The Story of the Moriko Song is the two-part fifth and sixth episodes of the 2019 reboot of Dororo. The episodes were broadcast on February 4 and 11th, 2019, both were written by Yasuko Kobayashi.
Plot[]
After regaining his ears, Hyakkimaru is quickly overwhelmed by all the sounds he hears and unable to fight effectively, leading to him being wounded. In the horror of this new experience, he encounters a single pleasant sound, the singing voice of a young woman, Mio, which leads him and Dororo to a small sanctuary full of children orphaned by war. With the threat of their peace being shattered by the impending battle between two clans, Hyakkimaru and Dororo seek a route to avoid the battle and a new place for Mio and the children, but must defeat a demon there before they can move.
Why it Rocks[]
- These two episodes give even more character development to Dororo and Hyakkimaru and their overall relationship, and provide an even greater reminder of how bad the world they live in can be, especially for innocent people like Mio and the children.
- The episodes also expand on the themes of the manga immensely, as in this case, Hyakkimaru is overwhelmed by the noises he hears for the first time in his life, unable to even focus on fighting ghouls and unable to properly think or rest, which is a very relatable sentiment, comparing it to how loud regular life even today can be.
- It starts off with another bit of tension as Hyakkimaru, although fighting a minor demon (a ghoul), can't focus on the fight with his newfound hearing and gets badly wounded, which forces Biwamaru to rescue them while Hyakkimaru can do little but withdraw further into himself as a result.
- It also has a very interesting concept, introducing Mio, who was only seen in flashbacks in previous adaptations, and giving Hyakkimaru even more character development as her singing voice is what effectively causes him to be able to deal with the sounds he hears more effectively, and she brings them to an abandoned temple she lives at with the other children, all victims of war with some missing limbs, to take care of Hyakkimaru in his wounded state.
- Mio is also a very interesting and likeable character, serving as a loving and caring mother figure to the other children while getting food for them in what is unfortunately the only way she can, working as a prostitute for the very soldiers who threaten their lives. She also sings when life gets too hard, having promised herself never to cry again, and remembering the land back when it was fertile and not ruined by war, seeing her prostitution, though distasteful, as a way to take back something that the soldiers stole from her and the kids.
- All of this is also a great way to bring up some of the themes of the series even further, such as how innocents often suffer the worst in times of war and have to do things they wouldn't normally simply to survive.
- Not only do Hyakkimaru and Mio have wonderful chemistry, as Hyakkimaru quickly starts to develop a fond relationship with her, but also her and Dororo, as the latter discovers her "work" and has mixed feelings about it, not seeing Mio as disgusting, but also relating when his mother (at this stage, it's not yet revealed that Dororo is actually a girl) refused to do so and how that, predictably, caused her to starve to death, seeing Mio in a more positive light as she's willing to do that for her own children she's looking after rather than die with pride. He also thankfully notes that the children don't know exactly what her "work" is so that they won't have their image of her ruined.
- Even though the children are minor characters, they get just enough development to be likeable as well, especially as Dororo plays with them a bit and helps them clean up the temple and in their general everyday life.
- Plenty of nice scenes between Hyakkimaru and Mio, as she feels disgusting from her work and that no man would really love her, but Hyakkimaru, though blind, touches her in a much more loving way than any of her clients and even silently asks her to sing for him again even if she doesn't think she's all that good, simply because it's the most pleasant sound he's heard since he first got his hearing back.
- There's also bits of tension that slowly but surely rise as Mio and the kids know they will have to move away from the temple since it could very soon become a warzone, and though Biwamaru finds a possibly suitable place, an abandoned mine, there is still a demon there that they'll have to take care of before they can move.
- Hyakkimaru, ever in character, immediately starts heading towards the mine to kill the demon, even despite still being heavily wounded and others trying to stop him, though Biwamaru still follows him, if not to stop him then to help slay the demon. What follows is another awesome battle scene, though this one ends with Hyakkimaru losing his real leg to it's mouth, and then revealing that he's regained his voice when he screams out in pain, the first noise he's made in the series, as the episode ends.
- The second part increases the tension exponentially, as Biwamaru has to take the now even more heavily wounded Hyakkimaru back to the temple and Mio, being the only one with any sort of experience in treating wounds, has to heal him, though she can't do much for his leg. And it's even worse when Mio decides to service men in the other camp for extra earnings, despite that being inherently risky on it's own as they're arguably even worse. All this, and with Hyakkimaru out of commission, he still tries to walk without a leg despite Mio stating that this will just open his wounds up again.
- We also get a bit more development between her and one other kid, Kage, who both want to use the mine to make their own rice paddy to further take back some of what was stolen from them, and it would also be Kage's first time seeing the fertile, golden rice fields that Mio talked about before their time.
- The aforementioned moment where Mio services the enemy camp ramp up the tension even further as those soldiers, suspicious of her being a spy, follow her back from their camp, and it gets even worse when Hyakkimaru has left, fashioning himself a wooden leg, to kill the demon once and for all, and Mio, running up to try and find him and Dororo, is unaware that several armed soldiers have followed her back to the temple.
- The second fight between Hyakkimaru and the demon is further juxtaposed as Daigo's realm get some much needed rain to help with a poor harvest. When Hyakkimaru finally kills the demon, as is the case with every one of them, it causes negative consequences for the environment as the rain quickly stops and likely means that the harvest and quality of living may still be poor for those in Daigo's realm, even if it does restore the bitten-off part of Hyakkimaru's leg.
- We also get a recurring theme throughout the two episodes, where they state that Hyakkimaru, in his weakened state, is much like a wounded animal in a cave, and hope that when he eventually, metaphorically, comes out of the cave, that there will still be a human and not a monster.
- An absolutely horrifying scene where Hyakkimaru and Dororo go back to the temple, seeing it on fire and the soldiers mercilessly slaughtering the children on suspicion of them being spies, which is inordinantly cruel even if that was true (which it wasn't), and shows that, especially in this time period and world, people can be even worse than the demons that Hyakkimaru fights. And it gets even worse when Dororo, traumatized at this and berating them for their evil, is accused of being an enemy sympathizer and targeted by them directly.
- An emotional and vicious moment where Hyakkimaru, seeing what the Samurai have done to Mio and the kids, launches into a angry frenzy, cutting off the captain's arm and slashing up the many soldiers, coving the area in blood and threatening to unleash the "monster" Biwamaru had talked about before, until Dororo physically restrains him from killing the helpless captain, also pointing out that Mio, on her last job, got some rice seeds to plant and still took back some of what the soldiers stole even before.
- This moment also gives new meaning to Mio's appearances in the opening throughout the series, and shows the sheer heartbreak Hyakkimaru has suffered as a result of her death. It also leads to an equally devastating moment where Hyakkimaru cradles her body sorrowfully and says his first words, attempting to say her name.
- The episodes end in the most perfectly devastating way possible with Dororo and Hyakkimaru burying the children and Mio in makeshift graves, Dororo putting the rice seeds into a charm for Hyakkimaru to keep as a reminder of her, and her voice over singing the song once again as they leave the destroyed temple, both equally devastated.