Dorohedoro is an adaptation of a manga series of the same name. The story follows Kaiman, a man that has been given a lizard head by a magic user. He’s suffers from amnesia and spends the first season searching for the magic user that cursed him. In order to find out who the culprit is, Kaiman forces sorcerers to “meet” the “man” inside his mouth. When he pulls them out he asks them the same question: “What did the guy inside my mouth say?”
Born in the “Hole“, a world where non-Magic user resides, Kaiman is immune to magic. Sorcerers use the humans found in Hole as guinea pigs for their magic. The city is a massive slum, with buildings that are falling apart. The Hole is impoverished and dangerous. To earn a living, Kaiman along with his best friend, Nikaido, hunt Magic Users who invade their dimension. As a result, Kaiman has become known as “Magician Killer”. With this reputation for killing sorcerers, Kaiman becomes a target for En, the strongest magic user in the world.
Season 1 of Dorohedoro ended with Nikaido telling Kaiman the truth regarding her history. She’s an “unique”, sorcerer and in order to escape people like En, she hid from Magic Users in Hole. They agreed to be best friends, regardless of what kind of person Kaiman is, and as long as Nikaido doesn’t use her magic. Promises they probably can’t keep.
Risu arrives in Berith
Risu finally arrives at the Cross-Eyed hideout. The members inside, Dokuga, Ton, Tetsuo, Ushishimada and Saji,” don’t seem too interested in Risu, ignoring him as the he explains that he’s looking for the “Cross-Eyes Man” that killed him. Elsewhere, Noi tells Shin she’s heading to the Hydra Forest where 13, Vaux, Kasukabe and Jonson, have encountered the 5 creepy Frankenstein-like sorcerers. The sorcerers are planning on use them as bait. Kasukabe calls Jonson, who overwhelm the sorcerers.
Jonson rips one of them in half but is incapacitated by bug spray. Meanwhile, Kasukabe, 13, and Vaux, flee from one of the Cross-Eyes. Noi arrives and rescues Jonson but is overwhelmed by one off camera. Kento explains how “their research, started in order to understand the Magic User body made them more than capable to fight and kill powerful sorcerers by cutting the organs that produces magic smoke.” Shin arrives to witness Noi being held hostage by Kento.
He has a knife already inside her head. He threatens to destroy her “Devil Tumor”, if he doesn’t drop his hammer. Shin gives in and is brutally butchered. He somehow survives and engages in a bloody fight with the cross-eyed. He rips his arm of and headbutts him, causing his brain to erupt out of his skull. Kasukabe notices that the cross-eyed had some weird surgeries to give him magic abilities. Shin heads into the cabin with Kasukabe, looking to rescue Noi.
Conclusion
It’s been six years since the first season of Dorohedoro and I had forgotten how violent this series was. It’s brutal. It’s going to take some getting use to again. The gritty art style is still unique, along with the muted color palleted. MAPPA’s animation is top notch as always. I enjoyed the first season and so far this season has reminded me why. There are still a number of mysteries that have to be answered and I can’t wait to find out.
