Dorohedoro - Season 1

Mushrooms! It is as if the Godlike Quentin Tarantino finally went crazy, dropped a shit ton of magic mushrooms, and started making anime series... I am not going to lie, at first, I was not that into it, the characters did not really grab me, and all the excessive gore combined with the absolutely insane comedy and ridiculous situations where the mood and atmosphere change every few seconds seemed very bizarre. Sure, the narrative involves a brilliantly conceived mystery, and to be honest, even now at the end of the first season I cannot figure out exactly what/who Caiman actually is. The world it is set in has its own charm, with Hole being a real hole and the Sorcerer's World a total freak show, which again must have been invented by someone who probably took way too many magic mushrooms. Unfortunately, I was not too keen on the inclusion of the 3D animation and had to get used to it being so jarring at times. However, as the episodes went on, Dorohedoro started to get under my skin more and more, and ultimately I now consider it one of the best anime series of the anime season Winter 2020, with huge potential for a second season. Is it the incredible imagination that someone infused the show with that makes everything so insanely (un)natural? Or could it be that everything is so really well thought out and yet so crazy that there is no chance of knowing what is going to happen next? It is helped a lot by the character design, a lot of screen time and attention is given to each of the characters, so we can really get to know most of them, and start to really like them. Moreover, I can say that this works for the characters around Caiman, and also En and his "family". The backstory of each character, how everything is connected, and how they act in certain situations, just makes them more likable from episode to episode, even though you know that none of the characters are actually good guys - the same feeling I got from Pulp Fiction, for example. In the end, I have to say that no one has managed to make me laugh as much as Ebisu did this season, although I was not very impressed with her at first! The narrative meanders beautifully and has its twists, is wonderfully complicated and involving although, it still finds time for plenty of preposterous interludes, or sometimes some completely ordinary situations like from everyday life, which give it even more complexity. As far as the action scenes are concerned, the fights are awesome, the movement is pleasantly fluid, and the fact that magic can heal any wounds means they can be incredibly brutal and gory. To top it all off, the soundtrack is really excellent! Dorohedoro was a huge surprise for me in anime season Winter 2020, and I am now looking forward to the next season and want to know the answers and how it all turns out because I just cannot figure it out on my own without getting high on magic mushrooms myself. 8.2/10. (09.01.2024)