The story in Dorohedoro is very fun. If I could describe it with one word it would be adventure, and what I mean by this is that action is a device used to tell the story, the story taking up the bulk of the manga. For disparity, it is an opposite of a manga like Feng Shen Ji which only uses the story as a device to formulate the action sequences, which I would classify as strictly an action manga. Beyond that, Dorohedoro's story is just adventurous in nature, with main characters Kaiman and Nikaido as well as the En Family going all around the block and back again. Going into some specifics, I just really like the way character objectives and motivations are handled in this manga. In the beginning what drives the Kaiman side of the plot and most of the story by extension, is his quest to get his original head and memories back, but of course an extreme amount of shit happens between then and now. This is standard structure for an adventure story, but what makes it stand out just like alot of really good manga, is its execution. Not all manga actually come to the point that has been predisposed since the beginning of the story, or if they do the objective has been completely transformed by transpiring events. In the case of some manga like 7 Seed and Bastard!!, it will completely abandon various original objectives for the sake of continuation, which is usually a sign of not great writing. Some manga like Berserk, on the other hand, don't really change the overall quest at all during the story, rather the transpiring events are used as buffers for character development or simply filler. Dorohedoro on the other hand, can take all kinds of different plot lines and converge them perfectly without skipping a beat, and this doesn't come at the expense of other aspects of the manga either, but more on that later. There are other elements that drive the plot of course, a notable one being the characters that act it out. All of Dorohedoro's characters are great, to put it simply. Gary and Mary Stu, or whatever you want to call a generic archetype with predictable interactions and design, does not exist in the slightest. Every single character is quirky, complex, and with an original personality. In fact the manga is so alien in not just this regard but other aspects as well, that I have read about many people saying how it feels more like a western comic (please don't let this put you off, this is far from Spiderman.) Kaiman is jolly, simple minded, happy, and crazy, while Nikaido serves as a contrast by being more level headed. En's family particularly comes to mind when thinking of fun characters. En himself, while being a very powerful magic user, is still cranky and idiosyncratic to the maximum. Shin is a hitman with an interesting history, and while he looks happy and rather bright in most of his normal appearances, shows no mercy to his targets. Noi is an extremely tall and muscular woman, who is boisterous and infatuated with her partner Shin. Ebisu is an accompanying member of En's family who due to shenanigans with Kaiman early in the story, goes braindead and behaves ridiculously for most of the story, with Fujita constantly on her tail. Other great characters include Professor Kusakabe and his assistant Johnson the Giant Cockroach, members of the Cross Eyed Gang, mysterious Outsider Risu, and the Devils. The cast is vast and absurd, to such a degree that no other manga quite shares. I've talked roughly about how fun the characters are but I have a few other things I want to mention about them. Character development doesn't exist in the same way it does in more realistic manga, in all honesty it just doesn't belong in Dorohedoro. A character's personality changing is not necessarilly warranted in the first place, and I truly dislike this being a standard for good characters. Although I've said this, some character's personalities do change such as main character Kaiman, but not due to conventinal reasons that would be normally called character development. Dorohedoro does have development though, more specifically along the lines of cast development. Introductions of new characters happen all the time in Dorohedoro, creating pockets of plot and side stories all over the place while never actually diverting from the main storyline, in fact its woven in such a way that all plot lines are equally a part of the main story. On another note, there is alot of comedy in Dorohedoro, but make no mistake this does not stop the story from overall being serious. There will never be a moment when dramatic scenes are ruined in tone due to comedy bits. But when the comedy is shown is very funny. This is mostly due to how riduculous the world of Dorohedoro is and how quirky the cast is as well. To summarize this, Dorohedoro's story is mysterious and bizarre, and the characters that drive it are as exceptional as a manga could hope for, although prepare to abandon manga standards from works like Pun Pun if you really want to enjoy it.
The next main thing I want to talk about with Dorohedoro is the art and design of the manga. In the beginning of the review I mentioned how Hayashida Q was once an assistant to cult sci-fi mangaka Tsutomu Nihei, who is pretty famous for his work Blame! and his bizarre art style and tone. Putting it simply, Hayashida Q and by extension Dorohedoro inherited this style. The art of Dorohedoro is reminiscent of the style of works like Blame! in a few ways, although do not make the mistake of thinking the art style is a "rip off." An overall sketchy style, crazy enemy designs, and detailed backgrounds are all things they share in common. One difference is that Q's artstyle of humanoid characters is generally more realistic and overall more pleasing to the eye than Nihei's style, which is mostly used on inhuman designs. Character design of Dorohedoro is particularly very awesome going off of that. Almost every character or enviroment design is notably original or cool in some way, and I am quite understating the gravity of that. The worlds of the Hole and Magic Users have all sorts of bizarre land marks, and they are just overall very unique in conceptualization. The people of the manga have many unique designs as well, with some notable examples being Shin and Noi. Shin being a tall man wearing a rugged screwed up black suit, a backwards heart mask on his face, sneakers, stitched together fingers, and a shed hammer as a weapon. Noi an extremely tall and muscular woman, who uses a strange blue mask with the vines on it and a similar suit. The character of En has bright red hair, a mask that only covers his mouth, and clothes that usually go with the fashion mood he is in. Most of the magic users have a particular style and mask that they use to identify themselves, although there are several magic users and regular humans that are exceptions to this rule, and by far its interesting character design. Some other cool designs are the already mentioned Johnson, Kaiman himself, and the Devils, which are mysterious beings that screw around with humans and magic users alike, with a unique wit and style to each one. There are a variety of less humanoid designs as well, such as some hulking monsters, and Kirukage, a cat like creature that wears a leather wrestling mask and wooden stumps for limps who can bring people back to life with little restriction. Overall its a fantastic art style that notably improves both technically and as a style.
In conclusion, I would say without a doubt that Dorohedoro is one of the best of the best when it comes to manga. It's bizarre biopunk/fantasy style leaves little to be desired in originality, with a great story and quirky characters to go with it. It is terrifying, unique, extensive, interesting, and hilarious, and you should definitely give it a try.
