I love these sweet moments between Dororo and Biwamaru in Hyakkimaru-den
Just started getting into the Dororo series - keep flip-flopping between the different adaptations, got to pick one and stick to it!
But I really like the Hyakkimaru-den manga adaptation for how it portrays Dororo and Biwamaru's relationship. From what I've seen of the 1969 and 2019 series, there doesn't seem to be much development in that area - Biwamaru is more detached and mysterious. While he seems to like Dororo, he is more invested in Hyakkimaru's development and seeing the fate he will meet - and Dororo is a means to that end.
Here, however, Biwamaru actually shows interest in Dororo's intentions and questions him about a particular curious act, and is pleased with the answer. He's impressed by Dororo's maturity - he sees how war begets the violence and cruelty he sees in people, and he's not prepared to let it stand.
And this other scene is my favourite - Hyakkimaru has just told Dororo his backstory, and Dororo goes outside to see Biwamaru just sitting there outside covered in dirt, like he wasn't listening the entire conversation or at least a good portion of it.
Biwamaru lies about where he's been, saying that he fell and got dirty because he was tired. Dororo is annoyed that Biwamaru didn't get the herbs like he was supposed to, but instead of going off he instead chides the old man for overdoing it and tells him to rest when he's tired. And then he wipes Biwamaru's face himself. It's obvious that this touches Biwamaru's old heart.
This scene is especially sweet because Dororo literally just heard Hyakkimaru tell him the story of how Biwamaru literally rose from the grave in front of him as a child.
Yet Dororo still treats Biwamaru as a human being and fusses over him, even though he knows well enough by now that Biwamaru can take care of himself.
I really love the grandpa-grandson dynamic that seems to be developing here, and I'd love to see where it goes. Biwamaru clearly has his own motivation for involving himself in the story, but he's also growing personal attachments with others, like Hyakkimaru is, so he's not entirely detached. I wonder if this inner conflict will grow and affect him going forward.
There's also a bittersweet note to Dororo's behaviour towards Biwamaru, because it's markedly different to how he treated another elderly man, a monk, at the beginning of the manga. The elderly man was starving and begged him for food, but Dororo got angry and admonished the priest for it. Dororo did go and get food for him anyway, but by the time he arrived, the old man was dead.
Perhaps the old man would have died anyway regardless of how quickly Dororo got the food, but on the other hand, maybe the promise of food could have encouraged him to hang on. Dororo's rant crushed the old man's last hope.
But the main highlight of that scene was Dororo's attitude. In his immaturity, he blamed the monk for asking for food, rather than blame the ongoing war for the lack of it, and show pity. He shouted at a helpless dying man and left him mourning the 'hell' they were living in, making his final moments full of sorrow and despair. If Dororo had agreed to help right away, at the very least the man could have died knowing there was some good left in the world.
Dororo realised, by showing his inner kindness too late, he had let the war warp his sense of compassion towards others, swaying him like the people he and Hyakkimaru meet on their journey. He had become someone who needlessly hurts others as well.
By openly showing kindness towards Biwamaru, knowing there are forces outside either of their control warping and changing the world around them, Dororo shows his personal growth by doing right by him.
It also shows the lasting impression the old monk's death had on him. Dororo shed tears over it, partly out of anger at himself no doubt. He doesn't want to repeat that mistake again.
