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joshhhhhhhhhhhhhhh · 5 years

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Dororo is finished!

And what a last episode.

To make a long story short, Hyakkimaru chooses not to kill Tahomaru, Tahomaru offers his eyes back, the last demon shows up, Hyakkimaru kills it somewhat anticlimactically, and then his mum and Jukai show up to be nice. Quick synopsis of the episode’s first half, but in essence what we’ve got here is Hyakkimaru recognising that even if he’s that desperate for his eyes back, killing Tahomaru really would be the end for him, and since he could recognise that Tahomaru was lacking something anyway (that being actual affection from his mum) he chose not to kill him and the two share their first actual brotherly moment. Which is really sweet. The pair of them deserve this. Tahomaru offering up the eyes is like a nice way of saying “thanks for not killing me, I guess you’re pretty cool” except that’s a massive understatement of what that actually is. The last demon pretty much spawns underneath Hyakkimaru and then he just, stabs it with both of his swords and it dies, and his swords drop. This is upsetting, I get that Hyakkimaru versus Tahomaru was the climactic battle thematically so this one doesn’t need to be as big but like, even just having Tahomaru help despite his condition would feel like a more fitting end. Or how about having Hyakkimaru use his other sword that he’s only ever used once in the whole show and at that time there was seemingly no reason for him to do so and it happened with little fanfare anyway! But I can deal with him not really using his swords. The demon going down so anticlimactically is kind of just a little bummer in an otherwise solid finale.

But actually, that was only the first half or so of the episode, because once Hyakkimaru regains his eyes and escapes from the burning castle, some more stuff happens. First of all, Jukai, Hyakkimom and Tahomaru all die in the burning castle, which is kind of a shame. They all get their last moments with Hyakkimaru but not in a way that feels like their deaths are being delayed just so that could happen. And fuck Tahomaru and Tahomom’s last moment together is also really nice, Tahomaru’s had a very rough time for this entire show so it’s nice to see him have at least a somewhat happy moment as his life ends. With his eyes back, Hyakkimaru’s fucking gorgeous. I mean he’s always been unreasonably pretty for a boy with no skin or eyes or limbs or ears or a mouth or other things, with his prettiness gradually increasing throughout the show as those things are regained, but like the finished product, fucking damn. I want him to sweep me away and kiss me, like dead fucking serious. And that wouldn’t even be a bad idea, because following his final moments with most of his family and also Jukai who may as well count as family tbh, he eventually visits Daigo in the Hall of Hell, and they have a very good moment together. Daigo’s basically like “fuck you I’ll sacrifice you again for my land’s prosperity” and then Hyakkimaru grabs a sword, and just shoves it straight through Daigo’s samurai hat which was on the ground and is basically like “I’m human so I won’t kill you, don’t you become a demon too” and then leaves, and Daigo’s all “oh fuck if I didn’t sacrifice you for my land’s prosperity you’d probably be good enough to give the land the prosperity anyway” and it’s a really sweet moment where Daigo kinda repents for his actions and Hyakkimaru, though not necessarily forgiving him, acknowledges him as being capable of making mistakes and then moving on. Also that whole thing about Hyakkimaru being a great lord maybe that would achieve prosperity parallels what Dororo decides to do with all that money, namely just fuckin’, round up some villagers and build up the land. Since Dororo told Hyakkimaru about this plan before Hyakkimaru confronted Daigo I think it makes a neat little parallel where Dororo is once again what inspires Hyakkimaru to not kill people. And the show doesn’t draw attention to this parallel either because you can figure it out, idiot. After that though Hyakkimaru kinda just, wanders off somewhere, and we get a shot of Dororo running, only to quickly turn into a shot of an adult Dororo running towards a very pretty shot of Hyakkimaru turning to face her. It’s not a timeskip though and appears more like a dream sequence. It’s not totally a non-ending but more could’ve been done and that upsets me.

And with that last episode done, Dororo really is over. Perhaps unsurprisingly, its second cour didn’t accomplish enough for it to take Anime of the Season Winter 2019 from Mob, but I’m still confident in saying its my second favourite show of the year so far. A very strong narrative with some truly incredible characters that’s mostly consistent throughout and doesn’t totally fuck up in the last few episodes as is common among MAPPA works. I will say that, visually, the show didn’t always hold up. There are incredibly strong visual showings throughout the whole work and for its first cour it was very consistently stunning, with some very good character and monster designs, though there were some parts in the second cour where the production quality really took a big oof, looking at you episode 15. While the show blends an overarching plot with some monster-of-the-week type episodes very well, it does have some episodes across both of its cours that were kinda stinkers and not really all that memorable. With a somewhat upsetting kind of non-ending, Hyakkimaru’s fucking sword that annoyed me because it was only used once without any fanfare or good reason and then forgotten about and never acknowledged, and me being bothered the entire show by Jukai’s apprentice in episode 3 who I thought would return or have some stakes in the narrative even just to Jukai but nah he barely does, and then a few other nitpicks here and there, I don’t feel like I can give Dororo a 9/10. Which is upsetting, because it totally could’ve been one. However, I feel very strongly like it’s totally worthy of an 8/10, and I mean like a really fucking strong 8/10. Some 8/10s are like, basically a 7 but a tiny bit better, but this one’s a 9 that didn’t quite make the cut and that’s way better. I’m happy to say I loved this show, I’d quite happily rewatch it, and I’d recommend it to anyone that can handle their gore.

#dororo #mob psycho 100 #this isn't a review i ain't gonna tag it like one because i'm lazy #24.6.19

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