The moment of reckoning – Hyakkimaru encounters his forlorn brother Tahomaru once more. This time, he’s out for blood right from the beginning and is so determined to put an end to the curse his brother brings he’ll have his retainers give their all to defeat him. There’s really no holds barred.
We’ve seen Tahomaru go down this dark path – this “ends justify the means” mindset where he must bring an end to his brother if he is ever to bring prosperity to his people. While his goal is noble, Tahomaru hasn’t yet understood about the damage that has been undone already by the evil premise under which he fights for – things will often not go the way you want them to, especially when we’re talking about deals with old Japanese demons. They have a tendency to be capricious when it comes to the terms.
Let’s be honest – a lot of the moral friction between Tahomaru, Hyakkimaru, and Daigo is based around this evil system where an innocent newborn was sacrificed for the good of a kingdom. Almost all of our characters are categorized as to whether they buy into this system of evil for the “good of all” or not – at the end of the day I wonder if it’s a forced way to buy sympathy for the relentless Daigo, but I will say the moral quandry is quite interesting. I’d like to know how the show feels about the situation itself and to a degree I think it has explained it to us already – everyone operates in greys. Dororo sees Grey and red for Daigo, himself, and even Saburota. To see such a tragic character such as Hyakkimaru endure such heavy trauma isn’t easy. I’m having a hard time siding with his opposition.
Tahomaru and his retainers manage to destroy Hyakkimaru’s sword and put considerable pressure on him, but somehow he emerges relatively unharmed from the entire scenario. Thankfully, the next episode takes them to a blacksmith with a beautiful daughter and backwards talking people who are very confused. Considering the lack of attention most of the side characters drew to the backwards speak, I wondered whether I was losing my mind or not – maybe my subs just made a mistake! It’s the handiwork of a demon, which is thankfully caught in time by Dororo to save Hyakkimaru from tying the knot with someone he just met. Crisis averted.
Saburota’s story, whom we meet in the mountains, is a twisted one. When walking in the mountains with his ill mother, they encounter a powerful demon who quickly threatens their life. Without realizing it, Saburota flees by cutting off the hand of his mother who begs for his help. The villagers realize this and rumors quickly spread. Saburota then takes to living in the mountains realizing that the suffering of others (perhaps in the sense that they share in the same anguish he had) is the only thing that can bring him joy now. In a way, Saburota and Hyakkimaru are linked by a deep longing – both had something taken away from them, but chose to go about compensating for that lack of heart in entirely different ways. It goes to show the importance of our choices in our life and how they make us who we are – we cannot control what happens to us, but we can control how we deal with it.
Hyakkimaru strangely seems to not get a body part back when he defeats some demons. My guess it has something to do with the way he does it – when he is given a directive from his primal side to hurry and kill them at all costs in order to frantically regain a body part, his struggles often yield nothing. It is only when he is fighting a demon to protect someone or for the sake of others that he is given back what is his. This probably has something to do with the singular demon in the hall of hell who did not choose to feed on Hyakkimaru’s body as a newborn.
Interestingly enough, we hear that a heartbeat sound has been heard from the Hall of Hell. What could this be? We’re bound to find out shortly, because Hyakkimaru has had enough running around – he intends to go straight to the source and confront his father head on. Now we go onto the endgame of Dororo, and I suspect our hero’s efforts will end in great tragedy.
