If you love shounen, you will love this manga because at its core it is very wholesome and full of characters that try their very very best for their 'nakama'! Friendship is very central in the relationships between the characters, also loyalty and responsibility towards people who depend on you. There are also no overt romance but the deep bond between the male and female here is actually more profound. You could just have your own head cannon for some of the pairs here.

The characters are all strong in their prowess and their conviction. Even the weakest physically is the one that actually give the biggest impact. In the end, actually a character we never notice the one that deal a very heavy blow towards the Big Bad. You will love every single characters in this manga due their good points - including the Big Bad, in a way he is cute and noble due to his reason to live. And they are all comic in their own way, giving the readers great laugh at their individual unique antics. My favorite is Chidaruma, he always do whatever the heck he want to amuse himself, and I think he's the most pitiable of them all.

The gore here is beautiful, as with all the 'messy' art. If you cannot stand sketch-like art you may not like it but I find their messiness add dimension and depth towards the tone of the manga. However, if you really really like guro you might find its a bit lacking because blood and guts is not actually the center and the fetish for sensei unlike in other mangaka art like KAGO Shintaro.

If you love Franken Fran and any ITOU Junji you will love this.

... Last updated on March 28th, 2019, 7:55pm

If you manage to read this on it's Japanese print or particularly good English localize print, you'll notice that the screentones aren't perfectly cut and pasted into the comic pages before publication. That thing just works with this manga even adds flavor to it. Q. Hayashida's art could be a good goal for up and coming female comic artists.

i think that this is one of the best manga i ever read in my life. The art is awesome, the plot is great and the development too. Furthermore the sense of humor of this woman (hayashida) is the most wonderful thing in the world, i laugh a lot while reading it. Some times the story can be tiresome or weak, like near to the 15 vol but then (17 i think) it gets great again. I almost think on drop it in that point and i feel a little disappointed, but now i reach the japanese publication (sadly) and i don't regret nothing. Is a really good reading but the story is not easy to follow so perhaps you will need some patience with it ( particularly i love that) and the characters are awesome too. Is one of my favourite mangas of all the time, so i hope you enjoy reading it too.

(my english is a mess, sorry)

I just want to say that I liked this at first, I really did. The city felt gritty and dark, the main character had a interesting mystery in his background, namely how did he come to have a lizards head. The art added to the grimness of it all, harsh lines and dark shadows can really affect the atmosphere of a comic. The manga did a good job relaying that magic users were evil a-holes and that the whole city was in the crapper because of them. The villains were all varying shade of evil, and some of them came out as sympathetic characters. The main character was a dick, but we routed for him because he stuck it to the d bag magic users. But as I read though the manga, I began noticing problems.

The first thing, is I cannot tell the difference between several characters and the main character, and while that might be part of the story, it is not always clear who is who in any given scene.
Then, characters who were established as not having magic power, (as said powers meant they were pray for the main characters curbside) start showing magical abilities. And I could deal with it if it was just one charter, but no, many character pulled this crap.

Another thing is the convoluted mess of the plot. I was struggling to understand what the heck was happening at volume 15. There were so many sub plots, I couldn’t keep up. And then they added time travel. I HATE time travel on a normal plot where I can tell who is who, bit this messed up everything. It was at that time that I realized I was on volume 19 and I still was unclear who exactly the main character was, why he was a lizard, and who is the main antagonist, because . At that point I couldn’t do it anymore, I gave up.

This manga is to long for the amount of exposition it is giving me. We are almost 20 volumes in, and I have yet to figure out what is going on.
5/ 10 and only because I liked were this was going before the story ran itself into the labyrinth of convolution.

... Last updated on October 18th, 2014, 7:52pm

Theres nothing quite like Dorohedoro really, it blends horror, mistery, action, comedy in a way that you wouldnt possibly imagine, the cast of characters is part of why this all holds together so well, there is not one character I say I can dislike because all of them are interesting and well writen and you just love seeing them interact with each other as the misterious plot progresses.

The art is beautiful and I like how every character has a backstory - even the antagonists, who have motives and are likeable. "Villains" who aren't one-dimensional seem rare these days.

I started reading because of positive reviews and am ultimately left a bit disappointed. They can't seem to have a serious or touching moment in this manga. Many times something disturbing and/or sad seems to happen, and they almost always turn it into a joke, which often ruins it for me. Namely, characters treating the death and mortal injuries of others like mild annoyances. Doing that once in a while would be fine, I think, but they just overdo it. It might just not be my kind of humor. Though at other times they manage to be genuinely funny without resorting to this "black humor".

Another thing that bothers me is that the world the manga creates seems void of sex.
-I'm not criticizing the lack of ecchiness, but rather, all relationships in the manga appear almost completely platonic; no one ever kisses and no one seems to be sexually attracted to anyone else ever (except maybe Chota). I just have trouble buying into a world like that.

I'd say read the first volume and see whether the inconsistent tone bothers you.
I am currently 13 volumes in and I still cannot confirm the claims of "it gets really good later", but I'm intrigued enough by the characters to keep on reading.

... Last updated on December 24th, 2013, 8:14pm

Entertaining. Gore aplenty with limbs flying, jaded characters, dark humor, restoration of severed limbs and occasional resurrection, a hint of romance, a couple sources of regular humongous bare boobage fanservice, wanton slaughter of intruders from another world... sound like Gantz or something? I thought it did... BUT THAT COULDN'T BE FURTHER FROM THE TRUTH.

Mostly because it doesn't much feel like manga. Seems to borrow a lot from some sort of western influence, maybe comic books (wouldn't know, don't read em). The whole everyone's masked like 3rd rate superheros or WWF/mexican staged "wrestling" stars - supposedly due to the world's social norms - idea wears thin real quick, and seems like a gimmick or a cheap trick to avoid drawing facial expressions and emotions. It wears so thin that even the author senses it and starts losing masks more and more around the halfway point.

When I say it doesn't feel like manga, it especially does not feel like *seinen* manga. Emotional bonds at times flare intensely, but few and far between. Despite plenty of nudity, romance is hinted at, but only developed to a middle-school blushing virgin kind of level.

Lots of effort is made to show an utterly surreal and brutal society (well, 2 different utterly surreal and brutal societies), but it somehow tries too hard to seem original... Lots of where'd I see that before style dejavu. It's like a quilt or a collage of borrowed elements. Alice in wonderland stuff, other people's familiar-looking and fairly popular illustration styles, other dystopia-genre stuff, tongue-in-cheek grotesque "stylized nightmarish" imagery, etc.

Violence is extra-graphic, but somehow gag-grade... Mostly laughed off, used to depict factional relations or balance of power, or just forgotten entirely 10 seconds later. By everyone except a single recurring character: a deeply shocked & traumatized loli-ish girl in her early teens used to provide contrast. Which doesn't really work quite as well as you'd expect, because her getting brutalized and maimed in a gazillion ways is one of the series' main running gags. .

Oh well... at least it's entirely 100% non-sexual.

...BUT that, combined with a surprised (and surprising) translator's note is what finally puts things into perspective: IT WAS, AT ITS START, WRITTEN AND DRAWN BY A 23 or 24YO GIRL.

Suddenly, everything clicks into place. It's a naive, sheltered, slightly antisocial, veeeery young and utterly virginal geeky girl's view of "dark and gritty". Despite her sadistic gag treatment of the character of Ebisu, mangaka shows time and again that she has zero understanding of the mechanics of cruelty. SHE TRIES, SHE REALLY DOES. But she's a sheltered, well-educated, middle or upper-class quiet nerdy girl from one of the cleanest, most prosperous societies in the world, and obviously not of the adventurous trouble-seeking variety ... IT SHOWS

Mangaka has clearly never experienced darkness or adversity, never met anyone with any experience with any sort of darkness, lacks the knowledge of psychology needed to "model" it believably, and was apparently unaware of or unwilling to read authors with strong authentic insight into the topic (too disturbing?). She also has precious little, if any, romantic experience. Probably very unsocial, too, or tends somewhat to the asperger's end of the autistic spectrum - despite an obsessive attention to background clothing etc. details, faces are very plain and unexpressive, drawn emotions are rare, and her inability to draw much expression is such that she works it into the core of the plot by covering for it with a multitude of devices - the lizard mug of the cursed protagonist / the masks for magic users / tattoos and crap for hole residents / immobile faces for demons... There are just too many things she has nooo clue about.

For those who HAVEN'T read this:
****it's a super-bloody SHOUNEN. A seinen wannabe cranking violence to 11, trying ever so hard to be dark and gritty, but only giving us a naive girl's best guess as to what dark and gritty might taste like, but lacking in adult-like relationship dynamics, adult emotions, and realistic character psychology. it tries to compensate for this naivete through lots of wanton murder slaughter and dismemberment, but that wears off fast... also, the gore fails anatomy forever, which dulls the impact a lot*** (ex: around the middle chapters, a few arms get cut off about every other chapter and limbs fly all over the place, but mangaka has NOOO idea that the forearm contains TWO large bones not one... and NOOO clue just how small, in proportion to muscle and flesh, a "large" bone really is)



PS despite its many shortfalls, it's fairly entertaining and interesting. VEEERY addictive, too. author has a good chance of becoming hella good once she matures.

... Last updated on June 15th, 2013, 2:53am

I would summarize this manga by just one word : Shocking!
Dorohedoro is a must-read for anyone looking for something different and fed up with mundane, stereotypical stories. It's a mix of dark humor, gore, action and mystery. Every single thing about the story is consistently weird, and whats actually weirder is the fact that you get hooked up to such a GROSS and WEIRD tale.

... Last updated on April 19th, 2013, 9:04am

It is THE BEST MANGA EVER!
that said. I don't know how to put it..
Is it the best visual art? the best comedy? the best fantasy? the best blood and gore? the best slice of life? the best character design?
No...it is not enough, it is even more than that, every page is the fruit of the author's serious hard work.
I didn't know manga can be that good. It is crazy.
It is also one good example showing that a long release cycle makes very good stuff, this is the way to do it, good manga should be like this one, it is THE BEST MANGA EVER!

Is there any other manga series better than Dorohedoro? In my humble opinion: No, and I have read hundred of series over the course of a decade.

It’s funny, it’s violent, and it’s gripping, all starting from such a relatively simple premise. The basic premise is for the main character, Kaiman, to find out who he is. Our boisterous, lizard-headed, and gyoza-loving protagonist has amnesia and wants to get his human head back. Pretty simple, isn’t it? Thankfully, it isn’t.

This is the first time I have not dislike a single character of a series. The main reason is because Hayashida-sensei meticulously develops and gives the characters a lot of screentime, allowing us to empathize and to understand their actions. There is no perfect person in the Doro world, because this world sucks and they just do whatever they have to do in order to survive. That is something I could understand.

The characters’ relationships are intricate and are believable, also due to good development on Hayashida-sensei’s part. It is incredible how she can switch to different perspective so easily and fluidly, which plays with the mystery surrounding a certain character and also to create exciting cliff-hangers.

Where should I even start with the art? It is amazingly detailed in its gritty, black-filled, and “messy” images and lines. Upon re-reading, I can always find something I have missed the first or second time reading. Some people, like myself, can be put off by the art at first, but if you can get past the first few chapters, you will be mesmerize by the plot, the characters, and the intracies within the Doro world.

If I could rate this over 10, I would have given it 25. It's just so amazingly mindblowing.

Just wanna share that I found a really good fansite dedicated to Dorohedoro and some of the characters. The webmaster did a great job at analyzing some fascinating aspects/characters of the manga.

... Last updated on August 14th, 2014, 4:03pm