Review of Dorohedoro

It's refreshing when studios adapt stories that aren't the typical/bog standard junk that flood streaming services every season. Shows that you can barely differentiate from one to another. Stories that don't set out to do anything unique or fresh. I could praise Dorohedoro on this basis alone, but fortunately it also happens to be a fantastic adaptation of an excellent manga. The story is about a character named Kaiman and his mission to recover his human face and his old memories. Kaiman fell victim to a sorcerer's spell resulting in memory loss and having his face changed to that of a reptile. He often seeks, interrogates,and kills magic users whenever he gets the opportunity, so that he can gain information on the person responsible for his amnesia and reptilian face. This routine eventually leads to him attacking two magic users tied to a powerful group from the magic world, thereby kicking off a war between Kaiman and his friend/ally Nikaido and the brutally violent En family. The story alternates between the human world of Hole and the world of sorcerers. Sorcerers are capable of using magic to summon doors connecting their world to Hole. To sorcerers Hole is nothing more than a training ground to practice their magic. Hole's human residents are utilized as guinea pigs.

MAPPA doesn't totally successfully reproduce the gritty style and atmosphere of Q Hayashida's drawings, but they (probably) have done as a great a job as could possibly be done for a TV series. It manages to feel like Dorohedoro except less filthy/gritty. What really helps the anime capture the visual style from the manga is the godly background work by art director Shinji Kimura of Akira fame. It impressed me every episode. The CG looks good most of the time and is often enhanced by really excellent looking 2d animation. There's some weird looking CG animation here and there but Dorohedoro is a really good looking show 99% of the time. Other than the weird carnival music in the En family scenes, the soundtrack is also fantastic. I'm also fan of the voice work by the cast. This is an anime that was just excellent in every category. I highly recommend it.