Main Characters | Demons | Human Antagonists | Other Characters | 2019 Anime
open/close all folders
Daigo Nui
Wife of Kagemitsu and mother of Hyakkimaru and Tahomaru. After her first son was sacrificed to the demons, she prays everyday to a headless Buddha statue, begging for forgiveness.
- Adaptation Name Change: She goes by "Daigo Yuri" in the 2007 movie.
- Broken Bird: Seeing her first son become skinless, eyeless and limbless right after his birth and then her husband taking him away to die away from her, essentially broke her. Despite her land being prosperous and having a second son, she spends her days praying in depression.
- Death by Adaptation: She's alive at the end of the manga, but in the 1969 anime, 2007 movie and the 2019 adaptations, she dies.
- Lady Macbeth: She's an inversion. She's not ambitious at all and in fact is regretful over what they did to Hyakkimaru, openly admitting that they deserve punishment for their actions and calling out her husband for doing all this for his ambition.
- Outliving One's Offspring: She lived it when her firstborn son was born skinless, eyeless and limbless and told that he doesn't have much time to live.
- Parental Neglect: Due to her regret over what happened to Hyakkimaru, it seems she never really spent a lot of time looking after Tahomaru.
Biwa-Hōshi
Biwa-Hōshi
Voiced by: Junpei Takiguchi (1969 anime)
A wandering monk with a biwa, he accompanies the duo in their adventures.
- Detect Evil: Being blind doesn't stop him from detecting the energy of beings, especially demons. Hyakkimaru also shares this ability with Biwa-Hoshi.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: "Biwa-Hoshi" literally means "lute priest," and he goes unnamed in the Tezuka manga. In the 2019 anime, his name is revealed in the last episode to be Biwamaru.
- Handicapped Badass: Is blind. Still capable of killing demons with one slice.
- Hidden Weapons: His biwa holds a blade.
- Master Swordsman: Despite his age, he is a very skilled swordsman.
- Nice Guy: He cares about the well being of Dororo and Hyakkimaru.
- Single-Stroke Battle: In the manga, he demonstrates to Hyakkimaru how to fight by slicing a fly in half.
Jukai
Jukai
Hyakkimaru's adoptive father. A doctor who specializes in prostheses, he gave Hyakkimaru a body, including Hyakkimaru's katana-concealing arms.
- Adaptation Name Change: The 1969 anime renames him Juko.
Kanekozou
The spirit of a traveler who became the first victim of Bandai.
- Iconic Item: He carries a pilgrim's bell on his right hand.
Amanojaku
Mischievous spirits that were trapped in stone before Dororo released them.
- And I Must Scream: Their fates were being turned into statues. Hyakkimaru sends them back at the end of the episode.
- Androcles' Lion: Dororo frees them and they end up saving him from the Kajirinkon.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Despite being demons they are more mischievous than evil. However, they still pull some rather mean-spirited pranks and they drag Dororo along.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: After saving Dororo from the Kajirinkon, Hyakkimaru still attacks them and sets them into stone.
Osushi
Osushi
A woman who prays for her brother's safe return.
- Ain't Too Proud to Beg: She begs Hyakkimaru to spare her brother's life even though he can't be saved or reasoning with, but he doesn't listen her and kills him.
- I Will Wait for You: She been waiting for her brother's return from the war for five years.
- Long Hair Is Feminine: She has long beautiful hair in the 1969 anime.
Mio
Mio
Voiced by: Reiko Mutō (1969 anime), Yuki Makishima (Blood Will Tell), Eriko Matsui (Young Black Jack)
A young girl in Hyakkimaru's past. She lived in an abandoned house and took care of a group of children who were affected by the war. She was the love interest of Hyakkimaru.
- Cool Big Sis: The children that she cares for view her as a very loving big sister.
- Cope by Creating: She sings so that she doesn't feel sadness even when she's selling her body.
- Cynicism Catalyst: She's murdered by soldiers who mistake her for a spy, which triggers Hyakkimaru into an Unstoppable Rage.
- Dies Differently in Adaptation: Her death in Blood Will Tell is slightly different than in most versions, as there she's killed by one of the Fiends instead of by Daigo's soldiers.
- Defiled Forever: Mio reveals that she feels dirty for selling her body every night, even thinking her soul is dirty.
- Subverted in the 2019 anime. Shortly after Mio voices her concerns, the scene cuts to Biwa-hoshi's perspective showing her soul to be spotless. Later, Dororo reacts very poorly when Mio calls his mother "admirable" for never taking up sex work—a decision which led to her starving to death—and counters that Mio is just as (if not more) admirable for doing what most wouldn't to survive.
- Love at First Note: Her songs are very beautiful and Hyakkimaru first meets her by following the sound of her singing. Mio's songs are the only sounds that can calm Hyakkimaru after getting his ears back.
- Hooker with a Heart of Gold: To get money to sustain herself and the children she takes care of, she sells herself to soldiers at night as a job.
- Not What It Looks Like: She sells herself to multiple enemy camps, which leads to one of them thinking she's a spy.
- Nice Girl: She's a very sweet and kind person. When Hyakkimaru is attracted to her singing and follows the sound to her, she realizes that he's blind, but doesn't act in fear and is very friendly towards him in their first meeting. She also decides to let him, Dororo, and Biwa-Hoshi stay in her home.
- Spared by the Adaptation: Unlike most adaptations of Dororo, Mio does not die in The Legend of Dororo and Hyakkimaru. Despite trying to commit suicide out of guilt for luring men to their deaths at the hands of Hakumenfudo, Dororo's pleas for her to live eventually get through to her.
- Too Good for This Sinful Earth: Too good indeed... She's one of the most kind-hearted and selfless characters in the story. And her kindness is repaid with her being killed.
- Tragic Dream: She wanted to grow a large rice paddy so that she and the children would no longer starve. And she had just purchased seeds the day they were all killed.
Hibukuro and Ojiya
Hibukuro and Ojiya
Dororo's deceased parents.- Deceased Parents Are the Best: Hibukuro was a bandit that was dedicated to attacking the samurai that took advantage of farmers like he used to be, while Ojiya did everything in her power to keep Dororo alive, eventually dying from exhaustion and malnourishment.
- Establishing Character Moment: In the manga, Hibukuro's group of bandits captured some samurai. Ojiya went to feed Dororo, and one samurai begged for mercy by saying that he had a child Dororo's age at home. While still breastfeeding, Ojiya decapitated the samurai and proclaims that "my mother, brothers, and two eldest children died to samurai like you."
- It's Personal: Ojiya has no mercy for samurai, given that most of her family had been killed in war circumstances either directly or indirectly caused by them. Hibukuro also loathed samurai and created a bandit group made solely of disgruntled farmers just to raid them.
- Good Parents: They both loved Dororo and despite being down on their luck later on, they focused on keeping him alive.
- Outliving One's Offspring: Their two eldest children both died before the flashback.
- Silk Hiding Steel: While a dutiful wife and mother, Ojiya also had the means to protect her household as well and knew how to fight in the manga. Less so in the 2019 version.
- Taking You with Me: After Hibukuro is fatally stabbed, he grabs his murderer and gives him a bear hug so the blade pierces him too.
- Treasure Map: Hibukuro tattoo his wife's back the first half of the map before his death.
