Dororo

Dororo
Cover of Dororo volume 4 from the Osamu Tezuka Manga Complete Works edition.
どろろ
Genre	Adventure, Historical, Supernatural
Manga
Written by	Osamu Tezuka
Published by	Shogakukan → Akita Shoten
English publisher	Vertical
Demographic	Shōnen
Magazine	Weekly Shōnen Sunday → Bōken'ō
Original run	27 August 1967 – 22 July 1968
Volumes	4
Anime television series
Directed by	Gisaburō Sugii
Studio	Mushi Productions
Network	Fuji TV
Original run	April 6, 1969 – September 28, 1969
Episodes	26
Live-action film
Directed by	Akihiko Shiota
Released	2007

Dororo (どろろ^?) is a Japanese manga series from the manga creator Osamu Tezuka in the late 1960s. The anime television series (1969) based on the manga consists of 26 half-hour episodes. It was made into a live-action film in 2007.

During the late 1960s, manga featuring demons was popular among kids. Dororo was first serialized in Weekly Shōnen Sunday between August 27, 1967, and July 22, 1968, before being cancelled. Parallel to the anime broadcast the manga was then concluded in Akita Shoten's Bōken'ō magazine.

Tezuka's childhood memory of his friends pronouncing dorobō (どろぼう^?, "thief") as dororo inspired the title of this work. In the live action movie series, the name is explained to be a southern term for Hyakkimaru, meaning "Little Monster".

The anime series bears the distinction of being the first entry in what is now known as the World Masterpiece Theater series.

Dororo is a thriller manga, which revolves around a rōnin named Hyakkimaru (百鬼丸^?) and young orphan thief named Dororo (どろろ^?) during the Sengoku period. The un-named child was born malformed, limbless and without facial features or internal organs. This was the result of his birth father daimyō Daigō Kagemitsu forging a pact with 48 sealed demons so that he might rule the world. In return, he promised the demons could each obtain a piece of his unborn child's body. This enabled them to roam free and commit atrocities along the countryside.