Dororo (Weekly Shonen Sunday)

As a storm rages outside, samurai Daigo Kagemitsu enters the temple known as the Hall of Hell and offers prayers.  In exchange for the power to conquer the country, he promises the body of his soon-to-be-born son to the 48 demons that inhabit the temple.  In a flash of lightning and thunder, his offer is accepted and Lord Kagemitsu is marked by an “X” on his forehead.  Three days later, his son is born – albeit it missing 48 parts of his body.  Disgusted by his son’s hideous disfigurement and dreaming of the power that is soon to be his, Lord Kagemitsu orders his son to be sent down the river to die.

Years later, a young man named Hyakkimaru travels alone through a countryside ravaged by war.  One day he ends up saving a young thief named Dororo, revealing his hidden prosthetic sword-arm in the process.  Hyakkimaru tells Dororo how he was rescued as a baby my a poor but kindly country doctor who crafted a set of prosthetics to replace his missing 48 body parts.  When he came of age, he set out on a journey to face each of the demons and reclaim the body parts they stole from him.  Dororo is fascinated by Hyakkimaru‘s artificial sword arm and declares his intention to travel with him until such time as he can steal it.

In an effort to dissuade Dororo from following him, Hyakkimaru recounts how he met the travelling monk known as Biwamaru.  The monk leads him along a dangerous path, but eventually takes him to a Buddhist temple that serves as home for war orphans.  There Hyakkimaru meets a beautiful young mute named Mio who is taking care of the children and falls in love with her.  However, the tragedy of war soon catches up to the couple and one day, while Hyakkimaru was away, the temple comes under attack and Mio and the children are all killed.  Despite Hyakkimaru‘s protestations that he has no warmth in his heart and will never be able to love anyone ever again, the tragic story does nothing to deter Dororo.

Travelling along the road, Hyakkimaru and Dororo set up camp for the night next to a river.  While they are sleeping, a strange goblin called Kanekozo approaches the pair and whispers something into Hyakkimaru‘s ear.  The next day, when the nearby villagers hear of the incident, they are captured for no reason and are dragged before the local noblewoman known as Lady Bandai.  When Hyakkimaru refuses to disclose what Kanekozo whispered to him, the pair are locked in the well shed.  They soon come under attacked by a gecko-like demon, but they escape and learn the truth about Kanekozo and the demon that has been terrorizing the village and robbing the villagers of their money.

After it is revealed that Kanekozo is in fact a goblin who is trying to lead the villagers to the hidden hoard of their stolen cash, the villagers begin to understand the strange connection between the evil demon and the mysterious Lady Bandai.  Hyakkimaru prepares the villagers for an all-out assault by the monster.  Although they drive it off, Hyakkimaru realizes Dororo is in grave danger back at Lady Bandai’s mansion.  He and the villagers arrive just in time for the monster to finally reveal itself fully.

Although Hyakkimaru finally defeats the evil monster – which turns out to be a form of a demonic face tumor – Dororo is injured in the process.  Strangely, and despite having just saved their entire village, when Hyakkimaru asks the villagers to help Dororo they become afraid and he is turned away.  Forced to nurse Dororo back to health by himself, Hyakkimaru makes a surprising discovery, the demon he has just defeated was one of the 48.  By killing it, he has regained one of his real arms and can experience the true sensation of touch for the first time.

In a moment of peace, Dororo reflects back on his tragic story.  Years ago, Dororo‘s father, Hibukuro, was the leader of a group of farmers-turned-bandits that originally set out to protect the weak peasants from the marauding bands of samurai that plagued the countryside.  Although Dororo‘s mother, Ojiya longed to return to their roots, one of the lieutenants, named Itachi, wants to take their power to the next level by partnering with the very samurai they opposed.  When Hibukuro refuses, Itachi betrays him to the local magistrate and usurps his power.  Although they escape, the family is forced to wander the war-torn countryside until finally the crippled Hibukoro dies, leaving Ojiya And the infant Dororo all alone.

Travelling the countryside, Hyakkimaru and Dororo cross paths, and soon swords, with a wandering swordsman named Nihiru.  Although quite skilled with a blade, Hyakkimaru‘s mental powers prove too much and Nihiru is left stunned by the encounter.  Snatching the opportunity, the sword-crazy Dororo makes off with Nihiru’s blade, only to discover the sword is possessed by a bloodthirsty evil spirit.  Unable to resist, Dororo attacks an innocent old man and his daughter and holds a town hostage until Nihiru appears and, with the assistance of the rallied villagers, takes back his sword.  Realizing it is the sword and not who wields it that is the problem, Hyakkimaru defeats Nihiru who, in a final act of free will plunges the sword into his own body in order to destroy it.

Hyakkimaru and Dororo‘s wanderings bring them to the towering segment of a wall on the top of a hill – known as Banmon, it’s a remnant of the border divider between north and south.  Caught in a vicious cycle of attack and revenge, the people of the divided town are actually at the mercy of a strong, seven-tailed fox spirit that feeds on the anguish and death the battle causes.  Hyakkimaru defeats the evil spirit, but not before crossing paths with Lord Daigo Kagemitsu – his long forgotten birth father- and Lord Kagemitsu’s son, Tahomaru… Hyakkimaru’s unknowing brother.

After an argument, Dororo parts ways with Hyakkimaru and stumbles across a woman who looks exactly like his late mother.  In truth she is a ghost in the service of an evil spirit called Hakumenfudo who is disguised as the statue of a Buddha in an effort to lure unwary travellers into a trap in order to steal their faces.  Strangely enough, Dororo‘s sincerity touches the ghost’s heart, and she finds she is unable to bring herself to sacrificing Dororo.  Luckily Hyakkimaru appears just in time to rescue Dororo from the monster.  In the aftermath of the battle, Hyakkimaru discovers a treasure map that Dororo‘s real mother had concealed on his back.  On the advice of the travelling monk Biwamaru, Hyakkimaru and Dororo decide to search for the treasure in order to use it to help the poor and bring a purpose to their lives beyond hunting the remaining demons.

Hyakkimaru and Dororo come across a strange spirit who offers them a large child-like demon.  Despite their protestations, the child demon is left in their care and so they decide to take refuge in an burned-out temple for the night.  During the night, they are woken by the sounds of a couple seeking to abandon their baby into the care of Sister Jishoni, the temple’s resident nun.  As the couple explains that Sister Jishoni has been running an orphange of sorts, they are interrupted by Lord Sabame – the local samurai who, as his name suggests, has eerie eyes that look like those of a dead fish.  Hyakkimaru and Dororo are invited back to Lord Sabame’s mansion, and he takes a very different view of Sister Jishoni’s activities – suggesting she has been running a slave labour camp for the children instead of a simple orphanage.  As the pair settle in for the night, they are attacked by a large caterpillar-like demon and just as they are about to defeat it, a large moth-like demon swoops in and saves it.  The truth quickly becomes apparent – Sabame’s wife is in fact a large moth demon called Maimai-Onba and her poisonous spirit has infected her husband, turning him into a willing supplicant in her plan to transform the local village into a fodder for her growing brood of offspring.  Using the same flammable oil that Maimai-Onba used to burn down the temple and kill Sister Jishoni, Hyakkimaru and Dororo set fire to Lord Sabame’s mansion and drive the brood from their nest.

With Maimai-Onba and her brood still on the loose, Hyakkimaru rallys the village’s defences.  However, despite their precautions, the moth brood infiltrates the village disguised as wandering Buddhist monks and paralyze Hyakkimaru with poisoned tea and capture Dororo.  However, just as things seem bleak, the child-like demon that has been following Dororo around erupts into the spirits of all the children who were killed in the temple fire and they drive the moth brood into the swamp.  Knowing that they cannot leave Maimai-Onba loose, Dororo devises a plan based on the moth’s tendency to be attracted to torch-light.  A battle ensues and Hyakkimaru succeeds in finally destroying Maimai-Onba – recovering one of his legs in the process.  However, as usual, the villagers are disturbed by Hyakkimaru‘s strange transformation and the pair are forced to leave the village and continue their wandering.

Having discovered the secret of the buried treasure map tattoo, the bandit Itachi reappears, defeats Hyakkimaru and captures Dororo.  The map leads them to an island off-shore, but the bandits are unable to hire or coerce any of the local fishermen to ferry them across due to their fear that the cape is haunted by an evil spirit.  Unsure how to proceed, the bandits are suddenly approached by a strange young man named Shiranui who offers to provide them with passage to the island.  As the group crosses the water, Shiranui explains that the boats are propelled by his two pet sharks, Jiromaru and Saburomaru and the bandits soon realize they have been double crossed and that Shiranui intends to feed the lot of them to the two sharks.  After a quick snack, Shiranui and Jiromaru leave the bandits stranded in the open ocean.  However, sensing their opportunity, the kidnapped Dororo comes up with a daring plan to deal with the massive shark.  Although the plan succeeds and Saburomaru is killed, it takes all the bandits’ weapons in the process and the now defenceless group must hastily paddles across the water as an enraged Shiranui and Jiromaru race back to have their revenge.

Hyakkimaru, desperately searching for Dororo, reaches out with his mind and discovers that Dororo is an a boat off the coast.  He races to the top of a cliff and, after find the group of madly paddling bandits, dives in to save his friend just Shiranui and his deadly shark Jiromaru close in.  A massive fight ensues and Hyakkimaru succeeds in stabbing Jiromaru in the eye with his sword.  As the shark leaves to lick its wounds, the bandits capture Shiranui and make for the shore of the island.  Once on dry land, Itachi and Hyakkimaru agree to an uneasy truce in order to deal with their mutual enemy.  As one group gathers dry wood for a fire, another goes missing while searching for a fresh water spring that Shiranui has told them about.  Dororo realizes that Shiranui has set a trap for them and the injured Jiromaru has been lying in wait in the spring.  Hyakkimaru and Dororo discover that Jiromaru is in fact a demon and drag the shark from the water and kill it.  Enraged, Shiranui charges Hyakkimaru and is quickly dispatched.  With his dying breath, Shiranui asks Hyakkimaru and Dororo to strap him to Jiromaru and commit both their bodies to the sea and he complies.

With the threat from the sharks ended, so does the truce between Hyakkimaru and Itachi, as the bandit quickly shoots the unaware Hakkimaru in the back. Luckily the arrow strikes Hyakkimaru still-prosthetic spine and the damage is minimal.  In fact, Hyakkimaru is soon even better as he recovers his larynx (and thus his true voice) as a reward for defeating the shark demon.  Meanwhile, Itachi finds that, head start or no, the climb to the treasure is treacherous and nearly fall to his death in the process. Although Dororo saves Itachi, before the pair can discuss it, they notice that the island is about to be invaded by a large number of soldiers in boats. Having heard rumours of bandit activity, the local magistrate, Makuwa Chubei has gathered his troops to deal with the threat.  However, Hyakkimaru has correctly guessed Chubei‘s true intention – to take the treasure for himself – and a large battle ensues. Although Hyakkimaru is able to overcome the troops, Itachi is mortally wounded during the battle.  As his dying wish, he pleads with Dororo to at least catch a glimpse of the treasure before he dies.  Dororo quickly uncovers the buried treasure, but is surprised to find only a note from Hibukuro that warns of Itachi‘s untrustworthiness and explains that the treasure, intended to be used to help the poor, is buried elsewhere.  Still empty-handed, the pair sail off into the sunset.

A year passes and, as the duo take shelter from a storm, Hyakkimaru announces his intention to confront his father, Lord Daigo Kagemitsu – alone. When Dororo refuses to part ways, Hyakkimaru ties him up in order to keep him from following him.  Meanwhile, Lord Kisoji, a formidable soldier and Lord Kagemitsu’s main opponent, returns victorious from battle.  However, his high spirits soon turn dark when he overhears some of his underlings attributing his success in battle to Midoro, his formidable warhorse, instead.  Enraged, he beats the poor animal in an attempt to show his dominance and then commands that Midoro’s only foal be sold.  As two retainers take the young horse to the village to be sold, they happen across the still-bound Dororo and are tricked into releasing the pair.  Ignorant of the foal’s escape, Lord Kisoji once agains rides Midoro into battle.  However, this time the horse has lost its fighting spirit and, although it is able to tramples its former master to death, it soon succumbs to its battle wounds.  As the horse lies dying, and evil spirit approaches it and offers revenge in exchange for possession of its body.  Midoro agrees and soon a demonic war horse is unleashed upon the countryside.  Meanwhile, Hyakkimaru, on his way to meet Lord Kagemitsu, takes shelter in a deserted shed and meets “Dice-Spot” Saburota, a wandering ronin hoping to offer his services to the victor of the upcoming battle.  After a night-long battle of wills, Saburota leaves and quickly comes under the spell of the demonic war horse. After issuing a formal challenge, Saburota and his demonic mount face off against Hyakkimaru in a lonely mountain pass.  However, Hyakkimaru is simply too strong and the rematch soon ends with the demon destroyed and Saburota rendered unconscious but freed from his demonic yolk.

As usual, Hyakkimaru and Dororo happen across a demon that has been scaring the local children, however this time the demon turns out to be a simple village girl named Oyone in disguise.  Concerned for her safety, the duo return her to her father, the Donburi Magnate who apologies for the inconvenience and offers them his hospitality for the night.  After they settle in, they are offered a very humble meal as the cook explains that the area is under the control of Lord Daigo Kagemitsu who has implemented a stringent rice tax.  Despite the tax though, the Donburi Magnate seems well-fed, so Dororo sneaks off to investigate in the hopes of stealing some food.  Dororo‘s instincts are correct, and he soon discovers that the Donburi Magnate has been keeping a secret stash of food for his personal consumption, and that his daughter’s “demon play” is in fact a carefully designed plot to keep the local children from discovering the secret.  Dororo is quickly captured and the Donburi Magnate instructs his servant to dispose of the thief in the local swamp in order to hide the body.  Satisfied he has dealt with the problem, he returns to his meal, but is soon beset by a pair of vengeful spirits who force the Donburi Magnate to eat and eat himself nearly to death.  As this is going on, Lord Kagemitsu arrives and, under the impression that the peasants have been withholding their rice tax, proceeds to have them beaten.  Hyakkimaru interenes and rescues Oyone from the beatings.  In return, she shows Hyakkimaru the secret food stash and they arrive just in time to rescue her father who, now repentant, also frees Dororo.  Despite quickly dispatching the evil spirits, Hyakkimaru discovers that the source of the demonic energy is in fact a large demonic turtle that has been lying in wait in the swamps. With the help of the villagers, the turtle is dragged from its lair and killed.  However, the village is not quite out of danger yet.  Lord Kagemitsu reappears – now with the ronin Saburota by his side – and condemns Hyakkimaru to death.  As Saburota attacks, Hyakkimaru is temporarily blinded by the recovery of his other eye and Oyone choses to sacrifice herself to save him.  In the wake of Oyone’s death, Hyakkimaru and Dororo simply just walk away from Lord Kagemitsu.

Hyakkimaru and Dororo take a well-deserved rest from their travels, and they stop to relax next to a mountain stream.  However, nothing ever goes smoothly, and Dororo accidentally gets his hand trapped in a steel fish trap under a rock in the stream.  With no way to free him, Hyakkimaru ventures off in search of tools and soon stumbles across an old temple.  While exploring, he is approached by the resident priest, Shikeh Nyudo, who explains that he was the one who set the trap and offers to help free Dororo.  Hyakkimaru agrees, but when it seems like the priest is taking a detour back to the stream he begins to suspect he is wasting time on purpose.  When they return to the stream, Dororo is nowhere to be found and Hyakkimaru forces the priest to reveal his true demonic form as he flees.  While making his way back to the temple, Hyakkimaru comes across a mountain woodsman who tells the tale of temple’s abbot who was buried alive by Lord Kagemitsu after he refused to let his temple be destroyed and rebuilt as a strategic fort.  It is his restless spirit that has fused with the local vermin and created the demonic entity.  After he returns to the temple, Hyakkimaru discovers Dororo is being held captive inside the large Buddhist statue, however, Dororo – worried that Hyakkimaru will enter and become trapped himself – quickly charges up the side of the passage himself instead.  Having discovered the network of tunnels under the temple, the pair decide to light a fire and smoke the demons out.  After having dispatched the rat-demon priest, the temple burns to the ground and the duo lament the loss.

Coming down from the mountain, Hyakkimaru and Dororo wander into the local village only to find it almost completely deserted.  It seems Lord Kagemitsu has conscripted the entire population, including women and children, to construct a massive military fort nearby.  Appalled by the samurai’s mercilessness, and understanding that it is a struggle for their very survival, the peasants plan a revolt – better if half of them die than all. However, Lord Kagemitsu has spies among the workforce and the plan is quickly uncovered.  With his forces lying in wait, the revolt is quickly quelled and the village is burned as a warming.  Not far away, Hyakkimaru and Dororo are approached by the spirit of an elderly woman who recently perished in the fire.  She asks them to inform her son so that he might avenge her death.  Convinced that Lord Kagemitsu cannot be allowed to continue his plan, Hyakkimaru parts company with Dororo and infiltrates the fort alone – ready for a showdown with his father.  What he is not prepared for is a meeting with his mother, and the experience throws Hyakkimaru off balance.  Meanwhile, Dororo joins the peasants in an effort to tunnel under the fort’s walls.  However, they are quickly captured and Dororo is held hostage.  In a ruse, Hyakkimaru attempts to prove his obedience to his father by executing Dororo, but his real plan is to lure out the massive demon known as Nueh that has been influencing Lord Kagemitsu.  After a surprisingly quick battle, Nueh is defeated and several of Hyakkimaru‘s body parts are returned to him at once.  In the confusion, the captured peasants escape and open the fort’s doors to let in the large force waiting outside.  Despite bitter feelings over his failed plot to grab power for himself, Lord Kagemitsu and his wife are allowed to escape one step ahead of the blood thirsty mob that has overrun the fort.  As they leave, Hyakkimaru reveals to Dororo that the time for them to part has come.  He reveals that he knows Dororo‘s secret – that she is in fact a girl in disguise – and encourages her to start living her life in the service of the peasants as is her destiny. With that, Hyakkimaru walks off onto the lonely road all by himself.  Although he was never seen again, it is said that some fifty years later, the Hall of Hell, and all 48 of its statues, burned to the ground.