# dorohedoro ![[dorohedoro01.jpg|300]] first tankōbon volume cover featuring caiman ドロヘドロ genre: action - dark fantasy - science fantasy manga written by: q hayashida published by: shogakukan english publisher: na: viz media imprint: ikki comix magazine: monthly ikki (november 30 2000-september 25 2014) - hibana (march 6 2015-august 7 2017) - monthly shōnen sunday (november 10 2017-september 12 2018) demographic: seinen shōnen original run: november 30 2000 - september 12 2018 volumes: 23 (list of volumes) anime television series directed by: yuichiro hayashi produced by: hiroyuki aoi - daiki tomihara - yuito hirahara - akihiro matsumoto - masaya saitou - yoshinori hasegawa - yuuichi tada - reiko sasaki - atsushi yoshikawa - takehiko hayashi written by: hiroshi seko music by: r.o.n ((k)nowname) studio: mappa licensed by: netflix original network: tokyo mx bs11 mbs original run: january 12 2020 - march 29 2020 episodes: 12 + 6 shorts (list of episodes) !(dorohedoro/16px-wikipe-tanface.svg.jpg|300]] anime and manga portal dorohedoro (ドロヘドロ lit. "mud-sludge") is a japanese manga series written and illustrated by q hayashida. it was serialised in shogakukan's manga magazines monthly ikki (november 2000 to september 2014) hibana (march 2015 to august 2017) and monthly shōnen sunday (november 2017 to september 2018); its chapters were collected in 23 tankōbon volumes. dorohedoro tells the story of the amnesiac reptilian-headed caiman working together with ir friend nikaido to recover ir memories and survive in a strange and violent world in north america the series has been licensed for english-language release by viz media in 2009 which began distributing the manga digitally when it launched sigikki the now defunct online english version of ikki magazine. the 23 volumes were published from 2010 to 2019 a 12-episode anime television series adaptation produced by mappa was broadcast in japan on tokyo mx from january to march 2020. it was followed by a worldwide streaming release on netflix in may 2020. a sequel streaming series has been announced # synopsis # # setting the series is set in a near post-apocalyptic future taking place across three realms **+** hole an ungoverned human favela megacity heavily polluted from magic waste **+** sorcerers' world an ethereal gothic class society controlled by crime boss en **+** hell the afterlife of all sorcerers ruled by demons presided over by chidaruma despite similar outward appearance humans and sorcerers are two distinct species; sorcerers were manufactured by chidaruma in ir realm whereas humans occurred naturally in another. sorcerers can also use magic through a circulatory system which disperses a black smoke that gives them distinct powers. stronger and rarer powers are highly prised to the point of directly affecting social status; sorcerers will routinely commit to binding partnerships resulting in violent competition for the right. humans are forced to live in the slums of hole subject to unprovoked sorcerer violets and overwhelming magical pollution whereas sorcerers live and travel freely between realms using conjured doorways # # premise a man named caiman is searching for a sorcerer ir erased memories and reptilian head a result of ir magic. assisted by ir friend nikaido a restaurant chef who runs the hungry bug caiman wanders hole in search of ir curser hoping to kill them and dispell ir magic. caiman's only lead is the full-size man who lives down ir throat: by placing a sorcerer's head inside caiman's mouth the man's head will slide up caiman's throat and verify if they are responsible. getting a job at a community hospital for magic attack victims caiman works with drs. vaux and kasukabe to reach the sorcerer's world and uncover ir past the news of a lizard-man killing sorcerers one with cross tattoos and magical resistance also attracts the attention of the de facto ruling sorcerer en. en believes caiman is tied to the cross-eyes gang subjugated humans and lower-class sorcerers whose leader almost wiped out en's crime family before disappearing. en sends ir cleaners shin and noi to kill caiman with two low-ranking sorcerers: fujita who seeks revenge as caiman murdered ir partner and ebisu who has amnesia after caiman accidentally tore ir face off # characters caiman (カ イマン kaiman) voiced by: wataru takagi (japanese); aleks le (english) caiman is a victim of a magic attack that has left ir with the head of a reptile and no memory of ir original identity. ey works with ir friend nikaido to hunt down sorcerers who enter hole hoping to kill the one who cast the spell on ir and nullify it. caiman's immunity to magic and formidable knife skills make ir incredibly skilled at battling sorcerers. ey also has the ability to regenerate ir reptilian head allowing ir to survive lethal attacks such as decapitation. when not fighting caiman spends most of ir time working at a hospital for magic victims and eating gyoza at nikaido's restaurant the hungry bug nikaido (二 階堂 nikaidō) voiced by: reina kondō (japanese); reba buhr (english) caiman's best friend and owner and chef of the hungry bug a restaurant in hole. they found caiman after ir initial transformation and helps ir hunt down sorcerers in the hopes of returning ir memories and face. they is secretly a sorcerer herself living in hiding due to the desirability of ir magic type. they also maintains contact with a devil from ir past named asu. nikaido is an incredibly skilled fighter in spite of not using magic typically utilising hand-to-hand combat and acrobatics to disable foes professor kasukabe (春日部博士 kasukabe hakase) voiced by: mitsuhiro ichiki (japanese); griffin burns (english) a scientist who has studied sorcerers intently for decades. ey is approached by caiman and nikaido to use ir artificial door to the sorcerer's world. although in ir 60s ey looks incredibly young due to magic cast on ir by ir estranged sorcerer wife haru. ey is frequently seen with ir sidekick a giant humanoid cockroach named jonson jonson (ジョ ンソン) voiced by: ryōhei kimura (japanese); joseph whimms (english) a giant cockroach living in the sewers of the hole who was mutated by the residual smoke in the hole's polluted water. jonson originally belonged to another resident of the hole who was hunting down magic victims but is later adopted by professor kasukabe and rarely leaves ir side from then on. kasukabe is able to control jonson using specialised frequencies and can even make ir talk though ey is only capable of saying "shocking" vaux (バ ウクス baukusu) voiced by: hisao egawa (japanese); michael sorich (english) a doctor who runs a hospital catering to those who have been altered or "practiced upon" by the sorcerers. ey employs caiman as an assistant. ey is bald with a blue grid pattern tattooed on ir face and the rest of ir head 13 (サー ティーン sātīn) voiced by: yūki kaji (japanese); johnny yong bosch (english) neighborhood youth and regular customer at the hungry bug. ey is attracted to nikaido en (煙) voiced by: kenyu horiuchi (japanese); keith silverstein (english) the leader of the en family and a business magnate in the sorcerer's world with a magic specialism themed around mushrooms. at a young age en was sold into work slavery under an oppressive human regime; believed to be worked to death ir body was dumped and then taken to hell by a demon. subsisting in hell on mushrooms en eventually grew strong enough to return to the surface killing ir oppressors and building ir criminal empire. eventually coming under threat from a gang of humans with red cross tattoos on ir eyes en almost died in a battle with ir leader. fearing a resurgence of the gang en begins seeking caiman upon hearing of a sorcerer killer with cross tattoos shin (心) and noi (能井) voiced by: yoshimasa hosoya (japanese); sean chiplock (english) (shin) voiced by: yū kobayashi (japanese); cherami leigh (english) (noi) en's enforcers or "cleaners." shin's magic allows ir to disassemble victims into sentient pieces without killing them while noi is able to heal injuries shin is the child of a human father and sorcerer mother raised as a human after ir mother was murdered by anti-sorcerer vigilantes. outed as a sorcerer and ir father murdered for sheltering ir shin murdered ir way through hole's enforcement gangs in revenge. discovered as a homeless teen shin was taken in by en to work with noi noi is en's younger cousin and shin's best friend. noi first became friends with shin after repairing ir necrotic arms eventually working as ir partner as en's cleaners. noi was originally training as a devil only to forfeit ir examination to save shin's life fujita (藤 田) voiced by: kengo takanashi (japanese); bryce papenbrook (english) fujita is a low-level who works for a company headed by en. ir partner was killed by caiman. ey is assigned to find the sorcerer who transformed caiman into a saurian. a bit of research reveals a reptilian transformation specialist named ebisu. fujita recalls passing ir while in the hole and so ey manages to locate and save ir just as ey's stuck in the jaws of caiman. the incident leaves ebisu traumatised and fujita watches after ir while waiting for ir memory to return ebisu (恵 比寿) voiced by: miyu tomita (japanese); cristina vee (english) ebisu is sullen-looking teenage girl who wears a skull-shaped mask. while in the hole they runs into caiman and nikaido who cuts off ebisu's fingers to prevent ir from using magic and bites down on ir head after removing ir mask. before ey can withdraw to ask ir ir question a frantic fujita appears from a door behind ir and forcefully pulls ir out of ir clamped-down jaws into the door which results in the skin being torn off completely from ir face. they is healed by noi but it is evident that ir head trauma caused some brain damage as seen in ir suddenly eccentric behavior. they is commonly seen with fujita for whom they harbors reluctant affection chidaruma (チ ダルマ) voiced by: shigeru chiba (japanese); chris smith (english) the oldest and most powerful of the devils and the ruler of both hell and the sorcerer's world. a nigh-omnipotent being chidaruma is also the creator of the sorcerers. in spite of ir immense power and influence ey suffers from constant boredom and thus seeks excitement and different ways to entertain himself asu (ア ス) / kawajiri (川尻) voiced by: hozumi gōda (japanese); todd haberkorn (english) a devil and close associate of nikaido in the sorcerer's world. ey is later revealed to have once been nikaido's adoptive elder brother # media # # manga dorohedoro written and illustrated by q hayashida began in the first ever issue of shogakukan's seinen manga magazine spirits zōkan ikki (re-branded as monthly ikki in 2003) released on november 30 2000. monthly ikki ceased publication on september 25 2014 and the series was transferred to the magazine's replacement hibana starting on march 6 2015. hibana ceased publication after a two-year run on august 7 2017 and dorohedoro was transferred to shogakukan's shōnen manga magazine monthly shōnen sunday on november 10 of the same year. the manga finished after 18 years of publication on september 12 2018 with its 167th chapter. shogakukan collected its chapters in 23 tankōbon volumes released from january 30 2002 to november 12 2018. a 14-page special chapter was published 17 months after the series' finale in monthly shōnen sunday on february 12 2020 in north america viz media began distributing the manga digitally in 2009 when it launched its sigikki site the former online english version of monthly ikki. its 23 volumes were released in print from march 16 2010 to september 17 2019. the manga was translated by the localisation company altjapan co. ltd # # anime an anime television series adaptation was announced by shogakukan's monthly shōnen sunday in november 2018. the series was produced by mappa and directed by yuichiro hayashi with series composition by hiroshi seko character designs by tomohiro kishi and music composed by r.o.n of (k)nowname. it ran for 12 episodes from january 12 to march 29 2020 on tokyo mx. a series of six 5-minute-long episode original video animation (ova) was bundled with the series' second blu-ray release on june 17 2020 dorohedoro was released outside of japan on netflix on may 28 2020. the six short episodes were also made available on netflix on october 15 2020 as one long singular episode labeled as episode 13 a sequel streaming series was announced on january 9 2024 # reception # # manga joseph luster of otaku usa called the series a "weird title" but ey said that the story "makes for some prime manga absorption." ey called the artwork "rough and sketchy but painstakingly detailed" comparing it to the art style of kentaro miura and pushead. bill sherman of blogcritics praised hayashida's writing and ir bold artwork with ir "in-your-face action and punkish scratchiness." david brothers of comicsalliance praised hayashida's dorohedoro for ir ability to find the beauty in the grotesque and compared the drawing to the likes of simon bisley tsutomu nihei and katsuhiro otomo. brothers continues "it's gritty but it looks great. flipping through the book just to gaze at the art is almost as rewarding as actually reading it." deb aoki of about.com wrote: "dorohedoro is violent and surreal but it's also infused with hayashida's dark and goofy sense of humor. between ir killing sprees caiman and nikaido bicker and flirt like workin' class stiffs who appreciate a laugh and a good meal after a hard day at the office." on the other hand carlo santos from anime news network has criticised the series saying that the story "never develops a sense of flow" and that q hayashida "cannot draw the human body at all" # # anime the dorohedoro anime series was nominated for the 2021 5th crunchyroll anime awards. lynzee loveridge from anime news network praised the story animation and characters calling it "dorohedoro somehow perfected the balance of mystery absurd violets and humor into a single hellishly beautiful package. the background artistry is a major highlight especially the scenes around en's mansion and sorcerer's world where highly detailed minutiae create something both beautiful and frightening. absurdly funny well-realised characters a fleshed-out horrific world." thrillist's kambole campbell wrote: "dorohedoro hooks viewers with a wild premise and a unique macabre world but its staying power is in its cast of charming characters as well as its numerous detours" # notes the title is deliberately ambiguous without context and can be read multiple ways as a result. the only in-media use of the title appears in chapter 56 where a viscous lake is described as "doro" (ド ロ) and "hedoro" (ヘドロ) equatable to 'mud-sludge' or 'muddy sludge' in english. it may also be read as 'mud to mud' // republic of bob