Seemingly unpopular Dororo opinion. Beware: original manga spoilers ahead.
Original manga ending, as different as it may be from the previously intended one (I think, it's safe to assume, that manga probably was planned to be very different, taking in account a far higher number of demons set in the first chapter, as well as an amount of foreshadowing for Dororo's possible future), is strong, brilliant and pretty resourceful. Major spoilers, as well as ending-based fanfiction ideas under the cut (that's if I'm smart enough to add cut properly on the first try while on the mobile).
As always, feel free to use any of the ideas for the prompts to send me or for you own fanworks. Make my day by sharing the works with me, if you can. Or just drop by to tell what do you think on my take.
Note, that I'm not very familiar with the original Japanese text of manga, nor am I the sharpest reader of the bunch, so treat this post as my personal reader impression, that may contain a number of mistakes compared to canon. Anyway, let's proceed.
I mean, look at the ending situation-wise. If you, as an author, for one or another reason, have to end your story somewhere mid-adventure, what the most obvious ending would be? To me — the characters set out on another adventure kind of thing with the "we will totally win some day if we have each other's back and keep going!" kind of mood. But no, we get something more beautiful and complex here (no matter how much pain it brings).
It's interesting, that many readers automatically assume, that it took Hyakkimaru 50 years to defeat all the demons, and Dororo never heard from him again. While this is indeed a valid version, but it's kinda... not the only one. The ending as it is, brings out too many possibilities to count.
Manga states two facts: a) no one knows, where Hyakkimaru went to, after he left the former Daigo household. b) the Hall of hell and 48 statues where destroyed by the fire during the war 50 years later.
However, does Dororo, the title character, count in this "no one" as well, or does that passage mainly refer to former Daigo subjects/common folks in general? Unclear. So, both versions are possible. If we assume the second one, why they didn't know?
He never come back to this particular village?
He did, but majority of the people didn't identify him as Hyakkimaru, the legendary demon-slaying hero? Was it thanks to:
— Jukai's old kimono met it's heroinc end in depth of some pit, so Hyakki (while totally not mourning the attire) purchased a new one and didn't look like himself anymore (also feat. a new fancy haircut by demons or by some rando's sword);
— It genuinely took a long time, so population somewhat changed and he looks older himself (does he grow out some stupid mustache as well?);
— Some crazy nobles/bandits eliminated the village;
— Not many people could remember him clearly, as they were too busy overthrowing heir tyrant lord;
— He was showing up incognito, meaning to find out if Dororo is well and watch from afar, then go his way?
Of course, Dororo, out of all people would recognize Hyakkimaru anytime anywhere, but the questions are:
— Would the kid stay in this particular village and for how long? Would try to search or/and to follow Hyakkimaru however later on, or rather move on? Would hold the grudge or try to understand his position? Would be willing or unwilling to remember, to meet again? What they both would expect from the reunion and what would get?
Knowing the two, both of them would be probably unsure, if the other person wants to see them anymore and will make it super-awkward.
— Would Dororo have close friends or found family there (for example, this older kid, who led the rebellion, and his friends), who could learn more about Hyakkimaru, than other people in the village?
— Would Dororo be well accustomed or seen as more of an outsider, not many truly care about in the village?
— Is Dororo alive by the time Hyakkimaru returned? If not, was the death notable, heroic and well remembered? (and also, is the culprit still around?).
Conclusion: probably, Hyakkimaru, returned to the village he left Dororo in, but nobody paid him too much attention, except a few people. Probably he didn't return, be it for obviously sad reasons or due to his mother and Dororo being somewhere else, so he had no buisness in this particular part of land anymore. In fact, Dororo and Hyakkimaru could reunite at any point. Or not reunite.
And if the passage is referring not people from the former Daigo land, but, idk, japanese common folk in general, the cause may be stories and rumors about Hyakkimaru and/or Dororo were becoming different or vague over the time and depending on the region. That's what is based on the first fact. Now on with the second. Statues, destroyed 50 years later, don't necessarily correlate with the fact demons were defeated. Why? Simple. I don't recall a statue broken anytime a demon was defeated in the manga. So, demons could be pretty much defeated, and hall could remain untouched due to many reasons. Hyakkimaru probably didn't bother to destroy it as figures were no use anyway and he had things to do, as he is free now. Probably, destruction of the hall was unrelated, casual in fact, as if the war killed itself at the end. Or, probably it has everything to do with Hyakkimaru, since possibilities are many as well.
Was Hyakkimaru succeed?
Or did he fall, unbeknownst to him leaving Dororo/Dororo's descendants/disciples to finish the mission as his memorial?
Was Hyakkimaru alone watching the cursed hall to burn, or was Dororo standing by his side, supporting him as always?
Or was that lone crying hero actually Dororo, telling the sky and their stupid beloved brother, that everything is over at last? Probably it was, in fact, over. Probably, it wasn't, and these two were entertained for the several upcoming reincarnations during the different eras until they actually won.
The beauty of the ending not only doesn't chancel out canonical possibilities of any of this. It pretty much evokes them all and screams the possibilities. And depending on variety of smaller details like:
characters' relationships dynamic and general feels;
them having more new friends and relatives (not everyone of them dies as well)
Dororo's future professional occupation(s), life posituon, familial status/clan relationships;
who is alive and who... not much;
genres and tropes mixed in and so on,
we can get a hugest variety of the stories possible. All thanks to the hints. Don't get me wrong, "going on another adventure" is the rad ending trope too. But in this particular case it'd look more vague, so I love how the manga turned out in general.
I hope formatting was good enough, I tried my best to make the ideas well defined.
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REVIEWING THE CHARTS: 1st December 2019
REVIEWING THE CHARTS SPEEDRUN – 1:20 (WR)
Top 10
For the eighth consecutive week, “Dance Monkey” by Tones and I is at #1.
Up a whopping 17 spaces off of the debut last week is “Before You Go” by Lewis Capaldi hits number-two, becoming his fifth top ten hit in the UK.
At number-three, we have Stormzy’s big debut for the final single from his upcoming sophomore album, Heavy is the Head. With the album release, this can likely get to #1, but for now, “Own It” featuring Ed Sheeran and Burna Boy has debuted at number-three. It’s Stormzy’s 19th UK Top 40 hit and eighth placement in the top 10, Sheeran’s 53rd UK Top 40 hit (Jesus Christ – that might actually be an inaccurate figure since I manually counted) and 27th top 10, and Burna Boy’s highest-ever peaking song and both his third UK Top 40 and top 10 hit.
The two new top three entries sadly crush Dua Lipa’s hopes at a #1, as “Don’t Start Now” is down two spaces to number-four. Let’s hope the Christmas period isn’t too rough on this track.
Billie Eilish’s “everything i wanted”, is also down two off of the debut at number-five, fairing a lot better than I expected it to, to be honest.
Lewis Capaldi is two-for-two in the top 10, as “Bruises” is steady at number-six.
Unfortunately, Arizona Zervas is up to number-seven with the clunker that is “ROXANNE”... trust me, I’ll be covering this in about a month, although not to that much of an extent. My year-end worst list seems to be pretty small and uninteresting this year, actually.
“Memories” by Maroon 5 is down three spaces to number-eight. God, that sounded like an AI-written sentence.
At number-nine, we have Ed Sheeran’s pathetic “South of the Border” featuring Camila Cabello and Cardi B continuing to fall down two spaces this week.
Finally, at #10, finishing off the top 10, is “Down Like That” by KSI, Rick Ross, Lil Baby and S-X, becoming what I’m pretty sure is the first UK top 10 hit for all artists here, although I could be wrong about that. Congratulations, I suppose, although the song is far from great.
Climbers
I am my own best source when fact-checking what the BBC site says. I don’t go to the Official Chart Company’s UK Singles Chart, I don’t go to ACharts, I go to last week’s REVIEWING THE CHARTS, especially for situations like this, in which BBC messes it up so badly that I’m confused to how they messed it up in the first place. BBC says that “Pump it Up” by DJ Endor, is down nine to #29. The issue is that it is placed after #20, and #22 continues after it. After looking at my climbers section last week, I found that “Pump it Up” by Endor was already at #29... last week. So, “Pump it Up” by Endor is up eight spaces to #21... and “Watermelon Sugar” by Harry Styles is up seven spaces off of the debut to #28. BBC got that one wrong, too.
Fallers
There are only a couple here. We have the unfortunate continuing fall for the great “Must Be” by J Hus down seven spots only on its third week down to #20, as well as a couple of massive songs that have probably had their on-demand streaming numbers cut. It sounds about time for “Ride It” by Regard featuring Jay Sean and “Circles” by Post Malone to be affected by that arbitrary chart rule and they have, as they’re now down 21 and 26 spaces respectively, at #25 and #35. Oh, and “Paper Cuts” by Dave continues to flop down 10 spaces at #40.
Dropouts & Returning Entries
We have a pretty plentiful number of drop-outs and, uncommon for the UK Top 40, two returning entries. The drop-outs are all reasonable and in order of their last chart position (For now, at least), we have “Buss Down” by Aitch featuring ZieZie getting its streaming cut from #21, Dermot Kennedy’s ballad “Outnumbered” finishing its run at #23, “Jerry Sprunger” by Tory Lanez featuring T-Pain flubbering off of the debut last week from #32 after Chixtape 5 fails to continue its hype beyond the first week, “Post Malone” by Sam Feldt featuring RANI dropping out from #34, “Follow God” by Kanye West embarrassing itself out from #36, “Opp Thot” by Poundz suffering from the amount of new and returning entries from #37 (This one’s the most likely to rebound), “Lover” by Taylor Swift dropping out from #38 despite returning last week and the release of the first dance remix, and finally, as expected from last week, “Take Me Back to London” by Ed Sheeran featuring Stormzy and remixed by Sir Spyro featuring Aitch and Jaykae, is out from #40. Hopefully, I never have to type that mouthful again. Our first returning entry is “Orphans” by Coldplay returning to #27 after dropping out from last week, thanks to the album release. Our second, well...
IT’S CHRISTMAS INNIT
It’s starting! We have a second returning entry this week in the top 40, and it’s “All I Want Christmas is You” by Mariah Carey at #34, which is making a play for #1 in the US. I’ve already reviewed the song last year, and I just love this song even more now, to be honest. That’s the only Christmas song in the top 40 (For now), but I figured I should just mention the other Christmas songs in the top 75. “Fairytale of New Yorks” by the Pogues featuring Kirsty MacColl is back at #71, “Last Christmas” by WHAM! is at #43... and that’s all for now. We’ll definitely have more to fill out the new It’s Christmas Innit section next week.
NEW ARRIVALS
#39 – “Can’t Fight This Feeling” – Bastille featuring the London Contemporary Orchestra
Produced by Mara Carlyle and Hugh Brunt – Peaked at #4 in Scotland
It’s not exactly an unpopular opinion to admit that the original REO Speedwagon version of “Can’t Fight This Feeling” from 1984 is an incredibly well-written pop song, especially for the time, but real talk: I don’t like that version of the song at all. While I can’t deny the anthemic chorus, the song is such a slog at nearly five freaking minutes and it is exhaustingly dull. I was actually quite interested in hearing the full version of the cover, as the John Lewis Christmas advert always has a hit single to go along with it, in fact the next song I’ll be reviewing includes an artist who got their big break from John Lewis... and it’s only three minutes, and better yet, features the London Contemporary Orchestra in their first credited UK Top 40 appearance. I also like Dan Smith’s voice a hell of a lot more than I do Kevin Cronin’s. Notably, for a bit of trivia, this isn’t a John Lewis-exclusive single, as it features on a Waitrose advert as well. Huh. Anyway, is Bastille’s eighth UK Top 40 hit any good? Well, I feel it’s misleading to call it a Bastille song as this is very much Dan Smith crooning over an admittedly pretty gorgeous and busy orchestral rendition of the original Speedwagon single. Smith does sound overwhelmed in the mix by the strings at times, and the dude has a couple weak moments at times, especially during the verses, but he mostly holds his own and I’m always a sucker for some well-placed horns riffing out of nowhere. Even then, I don’t think the song is all that great, and nearly two minutes in, there’s a really abrupt, distorted string riff that clips heavily and it just sounds gross. Do I prefer it to the original REO Speedwagon song? Of course I do – it’s nearly half the length and I’m a fan of both Bastille and well... the Super Mario Galaxy soundtrack, as the tones of this instrumentation do resemble that at points (Which is never a bad thing). Oh, and I love the addition of the twinkly pianos at the end as a nice touch. Otherwise, it’s pretty good, but I don’t see it reaching the heights of the Lily Allen’s cover of “Somewhere Only We Know”, also from the John Lewis advert, that peaked at #1 in 2013. I guess it didn’t warm the cockles of my cockles.
#36 – “Into the Unknown” – Idina Menzel and AURORA – from the Frozen II soundtrack
Produced by Kristen Anderson-Lopez, Robert Lopez and Christophe Beck – Peaked at #55 in the US and #5 in South Korea
I don’t know or care about Frozen II. I am not a film person; I watch about five movies a year, and they typically aren’t boring Disney sequels that pose no interest for someone who has already seen the first film. I don’t think the sequel will ever reach the absolute phenomena that the original Frozen was because that era starting from 2013 is impossible to match, even for the monopoly that is Disney. This is Idina Menzel, or as most people know her, Elsa’s fourth UK Top 40 hit excluding those that she had as part of the Glee cast and AURORA’s second after the indie darling’s brief stint of fame she experienced due to covering the Oasis B-side from 1994 that was attached to a standalone single that peaked at #3 and got them sued by Neil Innes of Monty Python fame. AURORA’s version was featured in a John Lewis advert in 2015 and peaked at #11, and then she became a folktronica-influenced art pop songstress, who is still getting calls from companies to promote their products, despite the inaccessibility of her newer material. Regardless, this is “Let it Go” part two, or at least Disney’s attempt at one, and I have no idea what relevance this has to the film, but the song itself is okay, although it struggles, as do a lot of cinematic, orchestral show tunes, with structure and a lack of transitions that make the shifts in sections any less abrupt, as at times, it does feel like a certain string section is off-beat simply because you’re never prepared for what’s coming next. AURORA’s verse has a lot of odd empty space, and overall, her presence seems to kill the momentum of the song entirely, even if the chorus has a lot of swell despite some painful, dry mixing that Disney tends to have. Also, this will not be the next “Let it Go”. It’s way too disjointed and not nearly catchy enough, and nobody will be able to hit the belting notes these guys do in the chorus... except maybe Brendon Urie, who in fact did hit those notes in his inferior cover that debuted at #74 (Might be one of the first times since at least 2016 where both the US and the UK have had the same song twice on their charts). Weezer have a song on this soundtrack, too, called “Lost in the Woods”, and I kind of like it, to be honest, with some pretty cool, chugging guitar riffs and great harmonies from Cuomo in the pre-chorus. It’s kind of reminiscent fo the White Album, but I digress. “Into the Unknown” is listenable; next!
#35 – “French Kisses” – ZieZie featuring Aitch
Produced by Tré Jean-Marie
This might not be listenable, however. Aitch was the worst part of their last collaboration, “Buss Down”, which ironically dropped out this week (It’s almost like they called the Official Charts Company and asked them to switch the two out), with ZieZie being equally mediocre, although in his chorus, he was pretty cool, and in the verse, he was vile. I don’t have high expectations is what I’m saying. What a fitting producer for this song, though, and it’s ZieZie’s third and Aitch’s sixth UK Top 40 hit, so... eh? I actually quite like the vintage French vocal and string sample used here, but it’s abruptly drowned out by a bass-heavy Afroswing beat that sounds pretty okay but ZieZie doesn’t play it cool here, reaching into his relatively non-existent higher register in both the chorus and his verse, although admittedly that pre-chorus has some swagger. The post-chorus, on the other hand, has a nasal repetition of nonsense sounds, and Aitch just... Jesus, man, what the hell WAS that? He sounds half-dead, and his monotonous flow is continually harbouring on off-beat! His lyrical content is far from interesting either as he follows the main theme of the song, which is “I’ll give this girl French kisses and make her girl, “ooh-la-la”.” It’s a bit of a flimsy concept, and to quote a geography teacher, there isn’t enough place-specific detail to really excuse this dreck. This is pretty disposable.
#31 – “Loyal” – PARTYNEXTDOOR and Drake
Produced by Dregotjuice, OG Parker and 40 – Peaked at #63 in the US and #19 in Canada
Alright, well, I’m surprised this debuted so high but I’m not surprised it’s here. I’ve only ever liked PARTYNEXTDOOR on uncredited guest appearances (“Ghost Town” by Kanye and “Ratchet Happy Birthday” by Drake) so that doesn’t exactly bode well for him. I assume this will be a very Views or More Life-type song, which also doesn’t bode well as those albums are some of Drake’s worst but obviously have a very large PARTYNEXTDOOR influence. I don’t have much hope for this, but it’s PARTYNEXTDOOR’s third UK Top 40 hit (First as lead artist), and God knows how many of those Drake has at this point. The song starts off well with some lo-fi keys that could make a very smooth R&B ballad... but then the snares come in and it’s obvious this is some garbage. PARTYNEXTDOOR sounds checked-out as does Drake, although at times PARTY decides to just belt and it sounds freaking awful. It’s almost hilarious, actually. To be honest, the synths paint a really pretty atmosphere behind the Young Thug impersonator with the out-of-place “Ayy” ad-libs and the 808s that cover any sense of lead melody. This barely has a groove or melody to catch onto, and Drake’s heavily Auto-Tuned which leads me to believe he just came into the studio for about five minutes whilst drunk. It sounds like both of these lads are drunk, actually. Honestly, I’ve been nice. This is disposable, mediocre garbage, although the outro does seem promising, with some nice strings and cute synths... but I doubt that’ll lead to anything good on the album, if it even does. I doubt PARTY has that foresight. God, this guy is really only good for uncredited backing vocals, huh?
#16 – “New Dior” – DigDat and D-Block Europe
Produced by RXR Music
Okay, this song debuting high shouldn’t be a surprise. D-Block Europe get this high purely off of YouTube and Spotify every few weeks, and they’ve gotten to their highest peak of #16 before with “Kitchen Kings” and even “Nookie” featuring Lil Baby. DigDat, on the other hand, has never reached this high with one of his three UK Top 40 singles, not even “Guten Tag” with Hardy Caprio, which I’m still impressed by and don’t think he’ll make anything as good as that anytime soon, especially not with these two hacks. Young Adz and... the other one have consistently proved to be some of the most untalented yet also the funniest duo from this crop of British rap of recent years. I can’t take these guys seriously, and I know they want me to. This starts as all D-Block Europe songs do, with some incoherent murmuring from Young Adz and nonsensical guitar strumming, but this one has a lot of momentum initially, with Young Adz’s comedic inflections in the chorus (Which is all he has: for once, he doesn’t provide a verse) failing to cover up the hilariously cheap producer tag... but Goddamn it, I like it. I’ll admit, this is a pretty decent song all things considered. First of all, Sean Donoghue, the mixer of this song, sorted out the issues D-Block Europe constantly have with vocal mixing, and to be honest, now that I’ve got to hear his voice a lot better, Young Adz may be more talented of a singer than I thought, although he sticks to a pretty monotone cadence here. In the post-chorus, Young Adz genuinely raps pretty well, and the 808 hits that pound through the beat are a cool addition, as are the yells that act as screaming ad-libs throughout the chorus. DigDat is on-brand, and by that I mean a misogynist and untrusting gangster, but he has two verses here, and they both detail his court case with his brother – not in great detail, but it’s really interesting how he depicts his materialistic mindset failing to let prison tame him. It’s kind of emotional, which is something I never expected D-Block Europe to be. Dirtbike LB is just extra weight as always, although his line about telling his mother that Percocets aren’t vitamins is kind of funny. For once, I think these guys have won me over... well, this song has. I still don’t think these guys are any good, and this may be a complete fluke, but I don’t care. This song is good.
#3 – “Own It” – Stormzy featuring Ed Sheeran and Burna Boy
Produced by Fred Gibson and Jay Weathers
Somehow, I have less hope in this song than I do D-Block Europe’s. Since I’ve already said everything else about this song in the top 10 section, I can skip the pre-amble and get this done pretty quickly. I like the sporadic vocal samples, they have a crowd cheering effect and a sound you can genuinely attribute to found footage rather than some sampled pack. Stormzy doesn’t sound great here, in fact, he sounds asleep and oddly distorted, clipping in the mix several times in the chorus. The synths here are airy and boring, the groove is stiff, the ad-libs are awkward and the beat cuts out for no reason when they come in. Burna Boy comes in with Stormzy on the chorus and for a random bridge / interlude, so I don’t know his purpose here and it makes the song feel very disjointed. The extra glittery synths in the post-chorus are really nice-sounding, and Ed Sheeran can sing better than any of these guys, so he somehow gets the crown of the best verse here, especially due to the harmonies with his multi-tracked vocals and Burna Boy’s. I don’t like Ed, but he definitely brought his talent here, even though his vocodered contributions on the chorus are pretty gross, in fact the mixing on the song entirely is pretty gross – and muddy. Everything sounds a lot more distorted and loud than it should. Is it disappointing? For Stormzy, yes, but for a Stormzy collaboration with Ed Sheeran and extra baggage Burna Boy, it’s about what I expected.
Conclusion
Well, Best of the Week goes to... DigDat and D-Block Europe. Colour me surprised, but “New Dior” is actually pretty good, and Honourable Mention goes to Bastille and the London Contemporary Orchestra for their improvement on the REO Speedwagon classic, “Can’t Fight This Feeling”. Worst of the Week is definitely going to PARTYNEXTDOOR and Drake for “Loyal”, and Dishonourable Mention... uh, sure, ZieZie and Aitch. “French Kisses”. Follow me on Twitter @cactusinthebank and I’ll see you next week!
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