The 1969 ''Dororo'' black and white

anime is hand-drawn and computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japanese, (a term derived from a shortening of ...

series is based on the manga of the same name by Osamu Tezuka. In 1968, in order to pitch the series, Tezuka created a 13-minute full-color pilot which summarized the story Hyakkimaru's birth and upbringing and meeting with Dororo, and an abbreviated version of ''The Tale of the Monster Bandai''. The series was produced in black and white coloring due to budget cuts, but made the demons look more weird and menacing. While reasonably faithful to the original ''Dororo'' (1967–69) manga, the network was originally concerned that the series was too dark because of the bloody battles, vistas of carnage and burning villages, so the cute dog Nota was added to the cast. In addition, the original grim music was replaced with a new and catchy piece, and the original animation of Dororo marching through fields of corpses was replaced with scenes of Dororo skipping playfully across village roofs. Because the original manga series was cancelled before Tezuka had a chance to shift the focus towards Dororo's "coming-of-age" story as he had originally planned, most of the plots revolved around Hyakkimaru's battles with supernatural monsters. This caused viewers to consider Hyakkimaru as the main character and from episode 14 onward, the series was re-titled . The early cancellation of the manga series also meant there were not enough stories for the required number of episodes so episodes 14, 15, 18, 19, 20, 23 and 25 were original stories developed specifically for the television series. The series is first installment of ''

World Masterpiece Theater was a Japanese TV anime staple that showcased an animated version of a different classical book or story each year from 19:30 to 20:00 on Sunday on Fuji TV. It originally aired from 1969 to 1997 and from 2007 to 2009. Commonly abbreviated to ...

'', then known as ''Calpis Comic Theater'', and the only one in black and white.

Episode list

References

{{World Masterpiece Theater 1969 anime television series debuts Action anime and manga Dark fantasy anime and manga Demons in anime and manga Discotek Media Fiction about curses Fuji TV original programming Historical fantasy anime and manga Osamu Tezuka anime Television shows set in Japan World Masterpiece Theater series Yōkai in anime and manga

Episode list

See also

References