Main Characters | Demons | Human Antagonists | Other Characters | 2019 Anime
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Kagemitsu Daigo
Voiced by: Gorō Naya (1969 anime), Akio Ōtsuka (Blood Will Tell)
Portrayed by: Kiichi Nagai (movie)
Hyakkimaru's father. A ruthless man who makes a deal with demons to secure power for himself. In return, he sacrifices Hyakkimaru's body parts to the demons, then demands that baby Hyakkimaru be killed.
- Abusive Dad: Even after sacrificing Hyakkimaru, he still treats him with contempt.
- Archnemesis Dad: He offered up "anything" for power, in spite of being told that making a pact with demons was a bad idea. And once he learns that Hyakkimaru is alive, he's dedicated to killing him.
- Ambition Is Evil: Sold the body parts of his son for demons just to gain power.
- Big Bad: He's the main antagonist of the series.
- Deal with the Devil: Makes a pact with 48 demons (12 in the 2019 anime) where they took his firstborn son's body parts, giving him power in exchange. And in the movie, he makes another deal with the demons directly to revive Tahomaru, but in exchange for his whole body.
- Death by Adaptation: Is killed off in the 1969 anime and the film.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Despite sacrificing Hyakkimaru to demons, he loves his other son Tahomaru, and is devastated when Tahomaru dies.
- Hate Sink: The story more or less does a good job at showing what an irredeemable scumbag Daigo is. He is responsible for why his son Hyakkimaru is missing so many limbs, and he oppresses his own people with an iron fist.
- Averted in several adaptations, such as the PS2 game and the 2019 anime where he's made more sympathetic.
- Heel Realization: In the movie, he manages to fight off the demon's possession after realizing he was tricked. And once he sees his own wrongdoing, he encourages Dororo to take care of Hyakkimaru.
- I Have No Son!: Only considers Tahōmaru as his son and heir, and Hyakkimaru as a menace.
- Lack of Empathy: It takes an extremely cold-blooded person to sacrifice their own children out of selfish greed.
- Ludicrous Gibs: Spontaneously explodes after being possessed by a demon in the movie.
- Marriage of Convenience: He doesn’t love Nui and he only married her so she produce a heir for him.
- Master Swordsman: In the movie, Daigo is shown to be very well adept with swordsmanship and gives quite a tough duel towards his son Hyakkimaru in the climax.
- Moral Myopia: Is angered that Hyakkimaru killed his son despite the fact that Hyakkimaru is also his son who he left to die.
- Powered by a Forsaken Child: His rise to the top is the result of sacrificing his first baby son to demons.
- The Sociopath: He is more than happy to sacrifice his own son for power, treats his own people like crap and overall shows zero remorse for his actions.
- Would Hurt a Child: Orders his men to massacre villages, that include children. He wishes to witness the execution of Dororo.
- "X" Marks the Hero: Subverted. The cross mark on his forehead was given to him by the demons.
Tanosuke
Tanosuke is a former soldier who got corrupted by Nihil.
- Blood Knight: He's a bloodthirsty killer who enjoys killing innocent lives under the influence of the demon sword, Nihil.
- Death Seeker: He wants to be killed by someone stronger than him since the sins he committed five year ago under the influence of Nihil, killing soldiers and innocent lives, can't be forgiven. He got his wish and he ends up being killed by Hyakkimaru.
- Disease Bleach: His hair was originally black until after he was corrupted by the demon sword, Nihil, his hair turned completely white.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Despite being a serial killer, the only people he doesn't kill with or without the influence of Nihil are his family. In the 2019 anime, he decides not to kill his sister since she is the only family he has left and folds one last paper crane for her before setting off to retrieve the demon sword.
- Sanity Slippage: It is due to wielding the demon sword, Nihil for five years, he becomes crazy addicted to killing innocent people in order to please his weapon's blood-lust. Even after being freed from the demon sword temporarily by Hyakkimaru, he still wants to wield Nihil instead of reconciling his sister and going back home together. Not even his own sister can't snap out of his obsession.
Itachi
Voiced by: Masaaki Okabe (1969 anime)
Itachi is a bandit who betrayed Dororo's father Hibukuro and sided with the authorities.
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: He betrayed Dororo's father, Hibukuro by crippling him and sided with the authorities.
- Even Evil Has Standards: He's horrified that Shiranui fed an innocent village to his sharks and feels a little bit bad after stripping Dororo, but only because she was actually a girl. And later on regrets digging up Ojiya's grave for her half of the map.
- Greed: He only care about money and doesn't care about others. This is one of the reasons why he betrayed Dororo's father, Hibukuro in the first place.
- Hate Sink: Everything about him that Itachi is a horrible person. First, he betrayed his commander in order to be on the winning side instead of by side until the bitter end. After years passed, he now kidnaps Dororo just to used her to search for her parent's hidden treasure and forcefully strip Dororo naked to find the other half of the map.
- Heroic Sacrifice: He used the last of his strength to shield Dororo from Samurai bu throwing a tock at them.
- Laser-Guided Karma: He betrayed Hibukuro by leading him to a trap by the samurai, years later Itachi was betrayed by becoming bait and left to die by those same samurai.
- Pay Evil unto Evil: He and his men brutally beat Shiranui, who by all means is a psychopath that fed innocent people to sharks.
- Reused Character Design: Is Hamegg, a common antagonist in Tezuka's work.
Tahomaru
Voiced by: Hideo Nakamura (1969 anime), Takeshi Kusao (Blood Will Tell)
Portrayed by: Eita (movie)
Second son of Daigo Kagemitsu and younger brother to Hyakkimaru. Heir to his father's lands, and shares the same militaristic outlook.
- Blood Knight: He's way too eager to go to war.
- Eyes Always Shut: He keeps his right eye closed.
- Heel–Face Turn: In Blood Will Tell he stops fighting Hyakkimaru after finding out Hyakkimaru is his older brother and later abandons his father's militaristic outlook. He even turns against his father to join his brother and Dororo in defeating the Fiends. Sadly, he sacrifices himself to save Dororo from being possessed by Fiends — Hyakkimaru has to cut down the possessed Tahomaru.
- Meaningful Name: His name 多宝丸 contains the kanji for "many treasures," which lets the audience know exactly how his father views him in comparison to Hyakkimaru.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Tahomaru mocks Hyakkimaru's disabilities in the 1969 anime, to the displeasure of Kagemitsu.
- Red Herring: The game teases that Hyakkimaru's missing parts have all conglomerated into one other being. Tahomaru is introduced having the opposite eye that Hyakkimaru lacks, hinting it might be him, but he's not; Dororo is.
- Spared by the Adaptation: He dies after his fight with Hyakkimaru in most adaptations and in the original, but in the movie, his life is spared.
- The Unfavorite: He feels this way for both his parents as he states in episode 6. He can tell his mother loves someone else more than him, while he can tell his father values his ambition more than he values him as a person.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: Even before he found out he had an older brother, Tahomaru was constantly trying to please his mother (who was still in mourning after Hyakkimaru was taken away).
Okaka
Okaka was a young lady who lived in a small cottage which Dororo and Hyakkimaru encountered along their journey. She initially appeared to be a kind, compassionate individual, allowing the two to stay in her cottage for shelter. However, she was, in truth, the spirit created by a vengeful spirit that resides within the stone Fudo Buddha statue which she carved in her previous life, to find a perfect face for it.
- Becoming the Mask: She took on a maternal role to get Dororo to trust her, but eventually started to love Dororo as her own child.
- Heel–Face Turn: She quits following the Hakymenfudo after not wanting Dororo to die.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Sacrifices herself to wolves in order to save Dororo.
- Identity Impersonator: She is capable of shape-shifting her face to impersonate other people.
- Wouldn't Hurt a Child: She doesn't kill children since she spares Dororo's life for being used as a sacrifice to give Fudo statue a face because Dororo's face is too young and innocent.
Sabame
Sabame is the landlord of a mountain village. He was hypnotized by Maimai-onba to take her in as his wife and manipulated into killing Dororo and Hyakkimaru so her offsprings can eat them.
- Fish Eyes: He has a rather peculiar look on his face, with his usual widened eyes seemingly akin to that of a fish.
Shiranui
Shiranui is a lonely fisherman and he is the owner of two huge shark demons. He treats them as if they are his own family and goes as far as feeding live humans to them.
- Adapted Out: He wasn’t present in the original 1969 anime.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Shiranui mentions his parents died in the war when he was young.
- Last Request: After he was killed by Hyakkimaru, he asks him to tie his corpse to Jiromaru and send their dead bodies out to sea in the original manga.
