Tale Of The Nue - Tumblr Posts
The Tragedy of Dororo (2019) - Finding the “Lack”
I just finished watching the 2019 anime adaptation of Dororo and with the final confrontation between Hyakkimaru and his father as well as the revelation that follows I was struck with how utterly tragic the story was. Daigo realizes that Hyakkimaru was supposed to grow up to be a great ruler and bring about the prosperity and peace that he desired and his deal with the demons actually destroyed the possibility of that lasting prosperity.
All of the suffering that we saw the characters go through could have been avoided. In the end no one was really right. Everyone lacked something that prevented them from making the right choices. For Daigo it was patience and faith, for Hyakkimaru it was his body and understanding, for Tahomaru it was love and support. Every choice made by the characters was driven by their “lack”. And it wasn’t until they understood their “lack” that they were able to see what they truly needed to do, or in Daigo’s case what he should have done. It all becomes clear in the end, but by that point everything has literally and metaphorically burned to the ground.
Hyakkimaru’s journey was especially poignant after that revelation (at least to me). We see his struggle from start to finish, we see him come to care for Dororo, we see his humanity, but we also see his lack be the driving factor for his “inhumanity”. In the episode “Story of the Nue” we see how far Hyakkimaru has come when he gets Dororo food and wants to hear all of her stories. At this time he has found something he cares about more than getting his body back, but throughout the course of the episode we also see how that new care and love can also drive his descent. He is increasingly desperate to save Dororo and can’t because of the limits of his prosthetics which shatter with the effort. This is a sort of breaking point because before he didn’t have a real reason to get his body back other than just wanting it because he believed it would fill his lack, but now he has a driving factor. To get his body back so that he can protect Dororo which leads to his intense desperation and breakdown when he doesn’t receive anything for defeating the Nue. Dororo started to fill Hyakkimaru’s lack. Hyakkimaru mistakenly believed that his lack was his missing body, but in reality it was his connection to people and his understanding of others. Once he makes that connection and is able to see others for what they truly are “human” instead of “others in his way” he is able to become the man he was destined to be.
The connection between what Hyakkimaru believes to be his lack and what really is his lack is interesting. Hyakkimaru not being able to understand others and how they are all like him (human) stems from his lack of a body and senses, but it is his fundamental misunderstanding that getting his body back won’t fix his lack that makes his quest misguided.
The tragedy and pain that Hyakkimaru felt could have been avoided if Daigo’s lack was something different, but because of it he was forced through this crucible and the people were left without the leader that was meant to bring them prosperity.
The story of Dororo is fascinating because of this. What could have easily been adapted as the tale of Hyakkimaru valiantly fighting through his handicaps to take down the evil demons and his irredeemable family (like the original manga) was turned into a much more tragic tale where everything is in shades of grey and the theological ideas of the time period were addressed with much greater thought. Dororo is a story of filling the lack within ourselves and that it sometimes doesn’t happen until it's too late. This struggle felt very human and hit me harder once it was all over.
On a side note: I highly recommend this series. I was glued to the screen from start to finish and really hope everyone gives it a chance.
Dororo (2019) The Tale of the Nue- Conflict of the Want and Need
The Tale of Nue is actually a great episode to watch for an example of character writing and the conflict of want and need they go through in an arc. This is a great example of a setback in a character’s arc. They do this by making it seem like the need necessitates the want. We see Hyakkimaru start to get and realize what he needs, connection and an understanding of others through his interaction with Dororo at the beginning of the episode. The lack that he has seems to have eased because of Dororo. The conflict of the episode creates a clash between the want and the need by having Dororo be in trouble and Hyakkimaru be unable to save her because of the limits of his prosthetics. If he had his real arms he would have been able to save Dororo. This makes him lean even more into his lie that to fill the lack he needs his real body. This pushes him even further into his descent than before despite being so close to discovering what he really needs.