Dororo (Remake)

[Guardian Enzo]

Commenter on LiA made an interesting point - Hyakki actually wouldn't have been able to save Dororo using his blade, because he couldn't see where he needed to use it with his limited vision. That doesn't explain how Biwamaru did, but it's an interesting point. Hyakki's quest to get his body back isn't entirely a selfish one - he needs it to act as a better protector for Dororo.

[Kanon]

Originally Posted by Guardian Enzo

Commenter on LiA made an interesting point - Hyakki actually wouldn't have been able to save Dororo using his blade, because he couldn't see where he needed to use it with his limited vision. That doesn't explain how Biwamaru did, but it's an interesting point. Hyakki's quest to get his body back isn't entirely a selfish one - he needs it to act as a better protector for Dororo.

It was an interesting point until you shot it down yourself by explaining Biwamaru is in the same situation as him
So yeah, to me that doesn't explain it. That Hyakkimaru wishes to get his body back to protect Dororo better is a good point though, but the anime muddies it by having Hyakkimaru seen as a demon by Saburota.

[Kinematics]

I considered the same point, but as noted, the priest being blind makes it kinda moot.

However I can kinda see how things should be perceived.

First, neither Hyakkimaru nor Biwamaru can actually see, other than the people present. They know that there are rocks there — Hyakki because of the rockslide, and Biwa because of Hyakki's efforts to move the rocks. Hyakki's way of solving problems is by beating them up. Strength is the only way he knows how to solve problems because he simply doesn't have the tools or experience to use other methods. Biwa, meanwhile, doesn't use strength because he's an old man, and his body just isn't suited for it. He has also grown up with hearing and speech, and thus has lots of experience dealing with people, and overcoming his own limitations with more creative solutions.

Thus, while Hyakki (literally) bangs his head against the problem of not being strong enough to just move the boulder out of the way, Biwa finds a way to use leverage to solve the problem. While he can't see the rocks, he can see Dororo, and presumably the point where Dororo's arm disappears from view due to the rock trapping it. Simple application of physics solves the problem — something Hyakkimaru couldn't do because he doesn't yet understand the concept of "simple application of physics". The only thing he knows is force.

We even see that repeated, somewhat, in how Hyakkimaru fights Saburota-chimera. As Dororo tries to find Hyakkimaru, we see a trail of body parts left behind, evidence of Hyakkimaru just brute-forcing his way through the problem.


This is somewhat similar to other people's comments on Hyakkimaru's anger or uncontrolled emotions, but I see his emotions as a secondary effect, not a primary one. His frustration and anger is caused by his inability to accomplish what he wants to achieve — whether that's saving Dororo or retrieving his body — but his inability to achieve what he wants is due to the limitations on his ability to problem solve. He only really has one way of solving problems right now, because he doesn't have true experience in life. Biwamaru hints at the difficulties Hyakkimaru is facing, and that they may not be easily solved using his standard approach, but Biwa never takes the time to actually help them understand. He instead leaves it to "fate".

On the one hand, it's not entirely unreasonable to allow someone to learn via their own life experiences, rather than just explain everything to them. Learning from experience is good. However the circumstances for that approach usually assume that the person in question has the normal life of experiences to draw on, and for Hyakkimaru that simply isn't the case. Plus, the consequences at this point aren't just a burned hand or broken leg. Their choices affect the lives of thousands upon thousands of people. A couple zen riddles that don't help anyone until after choices are made are kinda pointless.

[Haak]

For the record, even if Hyakkimaru did understand the concept of physics and leverage, I don't think he could have done what Biwa did anyway. Yes, Biwa did use his sword but he also used his arm to generate that leverage (as well as use his other arm to pick up Dororo).

I'm not sure Hyakkimaru could've done the same thing with a sword for an arm. At the very least it would've been more difficult for him because he would have to be closer to lever point (like trying to close a door shut by pushing on the hinge side rather than the handle side)

[Mad Pierrot]

My detector of death flags is not working well. I expected either Mutsu or Hyogo to die in the fight against Hyakkimaru.

I was surprised we got to see the remains of Daigo's humanity as well as Hyakkimaru explaining why he wants his body back. Wonder what is exactly the rule for him to recover a part of his body.

Also, the gore of the horse might have been too much but the ending felt really weird.

[zztop]

This episode is largely anime original, and only uses a small bits of the Midoro arc of Tezuka's manga.

Unlike the anime, Midoro was a war horse from the start. Owned by a random cruel warlord, the horse was deathly injured in a battle (not before it took revenge on the warlord by stamping it to death). Midoro was later possessed by a demon and became evil.

Midoro's foal escapes in search of its mother, and joins up with Hyakki and Dororo.
Saburota finds Midoro and foolishly thinks he can tame it; Hyakki has to destroy Midoro and rescue Saburota.

[grecefar]

it's funny how they say that killing hyakkimaru will solve everything, mother words are true that the land is done, even if they kill him it just going to get worse for now on, but of course ignorance is bliss and just see the easy way out thinking like that, karma will hit them really hard.

I know dororo wants to do the right thing but can't you blame hyakkimaru anger? and more now that they will use dororo as bait, so she have a problem with hyakkimaru killing tahomaru but not tahomaru killing hyakkimaru and saying that he's a demon when everything is their father fault?

[zztop]

Originally Posted by grecefar

it's funny how they say that killing hyakkimaru will solve everything, mother words are true that the land is done, even if they kill him it just going to get worse for now on, but of course ignorance is bliss and just see the easy way out thinking like that, karma will hit them really hard.

I know dororo wants to do the right thing but can't you blame hyakkimaru anger? and more now that they will use dororo as bait, so she have a problem with hyakkimaru killing tahomaru but not tahomaru killing hyakkimaru and saying that he's a demon when everything is their father fault?

Someone on Reddit mentioned this; they think it's more the mother's comment on the state of mind of the parties involved and her own conflicted feelings.

When a favourite toy is taken away from a child, the child goes after it with a single-minded determination and with little to no consideration of anything else. That kind of one-track mindset is what Hyakkimaru has with regard to reclaiming his body parts, as does Tahoumaru with regard to killing Hyakkimaru and 'saving' his land.

The mother is suffering from conflicting loyalties, as she herself voiced in this episode: 'The wife of a lord and the mother of children – if I were one and not both, I wouldn't have cursed myself for my helplessness.' As the wife of Daigo, it is her duty to support her husband and his endeavours, but circumstances are such that this duty is at odds with her duty towards her children as a mother. And to make matters worse the children themselves are at each other's throats.

[Nivek von Beldo]

Originally Posted by zztop

Someone on Reddit mentioned this; they think it's more the mother's comment on the state of mind of the parties involved and her own conflicted feelings.

The thing is..you're doing a diservice to Hyakimaru, like the team involved hate him a lot when adapting this, you can compare a toy to a life, Hyakimaru never lived, he existed like a magic zombie because his progenitor was an awful landowner and decided to a literal devil bargain with him, that is why the story is so inconsitent, Hyaki is right and Daigo just delayed the inevitable for himself.

Wonder why people are so obssesed with square the circle and just not but the circle in the circle

[Kinematics]

Originally Posted by Nivek von Beldo

The thing is..you're doing a diservice to Hyakimaru, like the team involved hate him a lot when adapting this, you can compare a toy to a life, Hyakimaru never lived, he existed like a magic zombie because his progenitor was an awful landowner and decided to a literal devil bargain with him, that is why the story is so inconsitent, Hyaki is right and Daigo just delayed the inevitable for himself.

Wonder why people are so obssesed with square the circle and just not but the circle in the circle

This... makes no sense whatsoever. I cannot understand what you're trying to say, here.

~~~

That little flashback for Mutsu and Hyogo was remarkably similar to Raphtalia and Naofumi from Shield Hero. Even some of the comments Tahomaru makes mirror what Naofumi tells Raphtalia.

~~~

I expect Mutsu has been infected with the epidemic that was mentioned. That's undoubtedly going to be a pivotal bit of motivation, but towards what end? I assume it will somehow play a role in making Tahoumaru make a choice between the lives of his retainers, and the life of Hyakkimaru.

A bit ironic that Tahoumaru is fighting so hard to 'save' the land, and part of that is reflected in his promise to Mutsu and Hyogo, yet at the same time the Daigo soldiers are doing much the same thing to the people as he's promised to prevent from happening. Of course, epidemics were no joke back in the day, and burning a village to keep a disease from spreading could actually be considered a reasonable choice.

~~~

What was it that Hyakkimaru was seeing when he looked at the bodies in the chasm? I thought the people were dead, but he was seeing lots of grey forms, which is typically a normal living human. There were also orange forms, which were previously only seen with the spider demon after she shifted away from murder. Are they related to the ghostly armor and reconstituted horse?

My first thought was that the ghostly armor and reformed horse was the doing of the unbroken statue in the demon house, but if it's instead the will of some collection of the dead people in the chasm, what does that mean?

[Anh_Minh]

Originally Posted by grecefar

I know dororo wants to do the right thing

Does she? Does she really? Honestly, all I can see from her regarding Hyakkimaru is selfishness.

The writers' attempt to turn Hyakkimaru into an ethical dilemma rings so false, it's infuriating. Neither his mother's trivializing of his objectives, nor his brother's delusion of righteousness are at all convincing.

And I know Dororo idealizes the concept of family, but she really should pay attention to the fact Tahoumaru was in the very process of trying to kill Hyakkimaru.

[MCAL]

Looks like everything is REALLY going to (Hall of) hell now...

[Wandering Soul]

Originally Posted by Anh_Minh

Does she? Does she really? Honestly, all I can see from her regarding Hyakkimaru is selfishness.

The writers' attempt to turn Hyakkimaru into an ethical dilemma rings so false, it's infuriating. Neither his mother's trivializing of his objectives, nor his brother's delusion of righteousness are at all convincing.

And I know Dororo idealizes the concept of family, but she really should pay attention to the fact Tahoumaru was in the very process of trying to kill Hyakkimaru.

Yeah when Dororo tries to argue that Hyakkimaru will lose his chance to be together with his family if he continues going down this path, I was really annoyed. His father and brother have fully dedicated themselves and their armies to ending Hyakkimaru's existence. I think we are well past the point where this all ends in a happy family reunion.

[Mad Pierrot]

If Hyakkimaru teams up with the demons horse, I can see the guy becoming actually caring towards demons. The series appears to constantly bring up the tones of grey theory by making Daigo's underlings more caring (seriously, Tahomaru had almost no humanity in the manga) while Hyakkimaru is conflicted with who he should wants to fight. When he talked with Dororo, it really feels that he keeps remembering Jukai in regards to why he wants his body back.

Also, the ending vid became more visible again.

[Dark Wing]

Wow Hyakkimaru isn't playing around anymore. I can really see how this will all end other then bitter sweet heartache.

Also feel bad for their mother who obviously doesn't want either one of sons to die but knows they're on a collision course.

My far off hope is that Hyakkimaru and Tahomaru find away to make peace and hopefully rebuild their father's kingdom together. Instead of them murdering each other.

[Kanon]

Dororo telling Hyakkimaru he won't be able to be with his family if he continues was indeed stupid. Has she not been paying any attention to what's been happening? That said, I did like Hyakkimaru replying he'll still have Dororo even if he loses his family.

Mutsu and Hyougo lost an arm each. Hyougo may be able to keep fighting but it's over for Mutsu, who probably doesn't have much time left anyway. I wonder where they're going with Mutsu. Maybe Daigo's men will execute her after discovering she's sick, which will turn Tahomaru's world upside down once again. Or just make him even angrier at Hyakkimaru since he's blaming him for the plague, making him cut a deal with the remaining demon for power.

Originally Posted by Mad Pierrot

If Hyakkimaru teams up with the demons horse, I can see the guy becoming actually caring towards demons. The series appears to constantly bring up the tones of grey theory by making Daigo's underlings more caring (seriously, Tahomaru had almost no humanity in the manga) while Hyakkimaru is conflicted with who he should wants to fight. When he talked with Dororo, it really feels that he keeps remembering Jukai in regards to why he wants his body back.

Also, the ending vid became more visible again.

Midoro didn't become a demon. The parts that fused with her were orange in Hyakkivision, demons are red. Hyakkimaru shouldn't see her as hostile, so he'll probably team up with her.

Older Dororo is completely visible in the ED now. She doesn't look that much older, three years max.

[FlareKnight]

I feel bad for the horse. Ripped away from its child just to be stupidly used as a suicide bomber. An attack that didn't even kill Hyakkimaru and just let them run away. It would kind of be cool if the horse does team up with Hyakkimaru since it probably has an intense desire for revenge as well. He certainly could use the ride.

Does seem like things are soon to be over for Mutsu. Either disease will lead to the end or just execution for being sick.

Also in agreement that it was kind of annoying hearing Dororo tell Hyakkimaru not to take down his family. I'm sorry, but what show as she been watching? That option sailed off the moment Hyakkimaru's father sold his body off to demons! It continued to go away when his family effectively rejected him because their prosperity mattered more. I really doubt Hyakkimaru will regret killing any of them on the road to getting his body back.

[Dark Wing]

Originally Posted by Kanon

Dororo telling Hyakkimaru he won't be able to be with his family if he continues was indeed stupid. Has she not been paying any attention to what's been happening? That said, I did like Hyakkimaru replying he'll still have Dororo even if he loses his family.

I kinda understood what they were going for with Dororo's feelings about the situation but it could've been handled better.

It would've made more sense for her to tell Hyakkimaru that she was afraid he would lose himself if killed his family because in her mind there is no coming back from that.

[orion]

I think that Dororo needs a refresher course in what it means to be a family. Family do not sell their offspring or try to kill said offspring.

The only "family" that I see Hyakkimaru having is Dororo, the guy who raised him, and Biwamaru.

[serenade_beta]

Apparently random ninja guy >>> Every other person

Also, copyright