Dorohedoro

• 1. Introduction

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  Dorohedoro, a Japanese manga series by Q Hayashida, begins with a man whose head is that of a reptile and who cannot remember who he used to be. His name is Caiman. His only clue to the sorcerer who cursed him is a full-size man living down his throat. When Caiman clamps a sorcerer's head inside his mouth, that man slides up the throat and checks whether the right culprit has been caught. Caiman wants his face and his memories back. What kind of city makes this a workable plan? Who are the sorcerers, and what do they want with a lizard-headed killer? And how did a story this strange travel from a Japanese magazine to screens around the world?

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• 2. Three Realms

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  Three realms make up the world of Dorohedoro, and the lowest belongs to Hole. It is a megacity of human favelas with no government, and magic waste has left it heavily polluted. Above it sits the sorcerers' world, an ethereal and Gothic society ordered by class and controlled by the crime boss En. Beyond both lies Hell, the afterlife of every sorcerer, ruled by demons under a figure named Chidaruma.

  Sorcerers and humans look alike, yet they are separate species. Chidaruma manufactured the sorcerers in his own realm, while humans arose naturally in another. A sorcerer's circulatory system releases a black smoke, and that smoke gives each one distinct powers. Rare and strong powers are prized so highly that they set a sorcerer's social standing. Sorcerers often enter binding partnerships, and the contest for the right to one turns violent.

  Movement shows the gap most clearly. Sorcerers conjure doorways and travel freely between the realms. Humans stay in the slums of Hole, facing unprovoked sorcerer violence and the pollution. Chidaruma, the oldest and most powerful of the devils, is close to all-powerful, yet he suffers constant boredom and keeps hunting for new ways to entertain himself.

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• 3. Caiman and Nikaido

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  Caiman spends his days at a community hospital for victims of magic attacks, where he works with Drs. Vaux and Kasukabe. The hospital's doctor, who has a blue grid pattern tattooed across his face and bald head, took him on as an assistant. Caiman's other routine is eating gyoza at The Hungry Bug, a restaurant in Hole run by his friend Nikaido. Between meals he hunts sorcerers who wander into Hole. He hopes to find the one who cursed him, kill that sorcerer, and so dispel the spell. Three traits help him: immunity to magic, formidable knife skills, and a reptilian head that regenerates, so even decapitation does not finish him.

  Nikaido, the chef and owner, found Caiman right after his transformation. She fights with hand-to-hand combat and acrobatics and uses no magic at all. That is a notable skill, because her magic is a secret. She is a sorcerer herself, living in hiding since her type of magic is so desirable. She keeps contact with a devil from her past named Asu. A devil in the sorcerers' world who is close to her is later revealed to have once been her adoptive elder brother.

  To reach the sorcerers' world, Caiman and Nikaido approach Professor Kasukabe, a scientist who has studied sorcerers intently for decades. He owns an artificial door to that world. He is in his 60s but looks strikingly young, because his estranged sorcerer wife, Haru, cast magic on him. His sidekick is Jonson, a giant humanoid cockroach from the sewers of Hole, mutated by residual smoke in the polluted water. Jonson first belonged to another resident who hunted magic victims, and Kasukabe later adopted him. Specialised frequencies let Kasukabe control Jonson and even make him talk, though the only word he can say is "shocking".

  Caiman's kills among the sorcerers who stray into Hole have not gone unnoticed, and word of them is travelling upward to the sorcerers' world.

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• 4. The Mushroom Boss

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  En, head of the En Family and a business magnate of the sorcerers' world, builds his magic around mushrooms, and the reason lies in his origin. As a child he was sold into slavery under an oppressive human regime. Everyone believed he had been worked to death, and his body was dumped. A demon carried it down to Hell, where En survived by eating mushrooms. In time he grew strong enough to return to the surface, kill his oppressors, and build a criminal empire.

  Then came a gang of humans with red cross tattoos over their eyes, known as the Cross-Eyes Gang. It subjugated humans and lower-class sorcerers. Its leader almost wiped out En's crime family before vanishing, and En nearly died fighting him. When news reaches En of a lizard-man killing sorcerers, with cross tattoos and a resistance to magic, he fears the gang is returning. He decides Caiman must be connected to it and sets out to find him.

  For the killing, En sends his cleaners, Shin and Noi, together with two low-ranking sorcerers.

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• 5. The Hunters

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  Shin and Noi are En's enforcers, and their partnership has a painful origin. Shin is the child of a human father and a sorcerer mother, and he grew up believing himself human. When his mother was murdered, his heritage came out, and his father died as a result. In revenge Shin murdered his way through the city's gangs, until En found him homeless and recruited him. His magic disassembles victims into sentient pieces. Noi, En's younger cousin, is his partner and best friend. She first befriended him by healing his necrotic arms, and she later gave up her own training as a devil to save his life. Her own power heals injuries.

  Fujita, a low-level sorcerer at a company En heads, joins the hunt because Caiman killed his partner. His assignment is to find the sorcerer behind Caiman's transformation. Research points him to a specialist in reptilian transformations named Ebisu, and he recalls passing her in Hole.

  Ebisu is a sullen-looking teenage girl in a skull-shaped mask. In Hole she meets Caiman and Nikaido, and Nikaido cuts off her fingers to stop her using magic. Caiman removes her mask and bites down on her head. Fujita bursts through a door behind her and drags her out of the clamped jaws, and the skin tears completely from her face. Noi heals her, but head trauma leaves brain damage and suddenly eccentric behavior. She also loses her memory. Fujita now watches over her, waiting for it to return, while she harbors reluctant affection for him.

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• 6. Publication History

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  On the 30th of November 2000, the debut issue of Shogakukan's Spirits Zōkan Ikki carried the first installment of Dorohedoro. That magazine was rebranded Monthly Ikki in 2003. Monthly Ikki ceased publication on the 25th of September 2014, and the series moved to the magazine's replacement on the 6th of March 2015. The replacement folded after two years, on the 7th of August 2017, and Dorohedoro transferred to Monthly Shōnen Sunday on the 10th of November 2017. The manga finished on the 12th of September 2018 with its 167th chapter, after 18 years of publication.

  Shogakukan collected the chapters in 23 tankōbon volumes, released from the 30th of January 2002 to the 12th of November 2018. A 14-page special one-shot chapter appeared in Monthly Shōnen Sunday on the 12th of February 2020-17 months after the finale. Another one-shot ran in the same magazine on the 11th of April 2026.

  Viz Media began distributing the manga digitally in 2009, when it launched SigIKKI, now defunct, the online English version of Monthly Ikki. The English print edition ran from the 16th of March 2010 to the 17th of September 2019. The localization company AltJapan translated it.

  Several companion works followed. On the 5th of June 2016 the label MHz released a concept album, Dorohedoro Original Soundtrack, for which Hayashida commissioned 14 artists from across the world. Shogakukan released a databook on the 12th of November 2018, marking the manga's ending, with character data and a newly drawn bonus story. An artbook of 344 pages followed on the 20th of February 2020. Viz Media has also licensed a title called Mud and Sludge, scheduled for release on the 22nd of September 2026.

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• 7. The Anime

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  In November 2018, Shogakukan's Monthly Shōnen Sunday announced an anime adaptation of Dorohedoro. The studio MAPPA produced it. Yuichiro Hayashi directed, Hiroshi Seko handled series composition, and Tomohiro Kishi designed the characters. R.O.N of (K)NoW_NAME composed the music. Twelve episodes aired on Tokyo MX from the 13th of January to the 30th of March 2020. Six original video animation episodes, each five minutes long, came bundled with the second Blu-ray release on the 17th of June 2020.

  Outside Japan, Netflix released the series on the 28th of May 2020. On the 15th of October 2020, the six short episodes joined it as a single long episode labeled episode 13. In March 2026, Crunchyroll added the first season to its catalog.

  A sequel streaming series was announced on the 9th of January 2024. It was later revealed to be a second season, first scheduled for 2025 and then delayed. Eleven episodes streamed from the 1st of April to the 27th of May 2026. Crunchyroll also streamed that season, and Medialink licensed it. After the finale, a third season was announced.

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• 8. Critical Reception

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  Joseph Luster of Otaku USA called the manga a "weird title", yet said the story "makes for some prime manga absorption". He described the art as "rough and sketchy, but painstakingly detailed" and compared it to the work of Kentaro Miura and Pushead. Bill Sherman of Blogcritics praised Hayashida's writing and her bold art, citing "in-your-face action and punkish scratchiness".

  David Brothers of ComicsAlliance praised her ability to find beauty in the grotesque. He compared her drawing to that of Simon Bisley, Tsutomu Nihei, and Katsuhiro Otomo. His verdict was short: "It's gritty, but it looks great." Deb Aoki of About.com called the series violent and surreal, but infused with Hayashida's "dark and goofy sense of humor".

  Not every critic agreed. Carlo Santos of Anime News Network said the story "never develops a sense of flow" and that Hayashida "cannot draw the human body at all".

  The anime was nominated for the 5th Crunchyroll Anime Awards in 2021. Lynzee Loveridge of Anime News Network praised its story, animation and characters, and singled out the background artistry around En's mansion and the sorcerers' world. She wrote that it balanced mystery, absurd violence and humor into a "hellishly beautiful package". Kambole Campbell of Thrillist found its staying power in its charming cast and "numerous detours".

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