EDIT: Few of my takes here are pretty dated so whoever digged up this thing and wanna read it dont take it fully seriously. THIS REVIEW MIGHT CONTAIN FEW SPOILERS WHICH WONT BE HIDDEN. Unique is the term I like to experience while consuming anime and manga. I love searching for titles that stand out in various ways and barely can be called bland or generic. The first title that comes in my mind in terms of uniqueness is Dorohedoro which I cant really compare it to anything else and fascinates me in practically every way. Dorohedoro is 12episode action mystery anime animated by studio MAPPA based on seinen later shonen manga written by a cryptic author Q Hayashidahttps://anilist.co/staff/98024/QHayashida and serialized from 2000 to 2018. The source material is the best piece of literature Ive ever read so far. Its the title that makes me say This is why I love fiction not mentioning absolutely beautiful artwork and aesthetics. But my first exposure to the franchise was this relatively short adaptation from 2020. This article will not only serve as my thoughts on the anime but also my personal retrospective on one of my current obsessions and how everything started. So lets dive into it shall we? NARRATIVE 450http://blog.tanuki.pl/wpcontent/uploads/2020/01/b1.jpg Main setting here are two worlds Hole and Magic User Realm. The Hole city are giant slums residented by ordinary humans and is often used as a playground for magic users which they invade in order to test their magic on random citizens. One of the magic victims is Kaiman a guy cursed with a lizard head amnesia and magic resistance. He accompanied by his best friend Nikaido wants too find the sorcerer who cursed him and kill in order to break the curse and restore his memories back. Kaiman will know about the identity of his target by putting head of his opponent in his mouth and the mysterious person inside lizard man will tell if its them or not. Before Ill go about plot itself I must already say the universe depicted in Dorohedoro is absolutely great and one of the biggest selling points of it. Its not One Piece or Lord of The Rings level of details but Im really intrigued on how everything works and how creative included ideas are even if the source material expands those concepts even further. Its fun to find about contrast between Hole and Magic User Realm and their cultures. Smoke isnt Nen or Stands but still works as a simple and unique power system. First season serves as a nice introduction to the whole story. In spand of 12 episodes the show slowly tells you who is who and what is what. As a mystery plot its one of those titles where the mystery itself isnt that simple. When one clue is solved the more questions occure which is good since asking questions makes you more invested in the world and characters in it. The only flaw I can think about the plot is nothing spectacular happening in this season. It covers only first 40 chapters of the original manga not counting extra chapters and boxing match filler story and ends right before the story slowly gets more thrilling and engaging. Since MAPPA got busy recently with their schedule nothing is really known about second seasons release. The show also lands in terms of comedy. One of the words I can describe Dorohedoro is grotesque. Its filled with goofy moments and gags presented in gory and creepy imagery. With big emphasis on humour it makes drama here more serious. CHARACTERS 450https://occ027942219.1.nflxso.net/dnm/api/v6/E8vDcW8CLv7yMQu8KMEC7Rrr8/AAAABTjSbhMeh5jHBMEX0DyqXfLrIjpH0smphLlZkXEzmbQLgLBtg3ixEs6JviheMqSs1vxHEKEFhptIIpG2k2xBCACv.jpg?r=0b7 Dorohedoros cast is my favourite out of any titles. While not having the deepest personalites and motives nearly everyone here is extremely likeable and enjoyable in their own way with most of them having weird and imaginative powers like turning people into mushrooms or slicing them alive into small pieces. If you can handle large cast like that only to me having a struggle which characters I want to put in my Favourites list then you know youre a talented writer. Kaiman is another loud aggresive and gluttonous dude like many shonen protags but he must often deal with his inner struggles which makes him more interesting to watch. Pretty much the same thing with Nikaido. She basically must hide behind Kaiman the fact that shes a magic user herself or hell suspect and eventually slaughter her too. Ironically the most sympathetic group here at least for me are the antagonists of this season the En Family. Theres a large portion of the time dedicated only to them sometimes in very lighthearted situations. En himself is shown as this big menacing villain at first but later he becomes really likeable but still grumpy guy who dearly loves his cat/dog Kikurage. Plus hes morally more righteous than protagonists when you think about it. My last sentence actually says something about those characters and overall plot structure. At this point of the story theres actually no real villain here. Everyones just trying to fulfill their goals with both sides interrupting each other sometimes. Its also important to mention their designs. While many other shows wants to make their characters very attractive or cute the cast of Dorohedoro look weird goofy disgusting or even disturbing. Well who we have here? Tall muscular woman aka the best girl 64yo scientist with a body of tattooed teenager giant cockroach wearing Jordans literal devils... The list goes on. Those design choices makes characters much more diverse and memorable which is always a good thing. VISUALS AND ANIMATION 450https://pbs.tw.com/media/EQdyxSdWAAAX87Y.jpg This section is very controversial when it comes to anime version mostly because its CGI for half of the time and we know it usually isnt a good news. I must admit I was also worried when I was watching the trailers but I picked up the show anyways and the final result is... the CGI here is actually fine. Dont get me wrong it aint fantastic. There are moments when it looks really choppy hehe and sloppy but overall I was impressed on how well its animated and choreographed especially during combats and didnt make it look like Berserk 2016. 3D was even required sometimes like all the scenes Kaiman was talking without his gas mask on where it would look very ankward handdrawn or at least I cant imagine it. For handdrawn scenes I have no complains. They look chefs kiss. While watching it I realized something interesting. Characters here are divided into 3 categories: Those who are always 3D e.g. Kaiman Those who are always 2D e.g. Thirteen Those which art style changes depending on scene e.g. Shin. Whats yer point? you may ask. Thats because there are few moments when both styles clash with each other and it looks kinda distracting like in the image below I know it doesnt look very noticable but when I first saw this shot and looked at Thirteen I was like Wait what?. But I must give a credit its pretty rare and doesnt look blatantly obvious like EXARM. 430https://i.yt.com/vi/l2b0XPbmjc/maxresdefault.jpg The thing I didnt quite like were some color choices. Sometimes it looked too bright for my liking. Dorohedoros world always reminded me of something darker and muddier than this. In Magic User Realm it kinda makes sense since its cleaner and more fantasy setting than Hole. My point is Id be glad if they used less amount of neons and pastels. Theres also lack of details comparing to the manga but... cmon Placing it next to Hayashidas extremely detailed artwork would be hella unfair. People in MAPPA did the best they could. MUSIC 300https://i.redd.it/4e0gjghk4vf61.jpg Music composed by the band KNoWNAMEhttps://anilist.co/staff/126602/KNoWNAME perfectly depicts outlandish and chaotic tone of Dorohedoro. It includes various music genres like heavy metal techno dubstep... hell even some ghoulish version of accordion music youd hear in some french drama or thats just my assumption of what kind of music is played in them. There is stuff that sound downright distorted or the tracks with metal objects bashing with each other which depict the junky vibe very well. Overall the OST is absolute banger. KNoWNAME is also responsible for opening and endings. Welcome to Chaoshttps://www..com/watch?v=iHYJde1ypsabchannel=TOHOanimation is one of my favourite anime OPs at the moment. Its extremely catchy and also captures insanity of the title especially with trippy visuals of the opening itself. While inclusion of 6 ending themes in 12 episode series was a quite strange decision to make I really like them too. Also Mushroom Dreamhttps://www..com/watch?v=aPhpgGJziwabchannel=CLUmorPh sung by En Kenyu Horiuchi... Beautiful. CONCLUSION 450https://soundrive.pl/assets/front/images/content/uFacYbNGdLQejD5xTamIZcqnrttzTMro6CeGOAfqGZq8Ec1X4tBDtonsIcvsdorohedoro2jpg.jpg?4.1.4 I fell in love with Dorohedoro within the first episode. Creative worldbuilding fun characters chaos gore titties... Everythings here. After reading the manga Im overwhelmed on how Dorohedoros charm and spirit were captured here. I know Netflix adaptations can be hit or miss but here I can say good job. Cant wait for the continuation if itll be even adapted. For manga readers who havent watch anime please give it a try even despite 3D elements. For newcomers be careful since Dorohedoro is very specific show and can be too weird insane and uncomfortable for some people. NARRATIVE: 9/10 CHARACTERS: 10/10 VISUALS AND ANIMATION: 8/10 MUSIC: 10/10 ENJOYMENT: 9/10