Dororo rewatch: some details i missed
I’m doing a rewatch now (along with Teaboo / Teaboo2 reaction, he does such a nice commentary, attentive to the details and overall intelligent, highly recommend), so, rewatching the series right from the start, i noticed some details i failed to see the first time. I’m dumb when it comes to details, so if you aren’t, probably there’ll be nothing new for you.
For one, i failed to notice Asura’s eyes glow after the Kyubi demon was defeated (Banmon, part 2). Maybe i decided that it was just to highlight that the statue somehow “awakened”, i don’t remember. But now, as we have seen his arms glowing after Hyakki killed Nue, it all comes together.
The same glowing purple.
So, Kyubi demon had his eyes, and should Asura not have stolen those, Hyakki would have seen his mom’s suicide… But nope, this is exactly because of his mother’s suicide that he couldn’t get his eyes!
When it comes to Nui’s suicide attempt, there’s interesting detail, too. We see her from Hyakki’s perspective, and what we see is her heart glowing green just like the Goddess of Mercy figurine on the ground in front of her:
Her heart is literally connected with the Goddess. Makes it all the more obvious. Once she stabbed herself right in the heart (well, probably she missed physically, but not symbolically), we can see, still through Hyakki’s vision, the same green silhoutte rising between Daigo people and him, Kagemitsu as the main enemy right in the center of the nimbus, and the next moment dissipating:
It wasn’t an overlap since the statue can be seen laying on the ground and we’ll see it’s light fading away later, in Biwa’s hands. So I take this one as a depiction of his mother’s protection being taken from Hyakki right in this moment, the same moment she betrayed him, betrayed her own prayers to the Goddess: “I cannot save you! No matter how immoral… No matter how much you’ve suffered… Still, all our people can do is ask for your forgiveness. We must continue to devour you as demons in order for us to live.” This is when she chose her duty as a lady of Daigo over her maternal feelings. And she stabbed herself right in the center of these feelings - her heart glowing green! Wow.
That’s when Asura, who failed to take Hyakki’s head (or life), being locked by the Goddess’s protection (meaning by the prayers of the mother), was set free, and the first thing he did was stealing Hyakki’s eyes (that were conveniently delayed somewhere in between, since he already killed the Kyubi by then; what a slow delivery must i say, but ok, he rarely gets his body parts the next moment after he kills a demon). So, should mother have waited just a bit more with her action, he could have recieved his eyes right then!
It also draws a parallel with Hyakki taking his brother’s eye just a moment earlier. No matter how justified he is, he still gets his little karmic consequences here and there. And now, in episode 22, Taho got Hyakki’s eyes basically RIGHT FROM THE BANMON BATTLE STAGE. Wow just how tightly all of this is tied together.
It’s also interesting how the Asura statue has 3 faces, and now we have our trio ready to fight as an incarnation of Asura. Fuck.
Regarding his hands, i used to think that the demons had them separately just like his legs, but i failed to realise at first that the Nue demon was basically 2 demons in one (thanks starsinseafoam for pointing it out). That’s why it came alive again after Hyakki killed it first time. Nue, a creature combined from parts of different animals, was also a combination of demons. So, Asura stole both his hands, too.
I can’t get why Hyakki got his spine back, though. Probably Asura simply didn’t need it, but then again, that episode (15) was a weird one overall. But what if this weirdness was intentional? The Sabame arc was such an obvious Daigo microcosm that it may have a symbolic meaning of it’s own. Sabame loved his village, people were suffering from droughts and insects and epidemics, but then the moth demon came and proposed her help. In exchange of sacrifice of the children. Sabame and his people burned them in the shrine, saying how it was for the village’s sake. No hard feelings. And then they had their little paradise for a while, until Hyakki and Dororo destroyed it. The village was set aflame and completely destroyed just like those children were burned, with the same oil. Hyakki said how he doesn’t care. He himself drew a straight parallel saying that Sabame is just the same as his family. This was so right in your face that it was hard to miss. But then maybe the spine too has some connection to the major conflict? Hyakki destroyed the village (indirectly) but got his spine back. And Asura didn’t steal it for whatever reason. Hmm. Spine wasn’t a part that he lacked evidently, he managed to move perfectly well with just a set of wooden pieces connected together with a cord which is insane, but we’re dealing with the demonic magic here so ok. But still, that was just so weird and random that i can’t think of it but of a symbolic stuff. Like, premonition of him defeating Daigo along with the last demon and getting his human core back? But at the same time losing his humanity? “I don’t care”. What is spine symbolically? I don’t have a clear answer now. Maybe you do.










