DORORO: Episode 15 FULL LENGTH Reaction!
Added 2025-02-15 14:00:04 +0000 UTC*MORALLY OBLIGATED HEADPHONE WARNINGS*
I was not ready for everything that went down in this episode! From the commentary on the moral obligation Hyakkimaru and Dororo are carrying with them, to the resolution with Sabame, and to all the other little reveals and surprises in between!
LINK TO REACTION: https://share.vidyard.com/watch/rb57DTiXxr9ASkWk6fGnye?
Thank you for watching with me and for all the support!
Comments
I do like that Dororo not judging Sabame outright – that is very true! And yeah, I wonder, Biwamaru is the only one that’s seen the red flecks on Hyakkimaru’s soul, so Hyakkimaru not knowing that makes that even more interesting. Ooh, the Stepford Wives reference! I totally see it! Very pleasantville in a way; but yeah, it suddenly became apparent they all were complacent with what was going on. And yeah, the comparison to Daigo, where his kingdom isn’t quite in on the same knowing basis as this village. I think the episode works well with the animation in parts, but it is distracting for me at times! I loved the big baby with the spirits inside reveal! Of course they all instantly attach around Dororo, who’s practically a saint! And yes, then we have all the gray ambiguity with Dororo’s actions in this episode – I love that Dororo at least thought about the morality of it all by the end - hey, if they didn’t want their rice in danger, though, they should have let Dororo leave the building! ;) They kind of caused their own demise in that way. And Dororo’s dismay with Hyakkimaru’s apathy is WARRANTED! The spine re-growing is so gruesome! Jukai is seriously genius for his designs, though! I’m almost glad for the animation with that scene and how brutal it could have looked! I do appreciate that we’re seeing that realism with Tahomaru - I can see what you mean about the art style; maybe they wanted to wait until we were invested in the series before letting them animate? 😛The episode with the face-chopping might have been an interesting one for it, maybe? Hahahaha, I mean, I’m not saying that Maimai DIDN’T have sex with him…just that…maybe they didn’t? 😛Definitely a Jeff Goldblum “The Fly” moment! You were starting to sound like Laios with that comment! XD And the Heaven’s Eye moment is so real and what I was thinking of! 😛 There was so much to talk about with this episode and a lot morally to touch on! I love when a show gives things to talk about like this episode has! And AHHH, that showing up by Itachi - how dare it! That shot of Sabame – I agree that in hindsight – it does have such a sad and somber presence so I really like it looking back as well! It’s really sad in the long run to think about how exactly his demise went about – sad days for Sabame! Thank you so much for the comment!!
Romaniablack
2025-02-21 05:17:25 +0000 UTCThe episode had that specific animator I suppose; the discussion let me research and find out, but yeah, it looked like Hyakkimaru had bags under his eyes and I’m scarred from sports anime and them haha!! The ghost babies were so sad in theory, but they were so wild in their design and they honestly were one of the better parts of the episode! And OOOHHH!!! The connection to GUTS! Yes, wow – how could I forget Rosine and Jill?! That is such a great connection; again, fitting that we replaced Berserk with this series! Thank you for pointing that out! It’s really sad to see situations like what you’re seeing – yes, I’ve seen what you’re talking about and it’s such a wild and bizarre image. I 100% agree that people just don’t want to fight or become apathetic and complacent because it’s easier than struggling…until you’re the person that’s in the church getting burnt down, of course. The struggle is so real, like you note, and I agree that Dororo is so perfect for calling it out and questioning it - at least if you question it, you’re less likely to go along with it or let it happen around you in the future. Thank you so much for the comment and kind words - in these trying times, this episode definitely felt needed and warranted!
Romaniablack
2025-02-21 04:06:09 +0000 UTCHyakimaru has the guy liner on! Yeah, this episode is the one that is janky as hell! Every time I see it, I’m like what happened here! I constantly struggle with complicity. I live in Texas, I work for a place that I know voted against their interests and are blind to it among other things. I have struggled with it for years and it’s only getting worse as you know. I think part of being complicit comes from a sense of powerlessness. “ well, what can I do? It will be hard to fight! The struggle and we have struggled so much already. The apathy! THIS IS FINE!” Of course there were things that the villagers could have done, they could have left if they weren’t down for killing nuns and kids. Heck, I like the device I’m typing this comment on! I don’t think I could function “normally “ without it and you basically can’t now. It’s the Omelas question. Do you walk away or do you accept the horror of complicity. I’m glad as well that Dororo recognizes the dilemma and questions the harm she has done to the villagers. The ghost babies always like me cry but they are kinda crazy too. Also, I can name two protagonists who have fought giant moth monsters and fallen to earth, Guts and Hyakimaru. There may be more, but I think it’s funny with the big moths monster. Yeah, this was a crazy episode and it does feel like they stuffed a bunch of stuff in the time they had. And then a wild Itachi shows up! Hmmmm…… yeah, that’s a hook if there ever was one. Enjoyed your analysis on this one! Looking forward to next weeks episode!
Moominkomet
2025-02-15 22:34:52 +0000 UTCI do like that at least Dororo admits that Sabame is very creepy looking. But her comment about not judging Sabame for how he looks shows just how far Dororo has come at being more open-minded about people (both in regards to who can be trusted and who can't). Sabame definitely gets the benefit of the doubt from Dororo because to her it is very possible he's been brainwashed by the demon. I think that's a little harder for Hyakkimaru to do because he can see the red flecks in his soul. The happy villagers all willing to help each other honestly made me think of the Nicole Kidman movie The Stepford Wives 😅 It all just seemed a little too perfect and idyllic. And then that moment of the Grandma not even skirting around the subject of the nun and the children and instead just leaving, alongside that sharp cut to the sickle and the way all the farmers took notice of Dororo made me have the same realisation as you that they were all complicit. That does make it a little different from Daigo's land. There only a small number of people were complicit/had knowledge of how the land was made prosperous. Everyone else believed in the propaganda of Daigo as a warrior fighting and defeating the demons to bring safety and prosperity to their land. As much as the animation style is a bit off for this episode I do enjoy the style chosen for when Sabame is discussing how the village was before. The style is very reminiscent of art created around that time period. Beautiful creations exploring some dark aspects of life at the time. The big baby being an accumulation of all the murdered children's spirits was definitely a shock for me too. But I love that they saw Dororo's kindness (even whilst she was afraid of their form) and wanted to help Dororo however they could. It also shows how kind the children remain too, to willingly help someone else when they didn't have someone to save them 🥺 Dororo knocking over the oil, and likely adding to everything burning, poses quite the moral dilemma. In the long run all that rice being lost will kill the village, especially as the watchtower burning burned the fields too. You could see it as the villagers' blood is on Dororo's hands, but it's also understandable why she did it. But it's definitely that little bit of grey/moral ambiguity I love to see in characters. I especially love her worry on if they did the right thing paired against Hyakkimaru's lack of concern. To me Hyakkimaru getting his spine back is definitely one of the more gruesome ones so far for the return of his body parts. But definite hats off to Jukai being able to fashion such a prosthetic for Hyakkimaru from what looks to me like bamboo and string. I really appreciate that scene with Tahomaru as, once again, we're given some realism in the form of injury and recovery. Other anime the characters would just walk off such a slash to their eye, but in Dororo we get a realistic depiction such a slash to the eye can do to a person. As well as the journey it takes for a person to become used to having only one eye to rely on. I completely agree that such a sudden change in animation style, especially with a two-parter, makes watching a little jarring. And certain themes, such has the moral dilemma within this episode, I feel are fitting of a different art style. Considering there have been a number of standalone episodes I do think Mappa would have been better to choose one of those episodes for Kobayashi. Like Bandai's or Tanosuke's story (Episode 2 or Episode 4) might have been a better fit for this particular art style. Whose to say that some of that red energy in Sabame's soul wasn't from having sex with Maimai-onba 🤷♀😂 There's definitely the possibility they were having sex. The "children" Sabame considers to be his and whose to say they aren't physically his children. The show didn't delve into how a moth demon mates and has offspring...where's Laios and his knowledge on monster mating habits when you need him? 🤣 As for the Tian Guan Ci Fu comment, now I'm imagining that Heaven's Eye seeing the accumulation of the essence of evil as red (like Hua Cheng's clothes) within the person's white aura just it pools in specific areas rather than being flecks throughout the body like here in Dororo 😆 Completely agree on the comparison with Germany and the Concentration Camps. So many Nazis believed they were morally right in the ideology of ethnic cleansing, but also the removal from society of people not like them (whether that was because of differing political ideologies, different sexualities, or differently abled [mentally and/or physically]). The villagers and Sabame here believed they were in the right for the demons to not only feed on their "enemies" (in the form of the ronin [rogue samurai who fled the wars going on] or the beasts in search of their own survival) but also the innocent who weren't like them because the nun and the children weren't a part of their village. Having Itachi show up wanting the other half of the map is a great way to make the viewer want the next episode 😆 But I do agree I wish that some things within this episode had been given more time to be fleshed out. Though I do like the ambiguity around Sabame's death. When we last saw him alive the villagers were turning to him for help, and blaming the disaster on Sabame's guests. As such there's the possibility of them having turned on their lord for asking Hyakkimaru and Dororo to stay with them longer (especially when they already showed a change in their own behaviour when one of the villagers turned on another for having his own stock of rice). Or Sabame, unable to deal with the disaster and potential loss of his children, killed himself.
Anime Annie
2025-02-15 19:53:03 +0000 UTC
