The Road to El Dororo

It's hard to get within a mile of any manga without hearing the name Osamu Tezuka. Nicknamed "The godfather of manga" he's revered by comics fans across the globe and wrote and drew a staggering 150,000-plus pages of comics art. In the world of Eastern comics he's referred to with the same breathlessness that critics reserve for Will Eisner in the West, and lauded for reinvigorating and popularising the form of sequential art. He's best known over here for creating Astroboy - which recently lurched onto cinema screens to very little applause, (but as we all know, it's wrong to judge a book by its Hollywood adaptation). The other well-known work by him is his 8-volume retelling of the life of the Buddha. He died in 1989 and this is my first run-in with his work:

Dororo, Volume 3, Osamu Tezuka


The edition I found in the library is published by Vertical Inc., America and is a lovely little book which deserves special commendation for resisting an Americanized cover in favour of a more traditional style. And if that makes no sense to you at all, then check out the cover below:





There's no way that's a US graphic novel, everything about it screams manga. Although this is my first Tezuka read, Dororo is not my first encounter with manga. Whilst I would never claim myself to be an expert (or otaku if we're going to be pedantic about it), I've read a bit of the Blade of the Immortal samurai series and lapped up Junji Ito's surreal horror masterpieces. So I'm already used to reading right-to-left, which can be something of a stumbling block for first time readers. This is no reason to avoid manga though, since it takes no time at all to get used to.


Dororo is the story of two friends: the childish Dororo who seeks his father's buried treasure, and the wandering samurai Hyakkimaru. I'm a little hazy with the backstory (I jumped in at Volume 3, the last book) but Hyakkimaru has had parts of his body stolen by 48 demons. He must find and defeat them individually in order to regain his human body.


The book is divided into episodes rather than traditional chapters or issues. Along the way the two characters face off against bandits, rogue samurai and even a possessed horse. Dororo is a madcap adventure with a heart. Young Dororo may be childlike and naive, but he constantly fights against the injustices of sengoku-era Japan: rice taxes, dictatorship and the general trampling of the poor underfoot by the rich and powerful.


What struck me the most about Dororo was the incredible energy and expression in Tezuka's drawings. The cartoonish style of the illustrations fits the story perfectly. It's a very fast-paced story, but at times it can feel a bit inconsequential. The characters remain unchanged by their experiences and can seem a little wooden. The plot runs the risk of degenerating into a comfortable cycle: the two characters meet a demon, slay the demon, move on and repeat. The ending in particular feels slightly rushed. I don't want to ruin it for you, but there's no real conclusion and the story just fizzles out (although the anime based on the books has a definite ending, according to Wikipedia).

I don't want to discredit Dororo at all but, despite Tezuka's clear mastery of the form and playful sense of humour, it was a little disappointing. Although as I've already stated, I only read Volume 3 and this probably accounts for a lot of the problems I had with the book.

In other news, I'm doing well with my current reading and can't wait to get up-to-date with my reviews/reading diary. I've finished 3 books in the last week (albeit 2 very short ones - but they were proper ones, without pictures and everything!) as well as the usual haul of comics. Today I've turned the final page on Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber. Whilst I can't wait to do a full write-up on it, I can only urge you all to go out and read it now: truly brilliant if a little bewildering!