Manga / Dororo

One of many series by the prolific and much-loved Osamu Tezuka, Dororo is the tale of Hyakkimaru, a wandering swordsman who bears an odd burden: he was born without most of his body parts (including eyes, ears, a tongue, and limbs) thanks to his father striking a deal with forty-eight demons. Abandoned and raised by a country doctor, Hyakkimaru learned to use his sixth sense to compensate for his lacking the other five but eventually discovered his condition made him a magnet for supernatural weirdness.

Equipped with a number of prosthetics made by his adopted father, along with a pair of quality blades, Hyakkimaru wanders Japan righting wrongs, helping the helpless, tracking down the demons that stole his parts, and brutally cutting down anyone foolish enough to mess with him. Along the way, he picks up a hanger-on in the young, self-proclaimed master thief Dororo, who it turns out is the orphaned child of a notorious bandit king who was brought low by the shogunate.

The manga originally began in Weekly Shonen Sunday in 1967, only to be cancelled in 1968. It later moved to the magazine Bouken'ou in 1969, where it concluded. It has had two anime adaptations, one in 1969 which was the first entry in World Masterpiece Theater, and the other in 2019.

Not to be confused with one of the characters from Sgt. Frog nor Dorohedoro, which also has an anime adaptation made by MAPPA.

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Derivative works:

Anime and Manga

• A television pilot released on January 12, 1968, by Mushi Productions.
• "Kōhaku Monomane Manga Gassen", a one-shot manga written by Fujiko Fujio, Jirō Tsunoda, Rentarō Itai, Fujio Akatsuka, Noboru Kawasaki, Mitsuyoshi Sonoda, Ippei Kuri, and Osamu Tezuka and published on Weekly Shonen Sunday on January 14, 1968. The first four depicted Dororo while the rest depicted Mōretsu Atarō.
• An animated television series in 1969. It was renamed Dororo and Hyakkimaru halfway and licensed by Discotek Media for a Region 1 DVD release.
• "Arashi no Yoru ni", a chapter of the anthology Black Jack Alive by Go Nagai. It was collected in volume 2 on December 9, 2005.
• Dororo Bon, a manga series by Daisuke Dōke and serialized on Young Champion from May 22, 2007 to February 10, 2009.
• Young Black Jack (2011): Chapters 54-66 feature characters based on those from Dororo.
• Dororo to Enma-kun, a crossover manga with Dororon Enma-kun by Go Nagai. It started out as a one-shot in Weekly Manga Goraku on November 2, 2012, before being serialized from February 8, 2013 to March 7, 2014.
• Search and Destroy, a manga series by Atsushi Kaneko and serialized in TezuComi since October 5, 2018.
• The Legend of Dororo and Hyakkimaru, a manga series by Satoshi Shiki and serialized in Monthly Champion Red since October 19, 2018.
• A 2019 anime retelling by MAPPA and Tezuka Productions. It premiered on Prime Video just three months before the 1969 anime's 50th anniversary.

Films — Live-Action

• A Live-Action Adaptation film released on January 27, 2007. It moves the setting from the Sengoku Era to a suspiciously similar post-apocalyptic future.

Literature

• A one-volume novel by Masaki Tsuji, published on October 3, 1969.
• A Gamebook by Jinzō Toriumi and Yoshitake Suzuki, published in 1988.
• A three-volume novel by Jinzō Toriumi, published from July 12 to November 15, 2001.
• A two-volume novelization of the 2007 film by Masaru Nakamura, published on December 1, 2006.

Theatre

• New Jōruri: Hyakkimaru, a stage play first released on June 16, 2004.
• A 2019 stage play written and directed by Daisuke Nishida and based on the 2019 anime.

Video Games

• A computer game for the NEC PC8801/Sr system, released on January 10, 1989, by Quasar Soft.
• A Hack and Slash video game for the PlayStation 2, released on September 9, 2004, by Sega and Red Entertainment. It was released in English as Blood Will Tell (subtitled "Tezuka Osamu's Dororo") and hereafter referred to as such on this very wiki to avoid confusion with other adaptations.

Webcomics

• Dororo: Re:Verse, a South Korean-Japanese collaborative webtoon written and illustrated by Lee Do-gyung. It centers on Hyakkimaru (named Hakki in the series) continuing the search for his body parts in a modern setting, accompanied by Roro who looks like Dororo.

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Dororo provides examples of:

The manga and 1969 anime

• Abandon the Disabled: Kagemitsu Daigo abandons Hyakkimaru at birth because of his deal with demons to exchange parts of the child's body for power. He would've been dead too if Jukai didn't find him, take him in, and create prosthetic body parts for him. The story takes place in feudal Japan, so Hyakkimaru is very fortunate he ends up in Jukai's care.
• Adaptational Attractiveness: Dororo is a sexy teen girl in the movies, the crossover with Dororon Enma-kun, and the finale of Blood Will Tell instead of a ratty little orphan kid.
• After the End: As a pacifist in the humanistic sense, Tezuka did his best to depict how hellish the "Warring States" period would realistically be... and wow does this trope ever apply.. In short, it doesn't take much dressing up for the world of the original Dororo manga to look like a post-nuclear wasteland (to the point that you could probably fool a new reader into thinking that that was the case). At the end of the day, whether the weapons of choice are swords and spears or atomic bombs, war... war never changes.
• All Trolls Are Different: One of the friendlier youkai is called a troll, at least in the English version. Here it's a green-skinned humanoid with a swollen head that points the way to buried treasure.
• Ambiguous Gender Identity: The end of the manga reveals that Dororo is a girl raised as a boy. Dororo seems to genuinely identify as a boy, but seemingly more out of ignorance rather than anything else.
• Anachronism Stew: Why are Sengoku-era swordsmen dropping pop culture references from Japan in The '60s? Probably Rule of Funny.
• Barefoot Poverty: Wouldn't be the Warring States era without it.
• Berserker Tears: Hyakkimaru does not take the death of Mio and the orphans he lived with well. He weeps as he kills the rogue samurai who murdered them.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: Usually played for comic relief, which was also a common gimmick in many of Tezuka's works.
  • Done by Dororo in Blood Will Tell to introduce Dororo Mode when it's unlocked.
• Cool Horse: Warlord Kisoji's horse, Midoro. Even before allowing herself to become possessed by a demon after Kisoji forcibly separated her from her foal, Midoro's ruthlessness and power alone allowed the warlord to win many battles.
• Cool Old Guy: Biwa-Houshi, a blind old dude so named because he's a priest with a biwa - a musical instrument.
• Crapsack World: Tezuka had a distinctly unromanticized view of the Sengoku period, which he depicted in this and other Samurai stories as a war torn, famine and disease-ridden hellhole littered with the ruins of burned out villages and corpses of defeated soldiers and murdered civilians... and then he introduced 48 demons to it!
• Deal with the Devil: In order to gain power for himself, Daigo Kagemitsu offers his soon-to-be-born son to the 48 demons that inhabit the Hall of Hell.
• Deliberately Monochrome: It suits Tezuka's style and the setting so well that you'd be forgiven for not remembering that animated shows were being produced in color by 1969. The pilot animation was produced in color, but apparently the sponsor thought that there was too much blood, so the black-and-white was something of a compromise.
• Evil-Detecting Dog: Mota-kou, the puppy that travels with Hyakkimaru and Dororo.
• Evil Weapon: In one chapter, Dororo and Hyakkimaru come across a stray samurai who has been driven to kill by his demonically-possessed sword 'Nihil' ("Resembling Leech", and it wouldn't be surprising if Tezuka intended for there to be a Bilingual Bonus). See, 'Nihil' (a.k.a. "Dragon Brood" in Blood Will Tell) talks to its owner, saying 'I need to drink blood, I need to drink blood', and it appears to work on anyone - even Dororo.
• Expy: In the crossover Dororo to Enma-kun, teenage Dororo looks like a genderbent version of Kamui from Shirato Sampei's Kamui Den.
• Gotta Catch Them All: Hyakkumaru's mission. If the world gets a little better in the process, fine.
• Had to Be Sharp: The only reason Dororo survived long enough to meet Hyakkimaru.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Manami-Onba burned down the home of a nun who took care of orphans using a special oil before attempting to sully her reputation. She is burned to death by the same type of oil.
• Honor Before Reason: Dororo's samurai-hating father not only rejects a food offering from them, he attacks them and gets himself killed.
• Kick the Dog: Surprisingly not the demons (despite taking Hyakkimaru's body parts and terrorizing medieval Japan), but the human warlord Kisoji in regards to his warhorse. When he finds the horse, Midoro, tending to her foal, he forcibly separates them, believing that a warhorse can't afford to be tender. He sells the colt to a nearby farmer so she won't be distracted and beats her whenever she mopes on the battlefield. Is it any surprise that she allows a demon to possess her dying body to get revenge on humanity? But not before trampling Kisoji for his mistreatment of her.
• Limb-Sensation Fascination: Hyakkimaru often goes through this when he gets one of his body parts back.
• Little Miss Badass: Originally just The Load to Hyakkimaru, Dororo eventually proves to be a resourceful and clever fighter on his own. In "The Two Sharks" chapter, oarsman Shiranui rows the bandit and his men (along with Dororo, whom they kidnapped to locate a treasure) in the middle of the water so they will become food to his two pet sharks. Dororo alone rallies up the bandit and his remaining men and chooses to dive into the water. Luring one of the sharks as bait, while jumping out of the water Dororo jumps on top of its head as the bandit and his men thrust swords into its stomach.
• Magnetic Medium: Hyakkimaru started on his journey because supernatural creatures were beginning to attack him at Doctor Jukai's home, and that's just not something you let happen to the guy who raised you. He seems to run across monsters as often as they find him, overall.
• Manly Tears: Hyakkimaru has plenty to cry about.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: If Hyakkimaru had just broken 'Nihil' when they first met, rather than just paralyzing its owner Tanosuke and leaving him, they could've avoided a whole lotta tragedy.
• No Ending: Tezuka had to cut the original manga short, leaving the TV series, video game and other adaptations to come up with their own endings.
• Not So Stoic: Hyakkimaru gets really excited when he gets parts of his body back.
• Nue: Demons killed by Hyakkimaru in the past merge into a giant nue. Hyakkimaru kills it in the final chapter.
• Parental Abandonment: Hyakkimaru's father put him in a little basket and let him drift off on a river current.
• Redemption Equals Death: After kidnapping Dororo, killing some captured villagers when they refused to row him and his men to the cape where the treasure was hidden, betraying Hyakkimaru by shooting an arrow into his back, and leaving the last of his men to die by being crushed beneath a fallen Buddha statue, the lead bandit, Itachi, redeems himself by protecting Dororo from another group of bandits atop the mountain cape and prays to him to find the money himself before plunging to his death.
• Shōnen Demographic: One of the very first, in fact.
• Shoo the Dog: Near the end of the story, Hyakkimaru tries to sever ties with Dororo so he can continue on his journey and keep the kid out of danger. Dororo has none of it, and insists on being by his side, but ultimately the two part ways.
• Single-Stroke Battle: The first encounter with Tanosuke and the sword Nihil. Funny thing is, it's both a parody and subversion. After a build up, the two fighters are frozen in place for almost twelve hours.It's a parody because Dororo comes running up to Hyakkimaru and asks him why he's still standing there, and a subversion because the actual 'stroke' wasn't with swords but their will (the other guy's still standing because he's unconscious and physically locked in place).
  • Hyakkimaru and Tahomaru have a conventional one when they finally meet.
• Threatening Shark: A wily bandit and his men kidnap Dororo so they can use the map imprinted on his back to locate a treasure above a mountain in a small cape. They try to make the captured villagers row them to the cape, but they refuse to do so because an evil spirit disguised as a fish would always eat them before they got there, forcing the bandits to kill them. Then a suspicious man appears and volunteers to row them, and once they're in the middle of the sea, it's revealed the man has tricked them and half the bandit's men become food to his two pet sharks, Jiromaru and Saburomaru, who are actually possessed by demons.
• Unsettling Gender-Reveal: When Hyakkimaru regains his real eyes after vanquishing another demon, he realizes that the Dororo he has spent so long traveling with is actually a girl. His regards towards her change considerably.
• Villainous BSoD: Very rare in this story. A demon's underling takes in Dororo temporarily, with the intent of eventually sacrificing him to her master (the White-Faced Fudou), but finds that she's grown fond of him.
• Younger Than They Look: Hyakkimaru's supposed to be 14. Granted, he's had a rough life so far, so it's not too odd that he might look older, but this doesn't explain why Tahomaru looks as old as he does.

Blood Will Tell

• Adaptational Badass: Dororo in the original manga and anime? Cocky little thief who can take a hit from a human adult, and give one right back, but is no match for the supernatural threats Hyakkimaru eats for breakfast. Dororo in Blood Will Tell? Can and will dish out 47 different flavors of hurt to any boss dumb enough to get within range of his mighty plum-sized fists (a slight exaggeration, but he is completely able to hack down a significant portion of their health bar on his own).
• Adaptational Heroism: Kagemitsu Daigo is a great deal more sympathetic in the game. Hyakkimaru is a foretold "child of light" who would bring an end to the reign of fiends. To prevent this, demons seduce his father with promises of power if he would sacrifice his son in a dream where his mind would be more susceptible to influence. Upon waking up, he's utterly horrified at what he's done, and when the demons claim Hyakkimaru's body parts, he immediately spirits his son away for his safety. In the manga, Daigo makes a deal with the demons at his own initiative to gain power, and is thrilled to see Hyakkimaru's mangled body after he is born as that means the contract is fulfilled. There is also nothing about Hyakkimaru being a foretold chosen one in the manga. It's revealed that afterward, his father became a vessel for the demons to spread their influence, while the manga has no such implications.
• Advancing Boss of Doom: One of the phases of the Dragon Tank boss have it chasing Dororo down a long corridor, and she must flee all the way until reaching the end before she could battle the tank.
• Anti-Frustration Features: If you complete a chapter, the game will tell you how many Fiends you need to defeat upon replaying that chapter and will even mark their location on the map. Defeating all Hidden Fiends in that chapter will also prompt you to save the game to prevent you from losing hours of progress.
• Artistic License – Medicine: While the whole series runs on this, usually Hyakkimaru is depicted as only missing body parts that he theoretically could live without. Not so here, where recovered parts include his heart, liver, lungs, several parts of his brain, and his skull.
• Anachronism Stew: Hyakkimaru's arm is outfitted with a machine gun.
• Asian Fox Spirit: One of the bosses is a massive three-tailed kitsune that can fly thanks to having fiery wings on its feet before coming back stronger as a six-tailed, and later "nine-tailed" fox.
• Attack of the Killer Whatever: The Giant Fire Wheel boss is a sentient spiked wheel taller than Hyakkimaru, set on fire and attacks by trying to roll Hyakkimaru over.
• Attack of the Monster Appendage: Mountainous is a gigantic stone hand emerging from the ground, who can spam projectile from it's palms. It slinks back underground upon defeat.
• Attack on the Heart: Mountainous's final form and sole weakness is it's gigantic, throbbing heart, located inside a cavern. Destroying said heart kills the monster for good. You also have to do this to Behemoth by unleashing a charged slash and then doing a combo to finish them before they regain all their HP.
• Blade Below the Shoulder: Hyakkimaru, just like in the manga, kicks ass with prosthetic arm-blades attached to his elbows. The Great Horn/Twin Blade/ Goliath Fiends meanwhile are bosses with organic blades for arms.
• Blow You Away: The Wind Fiend can generate tornadoes during it's boss battle to disorientate Hyakkimaru.
• Boss-Only Level: The Final Chapter consists of only the True Final Boss fight against Behemoth and it's multiple phases. Unfortunately, you can't replay this chapter because you can't refight bosses after you defeat them.
• Classical Chimera:
  • Dragon Tank, despite it's name, resembles more like a chimaera, what with it's goat-like horns and head, a body resembling a lion, and a snake's head for a tail. And it's piloting a tank.
  • The Composite Fiend Chimaera, another boss, this time with some rock-like features on it's body for some reason.
• Colossus Climb: The Behemoth can only be harmed by jumping on and climbing to it's arms and slashing at it from up close. And later, climbing to the monster's back to attack it's back-horns.
• Deliberately Monochrome: Comes with limited sound, too. When you begin the game, everything is monochrome and soundless, to represent Hyakkimaru's missing body parts. You get sound and color back in their full intended glory once you retrieve Hyakkimaru's ears and eyes, respectively.
• Easily Forgiven: Despite being a pawn of the 48 Fiends for most of the game, having conquered other nations in their name and having employed slave labour to create his castle, Hyakkimaru still allows him to become ruler of Japan in order to create a nation that is actually peaceful.
• Easy Level Trick: During the True Final Boss, you are required to finish the fight by unleashing a 48 button combo in a short time limit. Equipping the Eight Cloud Sword reduces this requirement from 48 buttons to 16, greatly lowering the requirement to finish the fight.
• Eldritch Abomination: Most of the bosses, and they can look downright nightmare-inducing at times.
  • The Dream Eater and it's Palette Swap Carrion Feeder is an insectoid monster with a centipede body, floating inside a giant brain tetered to the ground. And has a large human eye in place of a head, which it uses to spam Eye Beams at Hyakkimaru during the battle.
  • Scourge is a pile of severed human limbs taking the form of an amphibian-looking monster.
  • The Fire Golem, despite it's name, is a flesh-and-blood skinless monster whose body is constantly on fire. And it's spine and skull are sticking out of it's flesh.
  • Behemoth, the Final Boss, a horned skeletal monstrosity with flesh peeking out it's ribcages, draconic wings, eyes on it's chest, Skull for a Head...
• Disc-One Final Boss: Composite Fiend Chimera and Fiend Tahoumaru seem like they would be the final boss considering they're encountered at the top of Daigo's Castle, and that you unlock Dororo Mode and the Gallery after the credits roll, but they're really not. You need to defeat the 47 Fiends to unlock the True Final Boss, Behemoth.
• Evil Is Bigger: The Final Boss and most powerful of the demons, Behemoth, is also the largest of them all.
• Evil Weapon: The Masterless Samurai turns out to be controlled by his katana Dragon Brood, which has a sentient mind on it's own and emits a sinister purple aura that drives it's wielder into attacking Hyakkimaru. Dragon Brood later possesses Dororo when she tries investigating, leading to Fighting Your Friend below.
  Dragon Brood: Kill... you must kill... Kill!
• Fighting Your Friend: One of Hyakkimaru's boss fights is against a possessed Dororo.
• Flaming Sword: Dragon Brood is an Evil Weapon who possesses it's wielders and can set itself alight as an attack. The Fiend Slayer and Lotus Blade are also pink and green energy blades respectively.
• Gotta Kill Them All: Actually doing so and getting all of Hyakkimaru's body parts (besides his right arm) via Side Quest before the last chapter leads to the "true ending."
• Go Through Me: One of the bosses, the Fire Golem, name-drops this trope almost word-for-word.
  Hyakkimaru: Out of my way!
  Golem: You'll have to go through me to get by! [cue boss fight]
• Horned Humanoid: Great Horn is an ogre with a single gigantic horn. While Boar Fiend is a humanoid demon with three.
• Heel–Face Turn: Tahoumaru changes sides during Chapter 6 upon realizing that his father is in league with the 48 Fiends, believing that a peaceful country could never be created from evil means.
• Infinity -1 Sword: The Fiend Slayer, a pink energy sword that is Lv.50 and is useful for taking down the remaining Fiends. It would be the best weapon in the game if it weren't potentially outclasses by several other weapons of the same level.
• Infinity +1 Sword: The Lotus Sword is a green energy blade that is Lv.55 and increases Hyakkimaru's HP to maximum. The Phoenix Sword is also Lv.55 and
• Law of 100: While collecting 100 of the common items (Jyukai's Medicine) gives you a "1 Up" (the game calls it this), it's really just an extra life bar. If you've been collecting your body parts, you can have up to 3 extra health bars.
• Lethal Joke Weapon: The Fool's Blade is a weak weapon, but it gains more power the more Worn Blades you have. Theoretically, if you were to carry the maximum amount of Worn Blades the game allows, the Fool's Blade would be the strongest weapon in the game based on sheer level alone.
• Lighter and Softer: In the original manga, Hyakkimaru grows increasingly bitter, jaded and vicious as the story continues and he is continuously exposed to the horrors of the Fiends, war, and the ungratefulness of those he saves (the village he saves from the Fiend Yudai being a prime example), with heroism being pretty much an afterthought. In Blood Will Tell, he's played as being far more heroic and idealistic from the get-go, and never quite loses it all.
• Little Miss Badass: Dororo is a sidekick fighter and is frankly quite effective, mostly due to his infinite amount of thrown rocks.
• Living Statue: The Grave Golem (and it's Palette Swap Soul Stealer) is a Japanese-style Dogū statue, albeit with rock tentacles coming from its eyes and limbs.
• Lotus Position: The demon, Legion, sits cross-legged while floating all over the place and attacking Hyakkimaru.
• Mad Eye: The Fire Golem's left eye, which is literally bulging out its socket. And that's one of the least disturbing-looking features on this monster.
• Market-Based Title: Simply known as Dororo in its home country, the game received a much longer and darker title when localized in Europe as Blood Will Tell: Osamu Tezuka's Dororo.
• Mind-Control Eyes: Possessed Dororo (after getting hold of an Evil Weapon katana) gains glowing, yellow eyes. With the cutscene zooming at her performing a Death Glare at Hyakkimaru (and the player). Then there's possessed Misaki...
• Mirror Match: Not all bosses are monstrous - Hyakkimaru sometimes battles human bosses the same size as himself, who uses swords and can unleash similar combos. Notably the Masterless Samurai, Demon Sword, Snake Eyes Saburota, Tahoumaru, Misaki, and possessed Dororo.
• Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Legion, one of the bosses, is a six-armed demon, each arm holding a deadly weapon and using all six to assault Hyakkimaru simultaneously.
• Multipurpose Tongue: The amphibian-like Scourge naturally has a long tongue it will use to lash out at Hyakkimaru. Said tongue even has deadly barbs that deals additional damage.
• My Brain Is Big:
  • The Homonculi (and it's Palette Swap Night Terror) has a humanoid body, but his oversized brain causes the entire upper of his head to swell and take up most of his face.
  • Gaping Maw is a demon with a massive, bulging brain.
• Mysterious Mist: The mountain levels is filled with fog, from which there are residing monsters.
• One-Winged Angel: Tahoumaru ends up possessed by the amalgamation of all the Fiends that were killed, called Fiend Tahoumaru. If the player hasn't defeated all Fiends, then Fiend Tahoumaru is the last boss that you face.
• Oni:
  • Hellcrusher is a green-skinned demon based on the Oni, who carries a massive spiked club as weapon.
  • Impaler, another Oni boss similar in size to Hellcrusher. He wields a massive spear instead however.
• Optional Boss: Each chapter (except the final one) has several Hidden Fiends that can be found in various spots. Some can be fought before the chapter ends, but some can only be fought after clearing it. Defeating them all is required to unlock the final chapter.
• Opposite-Sex Clone: Demons constructed Dororo, a girl, using one of the male Hyakkimaru's stolen body parts.
• Our Dragons Are Different: Draconus and it's Upgraded Boss variant White Dragon resembles a chubby, overweight serpent with an oriental dragon's head. And unlike most examples, can't fly, alternating between a Belly Flop Crushing and a Tail Slap.
• Our Minotaurs Are Different: A somewhat scrawny minotaur shows up as a boss, armed with a trident (instead of heavy weapons usually associated with Minotaurs) and oddly enough, has canine features on its face. Somehow.
• Painting the Medium: Blood Will Tell changes the game's interface when you receive some of the sense organs. For instance, the game is in black and white until you get at least one eye, and the controller vibration function doesn't work until you get Hyakkimaru's pain receptor nerves.
• Palette Swap: Since Tezuka never got around to designing most of the 48 Majin, Blood Will Tell had numerous recolored or otherwise modified versions of existing ones to fill out their ranks.
• Panthera Awesome: The Hellcat boss is a leonine-demon capable of walking in a bipedal stance.
• Peninsula Of Power Levelling: During your first playthrough of Chapter 5, there is an area that has a portal that spawns Demon Foxes. This can be used to obtain HP Ups which allow you to greatly increase Dororo's HP and make her more durable to make up for her weaker attack.
• Power Floats: How most of the bosses - those with supernatural abilities - travels around. Notably the Ogress, Grave Golem, Legion, Fiend Tahoumaru, and several others who doesn't touch the ground while fighting Hyakkimaru until they're defeated.
• Raijū: One of the bosses, named "Thunder Fiend" in-game, is a red raiju who spams electric attacks throughout the battle.
• Red Herring: In Blood Will Tell, the opening narration states that the Majin created a human nemesis for Hyakkimaru using his missing parts. His estranged half-brother, who is missing an eye, shows up shortly after you get one of your own back. It's not him, though. Or his nemesis Saturoba either. It's Dororo. See below.
• Rock Monster: Andromorphic, human-shaped blocks of rocks are another frequent enemy type.
• Recurring Boss: Some of the bosses needs to be fought twice or thrice in the game. Notably Scourge, Mountainous, Dragon Tank, Misaki, with the battles mostly playing out the same way.
• Sadistic Choice: Dororo was created by the 48 Fiends as a vessel for their leader so that Hyakkimaru would have to choose between completing his quest and his best friend's life. Only upon parting ways until Dororo becomes an adult does he finally get to choose both.
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: The demons attempted to keep the prophesied child of light from becoming a threat by taking away his limbs and organs. They didn't expect him to live long enough to try and take them back.
• Set Swords to "Stun": While fighting possessed Dororo, Hyakkimaru attacks with the back of his katana. Which deals damage to Dororo's health, but doesn't kill her once her health is depleted. Winning said battle have Dororo getting knocked out non-fatally so Hyakkimaru can remove the Evil Weapon possessing Dororo. This also applies to non-fatal battles against human opponents, with the pre-battle description stating that Hyakkimaru is only to use his powers to kill only demons and fiends.
• Shock and Awe:
  • The Thunder Fiend and the Ogress' last form have them spamming thunderbolts on Hyakkimaru constantly.
  • When his power meter is at maximum, Hyakkimaru can summon a Bolt of Divine Retribution to electrocute his enemies. It even works in stages set indoors.
• Side Quest: Some of the 48 fiends are completely optional bosses you have to search the game area to find and fight. You can get through the game without defeating all of them, though it is useful to do so, as each recovered body part improves Hyakkimaru's combat abilities.
• Skyward Scream: Hyakkimaru lets out one of these after using too much of his energy from defeating the first boss, Great Horn.
  "Arrgh! Wh-what's happening? Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrgh!!!!!"
• Spin Attack: Hyakkimaru has a Limit Break that have him spinning like a tornado and damaging enemies and bosses while he's at it. And he can even use this move to float in mid-air for a few seconds!
• Stripped to the Bone: Upon her defeat, the Oggress melts into a puddle of green gunk and leaves behind a skeleton.
• Sword Lines: As Hyakkimaru, his arm-blades will leave behind green curves each swing when adequately powered up. Wielder of the Evil Weapon cursed katana also leaves behind red blade-lines.
• Tank Goodness: The Dragon Tank boss is a chimaera monster whose lower body is a tank (or at least, a Bamboo Technology medieval Japanese equivalent). It spends the whole battle charging all over the place with tackling attacks.
• Tengu: Despite her name, the Ogress (and by extension her Palette Swap Demon Ogress) is a tengu, complete with horns and flowing red hair as well as ability of flight.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: Hyakkimaru tries very hard not to kill regular humans; using the back of his blade to do so. Unlike many depictions, this seriously restricts what moves he can use in such fights.
• Time Skip: Upon beating 47 of the Fiends, Hyakkimaru and Dororo part ways, with the Final Chapter taking place 5 years later.
• Title Drop: The Final Chapter is called Dororo, which is also the name of the Japanese version of the game. The overseas versions of the game rendered the chapter name an Artifact Title due to changing the game's title to Blood Will Tell.
• Treasure Hunting Episode: Dororo Mode, unlocked after beating the Disc-One Final Boss, has Dororo reveal that her scarf is actually a treasure map, and that she's looking for treasure. Several levels have you look around for gold coins under a time limit.
• True Final Boss: The 48th Fiend, Behemoth, can only be unlocked by defeating all 47th Fiends up until this point. If you haven't defeated them all yet, the game will helpfully tell you how many Fiends left you need to defeat.
• Upgraded Boss: Several of the Fiends are stronger versions of earlier ones with a few new moves to differentiate them.
• Waddling Head: The Inquisitor (and it's Palette Swap Triface) is a monstrous head larger than Hyakkimaru with three sides of faces, and three legs underneath for moving about. Each head having a Breath Weapon to attempt incinerating Hyakkimaru with.
• When Trees Attack: Expect to fight plenty of sentient trees who can lash out with Vine Tentacles throughout the forest and mountain levels.
• The Worm That Walks: Redcap, one of the bosses, is made from dozens and dozens of frogs fusing together into forming a humanoid shape.

2007 live-action film

• After the End: Moving the setting to a dystopian future does make Hyakkimaru's artificial limbs somewhat more plausible.
• Ambiguous Gender Identity: Dororo seems to reject the idea of being a girl, though the film doesn't explore whether it's an issue of identification or a practical rejection of the cultural baggage assigned to the gender.
• Heel–Face Turn: In the climax, Tahomaru fights Hyakkimaru out of jealously over their mother's affection, but once he witnesses the horror of their father Kagetmitsu becoming a demon to bring him back to life, he lets go of all negative feelings and accepts Hyakkimaru as his older brother, willing to watch over his rightful place until he comes back from his journey.

The Legend of Dororo and Hyakkimaru

• Adaptational Heroism: Tanosuke in this manga is less bloodthirsty than the original version and not as indiscriminate on who he kills. He even willingly parts with Nihil after he finally gets revenge for his older sister, thanking the sword for lending him its strength.
• Art-Shifted Sequel: Similarly to the 2019 anime adaptation, the main characters are drawn in a different and more modern style, although some of the side characters such as the villagers are drawn in the Tezuka style. Hyakkimaru is a little bit older just like in the original manga and original anime adaptation. Dororo looks closer to being in her preteens. And Tahomaru also looks quite a bit older as well.
• Composite Character: This manga's version of Mio ends up being one to Okaka, being a female servant of Hakumenfudo who lures unfortunate victims into his cave to have their faces stolen.
• Darker and Edgier: The new manga re-telling is on the same levels of darker themes as the 2019 anime adaptation. The characters are drawn with a more modern design and the action scenes are drawn in an intense and gritty artstyle.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Unlike most adaptations of Dororo, Mio and Tanosuke both end up surviving in this manga.

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