Tag: Dororo

Dororo Episode 20

Dororo Episode 20

The story of the Nue

While I didn’t find the demon’s storyline in this particular episode to be all that unique or interesting, I still thought it was a really good episode overall. There were some themes carried throughout the episode that were interesting, and we learned some major information regarding Hyakkimaru’s body.

The theme present throughout the episode was the change in Hyakkimaru’s heart. At the beginning of the series, and in fact for a large portion of the series, Hyakkimaru was fairly indifferent towards Dororo. However, more recently, and especially in this episode, he shows a much warmer side to his companion.

In the beginning of this episode this change in his heart is signified by him giving Dororo food and asking her to tell him more of her stories. Before this point, while he may have cared for Dororo, he never showed any real interest in her life before they met or her thoughts on the world.

But, as we’ll see, this theme becomes twisted as the episodes carries on. We’re made to believe that Hyakkimaru is becoming more human, but physically this isn’t actually the case.

Sumire Saburota and Nue

If you’ve watched Boruto: Naruto Next Generations, then you might be familiar with a creature called a Nue. In that series, it’s the personal summon of Sumire Kakei. Also I know this review isn’t about Boruto, but my reviews of that series will be coming back once the next major arc begins.

Anyway, a Nue is essentially the Japanese version of the Greek Chimera. It’s a monster made of different animal parts, often including “the face of a monkey, the legs of a tiger, the body of a tanuki (Japanese raccoon dog) and the front half of a snake for a tail.”

Now, that description is just one that comes from Wikipedia, but like Chimeras, Nue don’t necessarily always follow the traditional description. In this particular case, it has the face of a demon, the mane of a lion, the body and front legs of a tiger, the hind legs of a hawk, and the front half of a snake for the tail.

Hyakkimaru vs. the Nue from the anime series Dororo
Hyakkimaru vs. the Nue

The fact that a Nue is this episode’s demon doesn’t bother me in any way, but the storyline that goes along with it does. The Nue works alongside a ronin “samurai” by the name of Dice-spot Saburota. After leaving his mother to die when they were attacked by the Nue, he now lures other travelers to their deaths.

If this sounds familiar, that’s probably because it’s a fairly similar storyline to the one involving Shiranui and his two demon sharks. In fact, just as Shiranui feeds a portion of himself to his sharks, Saburota eventually feeds himself to the Nue to make it stronger.

Dororo and the Boulders

After their first encounter with the Nue, when they’re initially betrayed by Saburota, Hyakkimaru and Dororo are knocked off a cliff in a rock slide. Upon awakening, they find that Dororo’s left arm is caught under some of the boulders, and due to not having real arms, Hyakkimaru is unable to free her.

I know I already brought up Boruto when talking about the Nue, but this also reminded me of Obito Uchiha from Naruto: Shippuden. However, it was obvious that Hyakkimaru wasn’t just going to leave Dororo to die the way Obito was left by his comrades.

That said, I truly believed that Dororo was about to have her arm cut off by Hyakkimaru in a desperate attempt to free her. You see, not only was she stuck, but there was rising water, meaning if she wasn’t rescued quickly, she would drown.

But for some reason Hyakkimaru never seems to even consider cutting off Dororo’s arm, even when she’s completely submerged underwater and he still hasn’t moved the boulder a single inch. Instead Biwamaru shows up just in the nick of time and pry’s the boulder off Dororo’s arm with his own sword.

It’s nice that Biwamaru saved Dororo and all, but I feel like his character is kind of like a walking Deus ex Machina. He appears to rescue or give information to Hyakkimaru and Dororo whenever they need it most, and that kind of takes away from the story a bit. But don’t get me wrong, I still like him.

In this particular case though, I think it would have been much more interesting for Hyakkimaru to have at least been forced to consider cutting off Dororo’s arm. Since his entire purpose in life is reclaiming his own body parts, it would have been interesting to see him have to decide to rob Dororo of one of hers, even if it meant saving her life.

Hyakkimaru’s Heart

And now we get to my favorite part of the episode, when Hyakkimaru kills the Nue after it consumes Saburota. We don’t actually get to see this portion of the fight, but we do see the aftermath. Dororo finds pieces of the Nue scattered around the forest, and eventually Hyakkimaru with his blade through Saburota’s chest.

Saburota then says that he now sees Hyakkimaru isn’t actually a human, and we see a red patch of Hyakkimaru’s soul where his heart should be. Not only is this significant because it implies Hyakkimaru’s soul has been tainted, but it pairs up nicely with some information we’re given about the Hall of Hell earlier on in the episode.

Hyakkimaru kills Saburota from the anime series Dororo
Hyakkimaru kills Saburota

One of the demons featured in the Hall of Hell, presumably the main demon, has recently started giving of the faint sounds of a heartbeat. Is this why Hyakkimaru’s soul now has a red spot where his heart should be? Has it been claimed by this demon now that the Goddess statue has been destroyed?

It’s possible. Though it’s also possible that Hyakkimaru’s soul has begun to turn red due to his obsession with reclaiming his body, and the heartbeat in the demon statue beginning around the same time is just a coincidence.

Even so, there’s one other thing that doesn’t seem to be a coincidence, and that’s the fact that Hyakkimaru doesn’t win back a part of his body. Just as was the case when he defeated the nine-tailed fox demon, Hyakkimaru once again fails to reclaim a lost part of his body after defeating the Nue demon.

Instead, we’re shown that the “main,” heartbeat demon statue in the Hall of Hell appears to gain more power when the statue next to it cracks. My guess is that due to having Hyakkimaru’s heart, this demon is now receiving the body parts Hyakkimaru should have been reclaiming.

So at this point the main demon should have three of Hyakkimaru’s body parts, and I only think there are four left for him to reclaim in total: two arms, his eyes, and his heart. With that in mind, there should theoretically be one more demon battle before the final one to end the series.

Conclusion

What did you think of this week’s episode of Dororo? Did you find the new information we were given about Hyakkimaru’s body to be as interesting as I did? And, if he had to make the choice, do you think Hyakkimaru would have cut off Dororo’s arm to save her or not?

If you enjoyed this episode review, be sure to click the like button ❤ down below. Also follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on any future content. I tweet out every time a new post goes live, as well as schedule updates, so it’s the best way to stay up to date.

Finally, I’d like to thank HeavyROMAN for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about how you too can become a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of the next episode is available here.

Dororo Episode 19

Dororo Episode 19

The story of the Amanojaku

Of all the Dororo episodes so far, this is the one which felt most like your traditional filler episode. Nothing regarding the main story was accomplished, and it was oddly comedic. That’s not to say other episodes haven’t had some comedy, but this one seemed to have a more slapstick feel to it.

Even so, I still found myself enjoying the episode overall. It wasn’t important, or even exciting, but it was still fun to watch mainly due to two of the newly introduced characters. These are Okowa and her father, the blacksmith (I don’t remember his name).

I’ll get to Okowa and her father in a bit, but first let’s take a look at the general setup of the episode.

Over the years of fighting both ghouls and other humans, Hyakkimaru’s swords have become too badly damaged to use. Specifically, in his last fight with Tahoumaru, one of his swords was snapped in half. Due to this, he’s in need of a blacksmith, and there have been rumors of one who’s a master at his craft.

The only problem is that when Hyakkimaru and Dororo arrive at the village where this blacksmith resides, they only hear negative things about him from the other villagers. In fact, they went so far as to call his daughter, Okowa, ugly.

But, as we learn when Okowa answers the door, she actually isn’t ugly, and the townspeople were all lying when they said that her father wasn’t a very good blacksmith. It seems that they always lie for some reason, and Okowa has simply become used to it.

Okowa

So let’s talk a bit about Okowa because I think she’s my favorite girl of the series so far; sorry Mio. Yeah, Mio was good, but she didn’t really have any competition until now. And now that we have someone else to compare her to, it’s clear that Mio can’t match up to Okowa.

Okowa is a pretty cute girl. I mean, she has a ponytail, so there isn’t really much more you could ask for. Aside from the ponytail, her hair and general facial expressions actually reminded me a lot of Ruri “Kuroneko” Gokou from Oreimo.

Okowa from the anime series Dororo
Okowa

But just looking cute isn’t really enough to justify Okowa being the best girl over Mio. She needs to at least have a few good personality traits to go along with it. And, in case you were wondering, she does.

First of all, she’s extremely proud of her father’s work and seems to want to be involved in the family business to some extent. This might now seem all that important, but it shows that she’s passionate about something and that’s always a plus.

More importantly, she just acts cute. Sometimes she’s shy, other times she’s bold, but she always manages to pull off whatever she’s doing in an attractive way. She gets flustered when Hyakkimaru touches his forehead to hers, but within the same day she also asks him to marry her.

As for her father, he’s almost like her opposite. They’re both extremely proud of the swords he makes, but he’s much more serious than Okowa is. He doesn’t seem to care what other people say about him as long as he’s able to continue making a living from his work, and he doesn’t talk all that much.

However, the one thing he does mention about himself is that although he’s a blacksmith who will make weapons, he doesn’t like his weapons to be used for killing. He knows that’s what they will be used for, but his dream is to one day make a weapon so deadly that it stops the enemy from even trying to fight.

Does this sound familiar to anyone else? If I had to venture a guess, I’d say that that this character was highly influenced by what the original creator of Dororo, Osamu Tezuka, experienced during the second World War. Although the blacksmith is referring to swords, it’s easy to see the parallels to nuclear weapons.

The Ghoul

While this episode is basically filler, it does still have a ghoul which Hyakkimaru and Dororo have to defeat. Although, in this case it was defeated by Okowa’s father with the help of Dororo; Hyakkimaru wasn’t helpful at all.

But what exactly did this ghoul do? It wasn’t a dangerous ghoul by any means. Instead it simply cast a spell on the people of the village to make them constantly say the opposite of what they meant. This is why the villagers always said that Okowa was ugly and her father was a bad blacksmith.

The reason Okowa and her father weren’t affected by the ghoul’s curse was due to the blacksmith deities they prayed to. And, since their home is decorated with masks of these deities, anyone inside it is able to speak freely despite being cursed otherwise.

This is why Dororo isn’t affected by the curse until after she takes off the deity mask which she was wearing when Hyakkimaru was cursed. And due to his curse, Hyakkimaru ends up agreeing to marry Okowa despite not actually wanting to (though he definitely should have).

The Amanojaku from the anime series Dororo
The Amanojaku

I could talk more about how Okowa was cute while getting ready for her marriage with Hyakkimaru, or how she gets married to someone else within a day of learning that it was all a misunderstanding, but instead there’s something else: spirit colors.

I’ve discussed the various spirit colors in this series a number of times. The last time I did I brought up the fact that a green spirit, which had only previously been used for the Goddess of Protection statue, was used for Hyakkimaru without any explanation.

At the time I assumed that this meant the Goddess of Protection was now living within Hyakkimaru after the statue was lost, but now I’m not so sure. You see, the ghoul from this episode also had a green spirit, despite demons and ghouls previously only being depicted in red.

So what gives? Was the color-coding system for souls thrown out? There are still five more episodes, so it’s possible we’ll get an answer, but I find that unlikely. This episode felt so much like filler that I doubt the series is ever going to come back around and explain why this ghoul had a green soul rather than a red one.

Conclusion

Anyway, what did you think of this week’s episode of Dororo? Did it feel like a filler episode to you too? Who do you prefer: Mio or Okowa? And, what are your thoughts on the recent addition of more green souls? Let me know in the comments.

Also, I almost forgot to mention that this is actually my 500th post here on DoubleSama.com, so if you enjoyed it be sure to click the like button ❤ down below. Normally I would have done something special for this occasion, but I already have enough of a post backlog as it is.

And, perhaps you noticed that there wasn’t a post uploaded yesterday despite Mondays being one of my scheduled days. If you follow me over on Twitter (@DoubleSama), you’ll see that I mentioned this week’s Monday post is being postponed until Wednesday.

Finally, I’d like to thank HeavyROMAN for supporting this blog at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about becoming a supporter, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of the next episode is available here.

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.

If you enjoyed this review, be sure to click the like button ❤ down below. Also follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on any future content or schedule changes. I tweet out every time a new post goes live, so it’s the best way to stay up to date.

Finally, I’d like to thank HeavyROMAN for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about becoming a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of the next episode is available here.

Dororo Episode 17

Dororo Episode 17

The story of questions and answers

Hyakkimaru and his father figure, Jukai, are finally reunited in this week’s episode of Dororo. Last week we saw the adventure Dororo was on without Hyakkimaru by her side, and this week we’re being shown Hyakkimaru’s adventure as he attempts to relocate her.

However, Hyakkimaru is missing his left prosthetic leg, and is in need of a new one, which is why he first searches for Jukai. It’s unclear if Hyakkimaru knew it was Jukai he was searching for from the start, but then again, how many people go around attaching prosthesis to corpses.

But, I’ll discuss Hyakkimaru and Jukai’s reunion in one of the later sections. For now, I want to take a look at some of the potentially new information we received about the goddess of protection, the demons, and Hyakkimaru.

I’ve mentioned before that the various colors Hyakkimaru sees all point towards different kinds of souls. There are white, red, green, blue, and gold souls as far as we know. And, Hyakkimaru’s soul was previously shown to be white with tinges of red due to the people he’s killed.

However, it looks like his soul has changed color. When he reaches up to touch Jukai’s face with his left prosthetic hand, we see that while Jukai’s soul is white, the prosthesis appears green, which it hasn’t before. Sure, maybe this was a mistake, or maybe the prosthesis is just happy to see its creator, but that seems unlikely.

The Goddess of Protection

The only other time we’ve seen something with a green soul was the goddess of protection statue. Even the ghost of the nun didn’t have a green soul, hers was gold. So, why is Hyakkimaru’s soul suddenly the same color as that of the goddess? It’s not as though he’s had some righteous revelation.

My best guess has to do with what we’re told by Ojiya regarding the fate of the goddess statue. She claims that the reason the goddess statue lost its head on the day of Hyakkimaru’s birth was because it traded places with the boy during one of the exchanges with the demons.

This means that rather than the demon taking Hyakkimaru’s head, it took the head off the goddess statue instead. So based on that we have a clear connection between the goddess of protection and Hyakkimaru. Not only did she protect him from a demon, but she took his place.

However, the goddess statue has since been lost or destroyed (I forget which), which means its deal with the demon has been nullified. So, since the demon no longer has a reason to hold onto the head of the goddess of protection, my assumption is that it was “returned” to Hyakkimaru.

Do I think this is a good explanation for why Hyakkimaru’s soul is suddenly green? No, but I can’t see another reason for this to be the case unless it really was just a mistake. His character hasn’t really progressed in a positive direction, and I don’t see why else he would be on par with a goddess.

Tahoumaru and the Rat

So, Hyakkimaru hasn’t really developed too much as a character other than becoming a bit more stubborn about killing demons, but the same can’t be said about his brother. Ever since their previous encounter, Tahoumaru has been on a steady spiral down the path towards becoming an antagonist.

But, while I call Tahoumaru an antagonist, I don’t mean that he’s evil. An antagonist is simply someone who works against the protagonist, who in this case is Hyakkimaru. It’s kind of like the opposite of how Ainz from Overlord is the protagonist of his series, but also the bad guy.

Hyakkimaru is kind of a neutral character. He’s not really a hero because he doesn’t fight to defend anyone else, but instead simply fights for himself. Likewise, Tahoumaru is kind of a neutral character because while he fights for other people, he does so against Hyakkimaru.

The ghoul rat from the anime series Dororo
The ghoul rat

But, what the pair have in common is their willingness to win by any means necessary. Neither of them really care about the path they take as long as they get the results they desire in the end. For Hyakkimaru this simply means continuing to fight demons on his own, but for Tahoumaru this is a bit more drastic.

When Tahoumaru goes off to defeat the demon rat we get our first glimpse of this change in his character. Rather than simply killing the demon rat, he has his men set the entire building on fire to make sure it and its children are all wiped out without a trace.

Personally, I think this was the right decision from a pragmatic perspective, but it does show that he’s willing to take more drastic measures in his fight to keep his people safe. Theoretically he would rather burn an entire village to the ground than allow a ghoul to escape, and that’s the problem.

Hyakkimaru and Jukai

And now, the section you’ve probably been waiting for even though I think the others were more interesting. Basically, Hyakkimaru is reunited with Jukai, the man who raised him, and he calls Jukai his mother because that’s how he thinks of Jukai based on Dororo’s stories and Mio.

I get it, it was a somewhat emotional reunion, but honestly I don’t think the emotional bits really hit their mark. Instead, what was more interesting about their interaction to me was how Jukai refused to make Hyakkimaru a new prosthesis, or even give him a ready-made one.

Sure, Jukai’s whole philosophy is to not equip the living with prosthesis because it just makes it easier for them to kill each other, but at the same time I thought he’d be sympathetic to Hyakkimaru’s plight. Yes, Hyakkimaru has killed men, but he sort of did it out of self-defense.

Jukai and Hyakkimaru from the anime series Dororo
Jukai and Hyakkimaru

Really, you’d think that the fact Hyakkimaru is going around slaying demons which would otherwise be preying on humans is a good thing. But, as far as Jukai is concerned it’s not good enough to counteract the fact that Hyakkimaru would eventually have to take other human lives.

However, the big surprise came when Jukai actually sided with Daigo, Ojiya, and Tahoumaru, sort of. He doesn’t think that Hyakkimaru should die so that the land can be prosperous, but he does seem to believe that it’s Hyakkimaru’s duty to keep the pact with the demons alive so that the masses can live in comfort.

Hyakkimaru didn’t ask for his body parts to be stolen by demons, and he hasn’t really done anything wrong. So I don’t see why Jukai also thinks that he should have to live with that burden.

Conclusion

What did you think of this week’s episode of Dororo? Do you think Jukai was right not to replace Hyakkimaru’s prosthesis? Do you think Tahoumaru is spiraling downward? And, what do you think will be the result of the next clash between these brothers? Let me know in the comments.

If you enjoyed today’s review, be sure to click the like button ❤ down below. You should also follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on all my latest content and updates.

Finally, I’d like to thank HeavyROMAN for continuing to support DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. If you’re interested in learning more about becoming a supporter, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of the next episode is available here.

Dororo Episode 16

Dororo Episode 16

The story of Shiranui

This week’s episode focuses on Dororo now that she and Hyakkimaru have split up and gone their separate ways. However, at the end of the episode we do see that Hyakkimaru is searching for Dororo, and so the pair will probably be reunited in the next episode or the one after that.

So, with Hyakkimaru temporarily out of the picture, there was nobody to save Dororo when Itachi and his men came to kidnap her. The reason for them doing this was to gain access to the half of the map on Dororo’s back, and we learn that they already have the other half.

The half of the map which was on Dororo’s mother’s back leads to the general location of the treasure, which is on a cape inaccessible by land. Dororo’s half of the map then depicts the specific locations on the cape where the treasure was buried.

Shiranui from the anime series Dororo
Shiranui

The problem facing the group is that they have no way of getting to the cape via land due to the rugged terrain, and there are no usable boats nearby to cross the bay. Luckily, a man named Shiranui appears and offers to take Itachi and his men across to the cape for a fee.

Shiranui is the sole survivor of the nearby fishing village which he claims was destroyed by brigands. He’s also missing his right arm, which is assumed to be an injury he sustained during the attack that took the lives of his friends and family.

Itachi’s Brigands

So, what have Itachi and his men been up to since the last time we saw them? After leaving Hibukuro’s brigand group, Itachi and his men joined up with a local lord (which might have been Daigo) and became pseudo-samurai.

This is the position Itachi was in when Dororo last saw him, which was before her mother died. Since then, Itachi and his men decided to leave the service of the lord after they learned that he had used them as bait so that his main forces could attack the enemy base undefended.

This betrayal reinforced the teachings of Hibukuro in Itachi’s mind, and he realized that his old friend was right not to trust the samurai. But, that doesn’t mean Itachi has turned over a new leaf. Instead, he and his men have gone back to being brigands, and are now searching for Hibukuro’s treasure.

I have to say that I like Itachi as a character. He’s not the nicest guy around, but he’s a good, flawed character who occasionally shows that he has soft side despite his rough facade. He seems to care about his men, and when he had them strip Dororo down to find the map, he genuinely seemed to regret his actions after learning she’s a girl.

Jiromaru and Saburomaru

Back to shark boy Shiranui, after Itachi accepts his offer to ferry him and his men across the bay, it’s revealed that the boats he’s in possession of have no oars. Instead, there are two massive sharks pulling the boats via rope from beneath the surface.

These sharks are named Jiromaru and Saburomaru, and Shiranui sees them as both his best friends and family. It’s also revealed that Shiranui didn’t actually lose his arm in the brigand attack, but he instead fed it to his shark friends.

While he may have had good intentions originally, this sacrifice of his arm started Shiranui down a dark path. As he explains, after that point Jiromaru and Saburomaru acquired a taste for human flesh, and so Shiranui began feeding them corpses, though this only furthered their desire for humans.

Eventually, he began feeding live humans to his sharks, and this is when the true fate of the villagers is revealed. There never was a brigand attack. Instead, they were all fed to Jiromaru and Saburomaru by Shiranui, and his ferry service is actually just a ploy to attract new people to feed to the sharks.

Shiranui and Saburomaru from the anime series Dororo
Shiranui and Saburomaru

By the end of the episode, Saburomaru has been killed by Itachi and his men after Dororo comes up with a plan of attack. The brigands then use the body of Saburomaru to lure Shiranui onto the shore where they capture him.

Before moving on with the rest of the episode, I do want to mention a few thoughts I had on Jiromaru and Saburomaru. Firstly, they appear to be demon sharks, not regular sharks. However, were they always demon sharks?

On one hand, I was thinking that maybe they were demons from the start, and that Shiranui’s sacrifice of his own limb and the bodies of the villagers is what forged his pact with them. However, on the other hand, it’s also possible that these sharks were turned into demons after being fed humans.

The Treasure

After Itachi and his men decided to go back to being brigands, he remembered that Hibukuro had been stealing treasure from his own brigand group and hiding it away somewhere. However, since Hibukuro is now long dead, Itachi thought that this treasure was lost for good.

That is, until he stumbled across the grave of Ojiya, Dororo’s mother. I’m not sure how he knew this grave belonged to Ojiya or why he thought she would be buried with a clue pointing towards the treasure, but he did and so he dug up her grave to find the map on her back.

And, after somehow finding Ojiya’s grave and knowing that she would have a map to the treasure, Itachi also somehow knows that the map is incomplete and that Dororo must have the other half. Even after Dororo shows him that there’s nothing on her back, he still believes she’s in possession of it somehow.

Finally, after a strip search, it’s revealed that the map only appears on Dororo’s back when it’s exposed to heat. I don’t know how this was actually managed considering the map was supposedly carved into her back, but whatever. Anyway, Itachi now has both halves of the map and sets out to find the treasure.

But, while he and his men are away, Shiranui escapes and calls upon Jiromaru to kill all of his enemies.

Conclusion

While the fight against Saburomaru wasn’t all that difficult, I imagine that the fight against Jiromaru will be. Perhaps we’ll see that there’s more to it being a demon shark than just its size. And, perhaps Hyakkimaru will have to come to the rescue at the end of the episode.

But, what did you think of this week’s episode of Dororo? Although there were some inconsistencies revolving around Itachi’s discovery of the treasure map, overall I thought it was a good episode. At the very least it was better than the previous episode.

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My review of the next episode is available here.