Manga to launch in Japan, Korea with global plans later
Kodoani.com – Japanese distributor Media Do, Tezuka Production and Korean comic company Copin Communications have launched a Japanese-Korean webcomic remake of the manga Dororo classics by Osamu Tezuka on Wednesdays. The webcomic is titled Dororo Re:Verse, with Lee Do-gyung writing the script and storyboard.
The first 21 chapters of the webcomic are available in Japan through the manga web service Piccoma and in Korea on the kakaopage platform. The manga plans a global release after its serialization in Korea ends, especially in North America, China, and Europe.
The manga shifts the setting from feudal Japan to modern day, where youkai and criminals conspire together in the dark to control a new form of magic called “science”. Immortal Hakki, the main character, is Hyakkimaru in the original manga, hundreds of years later still searching for his lost body parts. He has an encounter with Roro, a boy who bears an uncanny resemblance to his old companion Dororo.
Tezuka’s 1967 Dororo manga was previously released in three volumes, and in a collected magazine volume in 2012, and it describes the manga:
Daigo Kagemitsu, who worked for a Samurai general during Japan’s Warring States period, promised to donate 48 body parts of his unborn child to 48 demons in exchange for complete domination of the land. country. When the boy was born, Daigo threw him into the river, hoping he would die. However, a kind sage found him and adopted him. The sage fitted his poor son with prosthetic limbs.
Time passed and the baby grew into a boy who called himself Hyakkimaru. Every time Hyakkimaru slays a demon, he gets one of his lost body parts back. Hyakkimaru meets a thief named Dororo and together they travel the countryside in search of demons who possess Hyakkimaru’s parts. During their journey, they have to face monsters and ghosts.
The supernatural historical manga previously inspired a 26-episode black-and-white anime series in 1969 by Tezuka Productions. A new television anime premiered in January 2019. Sentai Filmworks licensed the anime.
Satoshi Shiki is also writing a similar Dororo remake manga titled The Legend of Dororo and Hyakkimaru (Dororo to Hyakkimaru -den). Shiki launched the manga in Akita Shoten’s Weekly Champion RED magazine in October 2018.
