Dorohedoro

Hole—a dark, decrepit, and disorderly district where the strong prey on the weak and death is an ordinary occurrence—is all but befitting of the name given to it. A realm separated from law and ethics, it is a testing ground to the magic users who dominate it. As a race occupying the highest rungs of their society, the magic users think of the denizens of Hole as no more than insects. Murdered, mutilated, and made experiments without a second thought, the powerless Hole dwellers litter the halls of Hole's hospital on a daily basis.

Possessing free access to and from the cesspool, and with little challenge to their authority, the magic users appear indomitable to most—aside for a few. Caiman, more reptile than man, is one such individual. He hunts them on a heedless quest for answers with only a trusted pair of bayonets and his immunity to magic. Cursed by his appearance and tormented by nightmares, magic users are his only clue to restoring his life to normal. With his biggest obstacle being his stomach, his female companion Nikaidou, who runs the restaurant Hungry Bug, is his greatest ally.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Caiman Main

Takagi, Wataru Japanese

Noi Main

Kobayashi, Yuu Japanese

Nikaidou Main

Kondou, Reina Japanese

Shin Main

Hosoya, Yoshimasa Japanese

Ebisu Main

Tomita, Miyu Japanese

En Main

Horiuchi, Kenyuu Japanese

Fujita Main

Takanashi, Kengo Japanese

Johnson Supporting

Kimura, Ryouhei Japanese

Kasukabe Supporting

Ichiki, Mitsuhiro Japanese

Risu Supporting

Soungdok Japanese

Bezerra, Wendel Producer

Aoi, Hiroyuki Producer

Sasaki, Reiko Producer

Tomihara, Daiki Producer

Reviews

May 22, 2024

bergars

Recommended

It's the fun you don't get everywhere.

Like a cold beer at the end of a long day, or the first bite of a pizza after a long while without eating. “God, I needed that”. A series that entertains, that makes me care for the cast without constant suffering. A world that doesn't shove its rules down my throat, floating, carefree in an interesting narrative that doesn't lose track of what matters. I've wanted such a series for a long time, even if it wasn't that easy getting into it.

A reptile, Caiman, searches for the mage that turned his head into a reptile, and ... erased his memories. That's just the protagonist. The world seemed a little too crazy, and I've been to other stories where they always vomit out information about themselves. It tires you, it batters you with information, and it gets to the good stuff way later on. None of that.

“Dorohedoro” lets you go inside its world. No hand-holding, no over-explanations. If there's need, some sentences, and that's it. The characters expertly explore the world, and do their thing. You learn how hard it is to die, to get a job, to fight, to survive, or to deal with a restaurant in this world. The magic slowly explains itself, and as you get more clues about how it all works, the mystery builds itself with enough questions to naturally attract me. I required answers, but I enjoyed the world, and the people living inside that world, all the same. Good people, bad people, I don't think that's how you categorize here. Dark slice of life isn't something I thought I'd encounter with as much gore, action, and insanity as here. Like a combination of “Beastars”, and “Chainsaw-Man”, it's about an insane world with out-of-this-world designs.

Now with the real sauce.

Came into this one only knowing how insane the storytelling can be, and to watch all of Mappa's stuff, specially when it's as controversial. Of course, it's the CG animation. Point of contention with all anime, the element that makes or breaks stories for so many people, and I'll come out and slightly agree, but mostly disagree with the criticisms. I don't agree with the consensus that CG animation belongs in the deepest corner of hell, I'm a defender. I'll always give a fair shot to every kind of anime, regardless of the CG quality. Complete honesty, 50/50 on this one.

Consider this: The world revolves around a reptile headed dude, with magical immunity, looking for a cure, and his best friend, an all powerful girl with kicks that can actually split you in half. The designs, the world, the ambience, and every location around it can only be described with “batshit insane” as the main adjective. It's a world like none other, refreshing in every sense, and the art style reflects the insanity better than anything else could. Instead of telling you how “gorgeous” the 2D segments were, I'm here to blame those for the inconsistency in “Dorohedoro”. I wished it ran the mile, and did everything in 3D. It needed to embrace that insanity, and truly focus on that vision entirely. I didn't like it, not because it wasn't on 2D, but because it tried too many times to be.

Art style aside, the other negative's the ending. Not bad, but incomplete. I expect seasons to have a complete package of a story, and it just feels like a cut-off point to go read the manga. Unfulfilling, inconclusive, with the promise of a next season. I'll probably hop into the manga, since the many inconsistencies with the development, art direction, and writing cut-off points don't seem that worth it when the story is complete, and with great, consistent art somewhere else.

7.4/10. It's a great anime that doesn't reach its full adaptation potential from the staff decisions. However, muscle girls for the win, holy molly.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by bergars (165)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Sep 18, 2024

Winnah_Daniels

Mixed Feelings

Fun concept for an anime which started fast. I liked it at first and was very intrigued with this anime from the first gore-y fight.

The story sort of tailed off in the middle. Seems like they wanted to spend time with each character and explain how they were connected. There were some fun adventures (baseball episode was dope) and I like the gore + overall rudeness of the show. But I found myself losing interest. When things started to come together at the end, I got excited again. Ready for season 2

The characters saved this show for me. I wish we got more info ... on Nikkaido. Caiman was a lovable oaf on a mission. He played his part well. My favorite two characters were En’s fixers. Heart mask guy and big brolic woman. Their dynamic was interesting

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by Winnah_Daniels (7)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Aug 30, 2024

Enigma2025

Not Recommended

I can't believe people are recommending this anime to Chainsaw Man fans, it's not even close lol. This is an absolute snoozefest. Incredibly beautiful environments, worlds and character design but incredibly average story. This anime tries to be mysterious and unpredictable and it does it well (in the beginning). But usually, you end up getting your questions answered by the end... well not in this one... It's just a bunch of random plot points stitched together. I have never read the manga, but it seems like anime skipped a lot of it. The characters spawn in random places and do random things with no explanation. ... It's like watching 1 minute of some anime and then skipping 1 minute of it and so on... So many things don't make sense. There is so many unanswered questions regarding power system/magic, the world/planet they live in, the mushrooms, the masks etc..

As for the characters, no one is really interesting except Nikaidou and Ebisu. The "bad guys" do have some fun interactions. Caiman who is supposed to be the MC is your average 60 IQ dense lienear dude who only cares about food. A 10 year old could have written a better character, there is no actual depth to his character except the main plot point that's supposed to carry the whole story (and it fails miserably).

Most of the reviews seem to put main focus on if CGI/OP/ED is good or bad. Who cares? The story is boring. The story is the most important thing. Hopefully whenever the second season airs, they actually focus on storytelling instead of eating gyoza in every episode and and spawning characters in random scenes doing the most random stuff and hoping the viewers will spend the next 1 hour googling why someone did something. No one ever travels anywhere and says what they will do next. In one scene you have a dude eating some shit food, few seconds later, he is in another dude's palace???? There is no actual timeline.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by Enigma2025 (8)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Best of 2020-2024

by Doggo1195

50 Entries · 77 Restacks

Underrated & Hidden Gems

by ManicPixieTerror

50 Entries · 425 Restacks

Strikingly Singular Stories

by ManicPixieTerror

27 Entries · 56 Restacks

'Dorohedoro' Anime Sequel Announced

The official website of the Dorohedoro television anime announced on Tuesday that a sequel is in production, revealing a teaser visual (pictured). The sequel adaptin...read more

Jan 9, 4:55 AM by Vindstot | Discuss (45 comments)

'Dorohedoro' Blu-ray Bundles OVA

The official website of the Dorohedoro television anime announced on Sunday that the series will be released on Blu-ray in two volumes with a limited amount of spec...read more

Jan 13, 2020 7:11 PM by vanillaguard | Discuss (2 comments)

	Poll: Dorohedoro Episode 12 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ) Stark700 - Mar 28, 2020	208 replies	by arachnaph0bia »» Oct 6, 8:05 AM
	Poll: Dorohedoro Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ) Stark700 - Jan 11, 2020	241 replies	by Auralkia »» Aug 27, 2:17 PM
	Poll: Dorohedoro Episode 8 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Feb 29, 2020	76 replies	by PLUSKII »» Jul 21, 5:05 PM
	Poll: Dorohedoro Episode 11 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Mar 21, 2020	67 replies	by paocmanteiga »» Jun 17, 12:44 AM
	Poll: Dorohedoro Episode 9 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Mar 7, 2020	72 replies	by paocmanteiga »» Jun 16, 11:52 PM

In Numbers: The Best and Worst Anime of Winter 2020

Scores, members, favorites — everything you need to know about who won and lost Winter 2020.

by Shymander

66,436 views