Dororo Episode 24

Dororo Episode 24

Dororo and Hyakkimaru

The final episode of Dororo is here, and I’m not sure whether is was good or bad. It was definitely more interesting than the episodes which aired during the middle of the series, but it still had some questionable choice which I’ll go over in a bit.

But the thing that I feel the need to mention before anything else is that Hyakkimaru’s eyes were the last body parts he needed to retrieve after all. The final demon wasn’t in possession of his heart (as far as we know) and while that makes sense from a time constraint perspective, I’m not sold on it from a plot perspective.

After the previous episode it seemed pretty clear that there wasn’t enough time for everything I expected to happen to actually happen. However, I still feel like the final demon was likely in possession of Hyakkimaru’s heart in the original manga, though I haven’t read it.

This adaptation was actually changed from the source material to only include 12 demons as opposed to the original 48. And if you do the math, 48 demons means a lot more of Hyakkimaru’s body parts were taken in the manga, potentially including his heart.

So if you’ve read the Dororo manga, let us know how the ending of that compared to the ending of this adaptation down in the comments.

The Final Battle

Hyakkimaru and Tahoumaru continue their fight throughout Daigo’s castle in this week’s episode. However, it’s not quite as nice of a fight as in the previous episode. This time around the fight is less about the action and more about what the fight means for both parties involved.

Hyakkimaru is still fighting to reclaim what he believes (rightfully so) is his, while Tahoumaru is still fighting for the people of the land whom he has sworn to protect. With that said, as the fight drags on we see their perspectives begin to change and swap.

As Tahoumaru becomes more enraged, he stops thinking about the people of Daigo’s land and more about his personal issues with Hyakkimaru. He mentions things such as how Hyakkimaru took Hyogo and Mutsu from him, and how Hyakkimaru has no right to set foot in the castle.

Hyakkimaru and Tahoumaru from the anime series Dororo
Hyakkimaru and Tahoumaru

On the other hand we have Hyakkimaru, who begins to truly see Tahoumaru as his brother as the fight drags on. The more Tahoumaru talks about the things Hyakkimaru has taken away from him personally, the more Hyakkimaru sees that they’re not so different after all.

In the end Hyakkimaru defeats Tahoumaru, but opts to spare his life rather than kill him. Hyakkimaru realizes that Tahoumaru isn’t an evil person, but was instead being controlled by the ideology of their father (and the demon which takes over his body at the end).

And in response to this mercy, Tahoumaru returns Hyakkimaru’s eyes to their rightful owner (and refers to him as his brother). Also the final demon shows up as a giant blob and doesn’t really do anything.

Life and Death

Now here’s the part of the episode that I didn’t really understand. Even though Hyakkimaru chooses not to kill his brother and mother, and seems to want them to live on, they choose to die. And it’s not just them, Jukai chooses to die along with them.

I get that all three of these characters have things in their pasts which they aren’t proud of and wish to repent for, but I see no reason for why they died in the castle the way they did. None of them said anything about wanting to die to repay their sins, instead they seemed fairly optimistic about the future.

Nui makes a bit more sense than the other two though. As the lady of the land she might have seen it as her duty to go down with the burning castle as a way to signify that Daigo’s reign was over, but I still think it was pretty pointless. We’d already seen her doing things to help the people of the land, so why doesn’t she just survive and continue to do that?

Tahoumaru is kind of in the same boat as his mother, but has even more reason to continue living. He still hasn’t accomplished his goal of protecting the people, so why is he suddenly resigning himself to death? He could have made such a positive impact on the lives of many had he lived.

Jukai is the one that honestly makes the least sense. I get that he’s had his fair share of suicidal thoughts in the past on account of his previous work as an executioner. But, he’s been repenting for that ever since and has actually done a lot of good, such as by raising Hyakkimaru. Why would he suddenly stop now?

Finally we have the character on the other side, Daigo. Out of anyone, Daigo should have been the one character to die, but he doesn’t. Hyakkimaru decides to spare the life of his father just as he did to his brother and mother. He even tells Daigo to live the life of a human from now on, not a demon.

The question is, did Daigo take this to heart? We know that he now realizes that it was wrong to rely on the demons to bring peace and prosperity to his land. He realizes that he should have raised Hyakkimaru to take over after him, and that would have been best for his people.

But even so, he’s still Daigo and we don’t know what he does after that scene. Does he too kill himself? Does he go back to ruling the land with an iron fist? We simply don’t know, but I find it hard to believe he would be willing to give up his position as the lord of the land even if he turned over a new leaf.

Towards the Future

The best part of the episode to me was the very end. In the past I’ve made it clear that I’m a fan of more open endings in series, and that’s exactly what we get from Dororo. Along with not knowing Daigo’s ultimate fate, it’s also unclear what will happen to our protagonists in the future.

Hyakkimaru leaves on a new journey on his own without so much as saying goodbye to Dororo. For you Naruto fans out there, Hyakkimaru’s journey is kind of the same as Sasuke’s after his final battle with Naruto at the end of Shippūden. He’s going on a journey to make sense of everything he’s done.

However, it is implied that Dororo and Hyakkimaru are reunited in the future. It’s unclear whether what we see is this actually happening at the very end, or if this is just foreshadowing that a reunion will occur one day.

Teenage Dororo from the anime series Dororo
Teenage Dororo

And I’d be lying if I didn’t say that older Dororo was low key the highlight of the entire series. I mean, just look at her. Sure, Okowa, that one girl from what essentially amounted to a filler episode, is probably cuter, but it’s nice to see Dororo grown up.

Also for all we know Dororo could be the new lady of the land. Perhaps Daigo is gone and now Dororo is the one in charge, she does have a literal ton of gold after all with which to finance her own country. Though, it should be mentioned that she planned to give it to the people so that they could create a country of their own.

Conclusion

If you enjoyed my Dororo content, don’t worry, this isn’t the last of it. I can’t tell you exactly when it will go live at this point, but I will be doing a review of the entire Dororo season at some point in the future.

Also if you liked this review in particular then click the like button ❤ down below and follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on any upcoming content. I tweet out every time a new post goes live, so it’s the best way to stay up to date.

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