365 Days of Manga, Day 97: Dororo!

DORORO ????) • Osamu Tezuka • Vertical (2008) • Shogakukan (Weekly Shonen Sunday, 1967-1968) • 3 volumes • Shonen Samurai Monster Action • Unrated/All Ages (violence)
Sold by his father to 48 demons while he was still in the womb, the wandering swordsman Hyakkimaru was born hideously deformed, missing exactly 48 key body parts. As an adult, he gets by with a super-attuned sixth sense, artificial limbs made of pottery, and hidden weapons like swords that pop out of his arms (at times he’s like a low-tech Astro Boy). With the impish child thief Dororo at his side, Hyakkimaru wanders the medieval countryside, fighting evil and rescuing invariably ungrateful townspeople. When he defeats one of the demons who took his body, he regains a body part. Drawn at the height of Tezuka’s middle period, not long before he began to experiment with more adult-oriented work like Apollo’s Song and Ode to Kirihito, Dororo is one of his darkest children’s comics, but also one of his most energetic, well-crafted and fun, bursting with nonstop action. The battles are intense, the demons–everything from giant toads to rat-headed monks to sandals that walk around on their own–endlessly inventive. Unfortunately, Tezuka never completed the series, leaving it unfinished at three gripping volumes. (Review by Shaenon Garrity)

Today’s review is by the creator of the webcomics Narbonic and Skin Horse. the amazing Shaenon Garrity.
Today’s manga winner is Eric S. of Ohio! Congratulations, Eric! We also have a photo from Nicholas Q., the winner of one of our recent manga shipments!

Congrats, Nicholas! I’m glad that you got manga you like — what a coincidence that you are a tokusatsu fan! Good luck with your Tokusatsu Heroes panel at MTAC Odyssey convention in Nashville, Tennessee in April 30-May 2, 2010! Keep the masked hero fires burning and enjoy the manga!