Mar 29, 2020
Before this anime was announced way back in 2018 (Back when the world wasn't so... Shall we say, "Chaotic"?) I had a joke with one of my close friends that Dorohedoro would NEVER get animated. The meticulously detailed characters & environments, the extreme gore & violence, and even the dreading atmosphere, of all things in a comic book, just did not seem like they could be be feasibly translated into an anime. So when I saw the announcement trailer, I was excited. Then I saw the first two PVs, and I was very apprehensive. Kaiman's big dumb CG head was blatantly off, the character's faces
...
didn't look right, and it was done by a director & studio that really don't have the best track record. However, the background art was beautiful, the music was bumping, and the sheer aspect of my favourite manga being brought into a different medium was enough to keep me excited. But to say I was sceptical going in was an understatement.
And then the first episode happened. My thoughts after it finished were pretty much the same as above: Kaiman head dumb, CG faces strange, backgrounds beautiful, music bumping. At this point, I was disappointed. I wanted nothing short of a masterpiece anime for this manga that I care so very much about. And even if two aspects of the show are stellar, the shittier parts of it are gonna drag it down. But the episodes kept coming, the EDs changed, the animations started to smooth out, and the CG seemed to blend better as a whole (Or maybe I just became desensitised to it, whoknows). One thing was abundantly clear though: MAPPA, the staff, and the seiyuus actually give a shit about the source material.
Whether it's the sly nods to the manga OST & Q's obvious musical influences, the fun the voice actors have with putting on different pitches & tones for the characters, the incredibly talented Shinji Kimura sneaking references into the backgrounds, or the infamous EDs that will now define the anime as something unique from the seasonal batch, there is a clear love for Dorohedoro here. Maybe a distinct lack of budget, but they made the most of what they had by giving it as much flavour and creativity as possible. (K)Now_Name killed it with the OST, and although it may not be as dark and macabre as I would of liked, it's definitely palatable and awesome enough to be enjoyable by the general public who will undoubtedly eat this up, especially when it comes to the west.
I'd say my major complaints are the CG looking off at points and the lack of certain scenes or shots that nail the atmosphere, as a means to hit a specific finishing point for the season. Though I have been holding on to the hope that the BD release have certain cuts and extended scenes to make the episodes a bit beefier, and that the current episodes are paced the way they are in order to hit the specific run time of 22 minutes for television. This is probably a pipe dream, but if it does happen due to some cosmic blessing, my score of this will shoot up to 9 or 10, depending on how much changes.
As a complete package, Dorohedoro is pretty special. I never thought it would happen, yet here I am with the first season in front of me. And surprisingly, I'm not let down. When finishing this series, I realised something: I'd much rather have an anime where the staff clearly love the source material but work with a lesser budget, than a studio who have all the budget but are just working on the series for the sake of it (Not pointing any fingers, but I feel a lot of huge anime are like that these days).
Story: 8/10
Art: 8/10
Sound: 9/10
Character 10/10
Enjoyment: 8/10
Overall: 8/10
Here's hoping for a Season 2 after all the global chaos has died down!
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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