Hello and welcome Project Nitsuj. We’ll guys, we’re approaching the finale of the Underrated Arc and I can think of no better anime to end on then on Dororo. Now I know what you’re thinking: wasn’t that a hit in 2019? Yes, but just because it was a hit doesn’t mean it’s not underrated. Dororo got its start in the 60s and was written by Osamu Tezuka. If Hayao Miyazaki is considered the Stephen Spielberg of Japan then Osamu Tezuka is considered the Walt Disney of Japan. He is the Father of Shonen Manga, a lot of tropes you see in manga today were created by this man. Anyway, the word Dororo is actually a mispronunciation of the word dorobo which means thief in Japan. Osamu and his friends used this mispronunciation when they played as kids. The story of Dororo revolves around a young man going on a quest to reclaim his body parts that were stolen by demons and joining him on his quest is a thief. This is one if not the first dark fantasies to become a manga and even got an anime based off the manga. Sadly, the series was way ahead of its time in my opinion. What do I mean by that? Well, the series came out in the 60s and you know what the most popular series during that time was, Astro Boy. Osamu’s brainchild was a big hit during that time and a massive influence on manga and animes that would come after it. The childlike friendly images of Astro Boy would make it into Dororo and because of this you weren’t entirely sure what was meant to be taken seriously or not. This confused a lot of readers at the time. Throw in the fact that manga and anime was still being geared towards kids around this time and you quickly see why the series was ahead of its time and got cancelled after only 21 chapters. It would come back in another magazine, but with its story, setting, and artwork that didn’t match up with the story it never got the proper praise it deserved. Fast forward to 2018 and it was announced that in honor of the 50th anniversary of the series, MAPPA (Zombie Land Saga and Terror in Resonance) along with Tezuka Productions (Astro Boy obviously) were going to make a 24-episode original anime based off the manga. At the start of 2019, the anime would make its debut where it was praised by everyone who watched it. Was this the story Osamu wanted to tell when he started writing this series back in the 60s, but due to the limitations of his era never got the chance to? Well let’s get this party started and take a look at Dororo.
Opening and Ending Theme
The first opening for the anime is “Kaen” by Ziyoou-vachi. This is song is fire just like the title of the song. In an opening that reminiscent of Samurai Champloo it blends traditional Japanese music with that of modern-day rock and rap music. It gives you goosebumps as it let’s you know this won’t be your typical anime story, this is an anime that’s going to be sad, brutal, and make you ask questions you’re not sure what the right is. In a year when we were getting great openings this had the privilege of being the first one everyone saw.
For the ending we have “Sayonaragokko” by amazarashi. Man does this opening hit you right in the feels. This song perfectly described what I felt at the end of just about every episode. This is an anime where everyone is forced to make hard decisions and live with the consequences of those decisions. It also sums up our two main characters perfectly. One who is an constant pain trying to reclaim what was stolen from him and the other trying to understand what their friend is going through but can’t. It’s an ending that brings a tear to your eyes as you feel sorry for just about everyone in this anime.
Episodes 1-4
The anime starts with a guy named Daigo, a feudal lord who’s land has been suffering from famine, plagues, and wars (just an average day in old Japan unfortunately). Desperate to save his land, he strikes a deal with the demons to bring prosperity to the land and in return they can have anything they want (the souls of all your followers). The demons hear Daigo and grant his wish. On the day of his child’s birth, the boy barely resembles a human being (it’s like some sort of dead corpse). The demons had come to claim their reward from Daigo and what they wanted were the body parts of his child (which begs the question, why would the demons want the body parts of a baby?). Daigo takes the child away and orders his handmaid to dispose of the boy by the river where no one will know about him (scene here: https://youtu.be/cCNEymz1CA0). Somehow, the child was still alive and the handmaid couldn’t bring herself to kill something that was so desperately clinging to life. She instead puts the child in a boat and sends it down the river hoping it’ll survive before she herself gets killed by a praying mantis demon samurai (so scary and yet so interesting at the same time). We fast forward 16 years later where a young thief named Dororo is getting beaten up by some bandits for double-crossing them (don’t hate the thief, hate the game). The bandits stop when they see the baby who is now a 16-year old boy and has prosthetic body parts looking at them. Only he’s not looking at but instead looking at a sludge demon floating down the river. The sludge demon eats the bandits (man, the new version of Muk is scary) and is about to eat Dororo but the boy saves him and fights the sludge demon himself where he wins and regains his face (scene here: https://youtu.be/ZLu0UpQBkj0).
In episode 2 the boy named Hyakkimaru continues on his journey with Dororo following him seeing a profit to be made here (a profit 50 years in the making). Despite getting his face back, Hyakkimaru still can’t see, hear, or speak. However, he can see the aura of others which is how he’s able to discern who’s good and evil (he’s a like combination of Toph from Avatar and Lucario from Pokémon combined with Samurai Jack). Now this is very different from the original series. In the original Hyakkimaru already had some of his body parts back and could speak. Here, he literally has nothing. Everything was taken away from him and so he has to use different forms to communicate with Dororo thus making their relationship all the more special and endearing as the series goes on. Since Hyakkimaru can sense no danger coming from Dororo he allows him to stay close. The two soon arrive at a village which seems pretty rich despite not having many rice patty fields. The village has been plagued by a demon and they hire Hyakkimaru and Dororo to take care of it. The two get treated to a nice meal and a barn to sleep in for the night (oh yeah, living the good life) where a demon carrying a bell comes in. Hyakkimaru doesn’t attack the demon and allows it to leave peacefully (huh, that was interesting). The next day, the two get to meet the village leader Bandai, a lady who can’t use her legs (not to sound sexist but a lady running a village back in those times just reeks of suspicion). Hyakkimaru tries to attack her but the villagers stop him and throw him and Dororo into the storage house (that’ll teach them). They meet a priest who is also blind and came here to defeat the demon as well but got locked up for his actions. A demon comes up from the well and tries to kill them but Hyakkimaru defeats it and they use the well to escape to the yard of Bandai’s house. It gets revealed that Bandai is actually a demon and the villagers have been feeding her travelers in exchange for their lives. The demon that the villagers wanted Hyakkimaru to defeat was the demon holding the bell only it’s not a demon, it’s the spirit of the first traveler the villagers gave to Bandai. He was pretty much haunting the area and driving the villagers crazy with his bell (he’s doing a good job). Hyakkimaru and Bandai fight where despite Hyakkimaru getting stabbed he doesn’t feel pain (the demons took his nervous system? My God, I think the only thing they didn’t take was his heart and brain. How do you take everything except for those two items?). Hyakkimaru manages to win and regains his stolen body part which was his nervous system (too bad that wasn’t the last thing he got back, now his body can register pain. Scene here: https://youtu.be/leuChfYi_hc). Not only that, but it appears that whenever Hyakkimaru defeats a demon, Daigo’s land suffers ill-fortune.
Episode 3 gives us the backstory of Hyakkimaru. We start off with a man crucifying warriors of an enemy clan at the orders of his lord (bleahhh, you’d have to be a sadist to do this job). The man was known as Jukai a member of the Shiba clan who could no longer handle the guilt of his job and threw himself off a cliff in an attempt to kill himself (but as we all know cliffs are lousy at killing people). Rather than die, he survived, and was rescued by a foreign ship who bought him back to their country where he learned how to make prosthetic limbs (he also minored in automill). He returned to Japan where he would make prosthetic limbs for his fellow countrymen free of charge and as a way to repent for his actions. Things were going well until his assistant finds out that he worked for the Shiba clan and wants revenge as the Shiba clan was responsible for killing his father (you’re gonna kill a man who’s given people body parts for free just because he’s indirectly responsible for the death of your father? Get over it man). Jukai begs the assistant not to kill him until after he’s given a child his new arm and the assistant agrees to it. After Jukai gives the child his arm the assistant can’t bring himself to kill Jukai and just takes his leave. Even abandoning the prosthetic leg Jukai gave him (damn, that’s cold). Jukai continued to go about his life helping others when one day he found Hyakkimaru and cried for him (not because of his body, but because the boy still clung to life. Despite losing everything, that boy still fights to live). Jukai gave Hyakkimaru body parts and took the boy in as his own where he soon began to notice that demons were attracted to him (must be because of his charming looks). Jukai taught Hyakkimaru how to use a sword where it turns out he was pretty good as he used a wooden sword to kill a bunch of monsters that came after him. Including the demon who took one of his body parts. After killing the demon, he got one of his legs back and Jukai pieces together that someone made a deal with the demons and Hyakkimaru was used as payment. Knowing that Hyakkimaru will leave to reclaim his body parts, Jukai equips him with the weapons he needs and lets him set out wishing him luck (scenes here: https://youtu.be/UV4HSl8tGwI and https://youtu.be/ANI7-5Psno4?t=158, give those demons hell).
Episode 4 is a pretty sad episode. It focuses on a cursed sword that takes control of its host and goes around killing people (sort of like the internet). While at a shrine during a rainstorm, Hyakkimaru and Dororo come across a young peddler named Osushi praying for the safe return of her brother Tanosuke from war. When Hyakkimaru feels the presence of the cursed sword nearby he goes to face it where he and the samurai wielding it fight in the rain and through the forest (that’s a pretty cool setting). Hyakkimaru manages to use his prosthetic leg to disarm the samurai of the cursed sword and the samurai falls off the cliff to his supposed death. While Dororo goes to retrieve Hyakkimaru’s leg, the samurai gets discovered by Osushi who just happens to be Tanosuke (quite the coincidence). When Dororo finds the leg, he stupidly grabs the sword and gets possessed by it (good luck killing people sword. Dororo’s body is too small and lacks training). Osushi and Tanosuke arrive at a small village to escape the rain and Osushi tries to communicate with her beloved brother but he’s a different man now. During the war Tanosuke’s lord ordered him to kill the castle builders as he was afraid, they would betray him (talk about paranoid. Why would a bunch of castle builders want to see their castle destroyed?). Tanosuke was given his lord’s cursed sword Nihiru to kill the builders where it turns out he and Nihiru were a good match with each other (like Spiderman and Venom). They not only killed the builders but everyone in the castle single-handedly (damn~). They would continue to go on killing people with Tanosuke changing from a noble samurai to just another killer. All he cares about now is getting his sword back and killing everyone in his path. Nihiru and Dororo make their way to the village where Tanosuke is at so that he can reunite with him but Hyakkimaru finds them first and manages to knock the sword out of Dororo’s hands without harming him. But Tanosuke reclaims Nihiru and fights Hyakkimaru again where he loses and dies with a smile on his face. With Tanosuke dead, Nihiru also dies and Hyakkimaru gets his ears back where the first sounds he hears are rain and Osushi crying (scene here: https://youtu.be/uUWs8JO9V2Q. Sad, isn’t it?).
Episodes 5-8
At the start of episode 5 we see that even though Hyakkimaru has his hearing back, his ears are very sensitive to sound (which makes sense. Keep in mind, he still can’t see, speak, taste and possibly can’t smell anything. Take away one sense, the others get enhanced. What do you think happens when you take 4 senses and leave only one?) and because he’s gone his whole life without hearing anything he’s not sure which sounds to listen to and which to ignore. As they camp out they get attacked by a demon pheasant where Hyakkimaru gets wounded pretty badly because he’s still adjusting to the changes in his body. Luckily, he gets saved by the traveling blind priest from episode 2 who slays the demon for them and bandages Hyakkimaru’s wound. The next morning, Hyakkimaru hears a young lady singing in the river which soothes his mind and doesn’t seem to cause him pain. The young lady is Mio who watches over a bunch of orphans in an abandoned shrine who lost their families and limbs in the last war and with a second war on the horizon the place will not be safe for them much longer. Mio invites Hyakkimaru and the others to the shrine to nurse his wounds which they accept and the kids watch over him while Mio goes to work at night (and she’s a prostitute. A young and beautiful lady working at night in that time, there’s no other job besides being a prostitute). As the episode go on Hyakkimaru begins to heal up and becomes used to sound thanks to Mio’s singing. The priest manages to find a safe spot for them in case a war breaks out, but the place is inhabited by a beetle demon. Hyakkimaru and the priest go to slay it where they injure it but Hyakkimaru loses his foot (his real one. Goddamn it). However, he does regain his voice (scene here: https://youtu.be/TbkBsNQcVMw. Finally, the VA can earn his paycheck). While that’s going on, we see Mio take up more work by going to service the enemy soldiers. Dororo follows her to make sure she’s safe and when he finds out what he’s doing he’s shocked.
Episode 6 is a pretty sad episode. After finding out what Mio does to earn money Dororo decides to keep this a secret from the others. On his way back, he comes across Hyakkimaru and the priest to see that Hyakkimaru lost his leg but got his voice back despite the demon still being alive (he lost his leg but got his voice back. Quite the interesting trade there. All joking aside I was confused by this at first but after letting it sit for a day I think I figured out what happened. Basically, the demons are only allowed one part of Hyakkimaru’s body. I’m guessing it has something to do with the deal. When the demon took Hyakkimaru’s leg it had to give up his voice and thus we got the trade-off. A leg for his voice). The next morning, Mio returns exhausted and bruised from her job yet despite this she tends to Hyakkimaru’s wounds and even looks after him for the next few days while still going to work (scene here: https://youtu.be/qTNNvW3feyk, she works hard for the money). Hyakkimaru manages to make himself a wooden leg and starts training to fight the demon again. We also see that despite getting his voice back he still refuses to talk as he’s not used to his own voice (I haven’t seen a protagonist this silent since Samurai Jack and Afro Samurai). Finally, Hyakkimaru goes off secretly to face the demon alone where this time he comes prepared by giving himself a sword leg which catches the demon off guard (I’m pretty sure it would catch anyone off guard) and killing it to earn the victory and get his leg back (now he’s got his voice and his leg. Let’s party). As Hyakkimaru and Dororo return to the temple they see it’s on fire in the distance. When they return, they find that the soldiers from one of the warring lands have invaded the temple. They accuse Mio and the others of being spies and kill them all mercilessly. Hyakkimaru goes into berserk mode and kills them all except for the captain thanks to Dororo who stops him from going overboard and he utters his first word, Mio. We end the episode on a sad note with Hyakkimaru and Dororo leaving but keeping Mio’s pouch which contained rice patty seeds which I’m sure they vow to plant and grow in honor of Mio and the kids (scene here: https://youtu.be/M4aT06L15aY).
We get a subtle episode in episode 7 (after the events of episode 6 I’ll take it). In the episode Hyakkimaru fights against a female jorogumo who manages to escape him but got wounded in the process. She manages to sneak her way into a quarry village where she gets taken in by a man named Yajiro a worker in the quarry who values all life in the world. The jorogumo’s plan was to absorb his life to replenish her own but as time goes on she can’t help but like the guy because of how nice and interesting he is. Hyakkimaru and Dororo also reach the village where they find out a bunch of people have been kidnapped and believe the jorogumo is behind this only she isn’t. It turns out the kidnappings were done by Yajiro and the people who went missing weren’t kidnapped, they escaped. It turns out the village doesn’t take good care of their workers (what else is new?) and won’t allow anyone to leave unless they have a traveling pass. Yajiro has been helping villagers escape using a secret passageway that the guards don’t know about. On the night he decides to help the jorogumo to escape, they run into Hyakkimaru and the guards who try to kill them both. Yajiro gets hit with arrows and the jorogumo is determined to save his life because she loves him (that, and he offered to be her food source for as long as he lived). Hyakkimaru allows the jorogumo to escape with Yajiro and he leaves the village with Dororo the next day learning a valuable lesson about respecting all forms of life (no matter how small or creepy they may be. Scene here: https://youtu.be/-5OXnCPPstk).
Episode 8 is a good episode. It starts at a village where a mysterious dark cloud appears over it (today’s forecast, dark clouds with a 100% chance of death followed by sunshine at 4pm). This dark cloud is known as Nokosaregumo, the Forsaken Cloud and is home to a demon who threatens to devour the entire village unless they offer up a bride as a sacrifice. We then cut to Hyakkimaru and Dororo entering the region which is full of geysers and spot the villagers carrying a young lady who will serve as a sacrifice to Nokosaregumo. A mountain boy named Saru (because he really does look like a monkey) tries to save her because the young lady was the only person who was ever nice to him and thinks of her as his big sister. Dororo gets in his way and once he hears the full story, decides to help Saru save his big sis (troublemakers have to stick together). They knock out the guards and go to rescue the big sis (who I’m now realizing never got a name. All these characters and yet she never got a name. Even the jorogumo got a name and that was a life sucking demon) just as Nokosaregumo descends upon them. We see that the demon is a giant centipede with two heads (ones for eating, the other’s for throwing it out) and Hyakkimaru can’t fight it because the dark cloud is dripping with demonic aura and is so thick that Hyakkimaru can’t see a thing (for the first time in his life, Hyakkimaru is truly blind). The centipede eats the big sis and escapes. However, it sticks around in the village as its pissed about what happened. So the next day, Dororo and Saru take on the demon after discovering that it hates sunlight and try to use fire to disperse the cloud but the centipede sheds its skin to create a stronger cloud and grow in size. Just when all hope seems lost, Hyakkimaru appears and uses sound to fight the demon (if you can’t see it, hear it). Dororo climbs on top of the demon and decides to speak in order to help Hyakkimaru fight but gets knocked out. Hyakkimaru screams in order to wake up Dororo which works and Dororo is able to guide Hyakkimaru to gouge out the demon’s eyes forcing it out of the cloud and into the sunlight. The other head manages to eat Hyakkimaru but he just slices it up from the inside and kills it. They land safely in a hotspring (well that’s refreshing) and we see the big sis survived as well (thank God centipedes have slow digestive systems). With the demon defeated, Hyakkimaru gets back his nose (scene here: https://youtu.be/bdbY62HD6Z0) and for the first time ever utters Dororo’s name (he’s growing).
Episodes 9-12
We get another sad story in episode 9. After Dororo comes down with a 3-day fever, they receive help from a nun (who prays to Buddha for some reason. Well somebody just lost their job) who brings them back to the temple. While Dororo battles the fever we actually get to hear her past (oh yeah, this episode reveals that Dororo all this time was a girl. Kind of obvious if you ask me). We see that she was the daughter of brigands, people who lost their land due to war between feudal lords. Dororo’s dad was the leader of the brigands and they stuck to the code of only attacking samurais and no one else. Things were going well for the group until Itachi, the right-hand man of Dororo’s dad betrayed the group. He made a deal with a feudal lord to sell out the brigands where some were killed and others joined up with Itachi. Dororo’s dad was spared but he got shot multiple times in the legs making him unable to battle anymore. The three soon wandered the land looking for food and trying to get by until they came across a group of soldiers looking for revenge. Dororo’s dad fought valiantly but was eventually killed in front of Dororo’s eyes. This left only Dororo and her mom where tragedy would strike again as she died from hunger later on (scene here: https://youtu.be/-OCl7DdA05I, on a side note I do like the animation used for the flashback in this episode. Everything is in black and white except for the blood and fire which is a beautiful crimson red. It really stands out). At the end of the episode Daigo finds out that Hyakkimaru is still alive (and he’s coming for you. Scene here: https://youtu.be/tFcJ4NK5hp8).
Things get interesting in episode 10 (it really gets me hyped up for the next episode). This episode focuses primarily on Tahomaru, Daigo’s second son and the younger brother of Hyakkimaru (hard to imagine Hyakkimaru being a big brother). This character has been seen briefly in earlier episodes where he respects Daigo and loves his mother, but he can’t help but feel negligence from them (and to be fair I don’t blame him). His mother really doesn’t seem to take that much interest in him. Every time she sees him she has this sad look in her eyes and really doesn’t admire or notice his achievements (https://youtu.be/vfmFwWRP3tM). Daigo is a little better as he took the time to train Tahomaru and does notice his achievements but even he gives him the cold shoulder by not telling him about his brother and keeps what’s going on a secret from him. Anyway, in the episode, a crab monster is attacking fishermen in the area and Tahomaru hearing the cries of his people steps up to protect them (you sure you’re Daigo’s son?). We do get to see he’s not all talk as he cuts off one of the crab’s legs with his sword and even comes up with a plan to trap the monster in a lake to get it out of the water. In their final battle, Tahomaru and his retainers take on the monster where he gets saved by Hyakkimaru before delivering the final blow himself. We end the episode with the two unknowing brothers coming face to face with each other (scene here: https://youtu.be/DgqWEzo6KUg).
The hype continues in episode 11 as Dororo and Hyakkimaru receive their reward from Tahomaru (scene here: https://youtu.be/7EBKR-vJfKU) and enter Daigo’s land where we see compared to the other lands it’s very prosperous (though it’s fake prosperity created by demons). They come across the blind priest again who’s come here to investigate the demon temple in the area and warns Hyakkimaru not to be consumed by demons himself as he can sense that Hyakkimaru has killed humans. Eventually, Hyakkimaru and Dororo hear rumors about demons that come out at night near the land’s border and go to investigate where they come across a kid named Sukeroku who lost his village and family to the neighboring Asakura clan. Sukeroku is now determined to sneak back into his village and find his family (kid, if I know this anime, chances are your parents are long dead by now) but the soldiers of Asakura stand guard near the border and kill anyone who crosses over (don’t cross the line of death). Sukeroku says the soldiers leave at night but the demons come out at night as well so Dororo says that Hyakkimaru will fight the demons and give Sukeroku the chance to cross over. While that’s going on, Tahomaru’s retainers report to Daigo about Hyakkimaru where the mother is happy to know that her baby boy is still alive (and turned out to be a badass as well) but Daigo not so much (Daigo: I wanted him to be a corpse). Nighttime comes and the demons show up where we see they’re fox spirits (Yume: No relation) and are the souls of soldiers who died on the battlefield. Hyakkimaru and Dororo fight them off while Sukeroku abandons them and crosses over into Asakura territory where he’s quickly captured (what was your plan again? Did you really think they wouldn’t have a night patrol?). Hyakkimaru tells Dororo to go after Sukeroku while he stays behind to fight the foxes. They all combine into one big fox and pin Hyakkimaru down but he gets saved by Daigo and his men where we see son and father face to face with each other after so many years (scenes here: https://youtu.be/-wXW-tAzhE4 and https://youtu.be/Im5elY6gbvI, and someone’s gonna die).
So, after building up this moment for many episodes, what happens between Hyakkimaru and Daigo? Nothing. Daigo’s men shoot at him and Hyakkimaru runs away (12 episodes of build up all we get is this. You tease). Meanwhile, Dororo and Sukeroku get captured and thrown in the enemy’s holding cell where Dororo manages to escape out of a hole and tries to find Hyakkimaru. Tahomaru finds out that Hyakkimaru is his big brother and confronts his parents about this (Tahomaru: You are both assholes). The mother of course feels terrible about this but Daigo stands by his choice and even dares Tahomaru to go to the Hall of Hell and nullify the deal with the demons but of course that means that the prosperity of the land will be no more and it’ll go back to the way it was before (scene here: https://youtu.be/w36Sy_L9sp0. Here’s an idea, why don’t we just offer up Daigo’s life to the demons? Lord knows he deserves it). Hyakkimaru shows up at Daigo’s place where the family welcomes him with arrows (it didn’t work the first time, it’s not going to work this time). Hyakkimaru escapes yet again (scene here: https://youtu.be/HPTA-cjeEUI?t=60) and reunites with Dororo where they hear the sounds of war on the horizon. We see Sukeroku and the other prisoners tied to a wooden wall where they’re about to be executed in front of Daigo’s army. The enemy soldiers kill all the prisoners except for Sukeroku who survived because he’s small and the war begins as both sides charge at each other and the fox spirits come out to kill (it’s like something out of Hell). Hyakkimaru and Dororo enter the battlefield where they rescue Sukeroku and Hyakkimaru comes face to face with his family yet again (can we finally have a civil talk or do I need to sign you guys up for family counseling?) where Tahomaru has thought hard about this issue and has decided to side with Daigo (you jackass). While Tahomaru admits that what Daigo did was wrong, he won’t risk ruining the lives of his people for the sake of his brother and so for the continued prosperity of the land, Tahomaru will kill Hyakkimaru (I’m sorry Hyakkimaru but you come from a family of assholes). Hyakkimaru and Tahomaru fight where Hyakkimaru gets the better of him and slashes his eye. Before the fight can continue Oku (Hyakkimaru’s mom) arrives onto the scene where she openly apologizes and weeps for her boy (maybe there’s hope for this family yet) and atones for her sins with her life by stabbing herself in the chest. This somehow manages to kill the remaining fox spirits trapped in the wall and both armies retreat for the time being. As the battlefield falls silent, we end on a somewhat happy note as Sukeroku is reunited with his mother (scene here: https://youtu.be/t2_uAVqWUpw).
And that’s how we end the first half of the anime on an epic, sad yet happy note. Tune in next week for the exciting conclusion to Dororo. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.