Dorohedoro might be the most disgustingly charming manga we've ever read. It takes place (for the most part) in a place called Hole where magic users pop in to experiment on the populace. As a result, most of the residents are horribly mangled in some way, from having a parakeet body to being stuck with 6-foot long legs. It's a horror movie of a town.

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But, the biggest mystery is a Lizard-faced man named Kaiman. Recently, an anime adaptation has started releasing for this his series, so we've figured it's time for a crash course in what to expect.

10 It's Locked On Japanese Netflix With No Subs

So we've got to warn you guys right upfront, Dorehedoro is not currently on any streaming service or anything else outside of Japan. It was bought by Netflix and is undergoing the same treatment as Beastars. We probably won't see it until later this year when it is all released at once. Which would be fine, because VPNs exist. The only problem is there aren't any English Subtitles for Dorehedoro on Netflix like there is for Beastars. So, at present, it's locked to Netflix JP, it has no English subtitles, and it's releasing weekly. Boy, do we hope the eventual One Piece Netflix adaptation doesn't face this same issue.

9 The Plot And Tone Are Nonsensical

There's a lot to love about Dorohedoro. It's setting is one of the most unique we've seen in a long time, the weird satanic overtones give a great constant feeling of unease, and its characters are all likable-yet-awful in their own ways. But, one thing we can't get behind is the story.

Frankly, the "main plot" is nonsensical a lot of the time and leaves us lost. It progresses slowly, tons of inconsequential things suddenly become important, and it almost feels like the characters are playing it by ear as much as the author is. It's a great show, but still has issues.

8 The Hyper-Violence Is Intentional But Takes Some Getting Used To

Like we said earlier, Dorohedoro is a violent property. The manga has random nudity, body horror, gruesome nudity, and incomprehensible character motivations. Now, all of those things sound like a drawback, and in some ways they are, but they're also to the IP's benefit. The nudity is used to push the narrative forward. The body horror works great in contrast to a normally peppy idea like magic. The violence is the lifeblood of the manga! Without decapitations, limb removals, weird transformations, and straight-up bags of moving body parts, Dorohedoro would lose its identity.

7 Death Is Played Down More And More As The Series Continues

Now, this feels odd to even utter, but Dorohedoro shares a pretty crucial aspect with Dragon Ball Z. That's the fact that neither of these IPs respects the sanctity and finality of death. There's a bunny that can revive the dead, a buff ex-devil who has insane healing powers, and a guy who can cut people to pieces and not kill them. So, it goes without saying that people are brought back from the dead more than once, just with methods that aren't as clean-cut as the Dragon Balls. That's not all. Murder is a near-constant in the manga. In fact, Nikaido acts like a sweet little mercenary, but she has absolutely no qualms about hanging out with serial killers or becoming one herself.

6 Most Characters, Of Any Gender, Tend To Be Buff

Alright forget everything else, forget the blood, forget the nonsense plot, and forget the magic. No, what's important now and what will always be important about Dorehedoro is its representation of capable and frankly swole female characters.

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Noi, in particular, is one of our favorite female characters in almost any story, managing to pull off combat boots in a dress right up until she literally crushes a dude's skull with her bare hands. Nikaido isn't much different. She's tinier but almost as buff, with some superhuman dexterity to boot. So, if you're tired of all the female leads in anime who do nothing but whine and wait for others to help them, Dorohedoro will be a refreshing change of pace.

5 Tons Of Over-The-Top Horror Elements

 

Now let's talk about the horror elements of Dorehedoro a bit. We don't know how they're going to do some of the insanely gruesome stuff that happens earlier, but there's a lot. We can't imagine Mappa (the studio making the anime) will go the Tokyo Ghoul adaptation route and just put all the violence in obscenely dark shadows until the blue-ray comes out. But, for some parts, they really might have to. Seriously, this series is not for the faint of heart. There are tons of body horror moments, gratuitous torture scenes, and obscene levels of ultra-violence, 90% of which hasn't been adapted yet.

4 Don't Expect Answers To Most Questions

Now, remember, the setting of Dorohedoro is all kinds of weird. There's the human world and the magic-user world, which are separated by "doors" the mages use to move in-between. In the magic world, Demons roam the skies and act as the "higher authority," since they run on infinite energy and have limitless power. And, Hell exists here and is literally right underneath the magic world, so that's cool. Just from those two facts alone, we have a million questions, but none of them truly get answered. It's not like the series doesn't attempt to go into the inner mechanics of becoming a demon or how smoke is produced, there's just so much going on that it can't afford to spend too much time on any one thing.

3 The Magic Is Left Primarily Unexplained And Isn't Overused

Magic is pretty central to the overall story, but magic in combat itself isn't all too important. Yeah, so Kikurage, Chota, Noi, and En all use their magic pretty routinely and are defined by it, Noi and En especially. But, otherwise, the magic just serves as a weapon for mages to use against each other, and the mechanics of each mage aren't ever really fully explored.

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For example, Chota's magic dispels any other magic, but in order to do it, he has to bake a doll made out of odd ingredients (including the entrails of a person), shove the doll in their mouth, then expel some of his smoke into their throat as well. But, how would he ever find out that's how his magic works? What was the process like figuring that out? Why specifically their entrails? So many questions!

2 It's Yet Another Amnesia Story

If you were tired of the whole "who am I" amnesia story trope, again, Dorohedoro might not be for you. The overall plot, at least for a good portion of the story, is finding out who Kaiman actually is and who the person inside his mouth is as well. What this means is that Kaiman follows a lot of the same tropes any anime amnesiac does. Constant headaches, nightmares that are actually memories, and wondering if he should even remember who he really is. It's all a bit cliche, but the way he goes about figuring it out isn't, so at least there's that.

1  The Anime Won't Get Anywhere Close To The Ending

And finally, we want to temper viewers' expectations a bit upfront. Dorohedoro isn't a short story. Honestly, we're reading it again and kind of forgot that it's like 176 chapters long. Multiple times it seems like the story should end but then something new starts up. We can't imagine the first season of this anime will make it anywhere past chapter 30 of the manga. Frankly, the mystery behind Kaiman isn't even close to being solved by that point, so we just want viewers to be aware that there's no resolution or ending in store for this anime adaptation. So, better hope it does well so we get more seasons, but with Netflix keeping it locked in the East, we aren't sure if that's going to happen.

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