Dororo Vol 2 by Osamu Tezuka

What gives a life its purpose?

Osamu Tezuka changed the world of manga, comics, and animation in general with his creation in the 1950s of Astro Boy. The comic (manga) and cartoon (anime) of Astro Boy were so popular and far-reaching that Stanley Kubrick actually asked Tezuka to handle the art direction on 2001: A Space Odyssey. (He turned the offer down, though; interesting to think how different the movie might have been)

Tezuka created Dororo in the 60s. Though he apparently never finished the work, what exists was interesting enough to spawn an anime, a video game, and most recently a live action film. The trailer for this film is a little bit unreal to behold, as it seems to follow the original so closely, at least visually.

Dororo tells the tale of a young man named Hyakkimaru. His father pledged his unborn son’s body parts to 48 demons, and when Hyakkimaru was born, he was hardly a person. His mother and father floated him down a river to die in peace, but he was found and raised by a benevolent stranger. Now he wanders the world, searching for the 48 demons that have his body parts. Each time he kills one he regains another piece of himself.

Along his travels, Hyakkimaru meets Dororo, the self-proclaimed world’s greatest thief, a young boy with no family and no home. Dororo has a really interesting back story, and very quickly we come to understand why the story is named after him, and not after Hyakkimaru, who seems to be the more obvious choice as protagonist.

Dororo is a very interesting book with a slightly unusual feel to it. A great deal of offbeat humor pervades throughout. On more than one occasion, Dororo turns to the reader and acknowledges that he is within a comic book. He occasionally breaks through the panel barriers to illustrate a punchline. These sorts of slapsticky intrusions are characteristic of Tezuka, and are simply part of his charm.

But the dark mood of Dororo, overall, belies these comedic moments. Selfishness, greed, and prejudice persist in all Tezuka’s depictions of the people our protagonists come into contact with. Very few people come across as innocent, and those who do frequently find themselves at the wrong end of a sword or an arrow. Hyakkimaru and Dororo see a number of demons, and Tezuka works a lot of subtext into the manga by using these demons as pretty obvious metaphors.

This volume tells three particular powerful stories. The first involves a city split apart by civil war. The second is the story of a religious icon perverted by demonic intrusion. The third is the story of a marriage gone wrong, but also of a woman who raises unwanted children. Hyakkimaru says, at some point in this third story, “Why abandon your child? If you won’t raise him, why have him? Why have it only to abandon it?”

This could be seen as the theme of the second volume of Dororo, as each story depicts a different story of abandonment and separation.

Dororo is just another example that proves Tezuka’s mastery of his artform. Osamu Tezuka’s works are being slowly reprinted by Vertical. Dark Horse will be reprinting Astro Boy, and hopefully someday we’ll see Phoenix back in print as well. I, for one, will be buying each book as it is released, because I have never been disappointed by anything he wrote. I doubt that anyone with any interest in comics would be, either.

Highly recommended.



My favorite part:

“This potato head’s a kid?”