When I finished the manga, I realized I had no clue what was going on In the background of the manga, I only followed the characters and their relationship with eachothet, but it seems if I wanted to enjoy this manga more, I should have looked and noted what was the background of their world and such

Real rating 7/10

Despite how chaotic each of the characters were, there seems to be law in those chaos
I cant fathom how much love the author put into each of the characters and its great
The manga started like i guess 20 years ago? that explains the bit messy drawing at the start aand the drawings are still great

Its different from other typical mangas.
Initially the story is a mess but as the clues start to gather along with the summary after each chapter, things start to make sense. For the art style one gets used to it plus The physical volumes have better image quality and are in English. BUT i prefered the fan scanlations as the translations seemed more natural over The "literature" english in official version.

... Last updated on May 14th, 2021, 12:22pm

that's it. that's the review. seriously, take it from me. all 23 volumes are s-tier. it has character. it has plot. it has setting. it's all so beautiful. (ಥ﹏ಥ)

I just don't know what to make out of it. It's a chaotic jumble of black humor, gore, gyoza, and romance that weren't followed through. Ebisu is accountable for the 2.5 I'll give.

So many people have enjoyed this and given the manga a great rating. I've failed. I didn't really enjoy this. My bad, I'm missing out. The rating is 5 because I consider the author a genius in one way. The story has phenomenal pace and the plot is constantly surprising.. The rating is low because I am only capable of appreciating this on a "technical" level. It is not my cup of tea and didn't give me pleasure. The main problem I have with this manga.. I don't know. I simply didn't get attached to it. Also, so many side-stories (Ebisu's, Chota and En's relationship..) didn't really even happen. This manga is pure awesome for some people, but not me.

... Last updated on December 22nd, 2020, 11:30pm

First things first, if you're wondering either you should read it or not the answer is : absolutely ! But please don't search "dorohedoro" on google, you'll be welcomed with pictures of its anime adaptation which has a terrible (AWFUL) style and blatant amount of colors. This manga has a dark universe yet is humorous when called for, you'll find yourself getting attached to any of the side character, the story will make you question your sense of good and evil and I've yet to find a manga i'm so attached to.

Other reviews have covered the general idea of the manga so I won't talk about that.

The pacing is near perfect for most of the read. Its confident enough to not rush itself, but it gives new information and builds characters quickly enough that there never is a feeling of stagnation.
The art is wonderful throughout. Gritty and rough and totally unique. The only issue is that the faces are often drawn in an oddly simplistic manner which can contrast in a poor way with the rest of the art.
The comedy is spot on. No generic boke + tsukkomi ad nauseum here. What little of that style that is present is done very well, and the rest of the comedy is far more original and its just really funny.
The characters are wonderful. Well realized and multifaceted across the board they're possibly the best cast assembled in a manga.
The fanservice is plentiful, but frankly I could never find it at all arousing. Its just not very impactful.

The manga runs into a wall at the end, however. The pacing slows to a crawl as the writer tries to tie up all loose ends at once and struggles to spin all the plates of separate character arcs ending at the same time. The more serious tone that was built up over the entire rest of the manga starts to give way to an awkwardly light-hearted and comedic tone at the worst possible times. The wind gets sucked out of the story's sails and what should be climactic moments feel generally lackluster.
The finale itself is good and brings the story to a satisfying and enjoyable close, but that last arc leaves a bad taste in one's mouth despite the greatness that came before it.

NOTE: Dorohedoro a series best to go in blind. I Believe the author intends you to know as little as possible.It's an 8/10 series. This is a spoiler free review.

Dorohedoro is set in a dystopian universe filled with magic and devils. It is unique and gritty-ly crafted. Its the story about an lizard man who has lost his memories with his bestest female friend Nikado. He puts a sorcerers head in his mouth and the man inside of the lizard man says "you are not the one" which results in the Man's death. Sorcerers themselves live in another world however. An alternate dimension if you will. They come over to where the MC is living called the HOLE. Which is where the non sorcerers live and they experiment on them. This is created very large amount of animosity between the Sorcerers and the Non sorcerers. I think the author wanted to make like a racial stand point where neither are right or wrong.... kind of.

Dorohedoro Now i love the setting i really do. Its very dark and gritty giving a very vague and sad outlook on the life. The author lets you know this is a fucked up world very early on. Monsters and death are right around the corner. Every day is a gift. So why not live it via smiling. Now in that sense I'm a bit confused on the world. Like the food for example is top quality type stuff. Majority of the food and the food quality remains the same in the Hole. Which is weird because everything else is run down and distraught. So why did the food make it out? No one knows.... Easily the biggest mystery in this entire fucking series. The Magician's world is more different. and is more early 1900's. There are 2 hierarchy's essentially. People who excel at magic (the rich), and people who don't (the poor). They are basically like people from the HOLE but born as sorcerer. This contrast is very interesting to watch and unfold. I can't exactly reveal more on the details.

Dorohedoro story is completed insane. It is everything with slowly filling in the gaps. This is a series that gives answers and we are meant to think of the questions. It is complicated as it is gritty and confusing. There is also small details that you really need to look at or you'll miss. A lot of questions are actually given in the art you just need to focus on it. As far as mystery reveal goes besides a couple they haven't actually made me jump or shocked. Neither did Dorohedoro actually. But that doesn't change the facts that the twist were very well written and thoroughly enjoyable. I just thought they could be better. I do believe the author left some questions open. Whether its on purpose or not i don't care it feels like lazy writing. I hate this think of your own answers BS. Its stupid and honestly pulls down the quality of the author. Make me seem like the author couldn't think of answer themselves so they left it to the audience. Though the main reveals aren't falling in this I do think the author left some questions open ended. I'd rather she forgot them than make up your own stuff.

Dorohedoro Characters are easily my favorite part of the series. They are all very charismatic especially En. who is like the main villain. I really loved his character. I would say he carried the series but thats implying that everyone else sucked but they were fantastic too. Caiman is a great MMC and i loved his whole unraveling. He was so enjoyable to watch and even his comedy was mostly on point. I didn't Like ebisu though. She was a horrible character. She was boring unfunny and fucking lazy. I actually wished she would disappear. It is sad that she is a big side character because she pulled this series down. Another thing i didn't like was Nikado but not because of her exactly. Its how the author used her for so much fan service. and honestly it was boring. When draw nudity you draw it at a certain angle. There is no real sense of style or eroticism when it comes to nudity. Meaning that when they were naked it wasn't that entertaining. Some scenes were nice but mostly they were just drawn randomly naked. This is an issue for other characters as well. Another thing is that Nikado isn't utilized well. She cooks for the MMC and despite being very strong constantly is the damsel in distress. Its honestly upsetting.

Dorohedoro art is an issue for me. I get that people like sketchy art but i don't. It is a sorry excuse of a talent less author trying to draw. I didn't hate the artstyle most of the time but the art is just not that great. Especially backgrounds. Sometimes though it looked like the author put some ink on some paper and sneezed. In berserk you can clearly see whats what in that dark gritty world but Dorohedoro you can't make heads or tails sometimes. Which is why i really liked the anime for that part. It was good because you can tell the fucking difference. Nonetheless the characters are drawn well so i guess its not completely bad. I've also been told calling the author talent less is a bit excessive. Alot of people saying this is incredibly pretentious so let me see if i can put it in an another way. I think she's wasting her talent by drawing it sketchy like. If thats the point i don't care. It pulls down the series. When you look at series like berserk you can see how gritty and dark it is without it looking like someone sneezed a blotch of black ink. I absolutely think the author has talent. But just cause the reason is to draw sketchy like doesn't mean its good.

Dorohedoro Doesn't really have romance though i find that genuinely odd. there is loads of hints and potential doing and wanting to do one another wonder why the author never looked for more.

Dorohedoro TLDR I loved it i did but there are just too many issues for me to not knock down 2 points. Also there are open ended question which might annoy some people but overall i think this is a great read that everyone should experience. Especially people who love darkness and violence.