Nightmare fuel for years to come.
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Q Hayashida
Translation/Adaptation: AltJapan Co., Ltd. (Hiroko Yoda & Matt Alt)
What They Say
Who’s the boss? Things are getting weird in En’s former mansion. The Cross-Eyes realize their boss has been transformed into a pie, of all things, and scramble in an all-out effort to save him. Meanwhile, Kasukabe has entered the former En mansion and has witnessed Kai’s secret experiments—the numerous heads of magic users whose meanings are slowly coming to light. It might be the beginning of the end—the countdown to the final truth has begun!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
What is it that is the cross-eyes leader has been trying to accomplish? Where does this trail of mangled, dismembered corpses lead to?
Day Zero.
The temporary victory of halting the headhunting Ai by transformation into pie was short lived. Dokuga allows his fellow gang members to turn him back to human with some of Noi’s stashed smoke. When the body awakens it’s not Ai but Aikawa who speaks, chastising them for it. While they lock him up and try to determine the next move, Haze Kasukabe arrives and frees the horror show. The mangled and twisted corpse that once was Ai Coleman, the body he tried to exhume earlier in the series, is the identity of the cross-eyes leader. A human who longed not just for magic but something more. His pet project is beyond anyone’s understanding.
Ai had set up shop in En’s former abode, creating a nightmare. Walls of human heads and rooms filled with devil tumors spew magic smoke to fuel a suit of human flesh which devours the chimeric form of Ai. Just when I think the imagery in Dorohedoro has reached the limits of what it can do with horror, Hayashida finds new and creatively grotesque ways to convey gore. Usually I find gore the lowest form of horror, especially in black and white, but she combines it in existentially terrifying ways. You don’t expect pies to bleed and mad scrambles up hills of decapitated heads.
Mundane events from early in the series are brought back to the forefront in unexpected ways. The metal plates they shove inside corpses, what happens to sorcerers when it rains, and Kasukabe’s research were not insignificant bits of world building it turns out. It all has consequences for the cast in often clever ways.
When the smoke clears and Ai’s new form has awakened we discover that this whole mess might have just been the master plan of the devil himself. At least they seem to be very interested in what is transpiring. Then the black rain starts to fall in the world of the sorcerers, condemning all with magic to crippling migraines which paralyze the populace. Shin, being only half-sorcerer, pulls his people to the safety of the Hole. Nikaido and her group retreat back there as well, and finally the Cross-Eyes cross over.
Despite the horror, or in spite of it, the humor isn’t forgotten. There’s a bit less of it compared to previous volumes. Haze, lying in a pool of his own blood, gets a glimpse up the ‘skirt’ of his devil wife. Eibisu panics at being caught in a compromising situation. The Cross-Eyes realize their leader’s new form isn’t exactly cooked to perfection yet.
With everyone topside by the end of the volume the human world is about to get rocked. We learn that Nikaido’s extremely overpowered magic does have limits, and they’re hard set ones. Nikaido and Asu decide to tell Risu what they learned about Caiman and Aikawa. Risu does not take the news well, but tells Nikaido to not waste her magic on him. However Risu is still infected with Curse, and the slaughter Curse can cause it more than enough for Nikaido to waste a bullet on fixing his past.
The volume closes out with a little extra evil, a picnic in hell.
In Summary
Squelching bodies, exploding intestines, black rain, and buckets of blood. Dorohedoro takes the horror further as the mystery starts to grow clearer. No one knows exactly what Ai’s goal is, but the path leading to it’s final form is paved with the lives of many hapless souls. Perhaps even counting a few readers among it’s victims if you have a weak stomach for gore. If you can’t smile at an exploding pie man… well, by this point you probably turned back long ago. It’s nice to know there’s a limit to Nikaido’s power and that Kasukabe’s mad science might have consequences. With everyone now in the Hole I can’t wait to see what carnage awaits.
Content Grade: B +
Art Grade: B
Packaging Grade: B
Text/Translation Grade: A
Age Rating: 16+
Released By: Viz Media
Release Date: May 19th, 2015
MSRP: $12.99
