Dorohedoro Volume 2

The Adventures of Lizard Man and Gyoza Girl

Dorohedoro, Vol. 2

A lizard man gets his head cut off, but a new head regenerates so he keeps the old head in a jar for sentimental reasons, but later on decided to autopsy his old head just to see what is going on. Another guy, whose head is a whole roast turkey for some reason, makes living dolls out of magic smoke, muscovy duck, a chunk of red pork and fatback, bone marrow, fond de veau, cognac and port wine. A zombie girl with a skull for a head (a lot of things going on with heads for some reason..) is taken shopping for a new outfit, and picks out only underwear, a scarf and mittens.

Take all that in, and you can decide if “Dorohedoro” is a comic for you. I am going to warn you that it isn’t a comic for everyone. This is a weird, ultra-violent, dark and bloody that artist Q Hayashida has created, and unless your sensibilities are twisted enough you might just throw the book across the room. Me, I like it.

The story continues for Dorohedoro, Vol. 1 with Caimen and Nikaido out chopping up zombies. They are hoping to save up a hundred and eighty plates to buy a meat-grinder so Nikaido can make her delicious gyoza. Unfortunately, they run into a pair of masked sorcerers on the hunt and things get violent very fast. Caimen feels confident that the sorcerers magic can’t affect him, but the sorcerer shows Caimen that a hammer works just the same on everyone. The encounter reveals a few secrets about Caimen and Nikaido. One is something Nikaido was hoping to keep secret, and one was something that Caimen didn’t even know about himself.

The art in “Dorohedoro” is just as dark and grimy as the story. In the faces and bodies their seems to be some shades of Masumune Shiro, especially his Appleseed books. But just some shades. Everything here is pure Hayashida. She has her own look and way of drawing that I haven’t seen in any other manga.

Festish masks and huge fighters crashing into each other. A suite made out of syringes. A man with a human heart-shaped mask. A lot that goes on here is so bizarre you just can’t question it. When a waiter walks out with a fish for a head, you just have to think “Well, that’s “Dorohedoror.” “