Okay so Dororo episode 23 happened and it’s definitely one of the most interesting and important questions in the entire show for one main reason.
I think it would be fair to say that the main thematic conflict of Dororo is about the morality behind sacrificing Hyakkimaru for the sake of the land versus Hyakkimaru fighting to get his body back when it was taken from him without his choice. The show’s played around with this idea throughout its entire run time, but this episode starts to give us a serious answer. In a discussion between Dororo, Hyakkimaru’s mum, and the old priest, who are some of the show’s most interesting characters and have a lot to lend to this theme, a certain conclusion is nearly reached. If I’m understanding correctly, they argue that the sacrifice of Hyakkimaru was in vain because peace built on the sacrifice of an individual is frail - it won’t last. To that end, they argue that Hyakkimaru is right to pursue his own body because it’s a pursuit he’s making with his own hands. However, the priest states that this mentality can lead to one becoming too powerful and becoming a demon, with the alternative being to sacrifice all power entirely. And so here’s where we get an ultimatum - achieving a balance between those two things is what it means to be a human, but lean too far on one side like Hyakkimaru’s doing and yeah, you’ll become a demon. My explanation of this probably isn’t brilliant, but I mean if you’ve seen the show you should get me. Regardless of whether or not you personally agree with the answer this show looks to be giving to its moral question, I do think what they’ve gone with so far seems to be the answer that’s the most satisfying from a narrative point of view, but that also depends on how the show properly ends, because Hyakkimaru’s still not got his eyes back and could still potentially become a demon, but Dororo is chasing after him and said that he’s happy to be Hyakkimaru’s eyes or arms or whatever, and that comment especially interests me. Could it be that Hyakkimaru will have to compromise on his remaining body parts to retain his humanity? But then isn’t Hyakkimaru entitled to his own eyes, rather than have them played around with by demons and his brother? Does Hyakkimaru deserve his eyes specifically at the risk of becoming a demon when Dororo is offering to be his eyes? Is that part of the relationship a compromise that should be taken, if it’s even a compromise at all? I feel I’m repeating myself at this point. There’s still another full episode left to give us this conclusion, let’s all wait to see what it has in store.
I do have one more thing to say though. So when I said “Hyogo and Mutsu have their arms back” last week, I was wrong, turns out they’ve got Hyakkimaru’s arms, which is fucking sick and I love that. However, they do end up dying (pretty fucking violently I might add which was cool) to Hyakkimaru’s demon horse and he does get his arms back, with the rest of his fight being him chasing down Hyakkimaru before the episode can end on their climactic battle in Diago’s castle. But here’s the deal, despite having his arms back, Hyakkimaru’s still using the swords he had in his prosthetics. That’s pretty cool, they acknowledge that he’s got more range with them now and stuff and that that can be a hindrance too (he gets one caught in the walls of Daigo’s castle you see), and also he’s obviously bleeding them while using them because he’s just gripping the fucking tang - there’s no handle over the metal. But like, here’s the thing. Hyakkimaru has an actual sword. I’m not saying he had to use it in this episode over his dual blades or anything, but he’s got an actual fucking sword that we’ve never seen him use but they take care to always show us it anyway. I don’t think the sword’s ever been directly acknowledged in dialogue but it’s always there, just chilling at his hip. And like, Chekhov’s gun man, or in this case Chekhov’s sword. I’m gonna be really annoyed if he doesn’t use the sword in the whole show, we’ve only got one more week to wait to see if that’s the case.
Anyway Dororo’s second cour has held up way stronger than that other 2 cour Mappa show from last year with a first cour that I really loved and then also a second cour that I really did not love. Good on you Dororo. I do wanna say though that I was on r/anime the other day because I’m there sometimes, and I saw someone mention Dororo and then I saw somebody else say something to the effect of “you’re still watching after episode 15?” and like Jesus Christ fuckin chill. Yeah episode 15 looked like garbage, like I mean it looked really really bad, but is that really a big enough deal to where you should just drop the show? Cause like the narrative’s still fine and stuff, and the first cour had some meh episodes too like the demon sword one. Come on man. I don’t even remember what the post was or who the user was so I’m sorry to be vaguing them but I don’t know I just wanted to express some frustration about that.
