Tezuka's childhood memory of his friends pronouncing dorobō (どろぼう, "thief") as dororo inspired the title of the series.

A 24-episode second anime television series adaptation by MAPPA and Tezuka Productions aired from January to June 2019.

This was the result of his birth father daimyō Kagemitsu Daigō forging a pact with 48 sealed demons so that he might rule the land and increase its wealth and prosperity.

After his mother Nui no Kata was forced to set him adrift on the river, lest he be killed by his father, the infant was subsequently found and raised by Jukai, a medicine man who used healing magic and alchemical methods to give the child prostheses crafted from the remains of children who had died in the war.

Grafted into his left arm was a very special blade that a traveling storyteller presented to Jukai, believing it was fated to be within his possession given that ever since the boy had been discovered, the doctor had been visited by goblins.

On one such hunt of a demon, Hyakkimaru came across a young orphan thief named Dororo, who thereafter travels by his side through the war-torn countryside.

Dororo's father, Bandit Hibukuro, hid money he saved up on his raids on Bone Cape to later be distributed to the people squeezed dry by the samurai.

Fearing that she, too, will die, Ojiya had prayed to Buddha and, with her blood, drew the map that will lead him to Bone Cape.

Hyakkimaru acted as if he was about to kill Dororo but turned around and threw his sword into the dark, stabbing the physical manifestation of the 48 demons, but some of them managed to escape.

Parallel to the anime broadcast, the manga was then moved and concluded in Akita Shoten's Bōken Ō magazine from May to October 1969.

[19][20] In 2008, Vertical Inc. released an English translation of Dororo in three volumes,[21] published between April 29 and August 26.

[24] On November 2, 2012, a manga crossover one-shot was published featuring Dororo and Dororon Enma-kun's Emma.

[25] From 2018 to 2020, a manga reinterpretation of Dororo, illustrated by Atsushi Kaneko, set in a futuristic, apocalyptic world with the main characters gender-swapped, titled Search and Destroy, was published by Micro Magazine's TezuComi.

[27] A novel written by Masaki Tsuji and illustrated by Hideki Kitano was published by Asahi Sonorama in September 1978;[28] it was later reprinted in January 2007.

[32] A two-volume novelization of the live-action film, written by Masaru Nakamura [ja], was released by The Asahi Shimbun on December 7, 2006.

[36] However, Anime Sols folded, and Discotek Media picked up the project and released it on DVD in 2016, including the show's color pilot in the set.

A 24-episode second anime television series adaptation by MAPPA and Tezuka Productions was announced in March 2018.

[37][38] The series aired from January 7 to June 24, 2019, on Tokyo MX, BS11, and Jidaigeki Senmon Channel, and was streamed worldwide on Amazon Prime Video.

[41] On March 31, 2021, it was announced Sentai Filmworks has licensed the anime for home video release and would produce an English dub for the series.