Manga Review: DoroHeDoro by Q. Hayashida

DoroHeDoro, a comic series set in a dystopian world ruled by magic-users, pushed the humans to a filthy, poverty-stricken place known as "The Hole". The elite magic-users practice on humans in a series of experiments, which may lead to mutations, disfiguration or even death.

I want to highlight Kaiman as a protagonist of this series, however, there are too many characters introduced to us in this world, and they all participate in worldbuilding, the climax and finale.

It starts with Kaiman, who wakes up cursed by a magic user and was left in an alley with a reptile head and no memory of his past. Along with his new friend, Nikaido, owner of a gyoza restaurant, they try to allocate the sorcerer in question, to undo the curse and retrieve Caiman's memory. Caiman gets a reputation around town for that.

Word gets to En, the head of a mob and the ruler of the magician's elite world, about the Reptile man and sends his cleaners, Shin and Noi, to get rid of him. Simultaneously, En tries to simulate a plan to rid the town of the weak magic-user gang (The Cross Eyes). En thought he wiped out their boss 6 years prior to the story events, during the Death Mushroom incident, where he's blown enough smoke to turn everything (and everyone) in sight into mushrooms. However, he spots a headless body going through a magic-user door

As we dive further into the story, all the characters' lives get entangled (En's family members, Caiman, Nikaido and friends, Prof Kasukae and Jonson, Risu, the Cross-Eyed gang members) and more complicated once the Cross-Eyed Boss comes into the picture and his origins and intentions are unveiled.

Aside from all that, how ridiculous is it when Kaiman becomes an official magic user, he is gyoza magician?! (he's in love with Nikaido's gyoza)

As bloody as this manga is, it's still hilarious! The comedy is too absurd and I love it! (and I'm not a fan of jokes and the sorts)

Having a humble background with the horror manga (Ito Junji's various works, Parasyte, Berserk, Goth, etc), I had some ideas of how the story might go. What I got instead was a bombshell of a story, mixed with a whole new level of gore and subtle humour. I love that we were given an insight into the characters' backstories!

From all those involved, I have to say that my favourite characters were Prof Kasukabe (the insane scientist who experiments on magic users) and Jason the giant cockroach <3 Their relationship (as master and pet) was wholesome!

Ebisu, after having her face torn off (It's all Caiman's doing, honestly), she went a little coo-coo. Most of the time Fujita was running out of his way to make sure she's alright was very cute and touching. I truly hoped they'd sign contracts on the Blue Night to become partners.

Finally, I find it impossible to encapsulate all the action, the feelings, the excitement, the intensity of the gore with a couple of words. I finished this series over 5 days, and it took me an extra day to process all that has happened within the series.

Short Analysis:

Manga Art: (4 stars)

It is raw, unpolished and beautiful! Fitting for the series!

Plot: (4 stars)

Kaiman was set out to hunt down the sorcerer who cast the reptile magic that turned his head to that of a lizard and caused him amnesia

Story structure and content: (3 stars)

Hayashida's invested so much into the worldbuilding of Dorohedoro. In fact, she might have overdone it
The original plan was for the manga series to end by volume 19. However, when the time came, there were too many subplots unresolved and too many characters still incomplete
There wasn't much "filler" content per see. However, the story was unnecessarily stretched out
Albeit, the final product, the story, was very interesting and gripping (if you leave out all the unnecessary details)

Ending: (4 stars)

For every great story... the author struggles to end it. To have the world they've invested so much in, seize to exist...
Now, Hayashida has already stretched out the story, and she I'm glad she didn't do the same with the ending
It was cute. It was simple. It was satisfying. It was fitting for this very complex story.