At its best, Japanese anime is a wonderful medium, allowing creative people with limited budgets a means to tell imaginative big stories. Unfortunately, most anime is simply silly. That is why it is such a pleasant surprise to come across a series which makes full use of the opportunity, such as “Dororo”, available on Amazon and elsewhere.
Set in medieval Japan during troubled times, the title character is a child – a homeless orphan who lives on his wits. But the central character in the tale is a strange person whom Dororo meets – a sightless being with prosthetic limbs who wanders the countryside aiding travelers and villagers by killing ghouls which threaten them.
The backstory reveals that this being was the first son of a Lord, the people of whose domains were experiencing very hard times – droughts, starvation, pestilence, disease, conflicts. To rescue his people, the Lord made a deal with 12 demons, offering them anything he had in return for prosperity for his lands. The demons took the limbs, eyes, ears, even the skin of his newborn son. Over the mother’s opposition, the baby was abandoned like Moses, but found and raised by a craftsman trying to make amends for the evil deeds he had performed in the past.
As this now-adult being wanders around dispatching ghouls, he is breaking the contract which the Lord had made with the demons. He recovers some of the parts of his body which the demons had taken; and the demons withdraw from the deal which had given the land prosperity – the people again are decimated by wars, diseases, and starvation. As the being increasingly focuses on recovering all his body parts, he begins to kill humans as well as ghouls.
The younger son of the Lord decides the only way to restore tranquility & prosperity to the people is to kill his brother and give his body back to the demons.
For those who appreciate tales with morally ambiguous situations where individuals regret their past decisions and find they have no good choices, this is for you! Since it is anime, there are plentiful fight scenes, but the real interest lies in the struggles which various participants have dealing with a situation in which there can be no good outcome.
