Dorohedoro

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Dorohedoro is a peculiar manga, with characters that are not only strange in their design but also in their behavior, with an unusual realism. In this story, there are no true heroes or villains: everyone is morally ambiguous and acts in their own best interest. Dorohedoro begins with a fairly decent world-building in its early chapters, backed by great art and a terrifying atmosphere.
The introduction to the world of Dorohedoro is decent because everything has a purpose; nothing seems completely random. The story is told in a linear fashion, although it seems fragmented due to the protagonist's mental disability: his amnesia. Racial conflict is well ... explored, which makes you wonder: why is there so much hatred between humans and sorcerers?

The social criticism in Dorohedoro is brilliant because of its direct connection to the characters' magical powers. The more absurd the magical ability, the more wealth and privilege the sorcerer obtains. The world is described as inhospitable and deeply hierarchical. There is even a specific group called the Crossed Eyes, representing a “near-poor middle class”: humans with little magic, led by an anarchist and opposition ideal that fights against inequality. Meanwhile, humans without magic make up the poorest class, living with scarce resources, while demons are practically established as gods. Neither humans nor sorcerers are truly good or evil; they are equally cruel, trapped in an endless cycle of hatred and karma. That karma is embodied in the villain, who represents the cruelty, chaos, and inequality of both worlds. And, like a natural disaster or a bomb, all it takes is a trigger: the protagonist.

The supporting characters are entertaining in the first 60 chapters: funny, eccentric, and with personal reasons for acting violently in such a chaotic world. But my biggest complaint lies with their powers. While some powers serve as metaphors for internal conflicts (trauma, past, identity), many others do not. Instead, several characters act like "walking Doraemons," conjuring solutions out of nowhere. This obscures the perception of real danger, as another character always appears with the power to fix everything. This leads to repetition, convenient resolutions, and diminishes the weight of the world-building. In my opinion, the author shouldn't have created such powerful characters, or at least should have limited their magic to make the danger seem real, especially since the world is supposed to be dangerous and deadly.

The mystery surrounding the protagonist is initially captivating and is gradually revealed. However, the main problem is that it gets lost in the frenetic pace of the manga, which makes the events confusing and aimless. If we analyze the series, the first 60 chapters are solid: a mystery that is slowly revealed, clear objectives, and a steady pace. But as the story progresses, the pace slows down, leading to a terrible ending. Personally, I find the ending terrible: everything is resolved with the “power of friendship,” and the protagonist displays an ability that protects him from the plot to defeat the villain. The climax is anticlimactic and leaves important elements unresolved; for example, the protagonist's face remains the same as at the beginning.

The art, on the other hand, is stunning. The character design is innovative, and one of the author's greatest strengths is how each page draws you into a story full of terror and mystery.

In conclusion, Dorohedoro is a manga with a brilliant world and aesthetic, but with a flawed narrative that ruins the whole.

There are lots of problems here so I'm not sure where to start.

Without any doubt the greatest strength of this manga is it's art. It's not exactly beautiful, it's really dirty looking but really detailed and fitting for it's setting. A pretty good match for the horror atmosphere that it gets into sometimes.

The characters are ok for the most part. Both the protagonists and antagonists are likeable and charismatic enough to keep things fun, but this only covers the first part of the story.

The biggest problem with this, and the one that completely drags it's good points to the mud is the writing of the ... story and the magic system.

In this case, the series works with a really loose magic system that is basically if you want something to be done there's surely someone who can do it, so nothing is off the table and tension pretty much vanishes.

Without getting into spoilers, I can mention that both the protagonists and antagonists are covered in multiple thick layers of plot armor that are slightly shaken sometimes but never really broken because there's not only healing magic that heals anything but also revival magic to solve everything else. To make matters even worse, they end up mixing in time travel magic and even a wish granting magic that breaks the already loose rules in such an horrifying way that it scarred me more that the horrible imagery the manga had shown.

And it's awful, because the manga is not only horror, is mistery. And the mistery is based around this loose, awful, breakable magic system and also solved through it so there isn't much sense in trying to deduce or understand what's going on. ¡It's magic!, the villain literally pulls power creep out of his ass everytime they fight him and if I bothered to analyze the way his power works I'm sure I would find even more rulebreaking stuff that makes the mistery practically pointless.

There is foreshadowing, there is the somewhat poetic nature around it all, but it's covered in so much horrible writing that none of it can be enjoyable. From around chapter 50 the plot thickens and everything gets more serious, but with such heavy plot armor around everyone and nonsensical writing around everything else is impossible to take the story as seriously as it wants to be taken. It gets really bleak, the characters interactions get more far and far inbetween of the plot developments that don't make sense and with them the enjoyment gets mroe far in between too.

If it stayed with a light enough tone like it's first third, most of the things I talk about could be somewhat more forgivable, but it's conflicts get so drawn out and bleak and serious that there is no good way to take it. It would be fine if it kept playing with it's strengths but after the horrible ending all the enjoyment I had in the start was covered with a looming sensation that I had lost my time reading it.

dorohedoro aims to present a messy, chaotic world that we explore and learn more about with a cast that is just as wild as they world they inhabit. and while seemingly acheiving this it really doesn't go all-in, it seriously squanders it's potential.

the good: general art and character designs. the art is pretty good and the look of characters introduced continues to arouse and hold interest throughout all 23 volumes.

the bad: for this type of story, the story is surprisingly reserved. there's really no thrills. a touch of mystery here and there but no substantive story.

basically, it looks nice. i'll admit it has a ... nice aesthetic but that's really the one thing it succeeds at.