I won’t make this purely about anime, an obsession I’m trying not to inflict on people (except in one woeful case where, like a vampire, I was invited in). However, I can see some of you guys liking the currently running show Dororo. It’s basically a dark fantasy with samurai-esque swordplay and demons.
The basic premise is that a small time lord makes a deal with (I think) 12 demons for power and prosperity. To achieve this he sells them his infant first born son, and the kid is born sans many body parts (arms, legs, eyes, skin, etc) which are divvied up by the demons. Because of fantasy shenanigans, the baby survives and grows into an obviously disfigured young man who nonetheless is, naturally, a katana-wielding badass. He begins to hunt down the demons and slays them one by one, each time getting a body part back. At the same time, his father begins to lose the protection he won as the number of demons providing it dwindles. That is just starting to really come into play at the point I’m at now.
Although anime sci-fi stuff generally leaves me cold (especially mecha), I quite like their high fantasy stuff, which is probably my second favorite genre after slice of life. Dororo is a pleasingly dark show, and I look forward to seeing where it goes. I do love anything featuring Japanese folklore, as it is generally pleasingly different from Western supernatural elements.
I’ve only watched 6 episodes, which is streaming free chapter by chapter if you have an Amazon Prime account. I think they’re nearly 20 episodes in and the show is still running. Meanwhile, the series is actually a revamp of an earlier, 1969 black and white anime adaptation of the venerable source manga. I’d say 50 years is long enough to warrant a redo.
This older series is available in subtitled form on YouTube, which is pretty neat. I haven’t starting watching that yet, but I intend to do so, and will be interested to see how each era adapts the manga. I’m sure the old show won’t be as graphically violent, and obviously the animation will be more primitive. The new Dororo feature pretty great production values so the animation is quite good. Anyway, that’s my piece. If anyone wants to watch a chapter of either skein, please leave a note here and let me know what you thought.
PS: Since writing this, I watched the first episode of the original series. It is in fact pretty bloody and grim, so more than anything on the American scene of the time save R-Rated subversive horror fare like Night of the Living Dead. It’s pretty good, though, although the cartoony character designs (reflecting the manga) don’t really work that well with the tone of the show.
