Now onto the spoilery parts of my review:
I enjoyed the fact that the romance between Noi and Shin as well as Nikaido and Kaiman did not overshadow the main story in the end. While I enjoy both pairings, I feel like any sort of solid confirmation of either would have been fairly out of place in the story. I was extremely happy with Nikaido and Kaiman simply finding their way back to each other. While Kaiman is often considered the protagonist of the story, I would argue that both him and Nikaido are protagonists. The first half of the story is Kaiman as the protagonist while we figure out what is up with Nikaido, and the rest of the story is Nikaido as the protagonist figuring out the much bigger mystery that is Kaiman's existence.
Noi and Shin's story, on the other hand, is a whole other ordeal. I just did not enjoy that their ending had them back where they began as En's cleaners. I don't think it's necessary for Dorohedoro to attempt any deep commentary on classism considering that it would be out of place, but I think that the ending should have reinforced Dorohedoro's core theme: chaos. I expected the hierarchy of sorcerer society to be disrupted by the end of Dorohedoro, but it was instead upheld. It was extremely lackluster. It would have been all the more interesting if En was never revived. I would prefer if characters like Noi and Shin were pushed out of their life of comfort as part of the En family. They would have to contend with the power vacuum left in the wake of En's death, the Crosseyes, and Hole. It's just much more entertaining than "they are all a happy family, everything is as it was in the beginning, the end."
My final two complaints are kind of tied together. Firstly, I am a fan of boobs as much as the next woman but Q Hayashida's attempts at fan service get waaay too gratuitous at times. I am particularly thinking about the time towards the end of the manga where Nikaido is just hanging there butt naked held by one of Hole-possessed Kaiman/Kai/Aikawa's tentacles (and turning into a Devil). It just took me out of an otherwise very high stakes scene. I would also warn for anyone who hasn't read Dorohedoro yet that despite being a child, Ebisu is also given that type of fan service treatment. If I remember correctly, the anime does dial it down a lot which I appreciate because it got so annoying that I had to stop reading the manga for a while. The more you progress through the manga, the more grating Ebisu becomes. Her presence never really adds anything. If she had died at the beginning of the manga, the plot would overall be unaffected because the only thing she actually is important for is Kaiman becoming Kaiman. Even then, she is indirectly responsible. She's just overall a boring character with a neat design. I found her much more interesting for the brief time she got her normal personality back, but then the story had to revert her back because we lost a form of comedic relief.
Despite the fact that the ending was a bit lackluster and various other criticisms I could write, Dorohedoro is overall a great manga. The mystery will keep you hooked to your book and maybe also feel a little bit crazy. I definitely thought mulitple times about making a whole chart to try and keep track of what the hell was going on with Kaiman. It takes you on so many twist and turns and can be genuinely terrifying and/or devastating at times. The more harrowing scenes in Dorohedoro absolutely have the best art in the whole manga. I would even recommend Dorohedoro for Q Hayashida's art alone.
