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ドロヘドロ [Dorohedoro] #4
Dorohedoro, Vol. 4
A blood-spattered battle between diabolical sorcerers and the monsters they created.
Caiman and Nikaido return to the Hole, where Doc and Kasukabe manage to cure Nikaido of her deadly fungal affliction. But a prowler outside Central Hospital is watching and waiting for an opportunity to steal her away. Fujita returns to the Hole to finally kill Caiman himself. He gets close when he’s recruited for a baseball match between Central Hospital and Hole Peace Hospital, but his plans change when he spots an old friend. Meanwhile, in the Sorcerer’s dimension, a little accident transforms Noi into a hideous monster. It’s up to Shin to stop her before she kills everyone.
Caiman and Nikaido return to the Hole, where Doc and Kasukabe manage to cure Nikaido of her deadly fungal affliction. But a prowler outside Central Hospital is watching and waiting for an opportunity to steal her away. Fujita returns to the Hole to finally kill Caiman himself. He gets close when he’s recruited for a baseball match between Central Hospital and Hole Peace Hospital, but his plans change when he spots an old friend. Meanwhile, in the Sorcerer’s dimension, a little accident transforms Noi into a hideous monster. It’s up to Shin to stop her before she kills everyone.
170 pages, Paperback
First published January 30, 2004
About the author
Q. Hayashida
91 books484 followersQ Hayashida (林田球; Hayashida Kyu) is the pen name of a Japanese manga artist.
Hayashida was born in Tokyo, Japan and studied oil painting at Tokyo University of the Arts. She has discussed her childhood and artistic inspirations in interviews but maintains a high level of privacy about her personal life, to the point that her true name and face are unknown.
Hayashida's first major work was 'Maken X Another' (1999-2001), a comic book adaptation of a 1999 video game. Her most famous manga is 'Dorohedoro' (2000-2018). It was originally serialised in the alternative manga magazine Monthly Ikki, but then moved to Hibana after Ikki ceased publication, and finally moved to Shogakukan's shōnen manga Monthly Shōnen Sunday. Dorohedoro has been partially adapted into a popular anime on Netflix in 2018. Hayashida's next manga series, 'Dai Dark', began in 2019 and is currently serialised in Monthly Shōnen Sunday.
Hayashida was born in Tokyo, Japan and studied oil painting at Tokyo University of the Arts. She has discussed her childhood and artistic inspirations in interviews but maintains a high level of privacy about her personal life, to the point that her true name and face are unknown.
Hayashida's first major work was 'Maken X Another' (1999-2001), a comic book adaptation of a 1999 video game. Her most famous manga is 'Dorohedoro' (2000-2018). It was originally serialised in the alternative manga magazine Monthly Ikki, but then moved to Hibana after Ikki ceased publication, and finally moved to Shogakukan's shōnen manga Monthly Shōnen Sunday. Dorohedoro has been partially adapted into a popular anime on Netflix in 2018. Hayashida's next manga series, 'Dai Dark', began in 2019 and is currently serialised in Monthly Shōnen Sunday.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 87 reviews
January 24, 2021
What are we going to learn in the 5th volume? All of this is still in the most chaotic of places - Dorohedoro.
March 31, 2021
One star is off for baseball, like, seriously, baseball??? Everything else, omg, so good.
April 7, 2020
Four and a half stars.
One of my favorite things about this series is that it feels like the author has created it to live through it in a world she prefers to the real one, and to hang out with cooler, more interesting people than what is available in reality. And yet the cozy world she has created is an apocalyptic one in which people can barely hope of climbing out of extreme poverty, they need to fear themselves or their loved ones getting killed by people from another dimension who couldn't care less about their existence, or in the best case scenario getting afflicted with life changing mutations like your body parts changing into a different creature's. Its inhabitants witness people getting murdered in gruesome fashion and then go back to their regular jobs as if they lived in a less realistic version of "Children of Men". While the author could have made her characters experience a day to day filled with nightmarish despair, they tend to remain cheerful, and often don't expect much of life beyond being able to eat their favorite meal.
This author's version of magic might be my favorite, and one of the only acceptable ones for me: it works as a sort of supernatural radiation, toxic fumes that can make a person mutate into a mass of mushrooms, turn their limbs into insects', or even turn them into two meters tall cockroaches. The effects of this filty magic doesn't end when it gets ejected from a magic user's fingers, because it accumulates into the ground, in the rivers, and stays in the air in some areas, poisoning everything it touches. If some magic users lose control, they risk turning the people they keep around into monstrosities. I can't blame the inhabitants of The Hole, who aren't magic users, for despising these interdimensional foreigners that seem to come to their world to make their lives a living hell.
The overall feeling of this series is, however, difficult to put into words, because all of it seems so idiosyncratic. The plot progresses according to a mysterious internal logic hard to predict and yet satisfying. As the overall plot so far we have our main protagonists, alligator head dude and cool athletic restaurant babe, trying to figure out what magic user turned the guy's head into an alligator's. Their investigation tends to involve massacring as many magic users as they find, a factor that gets complicated when we learn that the restaurant woman, the protagonist's best friend/undeclared girlfriend, is actually a self-exiled magic user. Throughout these four volumes, the protagonist has been growing little by little to take a final decision regarding whether his favorite human being a magic user is something that would change their relationship. Their investigations lead them to open an interdimensional door to the world of the magicians. There the protagonist has to learn to navigate another society without murdering everyone he meets. Although he still hates magicians in general, he understands what the restaurant babe knew from the beginning: that in that other dimension its people are divided into the powerful, the middle class and the downtrodden, and those without power don't fare much better than the average inhabitant of the Hole. It gets complicated further, however, by the fact that the magic users do consort with literal demons, and magic itself in this world might be demonic. While visiting her former world, the restaurant babe, wanting some clues on who transmogrified her sort of boyfriend's head, visits a demon she used to be well acquainted with, and after kneeling to kiss its claws they hang out for a while chatting pleasantly. The demon turns out to be quite a helpful fellow that's glad to be able to assist a person in her quest to help someone else.
Opposing our main protagonists' quest we have the mushroom guy's gang, who are relying on magic rituals to figure out who turned the protagonist into an alligator head person who can also resist magic. Because this world is weird, they recover the protagonist's previous, human and decapitated head, build a body for it and revive him in order to get some answers about who they are facing. We have then two characters who are the same person and yet don't know about each other, and would likely end up fighting to the death if they happened to meet. The revived guy doesn't know that his previous body was revived but with an alligator's head, and the alligator dude is usually just worried about when his next plate of favorite food is coming.
So many cool moments, somewhat spoilery: restaurant babe breaking into the mushroom guy's lair to locate her sort of boyfriend's alter ego, and punching the mushroom guy in the mouth in the process. The mushroom fellow loses control and his magic spurts in a toxic cloud that begins turning the rest of his gang members, and friends, into mushrooms, in a disturbing fashion. After they find out who transformed the protagonist's head into an alligator's, which ends up being quite surprising, the disturbingly sexy behemoth of a woman who works for mushroom guy turns into a huge mutated reptile who can't control her unleashed aggression. Her beloved senpai stops her, getting eviscerated himself in the process. Shortly after he stands around stoically while they perform a demonic ritual that will turn the woman back into normal; they needed a sample of her favorite person's guts as part of the ritual, but thankfully the guy's intestines were already hanging out while he casually witnessed the whole thing. There's a great baseball sequence in which the hospital the protagonist works at plays against an opposing hospital; one of the members of the protagonist's team is a two meters tall, mind controlled cockroach, and the pitcher for the opposing team is a magic user who came to the Hole to murder the protagonist for killing his partner. At some point the peculiar, half-retarded girl who got her face ripped off in the first volume (and who might have been half-retarded before, I'm not clear on that point), visits a store owned by Death itself. After buying some stuff there, Death gives her tickets to a horror movie it apparently produced.
Plenty of other fascinating bizarre stuff going on that has melded together in my mind. This is so far one of those series that you just want to go back to and enjoy a timeless, self-contained reality full of awesome characters.
(Link to the full intro song of the anime adaptation, because I might as well)
One of my favorite things about this series is that it feels like the author has created it to live through it in a world she prefers to the real one, and to hang out with cooler, more interesting people than what is available in reality. And yet the cozy world she has created is an apocalyptic one in which people can barely hope of climbing out of extreme poverty, they need to fear themselves or their loved ones getting killed by people from another dimension who couldn't care less about their existence, or in the best case scenario getting afflicted with life changing mutations like your body parts changing into a different creature's. Its inhabitants witness people getting murdered in gruesome fashion and then go back to their regular jobs as if they lived in a less realistic version of "Children of Men". While the author could have made her characters experience a day to day filled with nightmarish despair, they tend to remain cheerful, and often don't expect much of life beyond being able to eat their favorite meal.
This author's version of magic might be my favorite, and one of the only acceptable ones for me: it works as a sort of supernatural radiation, toxic fumes that can make a person mutate into a mass of mushrooms, turn their limbs into insects', or even turn them into two meters tall cockroaches. The effects of this filty magic doesn't end when it gets ejected from a magic user's fingers, because it accumulates into the ground, in the rivers, and stays in the air in some areas, poisoning everything it touches. If some magic users lose control, they risk turning the people they keep around into monstrosities. I can't blame the inhabitants of The Hole, who aren't magic users, for despising these interdimensional foreigners that seem to come to their world to make their lives a living hell.
The overall feeling of this series is, however, difficult to put into words, because all of it seems so idiosyncratic. The plot progresses according to a mysterious internal logic hard to predict and yet satisfying. As the overall plot so far we have our main protagonists, alligator head dude and cool athletic restaurant babe, trying to figure out what magic user turned the guy's head into an alligator's. Their investigation tends to involve massacring as many magic users as they find, a factor that gets complicated when we learn that the restaurant woman, the protagonist's best friend/undeclared girlfriend, is actually a self-exiled magic user. Throughout these four volumes, the protagonist has been growing little by little to take a final decision regarding whether his favorite human being a magic user is something that would change their relationship. Their investigations lead them to open an interdimensional door to the world of the magicians. There the protagonist has to learn to navigate another society without murdering everyone he meets. Although he still hates magicians in general, he understands what the restaurant babe knew from the beginning: that in that other dimension its people are divided into the powerful, the middle class and the downtrodden, and those without power don't fare much better than the average inhabitant of the Hole. It gets complicated further, however, by the fact that the magic users do consort with literal demons, and magic itself in this world might be demonic. While visiting her former world, the restaurant babe, wanting some clues on who transmogrified her sort of boyfriend's head, visits a demon she used to be well acquainted with, and after kneeling to kiss its claws they hang out for a while chatting pleasantly. The demon turns out to be quite a helpful fellow that's glad to be able to assist a person in her quest to help someone else.
Opposing our main protagonists' quest we have the mushroom guy's gang, who are relying on magic rituals to figure out who turned the protagonist into an alligator head person who can also resist magic. Because this world is weird, they recover the protagonist's previous, human and decapitated head, build a body for it and revive him in order to get some answers about who they are facing. We have then two characters who are the same person and yet don't know about each other, and would likely end up fighting to the death if they happened to meet. The revived guy doesn't know that his previous body was revived but with an alligator's head, and the alligator dude is usually just worried about when his next plate of favorite food is coming.
So many cool moments, somewhat spoilery: restaurant babe breaking into the mushroom guy's lair to locate her sort of boyfriend's alter ego, and punching the mushroom guy in the mouth in the process. The mushroom fellow loses control and his magic spurts in a toxic cloud that begins turning the rest of his gang members, and friends, into mushrooms, in a disturbing fashion. After they find out who transformed the protagonist's head into an alligator's, which ends up being quite surprising, the disturbingly sexy behemoth of a woman who works for mushroom guy turns into a huge mutated reptile who can't control her unleashed aggression. Her beloved senpai stops her, getting eviscerated himself in the process. Shortly after he stands around stoically while they perform a demonic ritual that will turn the woman back into normal; they needed a sample of her favorite person's guts as part of the ritual, but thankfully the guy's intestines were already hanging out while he casually witnessed the whole thing. There's a great baseball sequence in which the hospital the protagonist works at plays against an opposing hospital; one of the members of the protagonist's team is a two meters tall, mind controlled cockroach, and the pitcher for the opposing team is a magic user who came to the Hole to murder the protagonist for killing his partner. At some point the peculiar, half-retarded girl who got her face ripped off in the first volume (and who might have been half-retarded before, I'm not clear on that point), visits a store owned by Death itself. After buying some stuff there, Death gives her tickets to a horror movie it apparently produced.
Plenty of other fascinating bizarre stuff going on that has melded together in my mind. This is so far one of those series that you just want to go back to and enjoy a timeless, self-contained reality full of awesome characters.
(Link to the full intro song of the anime adaptation, because I might as well)
September 9, 2020
4.5 stars
The art style is everything. Adore the line work. Gimme all that gritty goodness!
The art style is everything. Adore the line work. Gimme all that gritty goodness!
November 22, 2023
Difficult to put into the words the craziness and weirdness of this story, the World and it’s magic.
May 19, 2022
The info we learned about Senpai and Ebisu are astounding, it's making all the characters connected in more than one way.
September 18, 2015
Where has this series been, all my life? It's been ages since I last read a manga as good as Dorohedoro. Q. Hayashida continues to deliver a damn near perfect blend of suspense, dark comedy, horror, and even a bit of whimsy, with this volume (seriously, I defy you to look at Ebisu in a shark costume, and not at least crack a smile). Plus, some of the twists in volume 4 are really well-executed. For the series as a whole, it's still gory, bizarre, and full of eminently likable characters. As long as you don't mind dark themes, blood, and the occasional bit of nudity, I truly can't recommend Dorohedoro strongly enough.
January 9, 2024
Seri yine harika gidiyor. Ana hikayenin çok ilerlemediği, çeşitli karakterlere odaklanan bir ciltti. Shin'in neden ve nasıl bu işlere bulaştığını, Ebisu'nun özel büyüsünün ne olduğunu, Noi'nin en değer verdiği kişiyi, Caiman'ın en iyi arkadaşının büyücü olduğunu öğrenmesini gördüğümüz kısımlar herhalde bu ciltteki hikaye özelinde en akılda kalıcı kısımlardı. Hikayeden çıktığımızda ise büyü mağdurlarıyla doktorların beyzbol maçı vardı. Büyü mağdurlarının ekibindeki dev hamamböceği Jonson akıllarda epey kalacak bir karakter.
June 25, 2024
A roach named Johnson is pretty funny to me hehe
Also, I wished the baseball game was longer. I want more interactions with the people of the Hole!!!
Dr. Kasukabe is the cutest. 🥺🖤
Also, I wished the baseball game was longer. I want more interactions with the people of the Hole!!!
Dr. Kasukabe is the cutest. 🥺🖤
September 16, 2021
All of my Dorohedoro reviews are actually a summary of what I've read & some thoughts!
I have the memory of a goldfish. ( I am currently re-reading the series, my review will be edited later! I enjoyed all of the volumes though! :D)
[RE-READ] SEPTEMBER 2021
TW: Strong language, blood & gore, graphic violence, body horror, substance (drugs) & nudity
Rating: 5 stars
Spoilers ahead!
All of my Dorohedoro reviews are actually a summary of what I've read & some thoughts!
I have the memory of a goldfish.
Another solid volume.
Volume 3 ended with an injured Nikaido. Caiman conjured a portal back to Hole (thanks to Prof's smoke spray). She is being treated in the central hospital. Doc Vaux and Prof Kasukabe performed the surgery to remove the mushroom from the back of her body.
It has been revealed that both of them knows about Shin. Shin's past is an unfortunate one. Sadly, both parents got killed; his mother when he was just a baby and his father for protecting his sorcerer son. It was mentioned that humans refused to be guinea pigs to sorcerers and fought back in the past. The Neighborhood patrol (NP) was invented. The reason why they succumbed to being magic victims now is all because of Shin. I swear the power this man holds is amazing. Shin originated from Hole and is a hybrid (half-human &sorcerer). His father hid the fact that he was a hybrid until he accidentally injured himself while working and emitted black smoke.
The NP found out about it and decided to kill them both. Shin learned about the death of his father and his personality changed dramatically. That was the start of his violent streak. His list of crimes grew every day. Doc Vaux and Prof Kasukabe found Shin in one of the operating rooms at the hospital while they were on call. He was trying to find his smoke outlet so he cut both arms off. (DAMN, SON. DO U NOT FEEL ANY PAIN?)
SHIN IN THE BEGINNING :/ gets pricked *owww*
ALSO, SHIN: /NO ARMS I'M STILL ALIVE U SURPRISE?
They helped him sew his arms back. While Vaux hesitated a bit, Kasukabe remained calm. I LOVE CHILL CHARACTERS. Ugh, Prof Kasukabe is the best. I guess this is the first time the manga has shown that humans and sorcerers can co-exist??? They just need to help and understand one another, that's all. Anyway, more people got killed (this time, by Shin's magic) and the NP disbanded. Nobody dared to stand up against sorcerers since that day. May I remind you that he did all this when he was just a literal kid? AMAZING.
Again, a sorcerer's weakness regarding the rain was confirmed yet again but this time by Prof. Kasukabe. Caiman is still in denial about Nikaido's true identity. Nikaido ponders upon her conversation with Asu and her magic. Could it be the only way?
While on bed rest, a mysterious man kidnaps her. Caiman went after the man and got led into the sewers. There are a lot of dead bodies in the sea of rainwater and smoke; a sewer graveyard, if you will. Johnson is introduced! He has become of my favourite characters. Apparently, a human went around killing magic victims for their black jewels. It can turn someone into a sorcerer? (Though I highly doubt it). Right before his demise, the guy revealed to Caiman that he was there when he had a human head. He saw Nikaido that day too.
Spell 20 is one of my favourite storylines. While the En family tries to uncover Ebisu's magic (that they found at the smoke shop), Fujita and Ebisu went to Hole to avenge Matsumura. Technically, Ebisu wasn't invited, haha! They got caught up in a game of baseball.
The entire arc is *chef's kiss*!!! Not Caiman being jealous over another man eating Nikaido's gyoza & flirting with her. Your jealousy is so obvious, my man! The entire game scene is the best! I love shark cheerleader +erandboy Ebisu, the stingy old man with tricks up his sleeve (he drugged the opposing team's members & even tried to kill Johnson)! Not to forget, our intelligent Prof. Kasukabe bringing a Franken-Matsumura back to life and also controlling Johnson via remote control. AMAZING!!!! I laughed so hard but I also felt bad about Fujita seeing his old partner's corpse being used this way. The sorcerer pair eventually escaped with Matsumura.
Back at En's place, the family learned about Ebisu's magic! Unfortunately, En's staff accidentally dropped the vial of smoke and it turned Noi into a reptile. Noi went on a killing rampage. Shin had to knock her out. Meanwhile, Fujita and Ebisu arrived at the mansion. Ebisu developed a headache because she drank some of Fujita's smoke booster juice back at the baseball field (which I'm guessing is black powder juice).
So apparently black powder not only increases the volume of smoke but can also cause insanity. Ebisu was revealed to be a loyal consumer of black smoke (my girl's a drug addict at a very young age, hmm). The vial of smoke was mixed with black powder which caused Noi to go amok. En took Shin and Noi to meet with a sorcerer with the power to dispel the magic of others. Chota is introduced.
THINGS TO REMEMBER:
How to dispel magic
1) the sorcerer who cast the magic has to nullify it
2) the sorcerer must die
3) or take advantage of Chota, seem like
Also, how is Shin carrying Noi with his guts out? I mean, I am not surprised but... wow. Not En thinking 'Don't you feel pain?'.
I think En knew that Chota's magic will be useful so he locked him in a tower. Chota's magic is amazing. Of course, it's romantic too! Shin blushing when Noi woke up is so cute! He gave her his coat to cover up. What a gentleman.
Ebisu went berserk due to the black powder juice she consumed. She turned into a lizard and killed Franken-Matsumura. Fujita became devastated yet still hopeful.
After the magic dies down, some of her memories came back. Instead of the usual ' you are not it ', the man inside of Caiman (Risu) told her that ' you are the one who stopped me'.
So did Ebisu turned Caiman's head into a lizard? Was she there when it happened? or did someone used her smoke on Caiman??? In what way did she stop Risu?? Did Risu planned to do something to Caiman?? Let's find out.
Before the volume ends, we get a glimpse of the day Risu got murdered and it was revealed that he had a partner named Aikawa (who is very Caiman-esque). The person who killed him was also a cross-eyes member. BUT WHO? Nothing major has been revealed at this point but the reptile magic, though not rare, is definitely Ebisu's.
Back at Hungry Bug at the hole, Caiman didn't want to include Nikaido anymore in his adventure to discover his real identity. So he left Hole using Prof Kasukabe's portal door. He didn't say goodbye to Nikaido but still hopes to eat her gyoza again someday. That statement gives me hope. I can't wait to read about Caiman's adventure in the sorcerer's realm.
I have the memory of a goldfish. ( I am currently re-reading the series, my review will be edited later! I enjoyed all of the volumes though! :D)
[RE-READ] SEPTEMBER 2021
TW: Strong language, blood & gore, graphic violence, body horror, substance (drugs) & nudity
Rating: 5 stars
Spoilers ahead!
All of my Dorohedoro reviews are actually a summary of what I've read & some thoughts!
I have the memory of a goldfish.
Another solid volume.
Volume 3 ended with an injured Nikaido. Caiman conjured a portal back to Hole (thanks to Prof's smoke spray). She is being treated in the central hospital. Doc Vaux and Prof Kasukabe performed the surgery to remove the mushroom from the back of her body.
It has been revealed that both of them knows about Shin. Shin's past is an unfortunate one. Sadly, both parents got killed; his mother when he was just a baby and his father for protecting his sorcerer son. It was mentioned that humans refused to be guinea pigs to sorcerers and fought back in the past. The Neighborhood patrol (NP) was invented. The reason why they succumbed to being magic victims now is all because of Shin. I swear the power this man holds is amazing. Shin originated from Hole and is a hybrid (half-human &sorcerer). His father hid the fact that he was a hybrid until he accidentally injured himself while working and emitted black smoke.
The NP found out about it and decided to kill them both. Shin learned about the death of his father and his personality changed dramatically. That was the start of his violent streak. His list of crimes grew every day. Doc Vaux and Prof Kasukabe found Shin in one of the operating rooms at the hospital while they were on call. He was trying to find his smoke outlet so he cut both arms off. (DAMN, SON. DO U NOT FEEL ANY PAIN?)
SHIN IN THE BEGINNING :/ gets pricked *owww*
ALSO, SHIN: /NO ARMS I'M STILL ALIVE U SURPRISE?
They helped him sew his arms back. While Vaux hesitated a bit, Kasukabe remained calm. I LOVE CHILL CHARACTERS. Ugh, Prof Kasukabe is the best. I guess this is the first time the manga has shown that humans and sorcerers can co-exist??? They just need to help and understand one another, that's all. Anyway, more people got killed (this time, by Shin's magic) and the NP disbanded. Nobody dared to stand up against sorcerers since that day. May I remind you that he did all this when he was just a literal kid? AMAZING.
Again, a sorcerer's weakness regarding the rain was confirmed yet again but this time by Prof. Kasukabe. Caiman is still in denial about Nikaido's true identity. Nikaido ponders upon her conversation with Asu and her magic. Could it be the only way?
While on bed rest, a mysterious man kidnaps her. Caiman went after the man and got led into the sewers. There are a lot of dead bodies in the sea of rainwater and smoke; a sewer graveyard, if you will. Johnson is introduced! He has become of my favourite characters. Apparently, a human went around killing magic victims for their black jewels. It can turn someone into a sorcerer? (Though I highly doubt it). Right before his demise, the guy revealed to Caiman that he was there when he had a human head. He saw Nikaido that day too.
Spell 20 is one of my favourite storylines. While the En family tries to uncover Ebisu's magic (that they found at the smoke shop), Fujita and Ebisu went to Hole to avenge Matsumura. Technically, Ebisu wasn't invited, haha! They got caught up in a game of baseball.
The entire arc is *chef's kiss*!!! Not Caiman being jealous over another man eating Nikaido's gyoza & flirting with her. Your jealousy is so obvious, my man! The entire game scene is the best! I love shark cheerleader +erandboy Ebisu, the stingy old man with tricks up his sleeve (he drugged the opposing team's members & even tried to kill Johnson)! Not to forget, our intelligent Prof. Kasukabe bringing a Franken-Matsumura back to life and also controlling Johnson via remote control. AMAZING!!!! I laughed so hard but I also felt bad about Fujita seeing his old partner's corpse being used this way. The sorcerer pair eventually escaped with Matsumura.
Back at En's place, the family learned about Ebisu's magic! Unfortunately, En's staff accidentally dropped the vial of smoke and it turned Noi into a reptile. Noi went on a killing rampage. Shin had to knock her out. Meanwhile, Fujita and Ebisu arrived at the mansion. Ebisu developed a headache because she drank some of Fujita's smoke booster juice back at the baseball field (which I'm guessing is black powder juice).
So apparently black powder not only increases the volume of smoke but can also cause insanity. Ebisu was revealed to be a loyal consumer of black smoke (my girl's a drug addict at a very young age, hmm). The vial of smoke was mixed with black powder which caused Noi to go amok. En took Shin and Noi to meet with a sorcerer with the power to dispel the magic of others. Chota is introduced.
THINGS TO REMEMBER:
How to dispel magic
1) the sorcerer who cast the magic has to nullify it
2) the sorcerer must die
3) or take advantage of Chota, seem like
Also, how is Shin carrying Noi with his guts out? I mean, I am not surprised but... wow. Not En thinking 'Don't you feel pain?'.
I think En knew that Chota's magic will be useful so he locked him in a tower. Chota's magic is amazing. Of course, it's romantic too! Shin blushing when Noi woke up is so cute! He gave her his coat to cover up. What a gentleman.
Ebisu went berserk due to the black powder juice she consumed. She turned into a lizard and killed Franken-Matsumura. Fujita became devastated yet still hopeful.
After the magic dies down, some of her memories came back. Instead of the usual ' you are not it ', the man inside of Caiman (Risu) told her that ' you are the one who stopped me'.
So did Ebisu turned Caiman's head into a lizard? Was she there when it happened? or did someone used her smoke on Caiman??? In what way did she stop Risu?? Did Risu planned to do something to Caiman?? Let's find out.
Before the volume ends, we get a glimpse of the day Risu got murdered and it was revealed that he had a partner named Aikawa (who is very Caiman-esque). The person who killed him was also a cross-eyes member. BUT WHO? Nothing major has been revealed at this point but the reptile magic, though not rare, is definitely Ebisu's.
Back at Hungry Bug at the hole, Caiman didn't want to include Nikaido anymore in his adventure to discover his real identity. So he left Hole using Prof Kasukabe's portal door. He didn't say goodbye to Nikaido but still hopes to eat her gyoza again someday. That statement gives me hope. I can't wait to read about Caiman's adventure in the sorcerer's realm.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 6, 2019
Volume 4: A halfway-sentient cockroach in sneakers plays a high-stakes game of baseball and the amount of dinosaurs in the series goes up by one increment. This is getting really good
October 25, 2023
This one wasn't much different than the volumes before.
Maybe that was the problem. The same formula repeated too often or maybe I should space out these readings more.
The reality is that I didn't enjoy this one as much as the ones before. I felt there was a lack of innovation and excitement.
The baseball match between sorcerers and non-sorcerers felt especially boring.
Regardless, I don't have the next volume yet, so it will probably be a while until I'm able to continue these.
Maybe that was the problem. The same formula repeated too often or maybe I should space out these readings more.
The reality is that I didn't enjoy this one as much as the ones before. I felt there was a lack of innovation and excitement.
The baseball match between sorcerers and non-sorcerers felt especially boring.
Regardless, I don't have the next volume yet, so it will probably be a while until I'm able to continue these.
July 4, 2021
So many good parts in this volume!
Love when Caiman jumped straight out the window without thinking just to try and rescue Nikaido!
Then there's 13 and Caiman's jealousy lol of course, it's only because he wants all the gyoza for himself... riiiight... haha
And as always, love Ebisu and her random phrases/thoughts "this feels dangerous..." lol
I absolutely love the story (and every character!) and can't wait to find out how it all plays out!!
Love when Caiman jumped straight out the window without thinking just to try and rescue Nikaido!
Then there's 13 and Caiman's jealousy lol of course, it's only because he wants all the gyoza for himself... riiiight... haha
And as always, love Ebisu and her random phrases/thoughts "this feels dangerous..." lol
I absolutely love the story (and every character!) and can't wait to find out how it all plays out!!
May 9, 2022
Fujita and Ebisu continue to be my favorite sorcerer's. I was really nervous that they'd be background characters with no substance or story but with each volume they're found more and more central to the main story.
January 23, 2020
Dzień bez jednego tomu dorohedoro to chyba dzień stracony. Fabuła - ok, nadal nic wielkiego, ale bohaterowie, świat przedstawiony, coś niesamowitego! Chwyta i nie chce za nic puścić!
November 13, 2021
dovrebbero abolire le partite di baseball
November 4, 2022
Shocking!
September 10, 2020
There is not much new to say about this series from my earlier reviews. It remains a solid reading experience. I love how random things can be in the world. There can be a large focus on violence and magic that takes a break for a baseball game; and it all works. Also, finally got to the introduction of Johnson!
April 6, 2023
That was Fun.
Read
March 17, 2023Shin... *suspiros*
November 5, 2019
I'm still enjoying a lot this series, so much interesting ideas and humor mixed with brutality!
November 14, 2019
Dorohedoro is amazing what's new
In this volume we had quality Noi and Shin, Kaiman and Nikaido, Ebisu & her magic content.
Bless you Q. Hayashida you wonderful talented woman you
In this volume we had quality Noi and Shin, Kaiman and Nikaido, Ebisu & her magic content.
Bless you Q. Hayashida you wonderful talented woman you
May 30, 2020
More. MORE. Gimme.
June 8, 2020
...did I mention I really need gyoza...like right now.
June 9, 2020
Antagonist backstory, secrets finally revealed, and an extensive baseball game.
July 6, 2020
Much more back story in this volume, allowing more insight into the investigation and motives. And all played firmly with a tongue in the cheek.
Man, I love this series so much!
Man, I love this series so much!
July 11, 2020
Loving this. I like the subtly that the anime didn't take from the manga, such as hiding Ebisu's powers until this point. Overall, a 4.5/5.
August 28, 2020
3.5
Hayashida's illustrations are the best they have been, unfortunately the translations are also at there worst.
Hayashida's illustrations are the best they have been, unfortunately the translations are also at there worst.
June 5, 2022
The story opens with Nikaido undergoing surgery to have a large mushroom removed from her back. After the surgery is finished, the Professor and Doc go into a story about Shin a.k.a. the “Patchwork Kid.”
After it was discovered that he is half sorcerer, he is hunted and his father risks his life to allow his son time to get away from the Neighborhood Patrol whose job is to kill sorcerers. Shin’s rage carries him through his revenge on the NP, and one night he’s found by Doc in Central Hospital after cutting off his own arms in an attempt to find the source of his magic.
Much later after their story, Nikaido is kidnapped from the hospital and Caiman follows the mysterious figure into the sewers to save his friend. He runs into a pretty tough giant roach named Johnson. Turns out the man who kidnapped Nikaido was present when Caiman still had a human face and before he lost his memory. Unfortunately for Caiman, he’s also the target of Fujita’s revenge for killing his friend, Matsumura.
So after making his way to the Hole with Ebisu to find the giant man with the lizard head, he gets his chance after being recruited by Hole Peace Hospital who needs players for their upcoming baseball game against Central Hospital. Sounds a bit sudden and weird, but believe me when I tell you that it totally works and is one of the best chapters in the book. However, Fujita has to put his revenge plans on hold when he sees what’s been done to his “dead” friend, and takes him back to the realm of sorcerers.
Once back in their realm they run into a problem as they find out everyone is trying to stop Noi who has been transformed by Ebisu’s magic into a giant lizard and is on a murderous rampage. However, Fujita and Ebisu have more pressing issues as Matsumura has started to lose control and just might kill them both….
There’s so much originality in here that you can’t help but find a couple of things to pique your interest. The action is fantastic and the humour hits at just the right points. The artwork was very good, though at times in the later chapters it was a bit too dark and muddled most of the detail that we got to see earlier in the book.
If you’re looking for something completely different I’d suggest Dorohedoro in a heartbeat.
After it was discovered that he is half sorcerer, he is hunted and his father risks his life to allow his son time to get away from the Neighborhood Patrol whose job is to kill sorcerers. Shin’s rage carries him through his revenge on the NP, and one night he’s found by Doc in Central Hospital after cutting off his own arms in an attempt to find the source of his magic.
Much later after their story, Nikaido is kidnapped from the hospital and Caiman follows the mysterious figure into the sewers to save his friend. He runs into a pretty tough giant roach named Johnson. Turns out the man who kidnapped Nikaido was present when Caiman still had a human face and before he lost his memory. Unfortunately for Caiman, he’s also the target of Fujita’s revenge for killing his friend, Matsumura.
So after making his way to the Hole with Ebisu to find the giant man with the lizard head, he gets his chance after being recruited by Hole Peace Hospital who needs players for their upcoming baseball game against Central Hospital. Sounds a bit sudden and weird, but believe me when I tell you that it totally works and is one of the best chapters in the book. However, Fujita has to put his revenge plans on hold when he sees what’s been done to his “dead” friend, and takes him back to the realm of sorcerers.
Once back in their realm they run into a problem as they find out everyone is trying to stop Noi who has been transformed by Ebisu’s magic into a giant lizard and is on a murderous rampage. However, Fujita and Ebisu have more pressing issues as Matsumura has started to lose control and just might kill them both….
There’s so much originality in here that you can’t help but find a couple of things to pique your interest. The action is fantastic and the humour hits at just the right points. The artwork was very good, though at times in the later chapters it was a bit too dark and muddled most of the detail that we got to see earlier in the book.
If you’re looking for something completely different I’d suggest Dorohedoro in a heartbeat.
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