Dororo vols. 2 & 3

Dororo vols. 2 & 3
Story & Art: Osamu Tezuka
Translation: Dawn T. Laabs
Publisher: Vertical

It’s really hard to read a book by Osamu Tezuka knowing you are going to be reviewing it. It’s hard because how do you review the guy that set the standard for manga, hell not only manga but comics in general. I know Omar reviewed the first volume and loved it, but when he passed these down to me I just didn’t know what to critique. Dororo is a manga about a man named Hyakkimaru who was robbed of 48 of his body parts by the devil. Not your usual happy starting point from the man that brought you Astro Boy, Leo the Lion, and Unico. Every time that Hyakkimaru kills a demon one of his body parts grows back. Along with the boy thief named Dororo they roam the land in search of demons. There were some touching moments in volume two when Hyakkimaru is reunited with his parents and brother, of course things weren’t all Full House by then end when he killed his brother. There was a great fight scene with the legendary nine tailed fox and a great new ghoul with baby spirits that united to form him. The thing that I started noticing when reading volume two was that the stories were starting to get repetitive. It’s quite amazing to see Dororo get out of every deadly situation. I swear the kid must have powers too, because he is always getting out in the nick of time. As it turns out Dororo was a girl the entire time and Hyakkimaru figured it out when he got his eyes back. The series ends with the two “bros” parting ways; Hyakkimaru on his was to find more demons and Dororo fighting along the farmers. It was really weird to have a book just end there, but that’s all Tezuka ever wrote of the series. The series feels incomplete and that really saddens me because it was so entertaining. Some great panel layouts with awesome fighting sequences, I can’t believe this book was written and drawn in the 60’s. It was still a fun title to read with enough of a closure to keep most satisfied, but some wanting more. B+