A Silver Lining

When your life gets unbearable and awfully painful because of your decisions and unlucky circumstances for e.g.  An epidemic, natural or man- made hazards, or you have been victim of a crime etc, then you are left with only 2 choices i.e. either to succumb to your bad fate or to desperately ask for help from anyone who can rescue you from this horrible situation. Let’s say you choose the second option but nobody is willing to help you, God had left his/her grace a long time ago and your friends and family have left your side because of you or their cold and abusive behaviour have made you alone or they are no more. Imagine you are on the verge of dying, and you want to survive but not with your present circumstances, then a DEVIL comes for your help and will grant you wishes as well but in exchange it wants your soul or a sacrifice of your loved one. What will you do?

Here is the story of two of the best anime and a drama, I ever watched i.e. Dororo, Black Butler and When the Devil Calls Your Name. Why you should watch them and after watching them you will be left with some moral questions that you will have to figure out yourself.

1) Dororo

It shows some of the true aspects of samurai period in Japan. The story revolves around Hyakkimaru who is the first son of Lord Daigo Kagemitsu whose kingdom is on the verge of dying because of failure of crops due to continuous Droughts. He and his kingdom always prayed to Lord Buddha but all their prayers went unanswered. Thus, to save his kingdom he goes to Hall of Hell(temple) where he makes a pact with 12 Demons to save his kingdom but in exchange he has to sacrifice his first born son Hyakkimaru. So, when Hyakkimaru is born he has no skin, no limbs, no eyes, no ears, no nose and yet he is alive. Why? Because her mother desperately prayed for the protection of her son to the Goddess of Mercy. On seeing Hyakkimaru for the first time everyone is shocked and scared but her mother still embrace him dearly. When Hyakkimaru’s father sees him, he decides to abandon and sacrifice him to the Demons.  The baby is set adrift in the river and left to its fate. Sixteen years later he is now a young man, travelling alone, wearing prosthesis made by Dr. Jukai. While hunting a sludge-like demon Deiki, he encounters Dororo, a young petty-thief being beaten by three men who she cheated out of their goods. The demon attacks and devours the men, but Hyakkimaru saves Dororo by slaying the demon with blades inside his prosthetic arms. Following the death of the demon, his missing skin reappears, and a demon statue in the Hall of Hell is split by lightning. Dororo decides to accompany Hyakkimaru in his journey as he was the only one who she could trust. Whenever Hyakkimaru slays the demons present in the Hall of Hell his parts of body(organs) comes back and he eventually regains his nose, limbs, ears, sound and at the end eyes by defeating his brother Tahomaru who was being controlled by a demon because of his greed. Hyakkimaru’s mother tries her best to avoid the fight between the brothers but it was inevitable and Tahomaru dies in her arms. Meanwhile the last demon statue falls in the  Hall of Hell and Kagemitsu Daigo leads his army against the enemy Asakura who were going to attack his kingdom but loses the battle. Later, Dororo proposes to retrieve the treasure to help the Daigo refugees while Hyakkimaru finds his father wounded but defiant in the Hall of Hell. However, when Hyakkimaru departs without killing him, leaving the Goddess of Mercy statue behind, Kagemitsu realizes if he had not made the pact with the demons, Hyakkimaru may have had the ability to save his land. Hyakkimaru departs alone, leaving Dororo behind, knowing however that they will meet again in the future. 

Dororo presents interesting moral dilemmas :

1)  Neither side is ever presented to be right or wrong, generally leaving up to the viewers to decide for themselves.

2) There is also instances where humans commit immoral acts for their benefit.

For example, people who live in a poor village may allow demons to reside in their village and attack other travellers so they can collect money from  the travellers . This is the only way they can survive. Furthermore, not all demons or ghouls are evil.

3)   War forces good people to make hard decisions with no right answers and that’s a running theme in Dororo. “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one. i.e. Utilitarianism”

As the powerful commit atrocities in the name of the greater good (like Daigo), the innocents such as Dororo and Hyakkimaru are basically asked to give up trying to better their own lives for the sake of the world that has hurt and robbed them.

Depending on your viewpoint, you may feel Hyakkimaru is just and deserves to get his body back as he never agreed to the deal and was robbed of what is rightfully his. However, from a Japanese point of view, it’s best to put the group over the individual. From this viewpoint, it is fine for Hyakkimaru to sacrifice himself for the good of the land and his people.

 2)   Black Butler

The series follows Ciel Phantomhive, a thirteen-year-old boy head of the Phantomhive household, an aristocratic family known as the Queen's Watchdog. He is tasked with solving crimes in London's underworld. Ciel has formed a contract with Sebastian Michaelis to seek revenge against those who tortured him and murdered his parents. Sebastian is a demon who has taken on the disguise of a butler, and in exchange for his services, he will be allowed to consume Ciel's soul.

3) When the Devil Calls your Name :

The series is about a man (Seo Dong Cheon) who sold his soul to a devil (Ryu – A fallen Angel)  ten years ago to save his son and to obtain fortune and fame. As his contract is soon to expire, he tries to make a deal with the devil using his life as collateral. The protagonist is Seo Dong Cheon who becomes a famous artist after selling his soul and makes Kim I Gyeong,(an unsuccessful singer and writer who only knows bad luck)life more difficult and miserable as she is a kind person who always sacrifices herself for others. The series has beautiful songs, good characters and great plot so you should watch it.