Dorohedoro, Vol. 1

By Q. Hayashida and Q. Hayashida

Book Overview

A twisted tale of sadistic Sorcerers and the monsters they create.

In a city so dismal it's known only as "the Hole," a clan of Sorcerers has been plucking people off the streets to use as guinea pigs for atrocious "experiments" in the black arts. In a dark alley, Nikaido found Caiman, a man with a reptile head and a bad case of amnesia. To undo the spell, they're hunting and killing the Sorcerers in the Hole, hoping that eventually they'll kill the right one. But when En, the head Sorcerer, gets word of a lizard-man slaughtering his people, he sends a crew of "cleaners" into the Hole, igniting a war between two worlds.

In a city so dismal it's known only as "the Hole," a clan of Sorcerers have been plucking people off the streets to use as guinea pigs for atrocious "experiments" in the black arts. In a dark alley, Nikaido found Caiman, a man with a reptile head and a bad case of amnesia. To undo the spell, they're hunting and killing the Sorcerers in the Hole, hoping that eventually they'll kill the right one. But when En, the head Sorcerer, gets word of a lizard-man slaughtering his people, he sends a crew of "cleaners" into the Hole, igniting a war between two worlds.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1421533634
• ISBN13: 9781421533636
• Release Date: March 2010
• Publisher: Viz Media
• Length: 176 Pages
• Weight: 0.57 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.6" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

What are funeral shoes and why a lizard head?

Review summary: The story is dark with spots of deadpan humor and gruesomely delicious art. There is a lot going on on both the protag- and antagonist sides, and I'm here for it all. I cannot wait to get my hands on more volumes to see what transpires. Full review: I had sampled this on the Viz Media site and fell in love with the main character's, Caiman's, design and his quest to find the sorcerer who cast the spell that turned his head into a lizard's. Also, why is there a talking head in the lizard's throat?! That simple premise sucked me right into the world. But throughout the whole volume, I found myself more drawn to the sorcerers' part of the story rather than Caiman and his friend, Nikaido. The sorcerers' magic system and powers, their social norms and masks, and how they came to be in their own world. Their side of the story stirred up a lot of questions I really want answered, so much so that I felt like Caiman's story was secondary to En - the head sorcerer - and his people, despite Nikaido and Caiman's actions leading En to go after the duo. The art was well detailed and gritty, just like the Hole; the characters' city, and the bloodshed and butchery were fabulously gruesome. I'm a bit of a horror junkie, and I loved the fantastical carnage. Seeing the Hole was fun, and I do have some questions surrounding it, but it felt kind of repetitive as the Duo just found sorcerers, seeing if the head in Caiman's throat recognized them, and then unalived them. I really hope they get a little more depth in future volumes, but I did enjoy the sometimes random bits of deadpan humor from them.