Dororo – 7 [The story of the Jorogumo silk spider]

Hello and welcome to what is, I believe, an anime original week of Dororo! This time we have a sympathetic ghoul, Hyakki dealing with his emotions and a continually worse feudal landscape. Lets jump in!

Dororo was a rather disappointing one after last week, to be frank. Story wise there were some interesting ideas and it got its message across, as we will talk about. But visually Dororo fell very short. There were lots of dull stills, choppy or lazy animation and questionable transitions. Take the opening for instance, as Ohagi runs away after her first encounter with Hyakkimaru. The walk/run animation there is basically a loop as she slides across the screen. Or Hyakki and Dororo’s “search” as just the background fades and changes. Simply put, visually, I would not blame someone if they checked out while watching this episode. As much as the story does it’s job, it simply isn’t engaging compared to last weeks arc finale. It felt like filler, almost, which considering all the plot threads currently available and in the air isn’t really acceptable. Now, spoilers after the break!

After last weeks very monstrous humans, this week Dororo focuses on a very human Ghoul. I think this is a good idea, as it makes it clear that this isn’t a hopeless, grimdark world. Not everyone is evil or a monster, and not even Ghouls are exempt from this grey morality. The slow changing of Ohagi’s color throughout the episode, going from deep red to a light orange as she falls for Yajiro, was a nice way to communicate this. However, this “romance” felt far to… fast? Overt? Hamfisted? Suffice to say, it came across to me as very forced, most likely because of the upfront dialogue at points. There was no subtly to it, like there was with aspects of Hyakkimaru and Mio’s relationship. So while Dororo’s message got across, its execution is weak and stumbles after last weeks fantastic climax.

That isn’t to say Dororo failed on every count this week though, as the town and world was well made. We got more evidence that, regardless of Daigo’s sacrifice of his son, his land’s aren’t perfect. Very early on the state of the town is communicated to us, allowing us to figure out Yajiro’s role and why he is doing it if we look. For instance the cave in, Yajiro coming home late each night, and the commentary of the townsfolk. Now, like the romance story, this is very hamfisted at times. As bad as this is though, I would rather a series be obvious and get the information across, than try to be subtle and leave the audience confused. Its disappointing without a doubt, but I don’t think anyone would have had trouble understanding this weeks story and message.

One aspect I did, and probably always will, love though was Dororo’s VA. Rio Suzuki does a fantastic job and hasn’t been getting near enough credit in my opinion. Everything from her inflection to her pronunciation makes the character standout and gives them so much personality. You can always tell when they are speaking, when they are upset or happy, or how they feel. My hope is that, with Hyakkimaru starting to open up a bit, we will get a similar treatment for our lead. Most likely not as strong as Suzuki’s performance, she is knocking it out of the park. But hopefully good enough to play off of her and really round out the cast, so she can stop having to carry every conversation in the show like she currently is. With all these aspects out of the way though, I want to return to the episodes message.

That message being, to me, one of two things. Either not to judge a book by its cover, that even ghouls can be good, or that people can change. Both are relevant to Hyakkimaru after last episode. With him either being a “monster” that has left his cave, or that him being a human doesn’t necessarily default him to good. We saw a little bit of his change at the end of the episode this week, as he starts to emote. However with how inexpressive Hyakkimaru naturally is, had it been anything more than that it would have felt out of nowhere. It’s like… we don’t really get a peek into Hyakkimaru’s head, and normally this works. But right now he is working through some tough emotions with Mio, and as a viewer, I think we really need some insight into where he is.

So all in all, how did Dororo fare this week? In my opinion, disappointingly. Sure, the episode did its job and got its message across. We understand where Dororo and Hyakkimaru are now, the world is a bit more fleshed out and the ghoul’s are less black and white. But all of this is only really done on the most surface level and lacks a lot of the depth that I felt was there in previous episodes. I understand that this episode had an impossible task. Following up Episode 6 was going to be difficult, regardless of its content or polish. I wasn’t expecting the world of this episode. But the fact is, the standard was raised for Dororo last week, and this? This doesn’t meet it. Hopefully it was just a one off though, and we can get back into the story proper next week.

But what do you think? Am I whining about nothing and this week follows it up well? Or was it a lukewarm reception for you to? Let me know down below!

Also, quick reminder, I will be flying to Japan on Friday for a week and so there will be no posts next week. This means I will have to double up episodes the week after. Apologies, but vacation calls! See you then.