Dororo Episode 18

Dororo Episode 18

The story of the cape of impermanence

Hyakkimaru finally makes it to the cape where Dororo was taken hostage, however, what he’s met by are multiple enemies. Not only are Itachi’s brigands and the demon shark Jiromaru still there, but Tahoumaru appears shortly after, accompanied by a fleet of his own.

So, what brings all of these opposing parties to the same location?

Itachi and the brigands are there to steal the treasure Dororo’s father hid on the cape, and Dororo is there because she was taken hostage by them. The kidnapping of Dororo is what brought Hyakkimaru to the cape, and his appearance in turn attracted Tahoumaru and his men.

Meanwhile, although Jiromaru and Shiranui were already living by the cape, they’re now more invested than ever due to the loss of Saburomaru at the hands of Itachi’s soldiers. Also, since Jiromaru is a demon, Hyakkimaru has a bone to pick with it too.

Oh, and since Itachi’s brigands are both criminals and deserters from Daigo’s military, Tahoumaru needs to bring them to justice as well. So basically everyone who meets up at this cape is trying to kill everyone else. It’s the Dororo version of the battle of the five armies from The Hobbit.

Jiromaru

With the death of Saburomaru, Jiromaru goes into a frenzy, partially incited by Shiranui. He somehow drags himself onto dry land and begins eating his fallen brother, becoming more demonic as he does so. In the end, Jiromaru is a pale white, has spikes, and his fins have turned into limb-like appendages used for crawling.

In this form Jiromaru might actually be the scariest demon we’ve seen so far. Great white sharks are scary enough, but now imagine if one could crawl after you on land. Unfortunately, even with the power it gained from eating Saburomaru, Jiromaru was still no match for Hyakkimaru.

Hyakkimaru killing the demon shark Jiromaru from the anime series Dororo
Hyakkimaru killing Jiromaru

And after defeating the demon shark, Hyakkimaru regained his leg that was missing, meaning he now has two real legs. The only external body parts he’s missing how are his arms and eyes, and with only six episodes remaining I’m going to assume there isn’t anything internal left.

But now that both Saburomaru and Jiromaru are dead, Shiranui doesn’t have a dog, or shark, in this fight. While standing next to Jiromaru’s body he mentions something about bringing them some gifts for when he sees them next, and I really believed he was about to start eating Jiromaru’s corpse to gain his powers.

While this probably would have made for a much more interesting demon battle, it sadly didn’t happen, and instead Shiranui blows himself up with some explosives he found, attempting to take out as many enemies with him as possible. I don’t think he killed anyone with that final plan.

Tahoumaru’s Fleet

Although killing Hyakkimaru is the main objective, Tahoumaru makes it clear to his men that everyone on the cape is considered an enemy to Daigo’s land and should be killed. Although, I’m not entirely sure if they would have killed Dororo given the chance since she’s a child.

Upon landing on the cape, the majority of Tahoumaru’s soldiers focus on Itachi and the brigands, while Tahoumaru and his two guards (whose names I can never remember) focus on bringing down Hyakkimaru. This fight, although fairly short, was the highlight of the episode.

One great thing about it was that it wasn’t merely a one-on-one duel between Hyakkimaru and Tahoumaru like we usually see in anime. Tahoumaru is serious about defeating Hyakkimaru, and so he’s going to use everything at his disposal to do so, including manpower.

Tahoumaru and his soldiers from the anime series Dororo
Tahoumaru and his soldiers

In too many series, antagonist attack the heroes one at a time so it’s easy for them to be repelled, but Tahoumaru goes right for the three-on-one strategy. And, since he and his two guards have different fighting styles, the fight had some great combos.

Tahoumaru uses his sword, the larger man uses a giant, blunt weapon of some sort, and the woman (or more feminine man? I don’t know) uses a bow. But even their combined might isn’t enough to bring Hyakkimaru down, he just has too much battle experience from fighting demons.

In the end Tahoumaru and his men retreat after they suffer severe casualties and Shiranui begins blowing up the cape along with himself.

Itachi and the Treasure

Throughout the whole battle, Itachi was focused on just one thing, finding the treasure. Surprisingly he even cared more about finding the treasure than protecting his own life. I really expected him to flee from the battle, but instead he wanted to find the treasure before Daigo’s men.

And despite the fact that he can be a backstabbing jerk at times, I really do think that Itachi has been my favorite character of the series. He might not be someone I’d want to be friends with, but he’s a really good, flawed character, much like Asuka from Neon Genesis Evangelion.

Even when he was being wounded by arrows, all he could think about was making it to the treasure so that he’ll be able to use it to live somewhere in peace. He no longer wants power or fame, he just wants to live a comfortable life somewhere without demons or war.

He does eventually find the treasure he was looking for, but only after being shot full of arrows and caught in Shiranui’s blast. And, before you head to the comments to tell me that Shiranui’s blast did kill someone, Itachi, I’m pretty sure Itachi was already dying from the arrows impaled in his body.

Conclusion

At the end of the episode, before heading off from the cape, Dororo decides that she’s not going to take her father’s treasure just yet. For one, I don’t see how she could possibly take it all, but also she doesn’t yet know how to use it.

However, she does snag a few coins to help Hyakkimaru and herself out on their travels.

What did you think of this week’s episode of Dororo? Did you like the fight between Hyakkimaru and Tahoumaru’s team as much as I did? Do you think Itachi was a good character? And, what would you do with all that treasure? Don’t actually answer that last question, I don’t care.

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My review of the next episode is available here.

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