Dorohedoro - Season 1 Review
What do you get when you mix Alice in Wonderland, Memento, and the Satanic Bible into a Quentin Tarantino meets Blade Runner post apocalypse?
One of the best initial seasons of anime I’ve ever seen.
Let’s discuss.
As I’ve mentioned, I have had two bouts of Covid. I had the original 19 at the beginning of the pandemic, which knocked me out of commission for two weeks. Then I got Omicron and was crushed like a soda can for over a month. Good thing too, because it gave me an excuse to watch a lot of animation. The first one I fell in love with was Seis Manos (See my review) and the second was this gem.
Dorohedoro is a sword and sorcery meets cyberpunk anime that focuses mainly on the misadventures of Kaiman and Nikaido. Two people who couldn’t be more different. I mean Caiman has a body like vintage Swarzenegger and the head of a crocodile and Nikaido is a thicc blonde with superhuman reflexes and strength. Together they work to keep the peace in the Hole, a world used and abused by sorcerers from beyond the veil. Why does Caiman have a crocodile head? Why is there a man living inside his mouth? We don’t know and neither do our protagonists.
It’s just one of many mysteries as the show jumps from character to character, plot line to plot line. You see, this show doesn’t adhere to normal television conventions. It shows you the bad guys in equal measure with the good, but instead of taking the He-Man, Black and White dichotomy, it gives us various shades of gray. When we see the villainous sorcerers, they are treated with equal care as the heroes. I personally fell in love with all the characters good and bad.
Why?
Because the writing and characterization is immaculate. It’s so hard to pull off, but this show controls and contorts your opinion of characters based on the point of view being presented. When we are with the sorcerers, Kaiman showing up is a frightening and frustrating affair. On one hand, you know he’s doing what he thinks is right, but on the other, so are the villainous assassins. The only true bad guy is the mushroom mage En, but even this irredeemable A-Hole is hilarious and generous in equal measure. I truly like every character, because unlike most animated shows, they are all fleshed out. Even with the layers of mystery in the characters past, you get to know them in the present. You get to see the unspoken love between the master assassins Noi and Shin, my favorite characters. You also get familiar with the failings of Fujita and the loneliness he feels after his partner is murdered by Kaiman. You even get a window into the adventures of the Gyoza Fairy for Christsake!
This show is witty, grimy, and fun.
This is the anime equivalent of my favorite comic book of all time, Gail Simone’s Secret Six.
It’s everything I needed to distract me from being seriously ill.
The animation is digital 2D with a heavy grime filter and teases of 3D. It’s a feast for the eyes as every frame is packed to the gills with characters, creatures, and Easter eggs. The animation team obviously worked their ass off to bring this world to life and it worked wonders for the atmosphere. Compare this to the new Ultraman anime, where every fight takes place in empty vistas, and you really see all the hard work Dorohedoro puts in. Even in heavy actions scenes, you can see the world around them just keeps moving.
Be warned though, this show is excessively violent. It’s not over the top explicit like Devilman: Crybaby, but there’s a lot of blood and dismemberment. It’s toned down a bit by the fact that dismemberment for most people in the show is a temporary ailment, but still. If you’re sensitive to hard knuckle, grind house level violence… this may not be the show for you.
But if you are like me and pray at the alter of The Raid 2 every morning, this is the show for you.
Checkout Dorohedoro streaming exclusively on Netflix.
