ドロヘドロ

DOROHEDORO

MANGA

STATUS
COMPLETE
VOLUMES
23
RELEASE
September 12, 2018
CHAPTERS
191

DESCRIPTION

In a city so dismal it's known only as "the Hole," a clan of Sorcerers have been plucking people off the streets to use as guinea pigs for atrocious "experiments" in the black arts. In a dark alley, Nikaido found Caiman, a man with a reptile head and a bad case of amnesia. To undo the spell, they're hunting and killing the Sorcerers in the Hole, hoping that eventually they'll kill the right one. But when En, the head Sorcerer, gets word of a lizard-man slaughtering his people, he sends a crew of "cleaners" into the Hole, igniting a war between two worlds.

(Source: VIZ Media)

Note: Includes 23 side stories titled "Extra Evil" and the side story "The Lizard Head and the Magic Whistle."

CAST

Noi
Kaiman
Nikaido
Shin
Ebisu
En
Fujita
Risu
Aikawa
Kai
Kasukabe
Jonson
Dokuga
Kikurage
Chidaruma
Haru
Chota
Asu
Gyouza Otoko
Thirteen
Natsuki
Ai Coleman
Turkey
Vaux
Tanba

CHAPTERS

RELATED TO DOROHEDORO

ANIME ActionDorohedoro

OVA ComedyDorohedoro: Ma no Omake

ONA ActionDorohedoro (Zoku-hen)

REVIEWS

MasterCrash
100/100
Dorohedoro is the embodiment of why I love this medium and why I'm so passionate about it.
(Hello, before we get into the review, just wanted to bring to your attention that I re-wrote this review in video format on my channel for those that preffer that format. I also extended some points and re-wrote some stuff. If you are not interested, feel free to skip this paragraph and jump into the review, for those that are, you can find it by clicking here, thank you)

I think it was around 2005 or 2006 that I first heard the term "anime". One Piece started airing on Portuguese television, and it claimed to be "the best anime since Dragon Ball", in school all the older kids in my class started talking about this new edgy anime on TV called "Hellsing". And when I got into high school, with everyone obsessing over the Big 3, I finally started to get into the medium, but due to lack of a decent internet connection I ended up opting for a static, black and white version of the stories that everyone was watching. Manga. For people who know me in 2020, I'm a full blown manga fan, one that respects the animated part of this culture, but stays away from it. Over the years I've gotten pretty familiar with the genre, styles and tropes of manga, specially those of Shounen and Seinen. And a year ago, I was finding myself still enjoying the stories the media could tell, but had been well over 5 years since I had one manga that I truly could call a favourite that wasn't written by some of my long time favourite mangaka, Asano and Urasawa.
But then, in January of 2019 I saw a picture of a man in a full body suit and mask with a ghost on his shoulders and this picture was just... so hypnotizing, so grotesque, yet beautiful. It's the kind of thing that I, as a Silent Hill and Alien and whatever fan, love. And in the corner it said the word "Dorohedoro".

This wasn't the first time I heard about this manga, Dorohedoro exists since Q Hayashida started it in 2000, and it was ongoing until September of 2018 and throughout it's run it was always decently famous, culminating earlier this year when it finally got the anime adaptation it deserved. But that was the first time that I REALLY felt like reading it, and I did as soon as possible. I was expecting a gory, horror manga, maybe trippy, with some steampunk elements, and to be fair, Dorohedoro is all of this, but as I found out, it's also much, much more.

To dive in the story of Dorohedoro I should probably start with the setting. Here we have two dimensions, one is The Hole, a horrible, horrible place where humans, like us, live, and the Sorcerer's or Magical User's world where... well... sorcerers live, there's also Hell, where devils live. What makes Dorohedoro amazing from the get go is that the concepts of what is a devil and sorcerer is completely unique to this setting, you never seen anything quite like it. It does things different enough that a manga about "magical users" still manages to feel novel and unique. But this story is about Caiman, Caiman is a human from Hole who has a lizard head which has a human head inside him and to boot, he has amnesia so he is as confused about this plot as you are right now. And we follow him as he tries to figure out why him, out of all people, managed to get stuck with this bizarre head. With him is the ever reliable Nikaido, restaurant owner and overall badass girl who helps him around to try to solve this mystery.
It's early in the story that they talk about a powerful family of sorcerers, called The En Family, ruled by, well... En. Look, the names in the manga are very straightforward.

I was expecting En and his family to just be your run of the mill villains, but then you actually start following them as much as Caiman and Nikaido and I think this when I started noticing the strength of this manga: The characters.
This is my all time favourite cast of characters in any medium, see, you don't get a hero and a villain in here, you get factions, each of them with their unique cast of marvelously and hilariously crafted characters, each of them with their goals, and ambitions and stupid behaviors, but it's not separated that they are great, it's together, it's how they interact with each other that truly makes this worth a read.
You see, Dorohedoro has a depressing, dark and edgy setting, one that is enhanced even more by Q Hayashida's rough, messy and beautiful artstyle. But the characters on the other hand are all incredibly fun and wholesome. They are always having the time of their lives and in return they make me have the time of my life. It's a contrast that should not really work, but Hayashida does it in such a flawless way that it looks so easy to pull off, but I think only her could really write this.

Dorohedoro is a mystery, it's an horror, it's a comedy and it's a slice-of-life with a weird small baseball arc in the middle, and never really feels like the mess it should be. It manages to have a bit of everything for every one and have it done well. It's an experience I never really felt in manga before or after.

If I'm pointed a gun at point-blank and forced to say a negative point to Dorohedoro, I would possibly say that it got dragged a bit, the last arc is around a third of the entire manga. It got extended longer than the author intended for, and I assume that was because it changed magazines near the end twice, and I assume magazines wanted to have it run at least a bit more in their pages, but since things around the mystery of Caiman do get a bit convoluted midway through, the length of this last arc actually helps explain everything in a digestible way that I'm not sure it would have otherwise.

The term genius is thrown a lot to describe some mangaka. Urasawa's thriller manga are definitely works of a genius, and One Piece's Oda has to be one too to write the story he's writing for so long and make it all connect so flawlessly, but Hayashida is a different kind of genius.
Dorohedoro isn't the most complex and well realized thriller mystery, it's not the most complex of worlds either, but Dorohedoro is, to me, the definition of a fun, enjoyable manga.

In my 13 years of watching and reading things in this medium and in my 27 years of being alive and experiencing movies, series, books, comics, games, music, and even wrestling storylines, I didn't expect it to now have the best experience in storytelling ever in my life so far. But I did.
I love manga because of how varied it is, and how much fun and passionate and incredible some stories are, there's manga that makes me feel so much stuff, like happiness, anger, sadness and horror and I love feeling those emotions, but Dorohedoro? Dorohedoro makes me feel ALL of them. This manga is the embodiment of why I love this medium and why I'm so passionate about it.
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tunacore
95/100
Dorohedoro is a mysterious, chaotic adventure with lovable characters and an incredibly rich world
TL;DR

Dorohedoro is a mysterious, chaotic adventure with lovable characters and an incredibly rich world. This review will be relatively spoiler free. I will mark any potential spoilers with a spoiler tag.

The story is well developed and surprising

This section of the review may contain spoilers. I don't go into the depth of the plot, but I do discuss the story structure. I also assume that you've read the synopsis. In my opinion, it might be best to read the manga blind.

The first half of the story is spent exploring the world and introducing the characters. There are many different events such as "Night of the Living Dead" and "Blue Night" to drive the character interactions while detailing the world. It's quite the slow burn, but the payoff is well worth it. The second half of the story is where the narrative starts ramping up. Elements of the story that has remained a mystery thus far finally start to connect. The change of intensity might be quite a different experience from the first half of the story, but it feels like the latter half is the result of what the first half has been building up. There are many twists and turns. Although it may be dragged out and convoluted at times, the story does its best in explaining why things happen, and it does it well, overall.

The world is intriguing and fleshed out

The vile and grimy world(s) are easily the best part of this manga. The magic system is unique, the motivations of humans and sorcerers are believable, and the dynamic between these different societies are chaotic. The devils, especially, give no shits about the humans and sorcerers, allowing them to act in very unpredictable ways and push the plot forward.

The characters are unique in their designs and charming in their personalities

The character designs, especially the main cast, are memorable. Although few characters get development, they are well written for you to have a strong grasp on their personalities, motivations, and purpose. It feels like almost every character fits in the massive puzzle; little to no one is left unaccounted for in the overarching story.

The art is beautifully grotesque

To be honest, the art took me some getting used to. It's dark, detailed, and quite disgusting, to be frank, and I love it. It complements the world perfectly and is quite curious to look at.
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Halith
90/100
Dorohedoro manages to tell a wonderful character driven story led by the mantra of show, not tell.
Dorohedoro is a manga that manages to wonderfully execute a story driven by the characters that evokes the feeling that the reader is an observer of a naturally evolving world.
The story immediately begins with Kaimen putting his mouth around a magic user's head to know if the little guy inside his mouth pinpoints the user as the cause of Kaimen's curse, which is a lizard head and amnesia.

Upon learning he isn't the one, Kaimen kills him and chases after the other magic user present in the fight, who proceeds to return to their base to report to their leader. Kaimen and his magic hunting partner Nikaido then reflect Kaimen's amnesia and hunt for the user who cursed him so.
The beauty of this first chapter is that it is told almost purely by the actions of the characters and that no part of the chapter is wasted. In 29 pages, Dorohedoro manages to set up a few key players in the tale to be told, with a small gleam into their motivations and an introduction into the the world of the Hole, where magic users go to experiment, and the land of magic users themselves, two central locations of the story.

The rest of the manga manages to follow suit in this style. There is no main character sitting in his classroom, looking out his window to reflect on the characters and monologuing away as a cheap way to explain. Instead, the reader learns about each character through their interactions and expressions. It is through these interactions that the story is told and the reader is left to interpret the inner workings of the world and the nuances involved. The strength in this storytelling is that it spotlight's the mediums strongest feat, the ability to take advantage of show, not tell.

The characters are the focal and best part about Dorohedoro. They do not fit tightly in a good or evil mold or any type of alignment. Each character manages to mark their own place with a unique personality and actions that given their context and identity make sense. Each manages (with maybe exceptions to one gag character) to grow and evolve as the manga progresses and are still as memorable to me as the day I finished Dorohedoro. The best way I can describe them is that they are organic.

Another side and favorite aspect of mine is the maturity in which the manga manages to handle nudity. There are no incredibly overused and cliche nude moments in which other characters freak out about the nudity. Instead clothes may rip and tear for a variety of reasons and the manga either treats it without overemphasis or in a tastefully humorous way. In a manga riddled with violence in some segments, it also manages to not fall upon sexual violence, which is appreciable.

Though the story may drop in quality somewhat during the final arc, which is the only reason I give it a 9/10, it manages to still give it a good send off, which is impressive given the troubles the manga's publishing went through during said time.

TL;DR if you want a character driven narrative with highly memorable, natural characters, then please give Dorohedoro a try.
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