#dororo character analysis hyakkimaru

[goetzjpvis]

3/8/24 "Dororo" JPT3702

Foreword:

When starting Dororo this week, I had to do some research to determine which anime I was supposed to watch in the first place. I was shell-shocked to learn that Tezuka (AKA) The Goat, had written it, which was actually difficult to realize with the newer version because of the visual distinction to Tezuka's style in the former. I appreciate the style distinction because it hides the expectations that come with a Tezuka work, but I also believe that Tezuka's style most accurately reflects each character. For example, it is revealed later in the series that Dororo is a female, although for the entirety of the series he identifies as a boy. The original anime exemplifies Dororo's boy-ish demeanor, with tiny eyelashes and gender neutral frame, but the newer anime fails in this aspect, making Dororo look so feminine in that I actually assumed he was a girl at first. Hyakkimaru also transforms from a gentle giant into a runway model. Now, onto the actual anime itself.

Analysis:

Tezuka's works once again question where the line is drawn for morality, with a somewhat humanistic touch. Kagemistu trades (fleeting) power for nearly every important part of his sons body, leaving Hyakkimaru to be born with no skin, eyes, nose, etc. It was freaking gross! Lust for power, and as a result, inhumane behavior is a very common theme in Tezuka's manga, and as a result, reflects how he sees the real world. People DO need to sacrifice things in order to get what they want (for example, i sacrifice my time and labor at work to get a paycheck, and an entrepreneur needs to sacrifice financial stability to take out a loan to start their business). But, it is important to ensure that your sacrifices are noble, and not abusive or selfish (Like Kagemitsu's were).

I liked that Dororo was revealed as female and the idea of her 'true gender' was kind of ignored, even when Hyakkimaru retrieved his sight. This scene might be a metaphor for how your gender, and thus any demographic characteristic, shouldn't make a person, because your actions define your character more to Hyakkimaru (the man who sees only soul) than your body.

Hyakkimaru himself was an interesting character too, especially at the beginning. He is framed like a passive watcher, and he can be considered a moral compass and neutral observer. Initially, Hyakkimaru cannot see, hear, or speak- making his judgements of characters based upon only their souls, which imposes a sense of duty on those who associate with him, and thus the readers/watchers, to have a 'clean' soul. When Hyakkimaru met Mio, I thought it was really interesting that her understanding of him being able to see her soul affected her so deeply. She believed that her soul was tainted because she was a courtesan (I think?), and shows how even those who don't communicate flaws can still threaten those who are insecure with themselves.

[winterune]

I still believe that Hyakkimaru got his voice after biwahoushi killed the bird demon, just that he didn’t know how to use it at first. You get to see how he seemed somewhat stricken after the demon was killed. Though that could also be because he’s too shocked after feeling the pain of being hurt for the first time. His fight with the cursed sword at the previous episode didn’t give him such an injury. He was still trying to adapt with hearing sounds, coupled with fact that he was injured quite badly, it could be too much for him.

But his eyes were so wide. He seemed so shocked that Dororo had to ask him what’s wrong. I believe he felt something inside him coming back. And for someone who hasn’t said a word in his life, producing a sound would probably feel foreign to him. He probably doesn’t feel the need to since he’s gotten by just fine without it. Not only that, he probably doesn’t know how too. A baby immediately cries after his mother gave birth to him. Producing a sound is natural for us. And yet for someone who never had a voice, how did it feel when his voice came back to him? Even a mute person sometimes could produce sound, but this is fantasy where he couldn’t speak not because of some birth defect but because of supernatural stuffs, so he couldn’t produce the slightest sound even if he wanted to.

And maybe that’s why he was fascinated by Mio’s singing. We see him moving his lips for the first time when he asked her to sing. No sound came, much to my dismay since I’d thought he would finally be able to speak then, but with how Hyakkimaru points to Mio’s mouth, to me it kind of showed that he realized people produce sounds from their mouths. He still couldn’t see and before this, he couldn’t hear nor speak. But now he could hear and realize the world is full of sound. He realized that people speak and that their voice came from their mouth. Maybe he realized something has grown inside him by then but he didn’t know how to use it. And the reason why we only hear his voice at the end of the episode is because the pain he undergoes then is so intense that his voice just naturally comes out. His limb was torn open and ripped apart--what kind of person would not scream in agony?

Another thing I would like to see: Hyakkimaru learning to speak. A baby learns to speak by imitating his parents and Hyakkimaru never spoke in his 16 years of life. If they’re going to take this slowly and realistically, he shouldn’t be able to immediately speak on the get go. He’d have to learn, as well as learning to adapt to sounds and noises.

Another thing that caught my attention was how Hyakkimaru understood Dororo when she yelled “Your left!” when they were fighting the bird demon. Like, he couldn’t hear, couldn’t see, couldn’t speak. How in the world does he understand the language? lol. And I just realized...how in the world does he know his name and could write it well in Kanji? He could sense presence, could fight relying solely on those senses, but that doesn’t mean he could write. Even if you teach a blind person to read, if they don’t know how the word is pronounced since they couldn’t hear nor speak, they won’t know how it is pronounced nor what it means, right? And since they couldn’t see, they wouldn’t be able to know what the word represents. Maybe he knows how to write the name Jukai gave him, but he doesn’t even know how it is pronounced nor what it means. Just a set of characters he identify himself with. Then again, how would he know that every thing in the world has names or does he even understand the importance of a name?

Ok I’m just rambling at this point. I realize I could very well be wrong, but this is still an interesting thought for me to think about.

[arriettvs]

I started a blog - first article is about Dororo!

As Hyakkimaru regains his body parts, he is indeed becoming more “human”. But as he realizes the (well-justified) opposition against his demon-killing spree and begins to kill humans and demons alike, a priest warns Dororo that the man who emerges with his physical body intact may not be human, but instead a demon.

So what does Dororo (2019) tell us about what it means to be human?  

(Major spoilers for the entire show if you somehow don’t already realize. If you’re at all interested, watch it and read this later, you won’t regret it.)

[dancing-with-dichotomies]

So someone in the fandom called wantitmyway268 made a pretty good analysis about Hyakkimaru vs Tahoumaru and how you can’t really blame either of them. Unfortunately I can’t reply to their post, apparently that means they’ve blocked me? Which is very very odd because I don’t recall doing or even saying anything to them? Actually there’s a small handful of people who seem to have blocked me even though we’ve never even said anything to each other?  Quite strange.

In any case just wanted to add that there’s plenty of neutral characters where it’s hard to judge them, definitely Hyakki and Tahoumaru are both those kinds of characters. 

HOWEVER, and this is something I noticed a lot of male youtubers doing in reaction videos and was gonna do a post about it later but might as well do it now... you don’t have to apply that devil’s advocate nonsense to every goddamn character in the series. Like shit, some men really are just villains. Like specifically? Daigo and Itachi. Anyone in their right mind should know those assholes committed sins that far, FAR outweighed any good they ever did for anyone. But damn! Apparently some people, by and large MEN for SOME reason, are always like...

“Well at LEAST Itachi didn’t outright rape and murder Dororo and WOW he actually even accidentally saved her after clearly not caring about her welfare at all and putting her life in danger several times over and then virtually molesting her! Like suuuure he’s a bad guy but he’s not really a bad guy if you think about it!” ...like, no??? Actually I did think about it and he’s still a REALLY bad guy, wtf??

Or, “Man, Daigo is an asshole but at least he kept Nui around all these years and didn’t just murder her to keep his secret and get a new wife! And wow at least he’s actually willing to go into battle with his soldiers! He’s a bloodthirsty murderer who actively participates in the murders he orders, isn’t that noble?” ...no, dude, no. He literally gives no fucks about anyone but him and Tahoumaru, and even then he only cares about Tahou bc he’s his heir. He’s not just a bad guy he’s literally THE Bad Guy, wtf!

All these mostly dudes are always like “at least this dude character wasn’t even WORSE like he COULD have been” why is it always a measure of at least for them and never the most of what they did just by the virtue of being a male character?

Lastly, just to comment on why I’m pretty sure a few of you blocked me, and lmfao... dude. All you people DEMANDING others use ‘he’ at all times for Dororo and acting like using a she hc means you automatically hate trans people... It’s a CHARACTER. Yes, one that certainly does have trans versions, and that should be acknowledged and respected. Nobody should be trying to take away trans!Dororo hcs from anyone. And from what I’ve seen most people aren’t, it’s the other way around?

You all have no good reason to jump down people’s throats and judge them just bc they have a different hc of the CHARACTER! Not a REAL FREAKING PERSON, but a fictional freaking character that literally can and has different versions! And none of you guys considered that maybe even though someone is using she they might still consider Dororo gender neutral or nb? Nope, let’s just assume the word she is SUCH a bad word that we even have to GAAAASP CENSOR IT!

Like oh my god... seriously guys? I’m just over here in awe how people are constantly making excuses for the most evil chars in the show and trying to make those black hearted fucks morally gray as a a happy lil rain cloud and then turn around and act like saying ‘she’ is a cardinal sin? Y’all... I’m not even gonna lie. I find this really suspicious and really shitty. I know some of you guys are trying to be good and supportive to trans people, and that’s admirable, and so am I, in my own way. But I can clearly see some of you are just deflecting and projecting. 

In any case I know I’m a good person that’s trying her best to support the right people and do the most good I can in the world. So I know just as surely if someone was so offended by something I posted despite it always being to spread information that can help or even save people... I can then reasonably assume the person who blocked me is either sexist, homophobic or transphobic, and therefore I don’t need to care. I’m always open to a respectful conversation as well. You can speak to me personally instead of, perhaps, listening to rumors or rushing to judgment?

In any case, peace and love to everyone in the fandom except for the disgusting fucking pedos~ 

[iristial]

Nice analysis of Dororo! While I do understand your POV about Big H's character, I think you are looking at it the wrong way: it's not the fact that he's wanting to regain his body parts is protrayed wrong, but it's the fact that he's not caring about the damage he's doing in doing so. That's the issue I believe the show is highlighting.

I wouldn’t say there’s a “wrong” way in interpreting the situation (unless we’re stretching it like i.e. Daigo is doing all of this for Hyakkimaru’s sake) but that’s another way to look at it! I think I did address that part, albeit in a roundabout way, about how it all comes down to Hyakkimaru regaining his limbs = destruction brought to others = others will try to stop him from getting back everything

But if that’s the message the show is giving us, then I think we’d have to ask the writers what Hyakkimaru would gain from all of this if he cared. He’s not incapable of holding affection for others, as we’ve seen with Mio, Dororo and Jukai. He’s not incapable of mercy, given the spider demon episode. He was cast away from his family for the sake of the country, and so far he’s only had to care about surviving in the world (and recently Dororo, who’ll keep him grounded as a human). He’s not bound by the same duties as Daigo and Tahomaru are. He’s begun to anchor himself as an individual, and a part of that is wanting to be normal - meaning that Hyakkimaru doesn’t want his suffering to be used as a foundation for other people’s happiness. Maybe in time he’ll grow to have a heart for the people who would’ve been his people by birthright, but who knows if MAPPA will go in another direction for him. We only have six episodes left, after all, so they’ll need to be careful if they want Hyakkimaru to realize this message/aesop in time with the series’ conclusion and when he gets separated from Dororo for the last time

Either way, thank you for taking the time to express your opinion! Perhaps keeping this in mind could help me discover new things about Dororo when I watch it again ^-^

[shinybaublecom-blog]

Active Gaming Media Inc. in association with Tezuka Productions, is proud to announce that the latest battle strategy card game, Astro Boy: Edge of Time, and its accompanying soundtrack, has released on Steam!

A whole new deck and world built out of the beloved characters from Osamu Tezuka, reimagined by famous creators. Astro Boy: Edge of Time features a brand new story for the Tezuka universe and introduces a new tournament mode. This is a card game that can be enjoyed by everyone, from beginners to advanced players.

Active Gaming Media have launched the game on Steam today, June 20th, 2017, with both English and Japanese versions available.

“Black Jack”, “Dororo”, “Ambassador Magma”, “The Pheonix”, “Astro Boy”… 2018 celebrates the 90th birth anniversary of Osamu Tezuka, a literature genius who is attributed as the father of manga. For his works to touch new generations to come, a new game has been developed to introduce the characters of Tezuka. New creators have redesigned his characters in a modern era to reintroduce them to a younger generation, meanwhile still retaining Tezuka’s original charm.

June 20th – July 3rd: Limited Edition Items!

To commemorate the release of Astro Boy: Edge of Time on Steam, we are distributing the following limited edition items from June 20th to July 3rd.

Basic Packs! For everyone who logs in during this period, we will give them a free basic pack which contains 5 random cards!

Special Avatars! For all members that win a rank battle, random matching, friend battle or tournament battle during the event, we will be offering a special avatar. You can get Hyakkimaru, Uran and Tengu:

Special Versions of Rare Cards! We will be distributing a copy of a super rare card to winners of 5 consecutive matches in Tournament mode during the event! These special versions will be Black Jack or Epsilon. Avatars and Special Card Versions will be distributed after the event is over.

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Track List:

01. Mandelbrot Set 02. Infinity World 03. Nonstandard Analysis 04. General Theory of Relativity 05. Governing Equation 06. Control Theory 07. Robust 08. Fuzzer 09. ActiveX 10. Equilibrium Manifold 11. Exponential Stability

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Astro Boy: Edge of Time released with Soundtrack and Limited Edition Items @playastroboy #astroboy #esports Active Gaming Media Inc. in association with Tezuka Productions, is proud to announce that the latest battle strategy card game, Astro Boy: Edge of Time, and its accompanying soundtrack, has released on Steam!

[winterune]

After putting this on hold for a couple months, I have finally finished Dororo. I won’t say much except that I liked how it ended. Teared up a bit when Tahoumaru finally called Hyakkimaru his brother, after episodes and episodes of calling him a demon he had to kill. I loved both of these brothers’ arcs and I hate to think that Tahoumaru and their mother died in the fire. 

Kind of squealed when I see his eyes here! It’s so awesome that he looks so different with real eyes. It’s like there is life inside them now. 

And it’s amazing how much expression we can see in Hyakkimaru’s face now. He’s not the lifeless doll he has been and for the first time, he truly sees the consequence of his actions with his own eyes. 

One thing I really liked about the series is its central theme: humanity. This  series is about a boy, who knows nothing about the world and is trying to regain what he lost, learning what it means to be human. Being human is not just about having eyes that can see and limbs that can walk, or having the ability to touch and feel. It’s about the heart, and a strong heart will be able to fend off any kind of inner demon. 

Probably my favorite moment in the last several episodes was when Hyakkimaru asked himself, what is ‘human’? I think it happened right after he regained both of his arms and as he continued to fight, he kept remembering Jukai’s words: that he would not be human anymore if he continued on his path of revenge. Because Hyakkimaru never knew what being a human truly was. He hadn’t truly “lived”. He thought that having his body back would make him a complete human. Was that not it?

It was then emphasized on his fight with Tahoumaru in the castle. You have everything, so why do you lack something? This is one of the parallels I like between these two brothers. One had everything but the love of his mother. One had nothing but the love of his companions. Hyakkimaru felt his family took everything away from him. Tahoumaru felt Hyakkimaru took the love he should have had from him. They were very similar to the point it stopped Hyakkimaru’s rage and stopped him from killing his own brother. 

It was emphasized more on his expression as he finally saw the world--saw the fire burning the castle down--the consequence of his actions. It was again emphasized on his visit to the Hall of Hell, where Daigo sat alone, and he stopped himself from killing his father, because he’d understood now that that was not what he wanted, and not what everyone wanted from him.

I am human. Don’t you become demon, either.

[winterune]

We must really watch over him. 

Another take on what this means. 

It comes to my mind that Hyakkimaru has really been living in darkness. A wounded beast hiding in his cave is the perfect description of his behavior. He never knew pain. He never knew what the world was like. And as the priest said, that gave him the ability to see things for the way they are without all the intricate, complicated, ambiguous morality of the human world. But then he started feeling some pain, then started hearing things, and as Dororo mentioned, he’d become weaker. As Jukai once said, Hyakkimaru could only fight the way he’d fought only because he didn’t feel any pain. No matter how much of his body you slashed, he wouldn’t feel it, and that enabled him to keep moving. When he received his senses back and could feel the rain pounding on his face or the heat of fire on his foot, when the bird demon clutched onto his shoulders and probably dug its claws so deep into his flesh, the pain Hyakkimaru felt prevented him from fighting on.

And yet, only a day or two after his fight, when his wounds are still healing, Hyakkimaru has already marched toward the demon he would have to slay. Biwahoushi’s concern could only just be for Hyakkimaru’s safety. He never knew pain, so he never knew limit. Even as he’s experienced physical pain for the first time, he doesn’t realize that there’s a limit to his life, a limit to what his body can do, and he needs people to be there to teach him that. 

I only wish for one thing: for him to overcome his destiny and live strongly. That was all at first. Have I made the wrong decision again? 

Reciting what Jukai thought once before, right around the time Hyakkimaru has learned to wield a blade and is killing monsters right and left, it occurred to me once again that Hyakkimaru really is a killing machine. He doesn’t know right from wrong. He can’t hear, can’t see--he can’t learn. All he knows are the different colors in the beings he sees. White. Green. Red. You kill red, no matter what it is. Does red mean hostility? Does red mean ayakashi? I’ve always thought it meant ayakashi; I skimmed the previous episodes and can’t find a moment where the meaning of the colors are explained. If red means hostility, then does that mean people who exudes hostility--not under the influence of a demon--emanates red? Does that mean he’d kill people in cold blood?

When Biwahoushi first saw Hyakkimaru as a baby, he had almost drawn his sword. But what he saw was not a human yet not an ayakashi either, so he left it alone, knowing it was probably a human under a curse. However, that was a baby, who could do nothing but try to survive. Hyakkimaru has now grown and is able to kill. The red lights are still there--either remnants from the curse or maybe something more. And so, for someone like Hyakkimaru, who once only know how to kill and is just learning that there is more to the world than the color of souls he sees, they really do need to watch over him. In a way, Hyakkimaru is like a baby just coming to the world, and if he’s under bad influence, who knows what he would be capable of doing. 

I’m sorry, I don’t know if I’m making any sense here. My thoughts are a bit jumbled in my head. The more I write about him, the more I realize Hyakkimaru isn’t a simple character anymore, and this is not just a simple story of a boy killing demons trying to retrieve his body parts. I start to realize what it’s like living and growing up like Hyakkimaru and I realize he would have one of the most complex character growth I’ve seen, and if written right, this could just become a masterpiece. 

[winterune]

Dororo Episode 7 Thoughts

Finally an episode that doesn’t end with you screaming your head off. And a warm episode overall. One thing I like about Dororo is its episodic nature. With the supernatural elements and slow character arc and how each episodes tells the story of a different demon, it reminds me of Natsume Yuujinchou and Mushishi--more like Mushishi I think with how dark it is. 

Hyakkimaru smiled! He’s been brooding throughout the entire episode and it’s so good to see him finally smiling again--though it’s more of a smirk I guess lol. 

Yeah well I guess we can conclude that Hyakkimaru does know the language. Though, then again...

This is what he saw before he lowered his blade. The crimson flames that had surrounded Jorogumo slowly dimmed and faded away. So one could wonder if he didn’t kill it because, as Dororo said, he had heard the man pleading with him or because the demon didn’t emanate the flames anymore. I’m more on the latter I think. Is hyakkimaru that soft-hearted that he won’t kill because he was asked to--if he could understand the language that is? 

And it also makes me wonder that a demon probably can lose its red flames if they somehow manage to become slightly more human. Jorogumo’s flames dimmed when she decided to save Yajiro--something a demon wouldn’t have ever thought of. Heck, Jorogumo was already an odd one as she has never killed her prey and decided to let Yajiro live when she realized he was sacrificing something for her to continue to live. So maybe the red flames doesn’t necessarily symbolize the demon itself, but rather the feelings of a monster.

The same goes for Hyakkimaru. The red flames Biwahoushi saw on his soul was a remnant of the curse, but what he said afterwards--how they really need to watch over him, his ominous message about the beast becoming a monster, and what we saw at the end of episode 6--makes me think that they symbolize his repressed emotions. And with what we see from this episode, I think that if Hyakkimaru grows more as a human, there is a chance that the flames will disappear completely and his soul will go back to normal white flames that everyone else have. 

But then...if the red flames of a demon could fade away, does that mean that normal humans (not under a demon curse or demon influence) can grow to have red flames? That, if they represent your inner demon, does that mean that someone who is controlled by it will emanate red? And if by chance Hyakkimaru comes across someone like that in his current state (still not fully understanding the human world), will he kill them like he would any other demon? Since he hasn’t regain his eyes. 

If he regains his eyes... will he stop being able to see the color of people’s soul? Will he be able to differentiate real demons from people? What about people who acts like a demon? Or maybe he’ll never regain his eyes and live his life like Biwahoushi.

Yeah I’m just rambling by now haha. Don’t mind me :D

[winterune]

If you take a toy from a baby, it’ll get mad and take it back. Same as that. Especially since what they took from him is his own body. He’s calm when he’s listening to that song–the demon flames Hyakkimaru has had since he was a baby. You could say they’re the embers left from when they took his body. You better hope the beast that comes out of the cave isn’t a monster.

– Biwahoushi

So, on a previous post, I tried analyzing this line separately: how Hyakkimaru is still like a baby whose toy was taken from him, in which case was his body by the demons and Mio by the samurai, and so, with no control over his emotions and his self, he got mad and tried to take it back by doing the only thing he knew how to do, which is to kill. A normal baby would probably just throw a tantrum, but Hyakkimaru, though still like a baby emotionally, in the physical sense he was not. It wasn’t just your average blind rage killing spree. It wasn’t just him losing himself in the moment. Sure, there was a crushing feeling in his heart and he did lose himself in his emotions, but whereas a normal baby would just throw tantrums, Hyakkimaru’s tantrum, being someone who could wield a blade, was in the form of killing the beings or people who took things from him. 

The monster was unleashed, as Biwahoushi feared. 

Now, however, I would like to look at it from a different perspective. Probably nothing new to add, but I’d like to see what Biwahoushi said as a whole. 

Every time Biwahoushi looked at him, from the first time he saw him, there was always those red flames around Hyakkimaru’s soul. They are demon flames left from the curse. Biwahoushi had almost killed him back then, but realized that he was nothing more than a baby under a curse, so decided to let him live. 16 years later, Biwahoushi meets Hyakkimaru again and Hyakkimaru was still tainted by those red flames. As someone who can now kill, Biwahoushi feared when Hyakkimaru would lose control. 

He’s calm when he’s listening to that song.

If you follow that scene closely, you’ll realize that when Hyakkimaru was listening to Mio’s song, the flames dissipates. So, I believe that those red flames, other than a symbol of the demon’s curse, also symbolizes the hostility inside Hyakkimaru. 

If you take a toy from a baby, it’ll get mad and take it back. Especially since what they took from him is his own body.

I can only imagine how much frustration Hyakkimaru has held inside him for 16 years. A baby who has almost his entire body and organs taken from him. He may not know what he had lost at first, might have gotten by without thinking about it, but the moment the first demon was killed and he got something back, he realized that he wasn’t complete. That he probably had something that was stolen unjustly from him. And ever since Jukai taught him how to hold a sword, the only thing he wanted was to get back all the things he had lost by killing demons and monsters right and left. 

Hyakkimaru’s mental state, feelings, and inner voice are things I have been intrigued with since I start thinking what it feels like to live like him. Someone who couldn’t see, couldn’t hear, couldn’t speak; someone who didn’t have a body of his own but is alive nonetheless. Does he have an inner voice? What does he feel as he lived like that for years? Living but not entirely living. He has only known darkness, with the frequent colors of other beings’ souls passing him by. What does the concept of being alive mean to him? Does he know that he’s alive? Does he have a concept of “being here”? Does he feel anger, or sadness, or frustration? Does he feel anything at all? 

He seems so eager to kill every demon he meets, no matter what it does to his body. Of course, that was probably because he has only just regained his sense of pain. But still, even when he’s known how painful it is to have your body slashed, stabbed, or even ripped apart, it doesn’t stop him from marching off to the demon once he’s gotten a better grasp of his pain. 

Just like a baby whose toy was taken away, Hyakkimaru is throwing tantrums so the demons would give his body back. The red flames are probably the only indication that he feels some sort of restlessness, frustration, and he wants to get his body back as soon as he could. And the only thing that could calm his tantrums is Mio’s singing. When he hears her song, the red flames dissipates. Just like how a mother would sing to her child whenever her child is crying. 

And now, that calming presence is gone in a heart-wrenching way. I can imagine just what losing Mio did to Hyakkimaru. The red flames that had been held at bay whenever Mio was around probably exploded and clouded his mind, resulting in him basically mutilating those soldiers in cold blood (seriously, what Hyakkimaru did was a bit triggering. He didn’t just kill them. He literally cut them to pieces, just like what he’d do to a demon). And now, though everything ended with Dororo having managed to pull his aniki back to his senses, one could only imagine what that experience would do to the both of them. That raging storm probably would not die that easily. The red flames that had managed to quiet down has been brought alive. And Dororo, having seen what Hyakkimaru was capable of, could be on his guard at any moment. Hyakkimaru probably won’t ever hurt Dororo, but still, it is Dororo’s job now to make sure that the beast that comes out of the cave isn’t a monster. 

Well…he got his work cut out for him. 

[winterune]

After watching this episode the second time (and getting my heart torn to pieces once again), I realize that what hurts me the most wasn’t Mio’s death, but what it did to Hyakkimaru and Dororo. And before we go on, can I just say how much I love how the staff created this episode?? Mio has always been intended to have a brief appearance in Hyakkimaru’s life, and the way the staff handled it, they’ve managed to make us invested in a character that was bound to die after only 2 episodes. They didn’t drag things out. Instead, by showing how brief their interactions were, it made the impact of her loss at the end even more powerful both to Hyakkimaru and Dororo, and also to us, because we see what they could have been: a budding relationship, either platonic or romantic, that was cut too short. And we felt it--felt the way Hyakkimaru’s heart was slowly breaking, as he beheld Dororo screaming Mio’s name, the way his eyes widened when he heard her broken voice singing the song he loved. He didn’t realize why Dororo was screaming for Mio, until he heard her voice, and it was so different from how he remembered it, and he knew they’d done something to her.

The monster was unleashed.

You better hope the beast that comes out of the cave isn’t a monster

said Biwahoushi as he parted ways with Dororo. As I said in my previous post, Biwahoushi was concerned over Hyakkimaru after seeing the red flames in his soul--which were apparently remnants of the demon curse. The concern stemmed from the fact that Hyakkimaru has never known anything else but to kill demons to get his body back. He doesn’t know pain; he doesn’t know fear; he doesn’t know sadness. He’s been living in darkness without any knowledge of the world outside. So, what’ll happen to someone who is just starting to learn the way the world works? Someone who is starting to learn his own emotions when all he knows so far is to kill?

It made him go berserk--killing the soldiers in a blind rage, trying to get back what he’d lost, because that’s the only thing he knows how to do, the only way he knows how to express this crushing feeling in his heart. And it hurts seeing him like that (and btw I just realized he’s crying in his scene)

You won’t lose to it, will you? You’ll never become a monster, right?

I guess this is the main theme of the episode. Everyone has a demon lurking inside them. We have learned to reign it in, cage them. It is something we learn as we grow up. A will to stop ourselves from doing something that shouldn’t be done. It’s one of the things that makes us human.

Hyakkimaru, however, is someone who has never learned such things and so he doesn’t have the power to reign in his emotions. Just like Biwahoushi said before he left: If you take a toy from a baby, it’ll get mad and take it back. Just like how the demons stole his body, those samurai took Mio away from him. And Hyakkimaru is still like a baby who is just learning how to walk, and like a baby who has his toy taken away, he just...snapped. He’s still only going by instincts right now, so he does the only thing he knows how to do: kill.

Until now, all Hyakkimaru has ever killed are demons. We don’t feel anything seeing his fight with them. But now that he’s killing people, even though they were war-mongering samurai who just killed innocent children, in cold blind rage ... the crushing feeling in my heart intensified even more than when I saw Mio and the kids die.

These are rice seeds. She really got it back from the samurai. To make her own rice paddy. She didn’t lose. So you can’t lose either. Please...

My favorite line in the entire episode.

This last scene keeps breaking my heart. The way the samurai could kill children in cold blood just because they think they were spies, followed by Hyakkimaru’s blind rage... I know this is war time. I can understand the way those samurai are thinking. But on the other hand, I want to scream at them because Mio and the kids ended up like that because of them! They lost their homes and families, they were orphaned, having to live in hiding in the mountains, that Mio needed to resort to selling herself to the soldiers for some food.

I’m still not over this...

I’m already seeing how this will turn out. You know how those characters change drastically after one tragic event? Like Suzaku after Euphy’s death (Code Geass) or Shinichi after his mom was killed (Parasyte) or Kaneki after he was tortured (Tokyo Ghoul). Yeah I’m already feeling those vibes for Hyakkimaru. He needs people now, more than ever, to keep him on his path.

This is the first true loss Hyakkimaru has ever felt. He hasn’t witnessed someone’s death before. He hasn’t known loss. He’s had goodbyes, but never permanent ones. The death he witnessed in episode 4 didn’t count because it wasn’t someone he’d cared about. Mio is probably the third person Hyakkimaru has ever cared (the first is Jukai--that scene where he touched Jukai’s face is still one of the warmest scenes in this show, and the second is probably Dororo). He’s helped Dororo every time Dororo’s in a tight spot, but he lost Mio, and unlike his limbs that could grow back every time he defeated a demon, there is no way to bring Mio back.

I’m hoping to see much more development for his character.