500https://i.ur.com/Mff05mG.png Dorohedoro is a twenty three volume long mangahttps://anilist.co/manga/31133/Dorohedoro/ by Q Hayashidahttps://anilist.co/staff/98024/QHayashida that is packed from beginning to end with weirdness quite often over the top yet imaginative gore and an ensemble cast of sorcerers with fucked up magic. 300https://i.ur.com/uE8vUgt.jpg And also a lizard man who murders sorcerers to death with a knife usually after chomping on their head to force them to be seen by the man who lives within his mouth. Upon seemingly the moment this manga ended after going for eighteen years it was announced that there would be an anime adaptation by the studio MAPPAhttps://anilist.co/studio/569/MAPPA. Immediately I was awash with two very different emotions. Unbridled excitement with a deep undercurrent of overwhelming dread. After all the last time I was probably this excited for an upcoming anime adaptation was Berserk 2016https://anilist.co/anime/21560/Berserk/. 300https://i.ur.com/dWkjMLN.gif And back then before it actually aired I remember my often repeated mantra being along the lines of even though its CG it still has the potential of being an at least okay adaptation. And of course because of how absolutely horrible it turned out thats how I ended up starting to review anime on this site. ...So its super refreshing that I dont have to write that exact same review again four years later with Dorohedoro. 500https://i.ur.com/GJ38IM4.gif Unadaptable 440https://i.ur.com/se9a86r.png Thats the word that would come to my mind when I tried to imagine a whole bunch of scenes from Dorohedoro being animated. Before the anime was even announced mind you. I couldnt imagine it in my head without sanding away the artstyle or the overwhelming darkness of the Hole. Or the absolute lunacy of day to day life in the Sorcerer world. How would they handle this scene? How would they handle this character? How would they handle this moment? 440https://i.ur.com/WPL4hTx.png Then the anime aired and I had a hammer repeatedly bashed into my skull until those thoughts ceased. Very quickly indeed this adaptation proved to have an incredibly firm hold on the admittedly very odd tone of Dorohedoro. Like the general setting of this series is a town comprised of humans who have been victim to sorcerers having their lives ruined or completely altered as they suddenly find themselves with the head of a lizard missing a couple of limbs or worse. 440https://i.ur.com/XO9GbOC.png You would think comedy wouldnt belong in a series with a setting like that yet it is. Its present throughout the entire manga. And I thought itd be pretty difficult to nail it down in animated form yet the light hearted and more comical tone of the series is just as present and perfectly handled as the manga. 440https://i.ur.com/yGckk3K.png ...But then every once in a while we get a nice little dream sequence of say... a blood covered mystery fellow emerging from the jaws of our favorite lizard man. 440https://i.ur.com/mJfWXnn.png In my opinion the staff that worked on this adaptation were handed what I thought would have been an insurmountable task. Or at the very least a task that could have been handled wrong in dozens and dozens of different ways. Maybe Im beating a dead horse here because Ive been disappointed so many times but its just amazing to me that they actually managed to nail the spirit and the tone of Dorohedoro so perfectly. 440https://i.ur.com/otCv2Vs.png Ensemble Cast Dorohedoro is probably home to one of my favorite cast of characters ever. Like if you ask me hey whos your favorite Dorohedoro character? My gut reaction is probably Shin. The sorcerer donning a heart mask whose magic get this doesnt even kill you. It just cuts you into pieces. While keeping you alive. 440https://i.ur.com/fWjcpoc.png So to actually kill people he just hammers them to death. How about Noi? Shins partner? Well shes the healing sorcerer. On the brink of death? Shell just vomit some smoke your way and bam good as new. So you would think this would cause her to do pretty much nothing but heal the other characters throughout the series but... well... 440https://i.ur.com/NeMoIkX.gif ...Lets move on. Theres En who is basically the head of the Sorcerer world. And his magic is... mushrooms. 440https://i.ur.com/YjO1YGG.png To be honest in the manga I didnt even like En that much. BUT HE LOOKS SO FUCKING COOL IN THE ANIME. He can turn things and people into mushrooms. And hes essentially the head figure of the Sorcerers. He has his own mansion hes got a movie about himself hes making he had a ramen chain until there was a bunch of cases of food poisoning via the mushrooms... I mean he even has his own goddamned song. And its just him singing about mushrooms. https://www..com/watch?v=psBZTRSu7so As if that wasnt enough he also even has a pet catlike creature ? who can bring the dead back to life. 440https://i.ur.com/VOGM5cU.png And I could just keep going. I mean Im still on Sorcerers. I havent even gotten to the lizard. And hes the main character Itd just be quicker to just jump to characters I dont like so much. That of course being Ebisu and Chota. Chota doesnt have that much time in the anime so hes not that much of a bother here. Although seeing his smoke animated was cool. I never really liked Ebisu in the manga because for sure to an extent her character is moreso comedic relief than anything else. Not that you can blame her for it. 440https://i.ur.com/rPObqUg.png After having a traumatic experience where a lizard literally chomps your face off youd probably never be the same too. ...That being said her being animated and voiced adds a whole lot to her various shenanigans. 440https://i.ur.com/F7hYeCP.png 440https://i.ur.com/cNA21uH.png Fine Tuned Chaos 440https://i.ur.com/aKofRnR.png The heart of this series is chaos. Pure simple and unadulterated chaos. Yes there is still a plot to be followed from beginning to end but I would definitely urge you to not take it too seriously though I very much enjoyed it myself and just revel in the chaos. I mean if you watch this and get to the part where there is a baseball game held in the Hole youll get exactly what Im saying. 440https://i.ur.com/UxzuA0r.png As one of the members of a team is literally just a gigantic talking cockroach. Theres also the Frankensteind corpse of Fujitas partner who Caiman the lizard murdered in the very first episode. As can be gathered from what we see of the daily life in the Hole a lot of Sorcerers are complete assholes and definitely deserve to be knifed to death by a lizard. That being said its kinda hard to not feel bad for Fujita. Still in mourning for his dead partner and oh there he is playing baseball... 440https://i.ur.com/6W0b4yM.png 440https://i.ur.com/LSM7lvx.png Though probably the earliest piece of world building that caused my love of Dorohedoro is because of all of the fucked up magic from the Sorcerers the Hole has a certain event every year. Its called the Day of the Living Dead. 440https://i.ur.com/kFHc0Ad.png 440https://i.ur.com/Aqr438M.png On this special night corpses just get up and start walking around and brainlessly attacking whoever they see. And one thing this series makes abundantly clear from start to finish is that there are a lot of fucking corpses in the Hole. 440https://i.ur.com/qGGHAIB.png My favorite thing about this is everybody treats it as completely normal. Rather its a contest. The plates you retrieve from downed zombies you can redeem for various prizes. Really the only ones who find the fact that the living dead are roaming the streets strange is sorcerers. And theyre the chief cause of it 440https://i.ur.com/HsjrTs2.png Conclusion Dorohedoro is one of my utmost favorite action manga. Would I consider it my 1? No but I simultaneously cant really say that the other ones I hold above it have what Dorohedoro has going for it. 440https://i.ur.com/Fo47Nwd.png No other series have I seen a character catch a mans brain with a baseball cap after cutting his head open with a spear. Also theres a lot of lizard chomping people. And thats pretty great. And for the anime adaptation to capture the spirit of Dorohedoro so wholeheartedly and to include so many scenes from the manga where I would go yeah Id fuckin love to see this animated and then go wow they didnt ruin it is amazing. 440https://i.ur.com/1hXhhnL.png I basically already said this exact line verbatim earlier in the review but Im not removing it to drive the point home. Its a 100 out of 100 for me but I acknowledge it may not be that for other people. I on the other hand will desperately be hoping for a second season every day until its announced. 500https://i.ur.com/yhkCJoH.gif