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:''For the fictional character from the anime/manga Sgt. Frog/Sergeant Keroro refer to Dororo (Sgt. Frog).''


'' is a manga series from the well-known Japanese mangaka Osamu Tezuka in the late 1960s. The anime television series (1969) based on the manga consists of 26 half-hour episodes.
During the late 1960s, manga with hobgoblins was popular among children. Dororo was serialized in "Shukan Shonen Sunday" for three years.
"Dororo" comes from Tezuka once over-hearing a child complain of a friend calling him/her a 'thief' (Dorobo　どろぼ) however, the child's cute mis-pronunciation (Dororo　どろろ) sat with him until he created the small thief character.

Contents

Plot

Characters

Adaptations

Video game

Live-action film

English Translation

Trivia

References

See also

External links

Plot

The story takes place in Japan during the Sengoku period, or the Warring States period. Forty-eight major demons, known as majins (lit. demon gods), sense the impending birth of a powerful human, who will grow up to be the vanquisher of demonkind.
The forty-eight majins make a deal with the samurai Kagemitsu Daigo--who is the father of the yet-unborn child--wherein Daigo pledges forty-eight body parts of his unborn son to the majins, receiving in return the majins' guarantee that Kagemitsu will be unbeatable in any warfare and become the lord protector of the entire Japan. Indeed, the boy is born without forty-eight body parts; Kagemitsu puts the neonate in a basket and floats him down a river.
Fortunately the infant is rescued by a physician named Jukai who, over the period of many years, devises many cunning prosthetics so that the boy--named Hyakkimaru (lit. One Hundred Ogre Boy, 百鬼丸) by Jukai--can function like a normal person. Also Hyakkimaru has many supernatural powers which allow him to see, talk, and hear, despite having no eyes, mouth, or ears.
Upon reaching adulthood, Hyakkimaru embarks on a journey to vanquish the forty-eight majins and reclaim his body parts; he is soon joined by Dororo, a precocious street urchin and self-styled "greatest thief in all of Japan." Together, Hyakkimaru and Dororo travels the feudal Japan, helping the oppressed people and defeating the demons, in the hope that one day Hyakkimaru will win back all his body parts from the forty-eight majins.

Characters

{|class="wikitable"
! Character Name
! Seiyū (TV Anime)
! Seiyuu (VG)
! Actor (Live Film)
|-
| Hyakkimaru (百鬼丸) || Nachi Nozawa || Tomokazu Sugita || Satoshi Tsumabuki
|-
| Dororo (どろろ) || Minori Matsushima || Ikue Ohtani || Kou Shibasaki
|-
| Daigo Kagemitsu (醍醐景光) || Gorō Naya || Akio Ōtsuka || Kiichi Nakai
|-
| Tahōmaru (多宝丸) || Shūsei Nakamura || Takeshi Kusao || Eita
|-
| Jukai (寿海) || ''N/A'' || Kiyoshi Kobayashi || Yoshio Harada
|-

Adaptations

Video game

Developer Sega made a ''Dororo''-based video game for the PlayStation 2 console in 2004. It was released in the USA and Europe under the title ''Blood Will Tell''. The game's artwork was done by renowned manga artist Hiroaki Samura.

Live-action film

''Dororo'' has been made into a live-action film starring Kou Shibasaki and Satoshi Tsumabuki. It was filmed in New Zealand and is currently available on DVD in Japan. Two additional films are currently in production, and are scheduled for theatrical release in 2008 and 2009, respectively.

English Translation

An English translation of the manga will be available in April 2008.

Trivia

★ Osamu Tezuka actually never completed the serialization of Dororo. Thus, the manga's plot is incomplete; however, Sega's game offers an hypothetical conclusion of the story.

★ The original title of the anime series is Dororo. However, after episode 14, the series was renamed to Dororo and Hyakkimaru.

References

1. . Accessed on 2007-06-13.
2. . Accessed on 2007-06-13.

See also

★ List of Osamu Tezuka anime

★ List of Osamu Tezuka manga

★ Osamu Tezuka

★ Osamu Tezuka's Star System

External links

★ Dororo 1968 Pilot episode at TezukaOsamu@World

★ Dororo anime at TezukaOsamu@World

★ Dororo manga at TezukaOsamu@World

★ ''Dororo.jp'' Official website for the ''Dororo'' live-action film (Japanese).

★ ''Dororo'' ''Dororo'' at IMDB.

★ ''Dororo'' (anime series) at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia.

★ ''Dororo'' (manga) at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia.

★ Dororo at Animemorial

★ Dororo Live Action Movie Review