1. The Origin
Publish:August 27, 1967
Introduction:All alone in a storm, Daigo Kagemitsu prays to the devils in the temple of hell. He promises to offer to the 48 devils living there the body of his baby, to be born soon, in return for the fulfillment of his ambition to conquer the country. His wish is realized, and his son is born with 48 parts of his body missing. Kagemitsu throws his own son into the river.
2. Hyakkimaru
Publish:August 27 to September 24, 1966
Introduction:Time goes by and a boy called Hyakkimaru travels through the confusion of war. He is the child who was discarded by Kagemitsu, who was saved from the river and brought up by a poor doctor. When Hyakkimaru becomes old enough, he sets out on a journey with a glass eye and artificial arms that the doctor has made for him. Wherever Hyakkimaru goes, however, there are devils and demons. One day, Hyakkimaru saves a thief boy called Dororo. The boy takes to the sword attached to the artificial arm of Hyakkimaru, and he declares that he will accompany Hyakkimaru until he can take possession of the sword.
3. Monk
Publish:October 1 to 8, 1967
Introduction:Trying to make him give up on coming with him, Hyakkimaru tells Dororo his personal history as follows:
Shortly after he set about for the journey, Hyakkimaru encounters an obscure biwa-playing monk. Seeing Hyakkimaru relying on the power of sword, the monk teaches him that people should live more gently, and then takes him to the main gate of a Buddhist temple where children who had lost their parents in wartime live. There Hyakkimaru meets a young woman called Mio, who is taking care of the children in place of their parents, and falls in love with her. While Hyakkimaru is away, however, warriors kill Mio and the children. Since the tragedy, Hyakkimaru has never been able to love anybody, having lost his warm heart.
Even after he has heard the story, however, Dororo still insists on accompanying Hyakkimaru.
4. Kanekozo
Publish:October 15 to 29, 1967
Introduction:When Hyakkimaru and Dororo are sleeping in the open by the river, a goblin called Kanekozo appears and whispers something into Hyakkimaru's ear. The next day, when Hyakkimaru tells of the incident to the villagers, he and Dororo are caught without being given any reason and confined in the house of a woman who calls herself Bandai. Shortly after this, a monster comes out of the well in the room where Hyakkimaru and Dororo are locked up and assaults them. The fact is that an evil monster inhabits in the village, killing villagers habitually to rob them of their money.
5. Bandai
Publish:October 29 to November 12, 1967
Introduction:Kanekozo turns out to be a goblin that has come out to reveal the location of the villagers' money that the evil monster has taken. Now that the evil monster knows that the money has gone back to the villagers, Hyakkimaru believes that it will assault the village once again, and he starts preparing together with the villagers to fight against it. And the monster finally reveals itself before them!
6. Jinmenso
Publish:November 12 to 26, 1967
Introduction:Although Hyakkimaru defeats the evil monster successfully, Dororo gets injured during the fight. When Hyakkimaru asks the villagers for help, however, they give him the cold shoulder. He is obliged to nurse Dororo by himself by the river, and while doing so, Hyakkimaru suddenly feels a pain in his artificial right arm. Then, surprisingly, the sword attached to it comes off and instead a real arm grows out where it should be. It is that he regains one part of his body because he has killed one monster.
7. Tragic Past
Publish:November 26 to December 10, 1967
Introduction:Dororo looks back on his own tragic personal history as follows:
He was born as the only son of Hibukuro, who was the leader of bandits. Although Hibukuro ordered his subordinates to attack only the warriors who hurt the lives of farmers, Itachi, one of his subordinates, opposes his boss's approach. Itachi thus betrays Hibukuro, usurping the position of leader. Hibukuro, heartbroken, sets out on a wandering journey together with his wife, Ojiya, and Dororo who was very young then. During the prolonged war however, every village suffers from hunger, and there is no place where the three can feel at ease. Before long his father dies, then his mother, and Dororo is left alone.
8. Monster's Sword
Publish:December 17, 1967 to January 1, 1968
Introduction:A street swordsman appears in front of Hyakkimaru and Dororo on their journey. In truth, however, the man has been at the mercy of the evil power of the sword called Nihiru that he possesses. Nihiru is actually a wicked sword that makes its owner a bloodthirsty killer. Dororo, who has stolen the sword, also becomes a ferocious killer and slays an innocent old man.
9. Banmon
Publish:January 7 to February 18, 1968
Introduction:Hyakkimaru and Dororo find a huge board towering on the hill. The board is called Banmon, and is actually a piece of a wall that used to divide the country into the North and the South. Even though the wall no longer exists, the country is still divided and the North and the South are caught in a cycle of warfare. But in truth, it is the handiwork of a fox goblin that inhabits the hill. Up on the hill Hyakkimaru encounters Daigo Kagemitsu, his father. By then Kagemitsu has become a leader of warriors who guards the fortress, and has another son, Tahomaru, brother of Hyakkimaru.
10. Hakumenfudo
Publish:February 25 to March 31, 1968
Introduction:Parting from Hyakkimaru after a quarrel, Dororo gets acquainted with a woman who looks exactly like his late mother and goes to her house. But she is in truth a ghost who is subordinate to a monster called Hakumenfudo. Because Hakumenfudo does not have a face, it kills whomever the ghost brings and takes the person's face. As Dororo plays the baby to the female ghost, calling her, "Ma," however, a tender feeling begins to grow in her heart, and she tries to help him escape from Hakumenfudo. During the incident, Hyakkimaru finds that Dororo's mother had inscribed on her son's back the location of some buried money. Then the biwa -playing monk appears before Hyakkimaru again. Following the advice of the monk, Hyakkimaru decides to find the buried money together with Dororo to use it for poor people.
11. Sabame (Eyes of Mackerel)
Publish:April 7 to May 5, 1968
Introduction:Hyakkimaru and Dororo take up a night's lodging at the house of the squire called Sabame. As his name suggests, the eyes of Sabame look eerie, like those of dead fish. As it turns out, Sabame's wife is a moth monster called Maimaionba whose poisonous spirit has made his husband into a mere shadow of himself. Thanks to the exploits of Dororo, it is revealed that the monster has killed a nun who was taking care of orphans. Knowing this, Hyakkimaru bravely challenges the monster to a fight.
12. Inferno
Publish:May 12 to June 2, 1968
Introduction:Maimaionba, who has been burned out of her home and fled, comes back to the village with larvae that she has made to take the shape of a monk. She poisons Hyakkimaru so that he will be paralyzed, and the larvae capture Dororo. But there appear the ghosts of the children killed by Maimaionba, helping Dororo narrowly escape danger. Taking advantage of the tendency of moths to gather around lights, Hyakkimaru lights torches around the swamp at midnight to confront Maimaionba for the last time.
13. Two Sharks
Publish:March 31 to June 16, 1968
Introduction:Having found out about the secret of the buried money, Itachi the bandit kidnaps Dororo. Itachi and other bandits take Dororo by boat to the place where the money is supposed to be buried. The boatmen have two man-eating sharks, however, and they have been conspiring to make the bandits into food for their sharks. The sharks have already eaten the bandits on one of the boats, and they are now approaching the other boat that Dororo is aboard.
14. Mysterious Lights on the Sea
Publish:June 23 to July 7, 1968
Introduction:Hyakkimaru looks for Dororo desperately. He has just realized that Dororo is now a precious partner to him. Then Hyakkimaru sees Dororo aboard a boat coming toward the shore. As he sees that the sharks are about to attack the boat, Hyakkimaru jumps into the sea and pierces the eyes of the sharks with his sword.
15. Cape of Cruelty
Publish:July 7 to July 21, 1968
Introduction:Having seen the map inscribed on the back of Dororo, Itachi the bandit knows where the money is buried. There is a trap at the place where the money is hidden, however, and Itachi almost falls from the cliff. Then Dororo runs, trying to save him. But then comes a local magistrate who has heard about the buried money and conspires to take possession of it.
