Episode 6 of Dorohedoro begins with Kaiman enjoying a meal of soup, sausages, and beer. He waits for Nikaido who is still fighting Noi in the En mansion. Noi is thrashing Nikaido, hoping to have more fun. Nikaido slashes Noi’s eye. With her opponent distracted, Nikaido escapes. Shin, Fujita, Ebisu, and En locate Asu’s Magic Door. Marked with a trident, they realize that the door was created by a devil. En assumes that the intruder is the Cross-Eyes Boss. Elsewhere, Risu tries to escape. Miyamoto tells him not to tell them about “that man.” Risu disregards this information, instead asking if Miyamoto knows who killed him?
Nikaido locates Risu and jumps across a vast gap and two windows to get to him. However, En manages to grab one of Risu’s arms while Nikaido takes the other. Nikaido strikes En in his face. En becomes enraged. He fills the room with his magic smoke turning Miyamoto, Ebisu and a part of Shin into mushrooms. Immune to En’s magic, Risu escapes. Before Noi can recapture him, Shin tells her to “stop En’s rampage.” Noi knocks him out. Elsewhere, Nikaido stumbles home as a mushroom spouts out of her back. She asks Kaiman to use his knife to cut the mushroom off. Back at the mansion, Noi uses her magic to heal Shin as half his body has turned into mushrooms. Meanwhile, En realizes that Kikurage is unharmed, but Ebisu and Fujita aren’t so lucky.
The First Smoke
Dr. Kasukabe and Vaux manage to surgically remove the mushroom from Nikaido back. They discuss the return of Shin. Vaux shows Kaiman a news article that details the fact that he murder 65 people. A decade ago the citizens of Hole actually killed sorcerers instead of allowing themselves to be practiced on like they do now. Shin was the product of a relationship between a human and sorcerer. His mother was murdered when he was a child. Shin kept his mixed blood hidden. However, while working in a factory he cuts himself, revealing to the manager that he’s a sorcerer. Seeking a reward, he tells on Shin. The militia arrives, but Shin escapes due to his fathers interference. Unfortunately, his father is tortured an murder.
Waiting for him to return, the militia mocks him. Triggered by the murder of his father and their cruelty, he becomes enraged. He grabs a hammer and kills all of them. Months later, Shin uses the equipment in the Hospital to cut his arms into pieces. He’s looking for smoke veins to access his magic. Dr. Kasukabe is excited to help him. Now armed with his magic, Shin used his powers on the neighborhood militia. They disbanded after that.
Manhole Elegy
Nikaido considers the likelihood that she needs to use her magic to help Kaiman. He kicks in the door giving Nikaido burnt gyozas. After, Kaiman, Dr. Kasukabe, and Vaux discuss Nikaido. I was confused about whether Kaiman had actually realized that Nikaido was a sorcerer and was in denial. It’s later. The bodies of sorcerers are different from humans. So the Doctors are certain. Suddenly, Kaiman hears Nikaido scream as she’s kidnapped. Given chase, Kaiman runs into a giant roach like a monster. Knocked into the water, Kaiman realizes that it’s filled with corpses. The roach with human-like teeth bites a chunk out of Kaiman’s shoulder. Kaiman escapes while the roach consumes his flesh. Kaiman stops a man from harming Nikaido.
However, the man calls for “Johnson” (the roach) to tackle Kaiman. The man wonders why Nikaido doesn’t have “black pearls.” Before he can take the pearl from Kaiman, his legs are cut off. Kaiman tosses one of the legs out the door for Johnson to eat. The man reveals that he saw Kaiman’s face years ago. He wanted to become a sorcerer and leave the horrors of living in Hole. However, he dies before Kaiman gets any answers. This episode really was amazing. Beginning with the selfishness that En displays when he goes on a rampage. He doesn’t care about any of his companions. However, he does seem to value Kikurage (although that may be due to Kikurage’s power). Ebisu and Fujita get the worst of it. I still don’t think that those two characters matter much in this series.
They’re supposed to be the comic relief, but if they didn’t exist I don’t think any changes. Shin is obviously the most interesting character in this episode. It seems that the citizens of Hole and the sorcerers are in an oppression circle. Shin was a casualty of this conflict. While I think that he was justified in killing the militia, his turn to homicidal maniac was too quick for me. At this point, I’m not sure that Kaiman can uphold his delusion regarding Nikaido being a sorcerer. I assumed that he would simply get over it, but I feel like his unwillingness to accept that Nikaido is a sorcerer suggests that he will be devastated.
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