Search And Destroy 1

Welcome to the post-apocalyptic, entirely genderbent, weirdly wonderful "Dororo" adaptation that is "Search and Destroy." I am a dyed-in-the wool horror/sf fan and a nut for all things "Dororo" in particular, so spoilers and references ahoy!\nThe first thing you should probably know is that this manga is in Japanese and is not currently available in English. Japanese is not my first language (or even my second...) so I'm writing this review in English. If you're a horror fan and looking to get into reading Japanese, this is not a terrible place to start. The reading level is generally easier than the other two existing manga adaptations: the original, and currently running faithful-to-source version. It is conceptually much darker than either. Every panel means something, even in the gloriously bloody and violent shootouts that the hero stumbles into now and again. The mangaka, Kaneko Atsushi, shows clear familiarity with the original in every
choice he makes, but he does not tell the story in the same way. Not even close.\nAnd what is "Dororo's" story, anyway? Well, it's about a corrupt leader (Kagemitsu Daigo) that sacrifices their child's body parts to demonic/evil forces in exchange for power. The dispossessed child comes under the care of a doctor (Jukai) and miraculously survives with the support of synthetic-cum-cybernetic parts. The signature image of the hero is swords embedded in the elbow joints--sword arms. The child gets many names (read the novels if you don't believe me), but the one that sticks is usually Hyakkimaru.\nHyakkimaru goes on a quest to kill the demons and recover his body. He encounters Dororo, an orphan and a thief, that illustrates and teaches the difference between being whole and being human. (In most adaptations, Hyakkimaru is male and Dororo is female. This version swaps their genders, to interesting effect.) Endings are divergent; Osamu Tezuka, the original creator, abandoned the work. Aside from these essential story elements, all the rest is fair game for adaptation. Kaneko Atsushi's first major adaptation shift is to steal a bit from the protagonists' names - Hyakkimaru becomes Hyakki, losing the gendered -maru for boys' names, and Dororo becomes just plain Doro. Bold move, considering the title of "Dororo" is a pun on the word "thief."\nThis world's miracle doctor is a survivalist that lives in the middle of nowhere. When Hyakki is abandoned in snow (flashbacks to Dororo and her mother, who died in a blizzard in the original anime, geek points +1), the doctor finds the genderless creature and builds her a body out of creechi parts, swords, and pointed hooks for feet. In this world, there are humans and creechi (obvious pun on "creature"). Humans are considered superior, but many humans will sell or exchange parts for money or status upgrades, or out of necessity.\nDoro(ro) hangs around a creechi that has Deiki the mud demon's character design; the creechi is obsessed with devouring things and has even wired in a human tongue so that he can get more flavor out of what he eats. While creechi do take and install human body parts in this story repeatedly, this is very illegal. By the same token, selling body parts is also illegal, but the logic (naturally) does not work the other way--that is, humans are free to replace faulty body parts with mechanical equivalents whenever they wish. The effects of this policy cause a lot of moral and ethical gray areas; what makes someone human becomes a lot more open to interpretation. There is also a robust police force that gets itself involved when Hyakki starts leaving a bloody trail in her wake. In most "Dororo" adaptation worlds, Hyakkimaru must take great pains to blend in, but in this one there's almost no need--survivors of war have had their limbs replaced by parts, and the robots created for labor gradually adapt and bring in more human parts for themselves. For once, Hyakki blends right in--Doro, by being fully human, is a lot more unusual in t