I bet that’s one pissed off horse.
I have to say, for all that I love Dororo and consider it the best anime airing by a country mile, this series does an exceptionally good job of pissing me off. Seriously, this is some messed up shit being peddled here. I categorically and emphatically reject the idea that there’s some kind of moral equivalency between Daigo and Hyakkimaru, and I resent the constant attempts to humanize the former and demonize the latter. Yeah, there’s a metaphorical demon at the heart of this conflict (in addition to all the literal ones) but Tahoumaru is barking up the wrong tree about who it is.
I just need to make a couple of points here, because they’re damned important:
- Hyakkimaru is not having a tantrum because of a lost toy. His body is not a toy. It’s his fucking body. He has every right to want it back.
- Dororo, I love your plucky and noble little soul, but you’re getting further and further afield with Hyakkimaru and it’s annoying the hell out of me. Hyakkimaru is under no obligation to make amends with his family. His family tried to sacrifice him for to save their power, and now they’re calling him a demon and trying to kill him. Hyakkimaru’s eloquent and simple expression of desire to touch and see just like you do and declaration that you’re his true family still isn’t enough to convince you?
- Am I supposed to feel sorry for Mutsu and Hyogo because they got their arms chopped off? They were trying to kill Hyakkimaru. He defended himself. Spare me any appeals for sympathy.
- And while we’re at it, spare me flashback sequences with a smiling Daigo rescuing starving orphans and taking him into his home. After what he’s done, he doesn’t get a get out of jail free card.
The amazing thing is that for all that irritation, this was still a great episode. It was highly dramatic from start to finish, and full of the unsparing view of Sengoku life that’s such a contrast to the bulk of anime, which romanticize it as some kind of boy’s adventure paradise. The fight between Hyakkimaru and Tahoumaru was beautifully staged by superstar animator Watanabe Keiichirou, who clearly didn’t have a huge budget and just as clearly didn’t need one. Watching a scene like this reminds us of the limits of CGI, no matter how good (relatively) it is.
The rub lies in what happens now. Tahoumaru and his wounded henchmen have been spirited back to Daigo’s keep by the ninja (whose name I can’t recall, if we ever knew it) Daigo sent to keep his son (the one he doesn’t want to kill) alive. Hyakkimaru seems to have been badly injured by that fall into the chasm, but the headline here is Shadowfax Midoro, the wonder horse. Midoro went to pieces after that battle, but seems to have been revived as a demon horse – perhaps intent on getting back to her foal. Will she be teaming up with Hyakki – and are we to take that as further evidence in this tortured case for Hyakkimaru being on the verge of the dark side?
This show is good, really good – but at this point I’m not sure how it’s going to write itself out of the hornet’s nest it’s currently tangled up in. I don’t know what the endgame is but to say I have a sense of trepidation about it is an understatement – what was a nagging fear that Furuhashi and Kobayashi don’t view the moral equation in this narrative the same way I do has become a firm suspicion, and is creeping ever closer to a conviction. Nothing is going to undo all the greatness that Dororo has delivered in these two cours, but for this series the endgame is is even more important than usual in determining just what kind of lasting impact it has.
bnbros
June 4, 2019 at 10:07 pmWith regards to the first point you mentioned, when Daigo’s wife likened Hyakkimaru’s quest for his body to an analogy of a child wanting its toy back, I think she’s referring to his singleminded, dogged determination to get back what was his at all costs rather than downplay his body as a child’s toy. And I don’t think she’s quite wrong in making that analogy since we’ve seen how he ignores the consequences of his actions that have befallen other innocents. Even in this episode, he’s hostile enough to point his blade at an innocent bystander who’s merely concerned for him and Dororo. As much as he deserves to get back what was unjustly stolen from him, it’s also undeniable that things will get uglier for him as he continues the way he is. Such is the shittiness of Daigo’s whole deal with the demons.
On another note, it’s kinda funny how Mutsu refers to herself (yes I know she referred to herself and Hyogo as brothers before, but she’s way too feminine to convince me otherwise) and Hyogo as the right and left arms of Tahoumaru respectively, and they both proceed to lose the corresponding arms afterwards lol.
Guardian Enzo
June 4, 2019 at 10:23 pmYes, that symbolism was as subtle as a kick in the nuts.
I’ve been puzzling over whether Mutsu is a girl or a guy, and while I certainly agree there’s a conspicuous femininity there, I still feel like the narrative is trying to suggest he’s a guy. AFAIK it’s all guesswork, though.
bnbros
June 4, 2019 at 10:33 pmSpeaking of girl, that image of Dororo at the end of the ending theme is getting much clearer now. She’s looking quite different than usual and I’ve seen discussions about whether that’s just her with her hair let down or if it really is an older Dororo. Would be interesting if it turns out to be the latter.
TheYepMan
June 5, 2019 at 1:56 amWell this wouldn’t be a first time two people take over an unfinished story and miss the point of it so hard they start making it give the opposite message…
DauntingOverlord
June 5, 2019 at 2:05 amOne scene that we didn’t get to see but definitely happened:
Ninja: “Why did you let Tahoumaru go?”
Daigo: “Did you see the look in his eyes?”
Ninja: “Yeah, his one eye.”
Daigo:”…”
Ninja: “…”
Daigo: “Yeah, you have a point.”
In more serious points, I actually thought that Dororo was going to leave Hyakkimaru that episode, since all the flags were leading up to it, but with Hyakki being such a sweetheart to Dororo I think changed her mind. If this episode did anything right, it was to showcase what atrocities Daigo is willing to do to his own people to preserve his future. And I think (could be wrong) that Mutsu has a fatal disease, and possibly will force Tahoumaru to make the same decision to kill his own henchman to make the disease stop as his father has been doing. I dunno, just a thought I had.
Guardian Enzo
June 5, 2019 at 6:24 amYeah, that’s certainly possible. Some sort of pox, perhaps.
Snowball
June 5, 2019 at 3:08 am“The fight between Daigo and Tahoumaru was beautifully staged by superstar animator Watanabe Keiichirou, who clearly didn’t have a huge budget and just as clearly didn’t need one. Watching a scene like this reminds us of the limits of CGI, no matter how good (relatively) it is.”
You mean Hyakkimaru and Tahoumaru, right? Yes, it was ingenious with great choreography. I could rewatch it many times.
Guardian Enzo
June 5, 2019 at 6:23 amYep, fixed.
water imp
June 5, 2019 at 8:07 amRe: Mutsu gender
Read somewhere to look at how Hyogo and Mutsu’s banadages differ tho they suffered the same injury. YMMV.
Wangwang
June 5, 2019 at 10:26 amI think this is a theme in classic revenge stories. In those stories, the bad guys were doing fine with all the bad things they’d done. But when the protagonist came back to get revenge the narrative started acting like: oh no, doing bad thing to get back on bad things is bad, you really shouldn’t do it. The Count of Monte Cristo is an example.
TheYepMan
June 5, 2019 at 5:08 pmThe problem I see here is that this story tries to keep a gray morality about committing atrocities for personal gain because “well it benefits everyone, not just me” but at the same time taking a hard stance on how revenge is bad and will wreck your heart and soul. You can still spin the message about revenge being a bad stance to take if the rest of the narrative won’t take it to a bad place (see: Mob Psycho 100 II’s Mogami arc), but in this case Dororo (the show) seems like it’s taking a stance of “is it so wrong that people get fucked over if it means we can prosper?”.
At this point, if the narrative decides to put Daigo back as being in the wrong, you’d definitely be able to tell that the framing was inconsistent throughout the story. If you’ve decided to place a morally gray character as your villain, they should always feel like the villain, even when doing apparently good deeds.
Marty
June 5, 2019 at 10:32 amI hope this doesn’t turn into another Shingeki no Bahamut Season 2 situation, I’d really hate for this anime to have been great for so long and then completely go belly-up in the final act.
Guardian Enzo
June 5, 2019 at 11:08 amDon’t even say it…
I’ll certainly be pissed if they don’t stick the landing, but the writing with this show is an order of magnitude better than SnB 2 and that show was well into jumping the shark by this stage. I’m confident whatever we get what be an atrocity on that scale.