A gritty urban adventure with an audacious visual style and a heart… -shaped mask-wearing serial killer.
Creative Staff
Story: Q Hayashida
Art: Q Hayashida
Translation/Adaptation: AltJapan, Inc.
What They Say
A blood-spattered battle between diabolical sorcerers and the monsters they created
In a city so dismal it’s known only as “the Hole,” a clan of Sorcerers have been plucking people off the streets to use as guinea pigs for atrocious “experiments” in the black arts. In a dark alley, Nikaido found Caiman, a man with a reptile head and a bad case of amnesia. To undo the spell, they’re hunting and killing the Sorcerers in the Hole, hoping that eventually they’ll kill the right one. But when En, the head Sorcerer, gets word of a lizard-man slaughtering his people, he sends a crew of “cleaners” into the Hole, igniting a war between two worlds.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Comics are a primarily visual medium, and as a language-oriented person, I often feel like I’m missing out on the nuance and emotion that other readers are easily able to understand. What’s so striking and delightful about Dorohedoro is that the world and its characters are designed in such a way as to maximize the visual impact. Mangaka Q Hayashida seems to create her scenes first by conceiving the startling imagery, and only afterwards justifying them with a fanciful narrative.
Dorohedoro is a SigIkki release from Viz, which means a slightly higher price tag and higher production values. The volume comes in a glossy softcover with cover flaps, and a section of 4 colored pages. The cover is actually a picture of what appears to be a collage featuring main character Caiman. It certainly captures the dystopian feel of the manga, but its dark colors and masked protagonist don’t really communicate the dark sense of humor in the work. When you add the fact that it’s shrink-wrapped, making browsing the pages impossible, it’s easy to imagine many readers passing it by in favor of something more easily accessible.
Q Hayashida’s art is dark and chaotic, with rough, fluid forms and copious amounts of cross-hatching. Characters are hewn from blocks of scrawled lines, giving the people and environs of The Hole a grimy, lived-in look. While most of the denizens of her world look dangerous and threatening, her otherwise tough female characters have delicate, almost moe-style features on top of their broad, buff, battle-axe style bodies. The juxtaposition of cute and gruesome, often in the same images, gives the work a darkly humorous tone. Hayashida’s anatomy often seems disproportionate, especially with her female characters, but it’s possible this is done for its defamiliarizing effect rather than any artistic shortcoming on her part.
The narrative in Dorohedoro concerns a lizard-headed man named Caiman who believes he once was a non-lizard-headed man named Caiman. He lives in a city called The Hole where visiting sorcerers arrive via door-shaped portals and perform grotesque experiments on the unlucky inhabitants. Caiman and his friend Nikaido, the young proprietress of the Hungry Bug cafe, hope to find the sorcerer who transformed him and kill the guilty party.
It’s a basic set-up that any seinen or shounen series might use, but Dorohedoro excels in the execution. The unusual reality of The Hole is immediately apparent in the way Caiman tries to identify the sorcerer who transformed him: He puts their heads in his mouth. It’s not a question of taste, though (and it can be argued that quite a bit of Dorohedoro is in questionable taste), as Caiman has a human head in the back of his throat that can identify the culprit. Pulling the accused sorcerer out of his mouth, Caiman asks “What did the head in there say to you?” If the culprit is identified, Caiman and Nikaido will kill him. If the sorcerer is innocent of the transformation, well, Caiman and Nikaido kill him anyway. Once five or six sorcerers meet their end, the head of the sorcerers, a skull faced man named En decides to lock down the portals and arrange for his hired killers to hunt down Caiman and Nikaido.
Sadly, this basic synopsis misses all of the detail that Q Hayashida is able to communicate easily through her images. The sorcerers are evil, but they have an odd culture and habits that Hayashida explores in detail. The arrangements for the assassination are made at a fancy restaurant, and the hired killers shed their sorcerer’s masks and overcoats in exchange for tuxedos and elegant dresses. Urban fantasy sits at the table alongside a comedy of manners. The closest approximation I can make to the unorthodox visual style, the comedy of social awkwardness, and the cynical look at the cruel abuse of power is Terry Gilliam’s Brazil.
The volume ends with a chapter that neatly summarizes the eccentric humor: The sorcerers gather to receive new masks, as the mask appears to be an important measure of hierarchy and social class. Top wizards are allowed to take the door on the right, but lowly newbies have to take the door on the left. Through the right door, sorcerers remove their masks, and place them in a boiling vat. Gems, eyes of newt, salamanders, and mandrakes can be added to the mix, and the resulting elixir is decanted into a bottle. In the final chamber, the devil drinks the brew and vomits out the new mask.
It’s the same as the old mask. Except this time it has a pretty flower attached.
This fits my sense of humor perfectly. If it fits yours, you’re almost certain to enjoy Dorohedoro.
In Summary
A dark, chaotic, and humorous look at a war against sorcery in a topsy turvy universe from Q Hayashida’s twisted imagination. The striking imagery takes full advantage of the medium of manga to tell its story. Dorohedoro is long running series in Japan, with 15 volumes published since 1999. I can’t wait to read more. Very recommended.
Content Grade: A-
Art Grade: A-
Packaging Grade: A-
Text/Translation Grade: A
Readers Rating: [ratings]
Age Rating: 17+
Released By: Viz SigIkki
Release Date: March 16th, 2010
MSRP: $12.99 USA / $16.99 CAN
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