Category Archives: dorohedoro

Dorohedoro, Vol. 5

Leave a reply

By Q Hayashida. Released in Japan by Shogakukan, serialization ongoing in the magazine Ikki. Released in North America by Viz.

For a volume with as much plot going on as this Dorohedoro has, it’s interesting how much I found myself drawn to the little things going on in the background. Not just the art itself, which continues to be absolutely amazing, but the things you don’t always notice first time around. Hayashida tends to have any long, detailed exposition in her work contrasted with someone else doing something stupid in the background while it’s going on. Ebisu’s search for her fake breasts (and subsequent use of Judas’ Ear as a replacement) in the midst of En telling the story of how Shin and Noi became partners is priceless, and shows a real love of craft – the conversation is static, so *something* else has to be going on.

Speaking of Noi, she gets the cover this time around, and we get a glimpse into some of her backstory with Shin. The fact that Noi was in training to become a demon is not nearly as surprising to me as seeing that Noi was originally a fairly normal-sized high school girl. Now yes, En said she was training with 150-kilo armor, but the fact of the matter is that she failed her training, and at the end of the flashback still seems to be fairly lithe. How on earth did she bulk up to the huge, muscular Noi we know and love? That being said, the story with her and Shin is short and sweet, and shows Noi’s protective instincts and healing powers off. Noi is probably my favorite character in the manga, so I loved seeing this.

Then there’s Caiman, who’s down in the sorcerer’s world trying to get more info on his head, this time without Nikaido there to back him up. Naturally he gets into trouble, but he manages to get rescued. Much of Dorohedoro seems to revel in showing us hideous creatures in terrifying masks, and then later revealing that they’re just typical people trying to earn a living and stay alive. Even if they *do* have magic powers and/or mutations. Fukuyama is the author’s second “surprise! really a female!” character, and her “magic ability” is both disgusting and hilarious, but Tanba’s the really impressive one here, and I hope we see more of him.

There is a plot here, believe it or not, mostly centering around the “Blue Night” festival, where partnerships are formed and current partnerships are kept and/or broken up. Frequently by force. It becomes apparent that a good way to form partnerships is apparently by knocking your intended unconscious. Hopefully Shin and Noi will be able to reunite and work things out in Vol. 6. (Noi’s outfit, by the way, is yet another example of the odd sense of fanservice that Hayashida has.) En, meanwhile, is still obsessed with finding the sorcerer who can control time… and has finally narrowed it down to our heroine. Indeed, the volume ends with Nikaido literally “dropping in” on En and company. Much to her displeasure.

Things seem to be picking up speed in this volume, and there’s less emphasis on world building and more on the plot. That’s good, because the plot is compelling. You find yourselves rooting for both “sides” to work things out, even if you know it’s unlikely. Heck, even En is fairly sympathetic, even as he tries to bring Nikaido under his control. This continues for me to be one of the most addictive series around, and I cannot wait for Vol. 6. Apparently Viz can’t either, as it’s out in April. Slightly sped up schedule? Win!

Dorohedoro, Vol. 4

2 Replies

By Q Hayashida. Released in Japan by Shogakukan, serialization ongoing in the magazine Ikki. Released in North America by Viz.

It’s really amazing how much I still enjoy every page of this series, considering that there’s so little forward progression in it. Those who get frustrated by a lack of plot are going to get very annoyed very fast reading this volume, which contains a baseball game featuring our heroes, two of the villains, and various zombies… apparently because Hayashida felt like it, who knows? But the game is still a lot of fun.

That’s not to say there’s absolutely nothing happening here – there’s a ton going on. It’s just not immediately plot-oriented. Caiman has figured out by now that Nikaido is actually a sorcerer, and though conflicted, he’s trying not to let that destroy their friendship. Fujita discovers that he can get revenge on Caiman and Nikaido, who killed his partner (remember that opening scene in Vol. 1?) and goes out to do his best, along with tag-along Ebisu. Fujita’s on the cover this time, so seeing him get more to do makes sense, even though he still tends to be a bit of a sad sack who is there for bad things to happen to. Which makes him a good partner for Ebisu, come to think of it, as that’s what she’ there for as well.

Speaking of Ebisu, we continue to discover little bits about her past before getting attacked by Caiman. Turns out her magic is connected to lizard people, so she too could be the one who created Caiman… except that doesn’t appear to be the case. Her magic appears to be quite dangerous, taking over Noi and transforming her into a rampaging lizard woman as well, forcing Shin to take measures against her. Then they have to go find En’s partner in order to save her, in what might be the shippiest scene in the manga to date. Fans of Shin/Noi (of which I am one) will be delighted.

We also get some development of Risu, the guy walking around wearing Caiman’s face. But the big development here is Shin, whose backstory is given here. As one might expect, it is rather tragic and filled with blood and gore, but it does serve to underscore how determined Shin can get whenever he’s after something. It’s getting harder and harder to see who the good and bad guys are in this series… there’s just a bunch of guys doing mostly bad things.

It’s not a perfect volume by any means. The baseball game was fun, but does meander a lot. And the way that they got Noi to be attacked by Ebisu’s smoke, with an assistant coming along, tripping, and dumping it all over her, is the worst of sitcom cliches. Still, Caiman’s off to the Sorcerer’s World by himself now, no doubt because a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do. I look forward to seeing what happens. Dorohedoro is a series that requires a lot of patience, but I feel that if you hang in there there’s a lot of reward to it.

Dorohedoro Volume 3

Leave a reply

By Q Hayashida. Released in Japan by Shogakukan, serialization ongoing in the magazine Ikki. Released in North America by Viz.

As always with this series, there’s so much going on here that I don’t even know where to begin. We continue to have Caiman and Nikaido attempt to discover how he got his lizard head, and this time they even go to the world of sorcerers to do it. Meanwhile, on the other side of the equation, En and company are trying to get information from what was supposedly ‘Caiman’s’ severed head, who turns out (once reattached to a body) to be a guy named Risu. Sadly, Risu seems to be a bit of a flake, so they aren’t really getting a lot out of him. Even worse, Nikaido shows up to kidnap him.

The overall plot *is* fascinating, and we do get a couple more major characters fleshed out here with Risu and Dr. Kasukabe, but as always it seems that I read this series for the character moments and the art. The art in particular is deceptively chaotic, but looking closely brings fresh joy with each page. Just the backgrounds, with its rough-hewn, sketchy look, gives the impression of a world that’s just as sketchy. And while I’m on the subject, there’s some fanservice here, but it’s interesting the way it’s handled. Both Nikaido and Noi are very busty, and we can clearly see that when they change (or, in Nikaido’s case, when a giant mushroom pops out of her back and destroys her shirt). But for the most part, she and Noi don’t dress in skintight outfits, but in sensible sturdy clothing. Which makes complete sense in the content of both this world and their characters. It’s nice to see.

Shin and Noi continue to be my favorites, I will admit. Their casual back and forths are almost always amusing (though I will admit that I found the ‘bully sandwich’ incident to be a tad over the top – and even more unrealistic than usual), and the strong bond they share is actually rather sweet. Likewise, Caiman and Nikaido may be more awkward with each other – particularly when a certain intimacy is required – but are also great to watch, and you’re rooting for them more than Shin and Noi, as they both have better clearly defined goals. Pages 152-153 are not helping the shipper in me at all, I will admit.

And then there’s the humor. Man, this book is funny. I will admit that it requires a certain love of gore to really get into it – which applies to the entire series, of course – but there’s always something here. Caiman’s fear of ghosts, the ‘fire toilet to Hell’ (what kind of mind does Hayashida have to not only think of such a thing, but make it a throwaway gag?), Shin’s response to Noi after noticing her quick recovery from a bullet to the head, and my favorite part, which is Noi’s response when she finds that En is out of control and turning Shin, Ebisu, and Fujita into mushrooms. Noi is the sort who, when presented with a bigger problem, just finds a bigger hammer. And speaking of Ebisu and Fujita, they continue to be the source of many ‘it’s fun watching them suffer’ gags, but they also get the sweetest moment in the whole book, right at the end.

Generally speaking I am not a fan of the grotesque, and this book certainly has a lot of gruesome moments, with the violence sliding into ‘highly unlikely’ much of the time. But combining the gruesome with fun characters and an intriguing mystery have helped to make this fascinating. The series is 16 volumes and still running in Japan, so clearly the author is content to take her own time in telling us this story. But there’s so much to look at and take in here, I don’t mind at all.