Dorohedoro 1

Q Hayashida – Viz – 2010 – 14+ volumes

It takes very little to convince me to read any series.  The description for this series on the Ikki website didn’t sound that entertaining, but when I found out that humor was an element, I was in.  Violence and humor will always, always win me over.  I was in so fast I had the volume shipped priority, read it the same afternoon it arrived, then handed it off to my roommate, who did the same thing.

I wasn’t quite sure what to think after the first couple chapters.  It’s difficult to get into at first, simply because the plot is so out there.  Caiman, an alligator man, is eating a pair of bystanders.  We learn that these bystanders are wizards, and Caiman sticks the head of any wizard he meets into his mouth in order to let the person that lives inside him tell them if they are “the one” or not.  Usually, they are not, and then they are promptly killed. Great premise, but it makes very little sense until it is expanded slowly in the chapters that follow.  Even after we learn that the wizards are the bad guys and that the plot of the series is that both they and Caiman are trying to track down the wizard that gave Caiman his reptile head, there are still a lot of questions.  The series has a very slow and deliberate way of revealing things, and there are still a lot of things that are confusing at the end of the volume, but it is a very stylish and well-told story.

It’s pretty dark and violent stuff, especially since Caiman not only uses his teeth, but is also fond of carving people up with knives.  That is why the humor is essential.  It’s slightly out of place, and not usually funny at all when someone makes a joke, but I think that’s why it works.  It is absurdist.  The terrible jokes somehow seem to fit with Caiman and his lady friend Nikaido, who are strangely unconcerned with the wizards that everyone else fears.  The chapters usually end with some banter between them, and Caiman is also prone to making bizarre, uncalled-for observations.  I also like Caiman because, behind his crocodile head and badass action movie skills, he seems to be a generally boring, whiny person.  There’s something endearing and very funny about that.

I love the little details that are woven into the story without being fully explained.  For instance, all magic comes in the form of black smoke that is fired from the fingers of wizards.  If the fingers are broken or cut off, the wizard can no longer do magic.  The ones that appear in The Hole are usually some sort of apprentice, and they wear little domino masks, or variations on them.  Full-fledged wizards all have their own unique masks that vary widely in design and include things like hearts and Hellraiser-like disfigurements (I’m not sure if that character is wearing a mask, or just has his lips pulled back with metal or whatever).  Even better, one of the featured wizards wears a mask backwards for no reason, and its a mask with no face in the first place.

The art is really something, too.  It is very dark and almost scumbled-looking in places, and I love the loose style and attention to detail.  I also adored the character designs, especially Caiman.  He’s got spikes coming out of the back of his head and usually wears a gas mask around.  The spikes sometimes impale his pillow when he’s having a bad dream.

It’s strange, and I feel like I’m still not quite sure of everything that’s going on, but I know I want more.  Of all the series running on the Ikki site that I’ve tried, this is my hands-down favorite.  The others I’ve tried give you a lot to look at and chew on, but this caters to me personally, and I loved every page of it.  I’m sure it won’t have as wide an appeal as Kingyo Used Books or Saturn Apartments or anything, but the combination of the absurd sense of humor and violence, along with the excellent art and character designs and detailed setting, really did it for me.  It’s something special.