little bit.
SoundI... actually don't remember the music too well, but I sure do remember the voices and the sound effects! None of them were bad. I actually like the voices a lot! It's evident that the voice actors understand their characters and are conscious of their possible thoughts while speaking. They successfully give life to the character through their voices-- which, as I know from experience, is no easy feat.
Even Hyakkimaru's voice actor, who actually didn't have a lot of lines thus far (12 episodes) despite being the protagonist of the show, was definitely conscious of his character, whether it was with his murmured one-word phrases, little laughs or chuckles, screaming, or broken and robotic not-so-full sentences that seemed to give him almost a childlike quality.
The music is something, as I've said, I don't remember well, but it was clear that they knew which OST would fit in what scene, so I've got no qualms on that. It's not like I cringed badly when I listened to the music or anything like that when watching the show.
CharactersThe characters is what drew me personally to this anime as well. First of all, I thought Hyakkimaru was good-looking. (I'm a girl, okay.) Aside from that, I also found the characters endearing, and they each had their significance or "deep" part to them. Also, the interactions these characters share are well-done as well, illuminating different personalities. I'm impressed with the writing of this story because dialogue is, in fact, a difficult thing to do successfully, because there are quite a bit of nit-picky things you have to take into account, which Dororo does a very good job with.
With that said, my favorite part regarding characters is the relationship, specifically between Hyakkimaru and Dororo. Me being generally more of a shoujo/character drama fan, I can say I thoroughly enjoyed watching the relationship between Hyakkimaru and Dororo unfold. What I got from this: a caring and trusting relationship between the two forms after Hyakkimaru lets Dororo tag along (at first only) because his soul wasn't the color of blood. Dororo helped Hyakkimaru do many things that can't be done on his own, and he almost seems like Hyakkimaru's... care taker or assistant at some points in time? I think I could talk for a long time about Hyakkimaru and Dororo, to be honest, but I don't want to drag this too long right now, haha.
Another relationship I liked was the one between Mio and Hyakkimaru. I wouldn't go... as far as to call it a romantic, "I want us to be lovers" relationship (as other sites may have described Mio as being Hyakkimaru's first love or love interest), but Hyakkimaru definitely found comfort and peace in chaotic times from Mio, and Mio cared for Hyakkimaru as if he was her own brother. That's my interpretation, at least.
I also like the usage here of more complex characters rooted from political intrigue, namely but not limited to Tahoumaru. Even though he's depicted as somewhat of an antagonist in its denotative sense, especially later in the series, he's definitely got his own charming points that makes him just as likeable as Hyakkimaru and Dororo.
This leads me to my next and final point: Many characters have charming qualities about him or her that makes him or her endearing/likeable. So, even if only for the characters, I would recommend this anime!
Overall rating: 8.8 / 10This was rounded up from 8.75.
Screenshots
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