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Dororo Volume 1 (v. 1) | 
| Author: Osamu Tezuka
Publisher: Vertical
Category: Book
List Price: $13.95
Buy New: $7.44
You Save: $6.51 (47%)
Rating:  5 reviews
Sales Rank: 81677
Media: Paperback
Pages: 312
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 6 x 0.8
ISBN: 1934287164
Dewey Decimal Number: 741
EAN: 9781934287163
ASIN: 1934287164
Publication Date: April 29, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand New, Perfect Condition, Please allow 4-14 business days for delivery. 100% Money Back Guarantee, Over 1,000,000 customers served.
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Dororo is Tezuka's classic thriller manga featuring a youth who has been robbed of 48 body parts by devils, and his epic struggle against a host of demons to get them back.
Daigo Kagemitsu, who works for a samurai general in Japan's Warring States period, promises to offer body parts of his unborn baby to 48 devils in exchange for complete domination of the country. Knowing the child to be deficient, Kagemitsu orders the newborn thrown into the river.
The baby survives. Callling himself Hyakkimaru, ge searches the world for the 48 demons. Each time he eliminates one, he retrieves one of his missing parts. Hyakkimaru meets a boy thief named Dororo, and together they travel the countryside, confronting mosters and ghosts again and again. This the first in a 3 - volume series.
Tezuka's manga and animated films had a tremendous impact on the shaping of the psychology of Japan's postwar youth. His work changed the concept of Japanese comics, transforming it into an art form and incorporating a variety of new styles in creating "story comics."
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| Customer Reviews:
 Great Pace and Direction for a Tezuka Work August 20, 2008
Jared Turner (Indiana)
I try and get my hands on all Tezuka's work I can. Phoenix saga was great, Buddha saga was great, Adolf and the list goes on and on. Dororo volume 1 is hot from start to finish. Good action, good art plus an interesting story line = a satisfied Tezuka fan. It almost reminds me a bit of the anime Inuyasha, but done by Tezuka. Volume 2 is on the way and I know Haykkimaru will encounter many more demons and regain what was fausted to the evil spirits by his father. I love being excited for Tezuka. Thanks.
Lesser Tezuka, but still pretty darn good July 27, 2008
Sebastian Flyte (Orbis Tertius)
If you've never read a manga by Osamu Tezuka before, Dororo is not the place to start. Almost any of his other works-- Ode to Kirohito, Apollo's Song, Buddha, Phoenix-- will give you a better introduction to the artistic depth and range of the "godfather of manga."
If you already like Tezuka, you'll like Dororo. Will you like it as much as the many great Tezuka works released in English over the past few years? Probably not. The artwork in Dororo seems rushed and relatively simplistic by Tezuka's high standards. Its story hints at deeper meanings hidden beneath the surface (as the back cover says, "nobody is born whole") but doesn't pursue those themes with enough depth, at least not in this first volume. We've seen characters much like the wild young thief Dororo in many other Tezuka works (Buddha and Apollo's Song, to name only a few). And, finally, it's unfinished, as Tezuka never gave it an ending.
That said, there is something very unique and special about Dororo. It's set in Japan's feudal era and follows a wandering swordsman named Hyakkimaru and his companion, a scrappy thief named Dororo. Hyakkimaru has been cursed and must battle 38 demons to reclaim various parts of his body. Dororo, orphaned, follows Hyakkimaru in a search for a normal life. There is something quite moving about this duo's quest-- to be happy, to be whole, to be safe-- and the incredible obstacles and challenges each must overcome to attain those simple goals. The manga follows many of the feudal genre tropes-- the plight of the peasants, tryannical samurai, ghost and spirits-- but is much darker than the films of Kurosawa and other works I know that portray Japan's samurai days. Finally, without giving anything away, there's a very Tezuka-like chutzpah in the way Hyakkimaru fights.
Like many Tezuka works, the second and third acts are best, and readers should keep in mind that this volume is largely an introduction to the characters. The series gets even better as it goes on.
Dororo in English at last! May 22, 2008
R. P. Glass (Santa Monica, CA USA)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
This is the first of the recent run of Vertical translations of vintage Tezuka to be in the original manga format. Personally I have been awaiting Dororo in English for close to four decades. I love that tag line [volume title?] on the back - NOBODY IS BORN WHOLE. The front cover is growing on me. The anatomical background not only reflects Tezuka's physician background, but it also reflects what was taken from Hyakkimaru by his father and the 48 demons. I will be eager to see what the image across the spine portrays when volume 3 arrives this fall.
Hyakkimaru's father promised 48 demons a portion each of his soon to born son then literally sends the result down the river in a basket. The basket is found by a doctor who cares for the baby. When the baby communicates telepathically with him, the doctor creates prostatic body parts to replaces those the demon took. Once he becomes proficient at propelling himself, Hyakkimaru leaves the doctor to find and destroy the 48 demons in order to reclaim himself. He is followed by death spirits that can take any form, but that deaf, dumb, blind kid sure wields a mean katana. He rescues and is joined by an even younger sidekick Dororo [the juvenile pronunciation of Dorobo - the word for thief].
Following just the cinematic visuals for forty years I thought that Dororo was a riff on Pinocchio. I was surprised that Hyakkimaru is a 14 year old telepath. Could Dororo in its Sunday Comics volumes and The X-Men at Marvel have reverberated on the same frequency when they first appeared in the 1960's?
This Vertical edition pretty much matches the Akita Bunko publication [minus the opening pages in color plus the creature from page 127 backing up the Table of Contents]. After re"reading" and enjoying Dororo visually for decades, I am eagerly await reading the entire saga "dubbed" with "subtitles".
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