Dororo
2019
Original language: Japanese
- animation
- action & adventure
The story
During the Warring States period, the young thief Dororo encounters Hyakkimaru, a strange, sightless boy who wields fearsome prosthetics in place of his missing limbs. Parts of Hyakkimaru’s body were traded to a group of 12 demons by his father in exchange for power, but thanks to a kindly medicine man, Hyakkimaru survived his horrifying ordeal. Now he roams the land in search of his missing body, and together he and Dororo will fight to survive in an unforgiving, demon-plagued world.
What it’s like
Dororo (2019) is a hand-drawn anime with a rough, painterly texture: ink-heavy linework, washed-out earth tones of mud, rust and dried grass, and sudden flares of saturated red when blood arrives, which it does often. Its Warring States landscapes are wide and rain-soaked, with mist hanging over rice paddies and dark forests that feel close and damp, and its night scenes lean on lantern glow and deep blue shadow. The score mixes taiko percussion, plucked shamisen and eerie, drifting vocals, with long stretches of wind and insect silence between fights. Pacing alternates between slow, wandering journeys and abrupt, brutal sword sequences. The tone is melancholy and mythic, with a wary tenderness between its two travellers, a fierce, quiet boy rebuilding himself piece by piece and a scrappy thief who refuses to leave him. Intensity is high: frequent graphic gore, dismemberment, decapitation and demonic horror, with dread and cruelty as constant undertones; this is not gentle viewing. It suits late-night watching alone, dark-room viewing, or fans of folklore-tinged samurai stories who want their violence visceral and their mood heavy. Not for anyone seeking something soft or low-stakes.
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