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ドロヘドロ [Dorohedoro] #23
Dorohedoro, Vol. 23
A twisted tale of sadistic Sorcerers and the monsters they create.
In a city so dismal it's known only as "the Hole," a clan of Sorcerers has 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.
As En desperately tries to keep the family alive and together, the worlds of the sorcerers and the Hole descend into total chaos. What will happen with the Devils and the sorcerers? Can the Hole be saved? More to the point, can Caiman save Nikaido? The drama and action ramp up to a gloriously bloody climax in this final volume!
In a city so dismal it's known only as "the Hole," a clan of Sorcerers has 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.
As En desperately tries to keep the family alive and together, the worlds of the sorcerers and the Hole descend into total chaos. What will happen with the Devils and the sorcerers? Can the Hole be saved? More to the point, can Caiman save Nikaido? The drama and action ramp up to a gloriously bloody climax in this final volume!
352 pages, Paperback
First published November 12, 2018
24 people are currently reading
427 people want to read
About the author
Q. Hayashida
81 books606 followersQ Hayashida (林田球, Hayashida Kyu) is a manga author from Tokyo.
Hayashida studied oil painting at Tokyo University of the Arts. She has discussed her childhood and artistic inspirations in interviews but maintains a high level of privacy about her personal life, to the point that her true name and face are unknown.
Hayashida's first major manga was Maken X Another (1999-2001), a comic book adaptation of a video game.
Her most famous work is the 23-volumes long Dorohedoro (2000-2018). It was originally serialised in the alternative manga magazine 'Monthly Ikki', but it was later moved to 'Hibana' when Ikki ceased publication, and finally transferred to 'Monthly Shōnen Sunday'. Dorohedoro has been partially adapted into an anime on Netflix in 2018.
Hayashida's most recent manga series Dai Dark began serialisation in 2019 in the pages of Monthly Shōnen Sunday.
Hayashida studied oil painting at Tokyo University of the Arts. She has discussed her childhood and artistic inspirations in interviews but maintains a high level of privacy about her personal life, to the point that her true name and face are unknown.
Hayashida's first major manga was Maken X Another (1999-2001), a comic book adaptation of a video game.
Her most famous work is the 23-volumes long Dorohedoro (2000-2018). It was originally serialised in the alternative manga magazine 'Monthly Ikki', but it was later moved to 'Hibana' when Ikki ceased publication, and finally transferred to 'Monthly Shōnen Sunday'. Dorohedoro has been partially adapted into an anime on Netflix in 2018.
Hayashida's most recent manga series Dai Dark began serialisation in 2019 in the pages of Monthly Shōnen Sunday.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 213 reviews
March 21, 2021
Even though this is a seinen manga, (a seinen is a manga aimed at young adult men that usually contains explicit violence and nudity with a very gritty and dark artstyle) this entire manga culminated as a story about friendship and dark, deep mistrust caused by cosmic forces that influence that friendship
I would have liked for a few of the characters like Chota and Noi to have a completed character arc, but I feel like the other arcs were so satisfying that it truly didn't bother me as much. Again, a seinen being written by a woman just makes for such fleshed out female characters that would usually be objectified in something like Gantz.
This has been an amazing journey with some of my favourite characters and a great story.
I'm going to have to stick with this shorter review format until I have less work, which I doubt will be anytime soon.
I highly, highly recommend this manga to everyone, especially those who aren't big into manga but love mature-themed comics.
I would have liked for a few of the characters like Chota and Noi to have a completed character arc, but I feel like the other arcs were so satisfying that it truly didn't bother me as much. Again, a seinen being written by a woman just makes for such fleshed out female characters that would usually be objectified in something like Gantz.
This has been an amazing journey with some of my favourite characters and a great story.
I'm going to have to stick with this shorter review format until I have less work, which I doubt will be anytime soon.
I highly, highly recommend this manga to everyone, especially those who aren't big into manga but love mature-themed comics.
December 7, 2019
I don't usually rate single volumes of manga or comic series on here, but I just finished reading this last volume of this 23 book series last night after a month long binge, and could confidently say that it is my favourite manga series ever. Absolutely bonkers, blood soaked insanity on a level I never knew was possible, and yet, somehow, incredibly charming and funny and...cute? Man, this series really challenged my ideas of what I thought I liked in a manga, but once I decided to just go with the flow of the authors crazy mind, I found myself completely in love with everything about it. The world building, the body horror, the idiotic humour and most of all the absolute chaotic unpredictability of it all. Will your favourite character get beheaded? Turned inside out, or maybe into a giant gyoza? Will any of it really matter? I spent an entire month in this world and still can't really wrap my head around it all, but I can say that the utter joy these stupid/brilliant books brought me each day after work was worth the hundreds of dollars I spent on them.
May 20, 2021
A bit off topic, but it's a sad day today because I learned that Kentaro Miura, creator of Berserk, has died earlier this month and it's a huge loss for manga community and especially us, Berserk fans. For me Berserk is one of the most important stories I have ever read and one of the most important creations in the dark fantasy genre, be it fantasy in general or strictly art of manga. Rest in peace, Sensei.
As for Dorohedoro, it took me a bit to get to this review. I simply didn't want to close the last chapter... I stand by everything I said about first volume here - great story, complicated and full of twists, sometimes very dark, sometimes full of silly humor, always keen on detail. There was not a single useless character, not a single subplot that went unsolved or was random, even the funny extras in the end of every volume had their purpose. Everything was perfectly composed and logical in this story, every gun on the wall shot, every piano in the bushes played. I fell for dirty, disgusting streets of the Hole, weird clothes absolutely everyone was wearing, crazy masks, crazy rituals, even the devils and of course the characters. Always hungry uncomplicated spike-headed Caiman, his best friend upbeat and mysterious Nikaido, En the mushroom wizard and his gang of weirdos. Chidaruma. It was so much fun and I will miss them all. Q Hayashida - SHE is a genius and a national treasure together with daruma dolls and gyoza.
And gyoza will save the world.
Just a friendly reminder - don't read this manga if you're a christian treating your christianity very seriously as it will cause you to grow hair on your palms and as a bonus activity you will burn in hell.
As for Dorohedoro, it took me a bit to get to this review. I simply didn't want to close the last chapter... I stand by everything I said about first volume here - great story, complicated and full of twists, sometimes very dark, sometimes full of silly humor, always keen on detail. There was not a single useless character, not a single subplot that went unsolved or was random, even the funny extras in the end of every volume had their purpose. Everything was perfectly composed and logical in this story, every gun on the wall shot, every piano in the bushes played. I fell for dirty, disgusting streets of the Hole, weird clothes absolutely everyone was wearing, crazy masks, crazy rituals, even the devils and of course the characters. Always hungry uncomplicated spike-headed Caiman, his best friend upbeat and mysterious Nikaido, En the mushroom wizard and his gang of weirdos. Chidaruma. It was so much fun and I will miss them all. Q Hayashida - SHE is a genius and a national treasure together with daruma dolls and gyoza.
And gyoza will save the world.
Just a friendly reminder - don't read this manga if you're a christian treating your christianity very seriously as it will cause you to grow hair on your palms and as a bonus activity you will burn in hell.
March 17, 2023
La batalla final me pareció un poquito repetitiva, pero me alegra que Tetsujo haya acabado cómo acabó y que los momentos más cruciales no estuvieran destinados a ser únicamente resueltos por los protagonistas principales. En demostró por qué es casi un rey; Kaiman demostró por qué es el protagonista principal pese a estar ausente durante gran parte del manga y todos los demás aportaron su granito de arena, convirtiéndose en más que simples personajes secundarios. Buen cierre para una historia taaan confusa.
July 24, 2022
LOVED IT! A wonderful ending with humor and gore and philosophy and all goodness. I enjoyed it and I honestly can't pick a favorite character. The En crew and the Hole crew and the other magicians are all wonderful and it was great to see them thriving.
December 29, 2020
Just finished the series, and it’s literally one of the best series I’ve ever read. World building, story telling, character development, unique art style, it’s all so fucking great
September 10, 2022
Told my wife I finished it and her response was "You? You finished all 167 chapters? Mr 'never finishes reading anything'?"
So yeah, it's that good. Go read it.
So yeah, it's that good. Go read it.
April 25, 2020
This is a very loose review of volumes 17 to 23, which is the last one.
“Dorohedoro” is done and gone. I finished this series two days ago on the train back home, and in the tremendously long span between that day and today, it feels wrong that there’s nothing more to be had from that lively cast of characters. Like few others series in the past, they are the kind that you can imagine living their own bizarre lives in between pages. But every good thing comes to an end, and clearly an author needs to rest from such a project: she started it in 2000 (or at least that’s when she published the first volume), when she was twenty three years old, and finished it eighteen years later. That doesn’t approach “Berserk”’s level (“Dorohedoro” did retain its tone and quality throughout), but after so many years she might as well feel as if she had smothered her numerous children. That’s what artists are: wannabe mass murderers who channel their impulses in ways that will just make people stop talking to them instead of send them to jail.
I remember very few details about what happened during the bizarre whirlwind that ended this story. According to the laws of storytelling, she decided to funnel the events and characters towards the scenario of the final confrontation: the central mall where Hole’s inhabitants sell their putrid wares. That’s where the stranded remaining members of the mushroom fellow’s mafia fly to in order to make it their new base of operations. Also going there for different reasons are the remaining protagonists (restaurant woman/time magician Nikaido, her former demon and fake big brother “Asu” Kawajiri, and curse-type magician Risu).
Independently, the demonic elite of this world (who are literal demons) fly in a living, breathing and talking house to the scenario of the final confrontation, to enjoy it and bet on the result as if it were a boxing match, and through the words of the main demon Chidaruma (the only demon who was born that way: all the others are former magicians) we learn most necessary details about the nature of the beast: many millions of years ago Chidaruma was lazing around in his dimension with nobody to entertain him, so he created magic users. In the beginning they were little more than pet minions. A long time later Chidaruma casually found Earth’s dimension and the primitive humans that were evolving there. He grew fond of them, and in his fascination he kidnapped a bunch of them, experimented on them, sang with them, ate them, and probably did with them other less savory stuff.
Pictured: Chidaruma, a rather chill demon
As he was keeping himself entertained as usual, he failed to notice that the evolving civilization of magic users he had created had found a way to enter the humans' dimension on their own. He finds out when he visits Earth and stares at a literal mountain of corpses of human beings killed by magic users. The corpses won’t decompose because the magic they were killed with doesn’t allow it, or something. I don’t recall exactly how, the mountain of corpses ended up as a chasm filled with oily sludge and refuse made out of millions, maybe dozens or hundreds of millions of genocided corpses. We learn that the combined souls or essences or whatever of those people, their pain and despair and hate after what they had gone through, had coalesced into a consciousness, a new lifeform. The very few remaining humans ended up evolving around this huge chasm for some reason, maybe because the strange powers of that goo built a refuge for them. The putrid, decaying last city of humans, Hole, was in itself that hateful consciousness that wanted nothing else than to see every last magic user exterminated.
The author threw so many red herrings against us that along the way you were convinced that the nature of the final antagonist would be a certain one, only to be convinced later that it must be something entirely different. Up until this point we believed that the big bad guy, the boss of the “cross-eyed” gang, who went around mass murdering magic users, even his own gang members, did so because he intended to gain their powers (through stuffing the little demons present in their brains into his own brain). That had been obvious for quite a few volumes, but turns out to be false. Q Hayashida had to resort to extended expository scenes to explain to us how and why the fuck, but I’m only against expository scenes if the audience isn’t invested enough to receive that information, and if weaving it in dramatic scenes would end up being too confusing. The boss of the “cross-eyed” gang was indeed using the magic powers he stole, but his goal was to use them to exterminate all magic users, and he didn’t transplant dead magicians’ little demons (their centers of power) into his own brain, because the boss doesn’t have a brain: inside his human façade he’s only the sludge from that ancient lake of refuse, intending to coat the entire world in its goo like some fourteen year old with black semen. The very name of this series relates to this; leaving aside the Japanese language’s natural ambiguity, “Dorohedoro” means “from mud to mud”.
Let’s go back a bit, around fifteen years before the plot started: the teenager version of our main protagonist (and currently deceased) alligator head dude, then called Ai Coleman, was working with a doctor who studied the nature of magic users through collecting and dissecting their corpses. During one of their outings they noticed a magic user drowning in the aforementioned lake of goo, and Ai jumped in to save him. That goo is so toxic that Ai was done for, so he begged the doctor to test his theory on him: that if they transplanted the little demon inside a magician’s head on a human’s, they would grow magic powers. He does, and initially Ai seems to have gained them, or so he believes, but we learn that what had happened is that the consciousness of that goo had entered him and was using him for his own purpose: Ai ought to grow stronger and stronger, absorbing other magic users’ powers, in order to eventually genocide all of them. What the many remaining living and sympathetic characters attempt to stop, for many different reasons, is that incarnated force, that at different times uses the forms of the many people it has involved in its crusade. It’s an odd choice from Q Hayashida, given that “Dorohedoro” started out producing very sympathetic antagonists whose reasons we could understand and relate to. While you can understand that goo’s (from now on called Hole, as it calls itself) perspective, it has nothing resembling a personality. It’s just not as compelling, but in the middle of this madness the different groups of characters still bickered with each other in compelling ways.
Shortly after chapter 110, in the 110s, a note from Q Hayashida herself announced that the next volume was going to be the last one. I was confused, because clearly there were around fifty chapters remaining. But relatively shortly after, another note from the author corrects it stating that she had intended to end the story back then, but she kept coming up with appropriate stuff. And while I loved the ending, structurally we ended up with two and a half sequences of climaxes. Good enough during sex, but rather excruciating in a story. There were two marked moments where I was sure that the story had essentially ended, only for the author to keep going.
When most of the characters that are going to be involved in the long climatic sequence had gathered in the central mall, we learn that it was a mirage of sorts, and Hole (the ancient consciousness made out of hatred and homicidal tendencies) trapped them inside itself, in a non-euclidean scenario made out of memories of the people Hole had used (mostly Ai Coleman, alligator head dude, etc.). Plenty of this last stretch involves characters wandering around disoriented, or going into a room they recognize and realizing that it’s connected to other buildings or streets that shouldn’t be there, etc.
Amongst the myriad of twists and turns, people dying only to be resurrected only to die again only to be resurrected, some special moments or sequences come to mind. I describe them as well as I can recall them in the following paragraphs.
Nikaido mastered her time magic. Instead of possessing a magic ability that allows her to travel through time, her magic allows her to spawn a time machine with limited uses. Each “use” looks like a gun shell, which reminded me of that silly roguelite game from a few years ago, “Enter the Gungeon”. Although I didn’t particularly like it (my reaction times have declined too much as my body decays towards eventual rot), I remember that crazy line from its trailer, when the narrator states that the desperate adventurers are hoping to steal “a gun that can kill the past”. This story uses “single-threaded” time travelling rules: changes to the past alter the future in that same timeline, and the audience only follows one perspective of what ended up being a rather twisted series of events. Some version of Nikaido, after failing to stop the bad guy, had stolen alligator head dude’s head, from back when he got decapitated in the first or the second volume, and revived him. The Nikaido from the present ends up meeting alligator head dude, who has no clue where he is and how he got there. He’s a version of the protagonist from almost the very beginning of the story, which erases whatever progress he had achieved regarding his character arc [in narrative terms he could be called a steadfast character: he only gets hungrier and fightier]. After both protagonists fight a demon to steal her ultimate weapon, and alligator head dude ends up murdered to the extent that he can't be resurrected, Nikaido travels back in time to give the weapon they stole from the demon to her own past self, so that version won’t have to fight the demon to get it. The paradox resolves itself by past Nikaido disappearing and the timeline collapsing to the future. There are other moments in which a future version of Nikaido appears to give advice to past Nikaido or help the situation in some way, and we never see the events that led to those versions’ futures. It’s usually as confusing as it sounds, but I love time travel stuff, so whatever.
Regarding the mushroom fellow’s family: their boss, the aforementioned mushroom guy, had been dead for quite a while. After the family collapsed and they lost their turf, the remaining members were desperate to figure out how to revive him or at least murder the boss of the “cross-eyed”, who had killed him. One of the family members with the ability to turn others invisible enlists the weakest member of the family: a guy called Fujita, who has self-esteem issues and wears a mask with a Pinocchio nose (in Japanese culture, a long nose is not a symbol of lying, but of pride; in Fujita’s case, the fact that he can’t be proud of himself).
Pictured: that guy
His mission involves tailing the “cross-eyed” gang, particularly their boss, to figure out if the boss has kept the mushroom guy’s little demon, and in that case try to retrieve it. Given that the “cross-eyed” gang have the upper hand now in that world, and the boss is virtually unstoppable, this is beyond suicidal. However, we see Fujita follow these guys alone for days on end. After the boss gets one of his heads cut in half, Fujita sees the bunch of little demons swimming inside, and that the mushroom guy’s is also floating in that sludge. Plenty of gory twists and turns unfold, mainly one in which the boss changes forms to one of an animal, partially machine-like behemoth made out of many different magicians’ corpses, and strange tubes.
Pictured: boss man Hole went from that to this. Hard to describe this shit
The main officers of the “cross-eyed” gang lead their boss to the world of humans, and there they get betrayed by a bunch of gang members with their own intentions. The boss ends up in an underground storage area. Fujita, still invisible, follows them there, and after a bloody battle that didn’t involve him (the boss killed a bunch of his underlings), Fujita recovers the mushroom guy’s little demon. However, around that time the magician who had turned him invisible died, so his spell dissipated.
The many characters wandering through the hallucinatory world that Hole had trapped them in had to deal with zombies: Hole can push tube-like appendages inside people, make its sludge flood through those people, and that way steal their minds. That very specific image is so reminiscent of the fantastic horror video game “Soma” [it would have done wonders in VR], from back in 2015, that one probably copied the other, unless I’m unaware of a common source. I don’t mind reused symbols, though, if they fit a story. In any case, the main cleaner/mass murderer of the mushroom guy’s family, Shin, who has the power to slice the bodies of his victims with magic while still keeping them alive, gets mind controlled and almost exterminates not only his undeclared girlfriend Noi (who gets the end of a hammer lodged in her brain), but also his mafia pals, who end up as talking heads deprived of their bodies. At that point Fujita, who carried their boss’ little demon, had regrouped with his companions, only to get sliced down to a head. In a fascinating turn of events, a family member who can literally cook dolls of real people that will then beeline towards their living versions, convinces the rest to sacrifice their body parts as ingredients to cook this doll and through it carry their boss little demon to Ebisu, the half-retarded reptile magician, who has kept their boss' body around, as well as their cat-like pet who can revive people (this series is so fucking complicated to explain). Their plan succeeds: the half-cooked version of Ebisu links up with the real Ebisu, and their pet revives mushroom guy.
[continues on the comments]
“Dorohedoro” is done and gone. I finished this series two days ago on the train back home, and in the tremendously long span between that day and today, it feels wrong that there’s nothing more to be had from that lively cast of characters. Like few others series in the past, they are the kind that you can imagine living their own bizarre lives in between pages. But every good thing comes to an end, and clearly an author needs to rest from such a project: she started it in 2000 (or at least that’s when she published the first volume), when she was twenty three years old, and finished it eighteen years later. That doesn’t approach “Berserk”’s level (“Dorohedoro” did retain its tone and quality throughout), but after so many years she might as well feel as if she had smothered her numerous children. That’s what artists are: wannabe mass murderers who channel their impulses in ways that will just make people stop talking to them instead of send them to jail.
I remember very few details about what happened during the bizarre whirlwind that ended this story. According to the laws of storytelling, she decided to funnel the events and characters towards the scenario of the final confrontation: the central mall where Hole’s inhabitants sell their putrid wares. That’s where the stranded remaining members of the mushroom fellow’s mafia fly to in order to make it their new base of operations. Also going there for different reasons are the remaining protagonists (restaurant woman/time magician Nikaido, her former demon and fake big brother “Asu” Kawajiri, and curse-type magician Risu).
Independently, the demonic elite of this world (who are literal demons) fly in a living, breathing and talking house to the scenario of the final confrontation, to enjoy it and bet on the result as if it were a boxing match, and through the words of the main demon Chidaruma (the only demon who was born that way: all the others are former magicians) we learn most necessary details about the nature of the beast: many millions of years ago Chidaruma was lazing around in his dimension with nobody to entertain him, so he created magic users. In the beginning they were little more than pet minions. A long time later Chidaruma casually found Earth’s dimension and the primitive humans that were evolving there. He grew fond of them, and in his fascination he kidnapped a bunch of them, experimented on them, sang with them, ate them, and probably did with them other less savory stuff.
Pictured: Chidaruma, a rather chill demon
As he was keeping himself entertained as usual, he failed to notice that the evolving civilization of magic users he had created had found a way to enter the humans' dimension on their own. He finds out when he visits Earth and stares at a literal mountain of corpses of human beings killed by magic users. The corpses won’t decompose because the magic they were killed with doesn’t allow it, or something. I don’t recall exactly how, the mountain of corpses ended up as a chasm filled with oily sludge and refuse made out of millions, maybe dozens or hundreds of millions of genocided corpses. We learn that the combined souls or essences or whatever of those people, their pain and despair and hate after what they had gone through, had coalesced into a consciousness, a new lifeform. The very few remaining humans ended up evolving around this huge chasm for some reason, maybe because the strange powers of that goo built a refuge for them. The putrid, decaying last city of humans, Hole, was in itself that hateful consciousness that wanted nothing else than to see every last magic user exterminated.
The author threw so many red herrings against us that along the way you were convinced that the nature of the final antagonist would be a certain one, only to be convinced later that it must be something entirely different. Up until this point we believed that the big bad guy, the boss of the “cross-eyed” gang, who went around mass murdering magic users, even his own gang members, did so because he intended to gain their powers (through stuffing the little demons present in their brains into his own brain). That had been obvious for quite a few volumes, but turns out to be false. Q Hayashida had to resort to extended expository scenes to explain to us how and why the fuck, but I’m only against expository scenes if the audience isn’t invested enough to receive that information, and if weaving it in dramatic scenes would end up being too confusing. The boss of the “cross-eyed” gang was indeed using the magic powers he stole, but his goal was to use them to exterminate all magic users, and he didn’t transplant dead magicians’ little demons (their centers of power) into his own brain, because the boss doesn’t have a brain: inside his human façade he’s only the sludge from that ancient lake of refuse, intending to coat the entire world in its goo like some fourteen year old with black semen. The very name of this series relates to this; leaving aside the Japanese language’s natural ambiguity, “Dorohedoro” means “from mud to mud”.
Let’s go back a bit, around fifteen years before the plot started: the teenager version of our main protagonist (and currently deceased) alligator head dude, then called Ai Coleman, was working with a doctor who studied the nature of magic users through collecting and dissecting their corpses. During one of their outings they noticed a magic user drowning in the aforementioned lake of goo, and Ai jumped in to save him. That goo is so toxic that Ai was done for, so he begged the doctor to test his theory on him: that if they transplanted the little demon inside a magician’s head on a human’s, they would grow magic powers. He does, and initially Ai seems to have gained them, or so he believes, but we learn that what had happened is that the consciousness of that goo had entered him and was using him for his own purpose: Ai ought to grow stronger and stronger, absorbing other magic users’ powers, in order to eventually genocide all of them. What the many remaining living and sympathetic characters attempt to stop, for many different reasons, is that incarnated force, that at different times uses the forms of the many people it has involved in its crusade. It’s an odd choice from Q Hayashida, given that “Dorohedoro” started out producing very sympathetic antagonists whose reasons we could understand and relate to. While you can understand that goo’s (from now on called Hole, as it calls itself) perspective, it has nothing resembling a personality. It’s just not as compelling, but in the middle of this madness the different groups of characters still bickered with each other in compelling ways.
Shortly after chapter 110, in the 110s, a note from Q Hayashida herself announced that the next volume was going to be the last one. I was confused, because clearly there were around fifty chapters remaining. But relatively shortly after, another note from the author corrects it stating that she had intended to end the story back then, but she kept coming up with appropriate stuff. And while I loved the ending, structurally we ended up with two and a half sequences of climaxes. Good enough during sex, but rather excruciating in a story. There were two marked moments where I was sure that the story had essentially ended, only for the author to keep going.
When most of the characters that are going to be involved in the long climatic sequence had gathered in the central mall, we learn that it was a mirage of sorts, and Hole (the ancient consciousness made out of hatred and homicidal tendencies) trapped them inside itself, in a non-euclidean scenario made out of memories of the people Hole had used (mostly Ai Coleman, alligator head dude, etc.). Plenty of this last stretch involves characters wandering around disoriented, or going into a room they recognize and realizing that it’s connected to other buildings or streets that shouldn’t be there, etc.
Amongst the myriad of twists and turns, people dying only to be resurrected only to die again only to be resurrected, some special moments or sequences come to mind. I describe them as well as I can recall them in the following paragraphs.
Nikaido mastered her time magic. Instead of possessing a magic ability that allows her to travel through time, her magic allows her to spawn a time machine with limited uses. Each “use” looks like a gun shell, which reminded me of that silly roguelite game from a few years ago, “Enter the Gungeon”. Although I didn’t particularly like it (my reaction times have declined too much as my body decays towards eventual rot), I remember that crazy line from its trailer, when the narrator states that the desperate adventurers are hoping to steal “a gun that can kill the past”. This story uses “single-threaded” time travelling rules: changes to the past alter the future in that same timeline, and the audience only follows one perspective of what ended up being a rather twisted series of events. Some version of Nikaido, after failing to stop the bad guy, had stolen alligator head dude’s head, from back when he got decapitated in the first or the second volume, and revived him. The Nikaido from the present ends up meeting alligator head dude, who has no clue where he is and how he got there. He’s a version of the protagonist from almost the very beginning of the story, which erases whatever progress he had achieved regarding his character arc [in narrative terms he could be called a steadfast character: he only gets hungrier and fightier]. After both protagonists fight a demon to steal her ultimate weapon, and alligator head dude ends up murdered to the extent that he can't be resurrected, Nikaido travels back in time to give the weapon they stole from the demon to her own past self, so that version won’t have to fight the demon to get it. The paradox resolves itself by past Nikaido disappearing and the timeline collapsing to the future. There are other moments in which a future version of Nikaido appears to give advice to past Nikaido or help the situation in some way, and we never see the events that led to those versions’ futures. It’s usually as confusing as it sounds, but I love time travel stuff, so whatever.
Regarding the mushroom fellow’s family: their boss, the aforementioned mushroom guy, had been dead for quite a while. After the family collapsed and they lost their turf, the remaining members were desperate to figure out how to revive him or at least murder the boss of the “cross-eyed”, who had killed him. One of the family members with the ability to turn others invisible enlists the weakest member of the family: a guy called Fujita, who has self-esteem issues and wears a mask with a Pinocchio nose (in Japanese culture, a long nose is not a symbol of lying, but of pride; in Fujita’s case, the fact that he can’t be proud of himself).
Pictured: that guy
His mission involves tailing the “cross-eyed” gang, particularly their boss, to figure out if the boss has kept the mushroom guy’s little demon, and in that case try to retrieve it. Given that the “cross-eyed” gang have the upper hand now in that world, and the boss is virtually unstoppable, this is beyond suicidal. However, we see Fujita follow these guys alone for days on end. After the boss gets one of his heads cut in half, Fujita sees the bunch of little demons swimming inside, and that the mushroom guy’s is also floating in that sludge. Plenty of gory twists and turns unfold, mainly one in which the boss changes forms to one of an animal, partially machine-like behemoth made out of many different magicians’ corpses, and strange tubes.
Pictured: boss man Hole went from that to this. Hard to describe this shit
The main officers of the “cross-eyed” gang lead their boss to the world of humans, and there they get betrayed by a bunch of gang members with their own intentions. The boss ends up in an underground storage area. Fujita, still invisible, follows them there, and after a bloody battle that didn’t involve him (the boss killed a bunch of his underlings), Fujita recovers the mushroom guy’s little demon. However, around that time the magician who had turned him invisible died, so his spell dissipated.
The many characters wandering through the hallucinatory world that Hole had trapped them in had to deal with zombies: Hole can push tube-like appendages inside people, make its sludge flood through those people, and that way steal their minds. That very specific image is so reminiscent of the fantastic horror video game “Soma” [it would have done wonders in VR], from back in 2015, that one probably copied the other, unless I’m unaware of a common source. I don’t mind reused symbols, though, if they fit a story. In any case, the main cleaner/mass murderer of the mushroom guy’s family, Shin, who has the power to slice the bodies of his victims with magic while still keeping them alive, gets mind controlled and almost exterminates not only his undeclared girlfriend Noi (who gets the end of a hammer lodged in her brain), but also his mafia pals, who end up as talking heads deprived of their bodies. At that point Fujita, who carried their boss’ little demon, had regrouped with his companions, only to get sliced down to a head. In a fascinating turn of events, a family member who can literally cook dolls of real people that will then beeline towards their living versions, convinces the rest to sacrifice their body parts as ingredients to cook this doll and through it carry their boss little demon to Ebisu, the half-retarded reptile magician, who has kept their boss' body around, as well as their cat-like pet who can revive people (this series is so fucking complicated to explain). Their plan succeeds: the half-cooked version of Ebisu links up with the real Ebisu, and their pet revives mushroom guy.
[continues on the comments]
December 31, 2025
9/10
An incredible conclusion to such a fun and exciting series!! Genuinely just love all of the characters here and the way that everyone plays a role in the end. Super satisfying and just such a good time!!!
An incredible conclusion to such a fun and exciting series!! Genuinely just love all of the characters here and the way that everyone plays a role in the end. Super satisfying and just such a good time!!!
March 29, 2020
邊看邊嫌，邊嫌邊看的一部神奇作品~
總之就是很吃電波啦~雖然會很想知道結局
但看完又覺得沒那麼喜歡
雖然畫風不太喜歡，不過看得出來作者功力很深
感覺我喜歡的畫風都是會操死漫畫家的那種XD
跟動畫比起來
原著沒那麼黑色幽默
妹婿說這套本質是一部少女漫
但我覺得追尋自我和最後大魔王的劇情
主軸比較像是熱血少年漫畫
只不過表達方式很十八禁就是了
雖然只給三顆星
但我滿喜歡作者的角色塑造的
煙老大真是愛護員工的好老闆QQ
心和能井根本笨蛋情侶
藤田天生無能，無法為好友報仇深深的無力感
惠比壽瘋瘋癲癲卻與藤田互相關照
只有二階堂發開曼永遠的好友卡不太滿意
雖然龍套戲份不多，但角色都很有特色
總之就是很吃電波啦~雖然會很想知道結局
但看完又覺得沒那麼喜歡
雖然畫風不太喜歡，不過看得出來作者功力很深
感覺我喜歡的畫風都是會操死漫畫家的那種XD
跟動畫比起來
原著沒那麼黑色幽默
妹婿說這套本質是一部少女漫
但我覺得追尋自我和最後大魔王的劇情
主軸比較像是熱血少年漫畫
只不過表達方式很十八禁就是了
雖然只給三顆星
但我滿喜歡作者的角色塑造的
煙老大真是愛護員工的好老闆QQ
心和能井根本笨蛋情侶
藤田天生無能，無法為好友報仇深深的無力感
惠比壽瘋瘋癲癲卻與藤田互相關照
只有二階堂發開曼永遠的好友卡不太滿意
雖然龍套戲份不多，但角色都很有特色
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 27, 2022
Çok güzel ve eğlenceli bir seriydi ortalara doğru biraz kafa karıştırıcı olsa da sonlarda tüm sorularım cevaplanmış oldu.Çizimler ve hikaye baya güzel tavsiye ederim.
August 7, 2023
very glad i got into this, really enjoyed this whole story and loved all the art and design throughout
November 18, 2025
it took me almost 2 years to read the whole thing but im so happy to have finished the series!
filthy, gory and funny, dorohedoro will always have a special place in my heart
filthy, gory and funny, dorohedoro will always have a special place in my heart
March 14, 2025
En bra avslutning på en veldig bra serie!
March 4, 2022
I'd considered waiting before reading this last volume, because...well, I didn't want this series to end. It's been such an insane ride, full of thrills, laughter, tension, sadness, and mystery, populated by a cast of some of the most endearing oddballs I've ever had the pleasure of reading about, that it was hard to entertain the prospect of saying goodbye. I finally decided to compromise, and just read the first chapter or two, then give it some time before I pressed on...except that after those first few chapters, I found myself needing to know how it all turned out, who would come out alive, and how Hole would ultimately be defeated...or if it would.
Volume 23 is a serious page-turner, and a satisfying end to what might have become my favorite manga of all time. Dorohedoro has been a strange, wonderful, heartbreaking journey that is far better-written than you'd expect a story about a guy with a lizard head and an obsession with gyoza ever could be. But it's just as much a story about Nikaido's childhood trauma, and En's pursuit of power, and Chota's unrequited love, and...you get the point. Despite a cast numbering in the dozens, I found myself caring about damn near all of these folks, and the fact that all of their stories got wrapped up by the end is a positively herculean accomplishment.
Q. Hayashida has crafted something special here, and I feel it's no exaggeration to say that Dorohedoro belongs up there with Berserk and the original run of Battle Angel Alita as examples of the pinnacles of what manga can be. I love this series, from its enigmatic, captivating beginning, to its surprisingly emotional curtain call. And I can't recommend it highly enough.
Volume 23 is a serious page-turner, and a satisfying end to what might have become my favorite manga of all time. Dorohedoro has been a strange, wonderful, heartbreaking journey that is far better-written than you'd expect a story about a guy with a lizard head and an obsession with gyoza ever could be. But it's just as much a story about Nikaido's childhood trauma, and En's pursuit of power, and Chota's unrequited love, and...you get the point. Despite a cast numbering in the dozens, I found myself caring about damn near all of these folks, and the fact that all of their stories got wrapped up by the end is a positively herculean accomplishment.
Q. Hayashida has crafted something special here, and I feel it's no exaggeration to say that Dorohedoro belongs up there with Berserk and the original run of Battle Angel Alita as examples of the pinnacles of what manga can be. I love this series, from its enigmatic, captivating beginning, to its surprisingly emotional curtain call. And I can't recommend it highly enough.
February 19, 2024
I will review the whole thing here as I am not going to do one for each individual book.
I do love this Manga
Damn it really takes a dip in the third act.
But it gets better towards the end again!
Damn I loved the absolutely gorgeous decay and richness of the described world. And the central pairing of Caiman and Nikado was great, as were the various different 'family' groups, Ens family and later the Cross-Eyes.
But a WHOLE bunch of energy gets lost from the book while Caiman is not being Caiman and the mystery of who he really is runs and runs and runs, taking a very winding, branching path to its conclusion and for most of it the story is not that great. I hope if they continue the anime they compress or cut out a lot of the dithering over this plot strand.
As soon as that element is resolved and we get Caiman back the energy of the book improves again. Its the joy of the central friendship and the sometimes manic positivity that makes such a neat compressed jewel amongst the awesome layers of glorious ink-scrached decay and strangeness. Would have been very happy buying some kind of Atlas or travel guide to the sorcerers world or fragments of their history. (Oddly the book also iimproved when Ebisu got mutilated and mutated again, its pretty wild how that keeps happening.)
SO close to being in the 'greatest of all time' list. Still a joyous rhapsody of invention, mania and decay. The sheer joy taken in the creation of the Sorcerers World is tangible through the page, I think the creator just wanted to take a few books off and walk around that reality for a while.
I do love this Manga
Damn it really takes a dip in the third act.
But it gets better towards the end again!
Damn I loved the absolutely gorgeous decay and richness of the described world. And the central pairing of Caiman and Nikado was great, as were the various different 'family' groups, Ens family and later the Cross-Eyes.
But a WHOLE bunch of energy gets lost from the book while Caiman is not being Caiman and the mystery of who he really is runs and runs and runs, taking a very winding, branching path to its conclusion and for most of it the story is not that great. I hope if they continue the anime they compress or cut out a lot of the dithering over this plot strand.
As soon as that element is resolved and we get Caiman back the energy of the book improves again. Its the joy of the central friendship and the sometimes manic positivity that makes such a neat compressed jewel amongst the awesome layers of glorious ink-scrached decay and strangeness. Would have been very happy buying some kind of Atlas or travel guide to the sorcerers world or fragments of their history. (Oddly the book also iimproved when Ebisu got mutilated and mutated again, its pretty wild how that keeps happening.)
SO close to being in the 'greatest of all time' list. Still a joyous rhapsody of invention, mania and decay. The sheer joy taken in the creation of the Sorcerers World is tangible through the page, I think the creator just wanted to take a few books off and walk around that reality for a while.
February 3, 2021
some characters had a great blend of archetype and uniqueness that made them relatable and engaging (en 😤) whilst others possibly weren’t treated as nicely by the random nature of dorohedoro: b plot characters took a long time to reach the height of their character arc and felt like add ons at points, whilst literally the second most important character had a neck-breaking rate of change in personality, with no new goal until the climax that left her dull/fanservicey at times (can’t believe i’m doing nikaido dirty like this). more world building also could’ve been done so Hole’s hatred of magic users felt more profound, especially by including more institutions contributing to the flaws of dorohedoro’s society.
otherwise it was a really fun read that felt realistic by incorporating lots of humor and idiocy in a dystopian, cruel world infected by severe class inequality. character dynamics in their various “found family” dynamics were great and the absolute highlight of dorohedoro, thus *demon*strating the skill of hayashida to consistently achieving these highs over 18 years of writing.
otherwise it was a really fun read that felt realistic by incorporating lots of humor and idiocy in a dystopian, cruel world infected by severe class inequality. character dynamics in their various “found family” dynamics were great and the absolute highlight of dorohedoro, thus *demon*strating the skill of hayashida to consistently achieving these highs over 18 years of writing.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 28, 2023
Un tomo final a la altura general de la obra. Dorohedoro es uno de los mangas más originales, frescos, brutales, grotescos y, en resumidas cuentas, de los mejores que he leído en mi vida. Caimán, Nikaido y el resto del elenco, no importa el bando al cual pertenezcan, consiguen llegar al nivel de los protagonistas en calidad como personajes, algo muy a tener en cuenta, ya que hay muchos.
Dorohedoro ha sido una experiencia enriquecedora como lectora, ha sido triste decir adiós a un universo tan bien hecho pero siento que ha terminado cuando tenía que hacerlo, sin ningún momento con rellenos absurdos que lo único que habría hecho es bajar su calidad. Muy, muy recomendable Dorohedoro.
Dorohedoro ha sido una experiencia enriquecedora como lectora, ha sido triste decir adiós a un universo tan bien hecho pero siento que ha terminado cuando tenía que hacerlo, sin ningún momento con rellenos absurdos que lo único que habría hecho es bajar su calidad. Muy, muy recomendable Dorohedoro.
August 23, 2020
another series that I was so excited to start reading, though I had some doubts about how the story will go until the end. can I just say, I was SOOOO HAPPY that I finally read this. It was a masterpiece! The amount of seriousness to the story, and yet it's still super gore and scary, and somehow the author is crazy enough to throw in a heck load of black comedy and plain jokes that made me almost choke out of laughter. It was a wild ride.
October 14, 2024
Igual le subo a 5 ⭐️...
Me ha parecido que derrocha y desborda originalidad desde la primera página, todo es caos pero a la vez encaja, los personajes son carismáticos... me ha encantado.
Si hay que ponerle una pega igual diría los momentos de humor muy muy absurdo en situaciones tensas, que en verdad encajan completamente con cómo es la obra, pero a mí personalmente en algunos momentos me hubiera gustado que se aferrarsen más a la seriedad.
Me ha parecido que derrocha y desborda originalidad desde la primera página, todo es caos pero a la vez encaja, los personajes son carismáticos... me ha encantado.
Si hay que ponerle una pega igual diría los momentos de humor muy muy absurdo en situaciones tensas, que en verdad encajan completamente con cómo es la obra, pero a mí personalmente en algunos momentos me hubiera gustado que se aferrarsen más a la seriedad.
Read
March 20, 2020Very unique characters and a story that never bores you great series
November 4, 2023
Після третього перегляду першого сезону на Нетфлікс, вирішила терміново читати- перечитувати) Манґа супер кумедна і весела, без антигероїв і самокопання. Кікураґе вкрала моє сердечко! ;)
June 17, 2025
I haven't had this much fun with a series in a while and I'm glad it stuck the landing. At its heart it's truly about the characters, and while maybe a few characters here and there could have been a bit more fleshed-out, I think it's an impressive feat to have this large of a cast and everyone is at least a bit loveable. This series also thrives on pure chaos, so if you're not a fan of spending the larger part of 23 volumes with no true idea of what the hell is going on this might not be for you, but for anyone up for a tiny bit of a challenge this is a real treat. I love how much wild creative liberty there was in this series and how there was almost no way for anything to be predictable because of the level of chaos. You've got time travel magic, healing and revival magic, curses, and so many other things that can turn the plot on its head at any time, and it's great. My only warnings are that the "explicit content" warning very much applies for the level of violence and female (top) nudity-- that being said, the women are never explicitly sexualized by the male characters and there is no sex (hardly the barest hint of romantic feelings at that). This series was written by a woman and I think that made a decent difference in how the female characters were portrayed and fleshed-out-- i think the nudity as a gag at times got to be a bit much, but it didn't make me feel gross like plenty of other stuff would. All that said, this is a new favorite series and it would be awesome to see the rest of it given the anime adaptation it deserves (do check out the 12 episodes that are available-- they're fantastic).
April 1, 2020
I'm making it a new rule for myself. If I'm not keeping current with a series as it comes out, I'll only put up a review of a series once I finish it. This way I can focus more on a series as a whole and not get caught up too much on any negative bits. I'll post a review earlier if I drop a series. I already know I'm going to get a "that was too much to read dude" (You know who you are :-P).
That being said, I've reached the end of Dorohedoro. It's every bit as weird as its said to be, often reminding me of the more off the rails Grant Morrison stories. The initial story is an amnesiac lizard head man named Kaiman wants to find the magic user who turned his head into a lizard head by sticking said magic user's heads into his mouth to see a spectral figure that may have the answer. The plot evolves from that but I was honestly shocked after 160 something chapters how true the story stayed to that storyline. That may sound like a sparse concept but the world is built by it's side characters and how they tie into the story. This is a double edged sword. On one hand Dorohedoro has one of the most unique and fleshed out casts I have ever encountered in a story. The problem becomes that despite the amount of characterization, most of the characters feel like they are just pieces to move the story along and could easily be interchangeable.
In general the story tends to meander a bit too much. Plot points often feel repeated. This cyclical nature may have something to do with one of the main character's time travel powers but thats never very explicitly referenced outside of a few instances. I'm not sure if that's so much the case though, since part of the problem is the repeated use of the same solution. For example, the character Turkey (a magic user that literally wears a mask that is a cooked turkey) can cook up these zombie dolls of people who will wander to the location of the real person. If that sounds intriguingly bizarre, well it is. Until the 4th time this happens. There's a few cases of this and it really kills any suspense after a while. Despite that though Dorohedoro does tend to pack quite a punch when it hits the big story and character moments.
Hayashida's art is amazing throughout the series, only faltering in spots and even then it feels purposeful. There's a strange beauty in her work despite the horror elements and overall dirty feeling of the world. While the human designs feel somewhat generic, the level of detail applied to most of the character's masks and outfit makes them feel unique. Dorohedoro feels like a fully fleshed out world whose inhabitants belong there and nowhere else.
Overall, I found Dorohedoro to live up to it's reputation. Some of my complaints may have been alleviated if maybe I didn't absorb so much of it at a time. I may also think that maybe a heavier editorial hand could have been used, but who knows. My understanding is that the anime that recently started will cut the filler way down. Each volume will receive a single episode. So I think that might be some gauge if my later theory is accurate.
That being said, I've reached the end of Dorohedoro. It's every bit as weird as its said to be, often reminding me of the more off the rails Grant Morrison stories. The initial story is an amnesiac lizard head man named Kaiman wants to find the magic user who turned his head into a lizard head by sticking said magic user's heads into his mouth to see a spectral figure that may have the answer. The plot evolves from that but I was honestly shocked after 160 something chapters how true the story stayed to that storyline. That may sound like a sparse concept but the world is built by it's side characters and how they tie into the story. This is a double edged sword. On one hand Dorohedoro has one of the most unique and fleshed out casts I have ever encountered in a story. The problem becomes that despite the amount of characterization, most of the characters feel like they are just pieces to move the story along and could easily be interchangeable.
In general the story tends to meander a bit too much. Plot points often feel repeated. This cyclical nature may have something to do with one of the main character's time travel powers but thats never very explicitly referenced outside of a few instances. I'm not sure if that's so much the case though, since part of the problem is the repeated use of the same solution. For example, the character Turkey (a magic user that literally wears a mask that is a cooked turkey) can cook up these zombie dolls of people who will wander to the location of the real person. If that sounds intriguingly bizarre, well it is. Until the 4th time this happens. There's a few cases of this and it really kills any suspense after a while. Despite that though Dorohedoro does tend to pack quite a punch when it hits the big story and character moments.
Hayashida's art is amazing throughout the series, only faltering in spots and even then it feels purposeful. There's a strange beauty in her work despite the horror elements and overall dirty feeling of the world. While the human designs feel somewhat generic, the level of detail applied to most of the character's masks and outfit makes them feel unique. Dorohedoro feels like a fully fleshed out world whose inhabitants belong there and nowhere else.
Overall, I found Dorohedoro to live up to it's reputation. Some of my complaints may have been alleviated if maybe I didn't absorb so much of it at a time. I may also think that maybe a heavier editorial hand could have been used, but who knows. My understanding is that the anime that recently started will cut the filler way down. Each volume will receive a single episode. So I think that might be some gauge if my later theory is accurate.
May 19, 2022
24 tomos, 165 capítulos. Realmente se puede considerar un manga rápido para como es esta industria.
Me ha parecido increíble, de principio a final. Los personajes tienen tanto cuidado que no hay malos ni buenos, tan solo bandas y grupos, cada uno con sus intereses, y tú como lector empatizas con absolutamente todo.
La trama se basa en un mundo de magos (biológicamente hablando, es raro de explicar) y otro de humanos, siempre bastante puteados por los magos. Y, por encima de todo, casi como deidades, los demonios. Los "personajes principales" (entre comillas por lo que ya he explicado) aparecen in media res matando magos porque uno de ellos ha perdido la memoria y su rostro se ha vuelto de un caimán por culpa de algún experimento de algún mago. Se dedicarán a buscar pistas para dar con ese pasado y con la personalidad del amnésico.
El mundo es muy decadente, algo rollo seampunk pero sin avances, es más por la decadencia.
Hay anime hasta el séptimo tomo aprox, de momento, yo lo conocí por éste, pero la trama te engancha tanto que no he podido evitar leérmelo prácticamente del tirón. Lo único malo es que se acabe.
Ya es algo gore de por sí, pero a partir del tomo 14 ya se ve hasta muy Junji Ito y todo. No lo puedo recomendar lo suficiente. Ahora ya no sé qué hacer con mi vida, cualquier manga me sabrá a poco. Además tiene eventos en la trama que parecen sacados de una partida de rol, es muy divertido, intrigante y emocionante.
Me ha parecido increíble, de principio a final. Los personajes tienen tanto cuidado que no hay malos ni buenos, tan solo bandas y grupos, cada uno con sus intereses, y tú como lector empatizas con absolutamente todo.
La trama se basa en un mundo de magos (biológicamente hablando, es raro de explicar) y otro de humanos, siempre bastante puteados por los magos. Y, por encima de todo, casi como deidades, los demonios. Los "personajes principales" (entre comillas por lo que ya he explicado) aparecen in media res matando magos porque uno de ellos ha perdido la memoria y su rostro se ha vuelto de un caimán por culpa de algún experimento de algún mago. Se dedicarán a buscar pistas para dar con ese pasado y con la personalidad del amnésico.
El mundo es muy decadente, algo rollo seampunk pero sin avances, es más por la decadencia.
Hay anime hasta el séptimo tomo aprox, de momento, yo lo conocí por éste, pero la trama te engancha tanto que no he podido evitar leérmelo prácticamente del tirón. Lo único malo es que se acabe.
Ya es algo gore de por sí, pero a partir del tomo 14 ya se ve hasta muy Junji Ito y todo. No lo puedo recomendar lo suficiente. Ahora ya no sé qué hacer con mi vida, cualquier manga me sabrá a poco. Además tiene eventos en la trama que parecen sacados de una partida de rol, es muy divertido, intrigante y emocionante.
April 28, 2021
Now I want some gyoza!
This is one of the few times I am sad to leave a series. Dorohedoro has been a journey for me and helped me pick up my interest in manga again. It is really hard to describe Dorohedoro, it is absolutely bonkers but that is what made it so special for me. Dorohedoro strives away from well-known formulas and stereotypes, and knows to excite the reader with every chapter! No other story could be what Dorohedoro accomplished. I think Hayashida did an amazing job balancing the gore and disturbing moments with funny and loveable ones. What I like most about the manga is that it depicts women in a very powerful way. Both Nikaido and Noi are such great characters, and I hope to see more strong female representation in manga and anime. If I have to mention some downsides I would say that it becomes really confusing at times and even after finishing the story I still cannot fully explain to someone what I just read. The middle part felt a bit slow compared to the more rushed ending where suddenly all kinds of things started to happen. Dorohedoro is not perfect, but that is fine with me. In the end it left me with happy feelings and that is all that matters. I am very excited to watch the anime and see how I can figure out the story with the new acquired information. That is...Dorohedoro!
This is one of the few times I am sad to leave a series. Dorohedoro has been a journey for me and helped me pick up my interest in manga again. It is really hard to describe Dorohedoro, it is absolutely bonkers but that is what made it so special for me. Dorohedoro strives away from well-known formulas and stereotypes, and knows to excite the reader with every chapter! No other story could be what Dorohedoro accomplished. I think Hayashida did an amazing job balancing the gore and disturbing moments with funny and loveable ones. What I like most about the manga is that it depicts women in a very powerful way. Both Nikaido and Noi are such great characters, and I hope to see more strong female representation in manga and anime. If I have to mention some downsides I would say that it becomes really confusing at times and even after finishing the story I still cannot fully explain to someone what I just read. The middle part felt a bit slow compared to the more rushed ending where suddenly all kinds of things started to happen. Dorohedoro is not perfect, but that is fine with me. In the end it left me with happy feelings and that is all that matters. I am very excited to watch the anime and see how I can figure out the story with the new acquired information. That is...Dorohedoro!
February 2, 2026
That was a truly unforgettable story, a scifi/dark fantasy mystery that is seemingly slapdash at the beginning, but ends up tying everything together brilliantly. There were so many times in this story that I had no idea what was going on, but now that its over I know exactly what happened, it might just take me a full day to ever explain it to anyone. Seriously, the mystery goes DEEP in this, even innocuous details and what I assumed to be throw-away gags actually ended up having a part to play in the finale. Also, Hayashida manages to do the impossible by creating a story that is relentlessly bleak, chock full of all kinds of suffering and gruesome brutality, while simultaneously managing to be hilarious and heartwarming. What a strange and incredible experience, the first manga I've properly read in multiple years and I can truly say it was a banger.
March 17, 2022
Felt like a fever dream at some points
This series as a whole is fantastic! You care for all charcaters, good and bad which is a very rare thing. And most importantly it was a great ending that tied up all loose ends and didnt take away from the rest of the series.
Also really appreciated how the author put a quick little summary at the end just incase there was anything you might not have understood.
This is genuinely one of my favourite series i have read and i will most certainly be re reading it at some point in the future.
Cried a tonne during it but the way Hayashida fit in a lit of humour and it fitted so perfect is a real credit to them.
This series as a whole is fantastic! You care for all charcaters, good and bad which is a very rare thing. And most importantly it was a great ending that tied up all loose ends and didnt take away from the rest of the series.
Also really appreciated how the author put a quick little summary at the end just incase there was anything you might not have understood.
This is genuinely one of my favourite series i have read and i will most certainly be re reading it at some point in the future.
Cried a tonne during it but the way Hayashida fit in a lit of humour and it fitted so perfect is a real credit to them.
November 25, 2022
(Review of the whole series)
So brilliantly plotted that it made me want to quit writing forever. No one is this good. That a single artist had the patience and genius to, over the course of 18 years, draw every single frame and write every line of over 3000 pages – always with the end in mind – is hard to comprehend. Plus it's consistently hilarious, heart-warming, and even sneakily feminist – despite the constant churn of viscera. 1000000/5 stars.
So brilliantly plotted that it made me want to quit writing forever. No one is this good. That a single artist had the patience and genius to, over the course of 18 years, draw every single frame and write every line of over 3000 pages – always with the end in mind – is hard to comprehend. Plus it's consistently hilarious, heart-warming, and even sneakily feminist – despite the constant churn of viscera. 1000000/5 stars.
September 6, 2025
Q Hayashida is the goat fr. i was initially drawn to this series for the grimy artwork and unique characters - the further I read the deeper I fell into this messy (yet still cohesive) world. this series will forever own a fair amount of real estate in my heart. THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP AINT NO JOKE. i wanna try gyoza now :]
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