Atonement means little to the lives of those that were trampled.
What They Say:
Episode #3: “The story of Jukai”
Jukai is a doctor who travels the land fitting prosthetic arms and legs to those who have lost their limbs in war. One day, on the riverbank he finds a baby missing most of its body parts. He decides to raise the child, who he names “Hyakkimaru”. Jukai provides the child with prostheses, but the time comes when Hyakkimaru sets out on a journey to recover his own body parts.
The Review
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
This episode opens on a brutal note which sets the feeling for the episode as a whole. A battleground filled with the dead and dying, and a lone man under orders to crucify the rebels and survivors. He finally breaks as a woman is mercilessly and senselessly run through in front of him. He throws himself into the ocean and that’s where his long path to redemption begins. We know this man, he is the one we’ve seen multiple times previously, attaching false limbs to corpses. This is Jukai, the man who gave Hyakkimaru a second chance at life.
After that opening scene, his story is told in flashback, in washed-out tones, understood to the audience but not entirely to the key players. They can only guess at Hyakkimaru’s past, as the wise blind man gives no indication he knows Jukai. We watch Jukai return to help those without limbs gain back what they had lost. Grateful pilgrims accidentally let slip to his student what Jukai’s past is rumored to be. His protegé leaves him when he learns his master was likely responsible for his parent’s deaths, casting off the gift given to him. Jukai almost gives in to his despair once again but finds new purpose in the abandoned baby lacking most of its organs washed up on the shore.
It surprises me that Hyakkimaru seems to understand so much despite having virtually no senses. Yes, there are plenty of people in the real world missing their senses of hearing and sight that can break through that barrier. However, Hyakkimaru was even missing his nervous system. It’s amazing he didn’t get himself killed during his childhood, supernatural shenanigans and anime logic aside.
Despite the lack of stimulus, Hyakkimaru’s mind seems to be at least somewhat sharp. He obviously feels compassion, and Jukai was likely no small part of learning what it means to care for others. Yet it appears that Jukai can never forgive himself for the role he played in the massacre’s he was involved in. As we’ve seen he still wanders battlefields trying to give back to others what war took from them. What I find interesting is that we don’t know how much of his previous actions were done under duress, but I can only guess most of it was. He comes across as a kind soul who just happened to be serving under a tyrant.
This episode closes back on the present day, where Hyakkimaru finally learns to feel pain. I wonder if this is going to change the way he battles.
In Summary:
Jukai, the man responsible for saving Hyakkimaru’s life, has a past nearly as deep and complicated as that of the ronin he trained. Haunted by what he had done under the direction of the lord he served he wanders now, a man without solace on his own quest to fulfill a gaping hole in his soul. Hyakkimaru’s determination to live serves as a fire to those around him, an inspiration to live. The Warring States period lives up to its name, and the brutalities of the time were bad enough without tossing in the deals with demons. A very effective episode that allows us to move forward with developing Hyakkimaru’s newest relationship with Dororo.
Episode Grade: B +
Streamed by: Amazon
