Review of Dorohedoro
Thank you, MAPPA! Once again do you bring hope to modern anime with this adaptation. Dorohedoro was just what I needed. It´s gruesome, it´s gory, it´s violent, it´s absurd, it´s cool, it´s funny in a very sick and dark way, and absolutely freaking enjoyable. Fair warning dear new watchers do under any circumstances eat mushrooms before or during this watch. End warning. So, let me take you on a fangirl rant of this awesomeness called Dorohedoro! It´s been a while since I wholeheartedly enjoyed a seasonal anime this much. In an ocean of trashy Isekai and cute anime girls doing cute things for no reason, Dorohedororises like a paradise island. It has everything that the ocean has not; substances, solidity, interesting and weird mammals, and let´s not forget mushrooms.
Hayashida (author and artist of the manga) has some sick and brilliant imagination. He has created a completely unique setting and characters. Sorcerers with creepy masks and magic in the form of smoke, magical experiments, hierarchy systems, gangs, two sided conflict, a lizardman with amnesia, gloriously fished up characters, violence so explicit that Hellsing looks like it´s Dorohedoro´s cute little sister and lots and lots of mushrooms *shivers*.
It´s no good and evil, it´s just survival and loyalty to the yours and mine. It´s no deep messages of society’s problems, just an insane portrayal of something like it. Sorcerers with creepy power that uses non-sorcerers as giny pigs for social climbing. A dude with a lizard head looking for the sorcerer motherf*cker that messed him up by kicking their ass and letting the guy living in his mouth take a look at them, and finally transform them to shish kebab together with his awesome friend Nikaido. Oh, Nikaido. You are as welcomed as a female lead as spring after winter, a cold beer after a day´s hard work, and a warm cosy bed a cold night. Especially after suffering through 7 whole episodes of Plunderer*shudders*. She is badass, super cool and can cook the best goyza´s. She is the best girl of the year, no contest. She and Caiman (lizard dude) are the best tag team ever. Creepy wizard in the Hole, stay clear or you will have a triple bad day ending in tiny bloody slices.
And guess what? The supposedly bad sorcerers gang members are also super cool and fished up! Except En,He is just super-duper creepy freaky. I just say mushrooms *shudders again*. But hands up for the tag team Noi and Shin! Noi is so far away from any female stereotype that she creates a whole new category. Shin is also a crazy badass which you can´t help but love, the dude has suffered and raised a top. I actually adore Noi´s and Shin´s partnership, they have each other’s back, everyone should have that kind of a friend! And #shipping and stuff.
MAPPA has done excellent work (once again I might add). The art is faithful to the artist, the animation spot on. I might have mentioned that Dorohedoro is slightly violent? Well, violence and gore fall flat without great animation. MAPPA has cut no corners. The action scenes are totally awesome, no censoring the gore and violent story, and the amount of detail in the backgrounds are staggering. Cuddos cuddos cuddos! Truly talented people <3
The voice actors are awesome, they play their mental characters brilliantly, and brings it all to life. Arigato!
Dorohedoro made me excited, happy and slightly disgusted, just like I like it! Every episode was an insane, ludacris, slightly nauseating ride which I looked forward to every week. And in all this insanity it was – wait for it – a red thread! Or threads, neatly woven together which created a solid platform for this violent mushroom trip. Recommend to all that was vomiting on all washed out contributions these past seasons and has a solid stomach. And remember, eating mushroom during the watch is not recommended (even if I highly suspect that Hayashida may have popped a couple of magic ones when creating his work).