Creative Staff
Story/Art: Q Hayashida
Translation/Adaptation: AltJapan Co., Ltd. (Hiroko Yoda & Matt Alt)
What They Say
The Professor’s found the home of his estranged wife, but there’s no sign of her in the tiny cottage. Hot on the Professor’s heels, Shin and Noi find themselves in serious trouble with the home’s new occupants: a gang of En’s rivals with powerful abilities. Meanwhile, political intrigue boils among the demons in hell, and Caiman and Nikaido try to repair their friendship after a vicious and near-fatal duel. Fujita inches closer to his long-awaited revenge against Caiman, Risu inches closer to the leader of the Cross-Eyes, and Ebisu inches closer to her past in this highly anticipated volume of Dorohedoro!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
As one can guess from reading the volume summary, plenty is always happening in Dorohedoro. Despite all that, this volume does come away feeling like a stop gap in the plot. The promising leads that the cast were following have turned out to be closer to dead ends, and the cross-eyes remain elusive cyphers.
Not that there’s anything wrong with a few false leads. The house in the woods where Shin, Noi, and Kasukabe’s group were fighting for their lives was a great story bit. Shin is an unstoppable beast when anyone threatens his partner, and Noi likewise. Watching both of them rampage through the cult members is ridiculously satisfying. Even if the road trip didn’t accomplish much in the end we did get to meet the professor’s estranged wife in a surprising way.
Left with more questions then answers, Caiman and Nikado are fresh off their brutal, brainwashed spat and are far out in the countryside on their quest. Of course the duo ends up making a new friend by accident who tells them some more information on the location of the cross-eyes leader. Caiman seems to be remembering bits and pieces of the past, but just whose past remains a bit of a question. We still don’t know if he was Risu but they now exist as two separate people because of earlier events, but it’s starting to seem likely.
En’s search for the cross-eyes takes a momentary standstill as he has his lackeys test a new sort of lucid dreaming mushroom. What follows is a hilarious wish fulfillment romp for Fujita and Ebisu, although Ebisu’s desires soon take a turn toward the melancholic. Ebisu must have an interesting story to tell, although she still doesn’t seem to be quite all there mentally to tell it. Not to mention the mushrooms have a horrible side effect. It’s the only real random aside in the entire volume, not counting the extra evil chapter which is always off subject.
The only real cross-eye, Risu, is still hunting for the person who killed him. We get a glimpse of Risu’s past as a useless sorcerer, and his attempts to rise up the magic based hierarchy of his world. Answers are in short supply for him as well, and everyone seems to be searching for the same man. When everyone finally does find the leader of the cross-eyes the hell that breaks loose should be extraordinary.
The Extra Evil chapter doesn’t provide the best look at the minutia of the world this time, instead focussing on a gyoza sprite goofing off in Nikado’s restaurant. Is it real or is it just the author goofing off? I guess that remains to be seen.
In Summary
Where is the boss of the Cross-eyes is hiding himself? That’s what everyone wants to know. There’s a whole lot more talk in this volume than is typical in a volume of Dorohedoro, but it all leads in one direction and points at one man. Too bad no one can find him yet! It’s funny to see a volume of this series info dump without actually providing any new solid leads for the plot. Not that there isn’t action to be had and hijinks to watch, it’s just not as extravagant as the previous volumes.
Content Grade: B
Art Grade: A –
Packaging Grade: B
Text/Translation Grade: A
Age Rating: 17+
Released By: Viz Media
Release Date: December 18th, 2012
MSRP: $12.99
