The story of the scene from hell

Dororo and Hyakkimaru’s story has come to the second important junction. The first was the death of Mio and her children, because this gave the pair something to continue fighting for that was beyond themselves. However, this time the outcome may not be as righteous.

Hyakkimaru has continued his downward spiral, and it’s beginning to put a strain on his relationship with Dororo. All he wants to do is kill demons, reclaim his lost body parts, and eventually take the fight back to his father. However, Dororo is looking towards a life not fueled by revenge.

At the start of the episode, we see this difference most exemplified by what each of the pair do. Hyakkimaru wants to kill the moth demon and so follows Sabame in hopes of finding it, while Dororo heads into the village to have a look around and talk to the locals.

In the end, they each come across startling conclusions.

Hyakkimaru learns that Lord Sabame accepted the demons in return for the prosperity of his land. This is especially important because it’s essentially the same thing his own father did. Dororo on the other hand learns that the villagers were the ones who burnt down the temple and killed the orphans.

Maimai-Onba

The demon this time around is named Maimai-Onba, and is the moth demon seen in the previous episode, though she also has a human form. We’re never explicitly told why this demon appeared before Sabame, but it’s heavily implied that it appeared due to the war and famine devastating the region.

Interestingly, this is also one of the 12 demons with which Daigo formed a pact. This doesn’t have too much significance other than the fact that it means Hyakkimaru regains a part of himself for defeating her, but I thought it was an interesting glimpse into how pacts with demons work.

Just because you have a pact with a particular demon doesn’t necessarily mean that same demon doesn’t also have a pact with one or more of your enemies.

However, Maimai-Onba isn’t just a singular demon, she has children. Upon making the pact with Sabame, she and her children killed and ate all the brigands and wild beasts which had been ravaging his lands.

In this sense, she’s a protective demon. She doesn’t grant Sabame military victory, but rather only grants his village safety. It’s also important to mention that unlike previous demons we’ve seen, there’s no implication that she and her children would have eaten the villagers if a pact hadn’t been formed.

Basically, Sabame forged a pact with this demon not so that he could expand his influence, but solely so he could protect the peace within his lands. And, he did so without having the demon force his hand by threatening his land with further death if the pact wasn’t forged.

The Secret of the Village

But, there is one caveat. While Maimai-Onba never seems to have threatened the villagers directly, she does require sustenance in the form of human sacrifice. Sure, this can be taken to mean that she’ll eat the villagers if no one else is sacrificed, but I understood it to mean that her protection would disappear instead.

We know that currently her thirst for human blood is quenched by sacrificing travelers who pass through the village, but what about initially?

Remember the fire at the temple which killed the nun and all of the orphans residing there? Well, as expected, this wasn’t an act of the gods punishing the nun for abusing the children. Instead, this was an intentional act of mass murder to appease Maimai-Onba.

We can assume that the nun and orphans weren’t sacrificed due to any sin they committed, but rather because they were on the fringes of society. The nun likely had no other family in the region, and since the orphans had no families either, they were the perfect candidates for sacrifice.

So, not only did the villagers know that Sabame forged a pact with a demon, but they were complicit in the forging of said pact as well.

It was also revealed, as I predicted last week, that the monster baby was actually the combined souls of all the orphans who were killed during the massacre. When Dororo is thrown into a pit with the children of Maimai-Onba, it’s these souls who come to her rescue.

Dororo and Hyakkimaru

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, Dororo and Hyakkimaru seem to be moving in different directions. And, by the end of the episode the gap between them has widened even further, to the point that the two of them are literally moving in different directions.

After Maimai-Onba was defeated, the village burned down, causing the loss of all the stored food and the lives of some villagers, including Sabame. However, it seemed to be implied that Dororo was the cause of this fire, so due to that I have to take her stance with a grain of salt.

Dororo starts to believe that the villagers would have been better off if she and Hyakkimaru had never stumbled across their village in the first place. Specifically, she thinks that perhaps Hyakkimaru shouldn’t have killed the demon, because it was protecting the people.

Aside from the fact that the fire was started by her, and not the demon, there are a couple other flaws with Dororo’s line of reasoning. However, that doesn’t make her perspective any worse than Hyakkimaru’s.

Hyakkimaru is of the mindset that demons need to be slayed, and the effects of said demon slaying aren’t any of his concern. The way he sees it, it was the villagers who invited the demon in, and so it’s only natural that they should suffer the price for it.

But, the real issue Dororo has isn’t necessarily that she disagrees with Hyakkimaru’s stance, it’s that Hyakkimaru is so absorbed in his revenge that he can’t see the other sides to the story. In fact, he didn’t even notice that Dororo wasn’t with him as he was leaving the village behind.

Conclusion

At the very end of the episode, in what felt like a somewhat random turn of events, Dororo gets picked up by Itachi and his men. In case you don’t remember, Itachi was the one who betrayed Dororo’s parents and sided with the lord (who I think was Daigo).

It turns out that Itachi is also aware of the treasure map which was depicted on the backs of Dororo and her mother, and is already in possession of a copy of Dororo’s mother’s half.

So, what did you think of this episode of Dororo? Do you think Dororo’s point of view is correct, or Hyakkimaru’s? And, did you feel that the arrival of Itachi at the end of the episode was as out of place as I did? Let me know down in the comments.

If you enjoyed today’s review, be sure to click the like button ❤ down below. And, follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama if you aren’t already. 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.

The story of Sabame

Even after waiting a day, Amazon still doesn’t have the latest episode of Dororo uploaded, so it looks like I’ll be setting off to the high seas for the rest of this series. Maybe nobody told Amazon that Dororo is more than a single cour.

Last week I tried out changing my Dororo episode reviews to Mondays rather than Tuesdays. But, because of this issue I’ll be swapping back to Tuesdays from here on out, with the Fruits Basket episode reviews taking place on Mondays instead.

With that out of the way, let’s get into this week’s episode. Although there wasn’t very much action, I liked this episode a lot due to the possible directions it set up for the story to go in, and the plot that was built up for the following episode.

At the start, we learn a bit more about the map on Dororo’s back. It turns out that it is a treasure map, which is what I was hoping it wouldn’t be, but the good news is I don’t think it’s going to turn this into a treasure hunting series. I still would have rather it be something like a map pointing to where Dororo’s parents were supposed to regroup with the other rebels.

But, the end location of the map aside, it’s also only half of the map. The other half of the map was engraved on the back of Dororo’s mother, and since she’s dead, it’s lost to the world. However, there is one living person who’s seen that half of the map, Dororo.

The only problem is that Dororo didn’t know the other half of the map was on her own back, and because of its location, she can’t see it even though she now knows it’s there. As for the reason Dororo never knew about this map, it only appears when heated up, and she had never taken a hot bath before.

But what makes the treasure map so interesting is that it opens up a lot of potential paths for Dororo and Hyakkimaru to take in the future. After reclaiming Hyakkimaru’s body parts, will they use the money to live comfortably? Will they charge into Daigo’s land? Will they create their own land? The possibilities are endless.

Ghouls in the Night

After leaving the hot spring behind, Dororo and Hyakkimaru encounter a pair of “ghouls” in the forest. One is the ghostly form of an older woman, and the other is a giant, baby-like monster.

However, it’s implied that these “ghouls” aren’t actually ghouls, because then they would appear red like demons to Hyakkimaru. Instead, the woman appears blue and the baby appears gold. So, what does this all mean?

We know that white represents regular people, red represents demons, and green represents gods or goddesses. I also think we’ve seen blue somewhere before, but I can’t remember exactly where. That said, it’s probably safe to say that blue is a good color and fits in somewhere between white and green.

The gold is the real mystery. It makes me think it’s meant to represent something divine, but as I mentioned, green is already used for that. Perhaps gold is a bit more unique in that it represents innocence that was taken away, such as a child who is killed.

The fact that these two “ghouls” are represented in blue and gold is something I’ll come back to in the next section.

Back to the plot, the ghostly woman leaves the monster baby in the hands of Dororo and Hyakkimaru, and it takes a liking to Dororo. The now trio then continue through the forest until they come to a burned down temple. Here, the ghostly woman reappears and directs Hyakkimaru to a spot on the ground.

What he finds there is oil that has since been soaked into the earth, implying that the temple was burned down on purpose. A mysterious man known as Sabame then appears, introduces himself, and invites Dororo and Hyakkimaru to his home.

It’s important to note that the monster baby disappears as soon as Sabame shows up. There’s a reason it doesn’t want to be seen by Sabame, and my guess is that it’s not just because it looks like a monster.

Lord Sabame

On the way back to his home, we learn from the villagers that Sabame is considered a good lord who protects his people and land from harm. But, this is something to be cautious of. Have we seen a good lord so far in this series who wasn’t secretly evil? I don’t think so.

Daigo is an obvious example due to his pact with the demons, but even that one woman who was a village chieftain turned out to actually be a demon who the villagers were feeding travelers to. It’s hard to imagine that Sabame would be able to protect his land without any kind of army, so how is he doing it?

And, this is where the “ghouls” from earlier come back into relevance. Sabame claims that the reasons he invited Dororo and Hyakkimaru back to his home are because he likes hearing travelers’ tales and there are man-eating ghouls who live on the mountain near the temple.

The story he then tells about these ghouls goes like this:

Originally the temple was home to a nun and a bunch of orphans. However, the nun would work the children like animals, and then sell them off once they were no longer useful. The gods then got angry with the nun and burned down the temple, including all those inside, with a lightning strike.

Based on this story, we can deduce that the ghostly woman we saw earlier was the nun and the monster baby was one (or a conglomerate of) the children. However, if his story is true, then the nun should have appeared red, or at least white with red wisps in it as we’ve seen before.

And, here’s where Sabame’s story begins to fall apart. Not only do we know the nun and monster baby aren’t dangerous, we also know that the temple wasn’t burned down by lightning. It was already discovered that it was intentionally burned down.

Further, although Sabame’s soul mostly appears white, it has a red tinge outlining it, implying that there’s a darker side to him than meets the eye. So, was Sabame the one who burned down the temple? Probably, but why would he have done so?

Mothra

It’s fairly clear to me that the nun wasn’t actually as bad as Sabame made her out to be in his story. But, even if she was, that doesn’t explain why someone would burn down the temple while all the children were inside as well.

But, we know that Sabame is hiding something, and it likely has to do with this disaster. What we don’t know, even by the end of the episode, is exactly what role he played and why he played it. The outcome, however, is clear.

With the nun and temple gone, a demon was able to come in and set up shop in Sabame’s land. This demon takes the form of a giant moth, and also has children of its own which appear as giant caterpillars. The moth also has a human form, which it seems Sabame is infatuated with.

Just as the episode with the female chieftain who was actually a demon, the story this time around appears to be about Sabame feeding unsuspecting travelers to the moth demon in return for the safety of his people. That in itself isn’t groundbreaking since we’ve seen it before.

But, what makes this arc more interesting is the dynamic between the demon, Sabame, and the temple. Did Sabame burn down the temple on the demon’s instruction? Did Sabame burn down the temple to invite in the demon? Or, perhaps Sabame burned down the temple for another reason, and the demon happened to appear.

All three of these options seem viable to me, and I’m interested in finding out which, if any, of them is correct. And, if my third guess is the correct one, then why did Sabame burn down the temple in the first place?

Conclusion

So what are your thoughts on this week’s episode of Dororo? What do you think Dororo and Hyakkimaru will do in the end now that they have a treasure map? What do you think the blue and gold souls represent? And, why do you think Sabame burned down the temple?

If you enjoyed this review, then be sure to click the like button ❤ down below. Also, 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.

Finally, I’d like to thank HeavyROMAN for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about becoming a supporter and the benefits you’ll receive for doing so, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of the next episode is available here.

The story of the Blank-Faced Buddha

The blank-faced Buddha statue is a large statue of one of the wisdom gods, Fudo, which was never completed by its original creator. The carver who had been creating the statue was unable to come up with a face he thought was good enough, and so the statue remained unfinished by the time of his death.

Unfortunately, the backstory of this statue isn’t all that clear, and my guess as to the reason for this is because this arc was likely based on some old folktale. If it’s assumed that the viewers will already be familiar with the basics of the story, then that’s just less that needs to be explained in the episode.

So, keep in mind that the assumptions I’ll be making regarding this statue are based purely on the information given to us within the episode itself.

The giant Fudo statue is located behind a waterfall where it’s hidden from view. From what I understood, the reasoning behind the location of this statue is that the original creator wanted it to be overlooking the people who lived nearby without their knowledge.

This may seem sinister at first, but I think the creator had good intentions when he began his magnum opus.

He was originally renowned for his calm-faced statues, but as the world became ravaged by wars, people wanted angry statues to reflect that. Because of this, he grew to hate seeing the angry faces, and wanted his greatest work to better represent what he believed was a good statue.

However, after years of creating and seeing angry faces, he could no longer carve a calm face that lived up to his standards. So, it doesn’t seem that this statue was his form of getting revenge on the people who had him carving angry-faced statues, but rather his way of trying to counter all the anger in the world with something calm.

Unfortunately, due to him not being able to finish his work before dying, the Fudo statue became inhabited by a demonic spirit which requires human sacrifices. That’s probably not something the creator would have wanted, as we learn at the end of the episode.

Okaka the Carver

So, who is the original creator of the blank-face Fudo statue behind the waterfall? While he was definitely depicted as a man when he was alive, after his death, the demon possessing the statue brought him back to life in the form of a woman named Okaka.

Okaka could have been his name when he was alive, but it sounds like a feminine name to me, so my guess would be that this wasn’t the case. If you’re more familiar with Japanese naming conventions than I am, feel free to let me know in the comments.

Anyway, now that Okaka has been revived, she (I’ll be using feminine pronouns from here on out) has been tasked by the demonic statue to bring victims to be sacrificed. But, these victims aren’t merely sacrificed any old way; they have their faces cut off by the statue.

We’re told that the statue is attempting to find the right face for itself, but none of the faces Okaka has brought so far are good matches. At least not until she finds Hyakkimaru, whose face she refers to as the perfect face.

But, how does a woman like Okaka lure her victims (who seem to all be adult males) to the statue for their executions? There are two steps to her plan:

1. Lull the victim into a false sense of security.
2. Drug the victim so they can be overpowered and tied up.

The second step is fairly straightforward, as she mixes a drug into the food and drink she provides to the unsuspecting victims, but the first step is a bit more interesting. Thanks to the fact that she’s not a living human, Okaka has some very inhuman abilities.

She’s able to change the appearance of her face and the sound of her voice to match those of a loved one of her potential victim. We see that to her previous victim, she appeared as his (probably deceased) wife, and to Dororo she appeared as her mother.

Unfortunately for Okaka, this trick doesn’t work on Hyakkimaru because he can’t see her, and he also doesn’t know what his mother looks like. We can also probably attribute the fact that her change in voice didn’t affect Hyakkimaru because he hasn’t really heard his mother that much either.

Hot Springs

So, after the demonic Fudo statue and Okaka were defeated, Dororo and Hyakkimaru are able to continue on with their travels. Their next stop is at a nearby hot spring where they find none other than their old pal Biwamaru.

Here they also meet another old man and two young boys. As the boys question Dororo about her travels with Hyakkimaru, it’s revealed that she has some sort of tattoo or scarring on her back which appears to be a map. But, when we’re shown this “map,” I couldn’t really make anything out.

Is there really a map on Dororo’s back? If so, what does the map depict? Is there a secret treasure to be found? Or, is it merely scarring? Maybe a tattoo from her days as a brigand with her parents? My guess is that we’ll learn within the next episode or two, because this seems too important to simply be forgotten.

However, I’m not sure how to feel if it turns out there really is a map on Dororo’s back, especially if it’s one that leads to some sort of treasure. That might be a bit too much of a twist.

But, this also brings up an important question regarding our old “best girl,” Mio. When it was revealed that Dororo is actually a girl, and she asks Mio if she “saw,” what was Dororo really referring to? At the time the assumption was that Dororo was asking if Mio found out she was a girl, but perhaps she was talking about whatever’s on her back.

If that’s the case, then I’m inclined to like the whole map on her back route. I like when series do things later on that then make earlier parts suddenly make more sense. You know, like the entire Monogatari series, especially Kizumonogatari if you watch it in the anime release order.

Conclusion

What did you think of this week’s episode of Dororo? Do you think the creator of the Fudo statue originally had evil intentions? And, what are your thoughts on Dororo’s Yakuza-like back tattoo? Let me know in the comments.

You may have also noticed that this review is being uploaded on Monday instead of Tuesday. Well, now that TenSura is over, my Dororo episode reviews will be in the Monday slot rather than the Tuesday slot.

So, before I end this post, let’s briefly take a look at the Spring 2019 review schedule:

• Sunday – Boruto
• Monday – Dororo
• Tuesday – TBD
• Wednesday – Shield Hero
• Thursday – TBD
• Friday – JoJo’s Part 5
• Saturday – Demon Slayer

I like having two days per week of miscellaneous posts, so Tuesday and Thursday would be those days. However, I also want to bring something a bit different to my weekly review schedule. As you may be able to tell, it’s basically all shounen action series.

With that in mind, I’ve put up a poll on Twitter to determine what series will be taking one of those two open slots. The two choices are Fruits Basket, which is a shoujo romance series, and Cinderella Nine, which is the baseball equivalent of Love Live! The poll is only up until Thursday, so make sure to get your vote in.

If you enjoyed this post, be sure to let me know by clicking the like button ❤ down below. Also, follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on my latest content and the polls which determine what that content is. I also write for other sites, and links to that content can also be found on Twitter.

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

My review of the next episode is available here.

The story of Banmon, part 2

Because I’ve been writing these Dororo episode reviews every Tuesday, I kind of forgot that the episodes actually come out on Mondays. That means I could have written this review yesterday rather than reviewing the TenSura recap episode.

Anyway, here we are with the 12th episode of Dororo, which means we’re halfway done with the series. Up until this point the series has almost been set up in a monster-of-the-week format, with a few two-parters here and there. But, this dynamic seems to be changing.

We’re finally getting to the “good stuff,” although I think this series has been good from the start. While there will still probably be some monster-of-the-week style episodes, it seems like we’ve now shifted to a more continuous story about the struggle between Hyakkimaru, Tahoumaru, and Daigo.

Hyakkimaru Kagemitsu

For the first time, Hyakkimaru finally learns about where he came from and who his family is. He learns that he has a father, mother, and brother, and that they’re the ruling family of the land  no less. However, the status of his family doesn’t seem to matter to Hyakkimaru.

As for his family members, this is the first time they really meet Hyakkimaru as well. Tahoumaru met him not long ago, but since he didn’t know they were brothers at the time, this doesn’t really count. As far as he was concerned, Hyakkimaru was just a wandering demon slayer.

However, now that Tahoumaru knows Hyakkimaru is his brother, he must confront his parents about their dark past. And, interestingly they have oddly aligned conclusions regarding the matter, despite their differing perspectives.

On one hand we have Daigo, who clearly wants to see Hyakkimaru killed so that he and his land can continue to prosper. He claims that this is what’s best for the people, and while this may be true, Tahoumaru understands that it’s really what’s best for Daigo.

On the other hand we have Nuinokata, who Daigo refers to as Oku in this episode so that’s what I’ll be calling her from now on too. While it’s clear that she never wanted any part in what happened to Hyakkimaru, now that the deed is done she doesn’t necessarily seem to regret it.

Yes, she still prays to the Goddess of Protection everyday, and she’s likely praying for the safety of her child who was taken by the demons, but she still recognizes how Hyakkimaru’s sacrifice has helped the people of Daigo’s land. Rather than wanting him to die, Oku likely wants Hyakkimaru to return to the family, but continue to be cursed for the sake of the land.

Tahoumaru’s Decision

And then comes Tahoumaru’s time to choose a side. Will he side with his father and choose to kill Hyakkimaru? Will he side with his mother and want Hyakkimaru to return as a sacrifice? Or, will he side with Hyakkimaru and fight against Daigo and his army?

The fact that this isn’t an easy decision for him is why Tahoumaru is my favorite character of the series. He doesn’t just listen to his parents and follow one of them blindly. Instead, he gathers information and attempts to make his own decision regarding the matter while still following his morals.

On one hand, Tahoumaru knows that what happened to his brother was unjust, and that punishing him for it by killing him would be even more unjust. But, on the other hand, he sees the good that’s come to all the people of Daigo’s land, and unless Hyakkimaru is killed, these people will begin to suffer.

In the end, Tahoumaru opts for a mixture of both his mother’s and father’s views. He decides that Hyakkimaru does indeed need to die, but only because it’s what’s best for the people of the land. It’s the classic scenario of, do choose to save one person and let many die, or choose to save many people and let one die?

For Tahoumaru, the choice is clear, at least for now. He knows that Hyakkimaru doesn’t deserve the hardships that have been handed to him, but by the same token, the people of Daigo’s land don’t deserve to have their lives destroyed just so one person can live.

That said, I don’t think this is going to be Tahoumaru’s final decision. So what if Hyakkimaru’s death will guarantee the survival of the people? That doesn’t necessarily mean that his survival will kill them all. Perhaps if all the demons are killed then both sides can live in peace and prosperity. This is the kind of logic which I could see winning Tahoumaru over in the future.

Goddess of Protection

The final topic I want to touch on today is the Goddess of Protection which Oku worships. In the previous episode it was stated that not only does this goddess reside in the idol Oku prays to, but also in the Banmon wall separating the lands of Daigo and his enemies.

Last week I mentioned how it didn’t really make sense to me that the Goddess of Protection would reside in this wall considering it was originally part of an enemy fortress that Daigo burned down. However, from what we saw this week that does indeed seem to be the case.

The nine-tailed fox demon ends up being sucked into the wall due to the Goddess of Protection, or so we’re told. This could still be a misunderstanding, and the nine-tailed fox demon could really be what resides in the wall, but for now we really don’t have much information.

But, we do know that the Goddess of Protection really exists.

When Oku attempts to commit suicide, her knife doesn’t appear to go all the way into her chest. From this we can infer that:

1. She’s going to survive this attempted suicide.
2. It was the goddess who protected her.

But, how can we be so sure that the Goddess of Protection saved Oku? Because the idol gets left behind during Daigo’s retreat, and is then picked up by Biwamaru. Previously we’ve only seen people or monsters with white or red souls respectively, but this idol was depicted as having a green soul.

I wonder if we’ll see Dororo’s soul turn green by the end of the series since she’s the one who’s been saving Hyakkimaru from turning into a demon himself this entire time.

Conclusion

Before I conclude I actually have one final thing to mention which is that Sukeroku’s mother turned out to actually be alive after all. Last week I predicted that she was long dead because it seemed obvious, but I was wrong.

So, what did you think of this week’s episode of Dororo? And, if you were in Tahoumaru’s position, what would you have done? Would you choose to save your brother or your people? Let me know down in the comments.

If you enjoyed today’s review, then be sure to click the like button ❤ down below. Also, follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on any of my future content, not all of which is uploaded to this site.

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.

The story of Banmon, part 1

Apparently up until this point Hyakkimaru and Dororo weren’t actually within Lord Daigo’s domain, or at least until the previous episode. But, now that they are, they’re beginning to see what the people of Lord Daigo’s domain already know, it’s extremely prosperous compared to the surrounding regions.

However, while we know the reason for this is Daigo’s deal with the twelve demons, the people of the region have a much different story to explain their land’s wealth. We don’t know where this story originated from, and it’s unlikely it came from Daigo himself, but the people seem to truly believe it.

The story goes like this: There were demons who had been cursing the land, but then the heroic Lord Daigo stood up to them and defeated them so that his land could flourish. But, Daigo didn’t do this alone; he also had the blessing of the goddess to which his wife prays.

So, what can we take away from this legend about Daigo and the prosperity of his domain? Two things:

• Daigo is a hero because he slayed the demon(s) which had been plaguing the land.
• Daigo is a hero because he was recognized by the goddess his wife worships.

With an origin story like that, who would ever guess that Daigo actually made a deal with the demons and forsook the goddess?

However, there is one more legend prevalent in Daigo’s domain which I didn’t really understand, so feel free to attempt to explain this in the comments. There’s a single wall left standing from an old Asakura fortress, and it’s believed to house the spirit of the goddess Nuinokata worships.

My question is this: Why do the people of Daigo’s land believe the goddess, who chose Daigo as her hero and to whom Nuinokata worships, resides in the wall of an enemy castle which Daigo destroyed? It would make sense for it to reside in a wall of Daigo’s castle, but not that of his enemy.

Hyakkimaru and Tahoumaru

Hyakkimaru and Tahoumaru had their first encounter at the end of last episode, and that’s exactly where this episode picks up. In fact, this may have been the first episode of the series to have a recap at the start.

While I previously assumed that the two of them would simply be aware of each other after this point, they actually interacted much more than I expected. Tahoumaru tells Dororo and Hyakkimaru about Daigo’s land, and even pays them for defeating the monster crab, at Dororo’s insistence of course.

Likewise, Dororo tells Tahoumaru and his men about Hyakkimaru’s condition and his exploits as a professional demon killer. Before parting ways, Hyakkimaru also gives his name to Tahoumaru, not that this information will really help him find out more about his identity.

But, when Tahoumaru’s guards report back to Daigo on the mysterious boy who defeated the monster crab, Daigo seems concerned and leaves in a hurry and in secret. This causes Tahoumaru to believe that Hyakkimaru might know something about the secret his parents have been keeping, but he hasn’t yet connected the dots.

And, the fact that he hasn’t connected the dots is a bit crazy considering all the information he’s either been given or has overheard. He knows that Hyakkimaru is slightly older than himself and has prosthesis, and he overheard his parents mention their first son who had no body parts.

One would think that Tahoumaru would be able to take a hint.

The Cursed Child

But, maybe Tahoumaru will wise up once he talks to the “town crazy,” a woman who walks around town holding a fake baby and talking to herself about a demon child. As it turns out, this woman once worked in Daigo’s household 16 years ago, and was present when Hyakkimaru was born and subsequently disposed of.

So, it’s no surprise that the demon child she refers to is Hyakkimaru. However, what is surprising is that she’s able to recognize him when she sees him and Dororo in town. Does she have some special vision like Hyakkimaru and Biwamaru do despite not being blind?

And, if she does have some special vision, how different is it from what Hyakkimaru and Biwamaru have? As far as we know, Hyakkimaru’s soul looks pretty normal, so there shouldn’t be a way to tell that he’s the demon child unless this woman somehow recognizes his soul.

And, speaking of Hyakkimaru’s soul, after he and Dororo meet up with Biwamaru again in the town, Biwamaru has a cryptic, parting message. He mentions that Hyakkimaru has now killed humans, and not only demons.

While Hyakkimaru’s soul was previously white, it now has strands of red in it, signs that he killed people, specifically those who killed Mio and her children. Is this the beginning of Hyakkimaru’s downfall? Will his soul continue to get tainted as he takes revenge on Daigo and his lands?

The woman who refers to him as the demon child seems to think so. By calling him the demon child and being terrified of him, the woman is implying that although she recognizes what happened to him was wrong, Hyakkimaru is still just as much of a monster as the demons he slays.

Kyūbi

Circling back around to the aforementioned legend about the Goddess of Mercy dwelling within a wall, we have the next demon to be slayed by Hyakkimaru. Although seemingly in the heart of Daigo’s realm, this wall signifies the boundary between what he controls, and what his enemies, the Asakura’s control.

Those from Daigo’s domain who are caught crossing this boundary are pinned to the wall by arrows and left to die as a warning to future trespassers. It’s likely this act that has caused the wall to house a demon.

But, unlike the other demons we’ve seen so far, the fox demon doesn’t seem to have a physical body. Instead, it’s an ethereal creature which can split and combine its spiritual body at will. No matter how many of the fox spirits Hyakkimaru and Dororo defeat, more simply arise out of nowhere.

Since the fox demon only appears at night, the other boy with Dororo and Hyakkimaru, Sukeroku, attempts to light a fire which the Asakura use during the day. Unfortunately, he gets captured by the Asakura while doing this, and from what we can tell, Dororo does as well when he goes to help.

By the way, Sukeroku comes from a village which was destroyed by the Asakura when they built the wall. During the attack, he was separated from his parents, who were still stuck in Asakura territory. Despite all the time that’s passed, he still believes he’ll be reunited with them, though I’m pretty sure he’ll later discover they died.

So, now that Sukeroku and Dororo have been captured, Hyakkimaru is left to fight the fox demon alone. However, just when he’s getting overrun by the demon, Daigo and his men appear and scare the demon off with a volley of arrows.

This is the first time Daigo and Hyakkimaru have come face to face since the latter’s birth, and I can’t wait to see what happens next between them.

Conclusion

So, what did you think of this week’s Dororo episode? And, what do you think is going to happen next? Is Daigo going to help Hyakkimaru defeat the Asakura and save Dororo and Sukeroku? Is Daigo going to order his men to attack Hyakkimaru? Let me know what you think in the comments.

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My review of the next episode is available here.