Dorohedoro Vol 2 & 3 (Manga Review)

It’s been a while since I wrote about Dorohedoro, and sadly I’ve suffered for it. The anime recently dropped on Netflix, which birthed a new crowd of fans to the series. This is great, because I love Dorohedoro, but bad, because it means I now have to avoid manga spoilers as the anime-onlies understandably transition to the manga to complete the story. As someone who has finished Vol 2 and 3 this month, I empathise with the urgency. The story has already taken a dramatic turn.

Vol 2 begins with Noi and Shin engaging Caiman and Nikaido in battle for the first time. The fight doesn’t go as planned: Shin decapitates Caiman, only to come into contact with the man inside his throat, and Noi fails to kill Nikaido, because she easily revives herself and reveals that she is … a sorcerer.

Thanks to these powers, our favourite pair escape. The unconscious Caiman is unaware of Nikaido’s secret, and for the rest of the volume, Nikaido is pensive, self-conscious, and decidedly guilty. After Caiman is healed, they visit his employer to examine the secrets of his preserved decapitated head, but during a very chilling sequence, the office goes dark, a shadow appears behind Caiman, and the head vanishes. For the rest of the volume, En enlists the help of the wonderfully bizarre Turkey to recreate the unknown sorcerer residing within Caiman, and with this “dummy version”, begins a journey to find the clues about Caiman’s past.

In Vol 3, Caiman and Nikaido infiltrate the sorcerer’s world. Nikaido confronts En directly to retrieve Turkey’s dummy. It is heavily implied that doing this is a great risk to Nikaido, but she values Caiman’s friendship and she wants to help him. Several times during the volume, she is almost pushed to confess her sorcery, but Caiman’s charmingly earnest stupidity renders her without the words to do so.

In these volumes, the deeper mysteries of Hayashida’s world are unravelled. Nikaido’s unknown past, the relationship between Noi and Shin, ideas of life and death, the devil and the origins of magic, and the organisation of the cross-tattoo men, of whom Caiman’s throat sorcerer shares physical markings, all provide both sinister and exciting layers to the story. I’m especially looking forward to whenever Nikaido finally musters the courage to tell Caiman that she is a sorcerer, and I really want to see Noi and Shin share a dramatic or emotional moment together. They are quickly becoming one of my favourite partnerships in manga. The new characters, Turkey and Dr Kasukabe, are brilliantly quirky additions.

What I find interesting about Dorohedoro so far is how there are no real villains or heroes. Everyone is weird, and endearing, and loyal—even En. Ebisu and Fujita are so sweet and caring to each other, perfectly mirroring Caiman and Nikaido, and there are enough kind-hearted sorcerers in the story to challenge any suggestions of a sorcerer vs non-sorcerer good and evil dichotomy. Their world is without morals, but actions do have consequences on an individual level, and Dorohedoro is a story that is strengthened by its individual characters and their personal arcs. It’s been a while since I’ve read a story in which the characters are so detached from the overall universe in which they reside, and the universe itself is so well written anyway. I feel like I could read volumes about any random character or group from the Hole or elsewhere, and still be immersed in their goals, relationships and desires.

I love everyone in this story, but I’m definitely cheering for Caiman and the mystery man in his throat.

Both volumes get a 10/10.