After last week’s grand slam, I was prepared for a more ordinary episode this time around. That’s pretty much what we received (by Dorohedoro’s standards, anyway), but the breakneck tempo that I complained of in mid-February returned here, forcing me to flex my neurons just to keep up with the story. Every major character barring Nikaido crossed a major speedbump in this episode, and they didn’t bother to hit the brakes first. Even without getting into the nitty gritty of the editing or direction, you can look at the four chapter titles placed throughout the episode’s run to see how many stories it was juggling. Since I’m such a big fan of Dorohedoro’s characters and setting, I wish the show would decrease its average scene count, and use the extra time to lengthen each of the ones that remain. There is an advantage to high-speed presentation, though – it creates hesitation in the mind of the viewer, which mirrors the confusion that Caiman must have experienced in the sorcerer’s realm this week.
Caiman’s reason for leaving Nikaido behind makes sense, but boy, does his time alone in a foreign world highlight his helplessness. He’s so accustomed to eating meals her meals, partnering with her on missions, and sharing her company that he can only wander the streets of the sorcerer’s world before falling ass-backwards into employment. I doubt that the horrible scar on her back is the worst injury Caiman has ever seen her sustain, since he’s previously treated her wounds as minor inconveniences, but something is different this time. My guess is the idea that she’s a sorcerer is starting to sink into his mind – two episodes ago, he learned from Jonson’s former master that Nikaido was present before his decapitation. This contradicts her account of stumbling across his headless body, not having known him beforehand. I wouldn’t be surprised if Caiman’s decision to leave her behind was rooted in whatever mental connections he’s made about Nikaido’s origins. The downside of his unconscious detective work, of course, is an empty stomach and a lonely trip through an unfamiliar realm.
Tanba and Fukuyama take him in not long after his arrival, though, and give him work at their restaurant (its similarity to the Hungry Bug must have set Caiman at ease). Both new characters are worthy additions to the cast, but for different reasons. Tanba is all about the design – his mask isn’t just a mask, but part of a full bodysuit, and his beard’s resemblance to his shark-like teeth is legendary. Tetsu Inada was a great casting decision here, as nobody else could make him sound both friendly and menacing enough to pull off that facial hair. Fukuyama, on the other hand, has a burning desire to find his “partner” (a term we’ve heard En use several times before) during the Blue Night, a three day period of celebration and magical matchmaking. While waiting to enter the festival area, Tanba chides his employee for wanting a VIP spot at En’s Blue Night party: “they live in a different world.” We already knew about the stratification of this alternate society, but that dialogue was a reminder that the mistreatment of non-magical folks isn’t the sorcerers’ only sin.
En’s preparation for the Blue Night Festival is where the episode’s jumpiness is most obvious. The director opted for digital clock displays to break up the many preparation scenes, which wouldn’t have flowed nicely without a similar gimmick. As I recall, the show used a related device in episode 3, counting down to daylight during the zombie uprising. Whether the manga employed the same trick, I’m not sure, but I can’t claim to love it. Still, the shots of the En family going through tedious formal wear fittings and entertainment screenings were fun, thanks in large part to Ebisu. Although she’s abandoned her shark costume from last time, the show has refused to remove her from the comedic spotlight, which is a great decision as far as I’m concerned. En has much more pressing concerns on his mind, however; he wants a partner with time magic, and all of the extravagances he prepared this week were in service of that hunt. The show hasn’t identified a prime candidate yet, but that will probably come next time, once the brawl for partnership rights begins in earnest. Ebisu deserves a stud with god tier smoke capacity – make it happen, show!
(I know that I didn’t mention Risu’s memory returning or Noi getting ambushed by a dangerous figure from her past, but this blogger needs sleep more than he needs to hit 1000 words. I’ll try to work them into next week’s post – yell at me in the comments if I forget).
“En has much more pressing concerns on his mind, however; he wants a partner with time magic, and all of the extravagances he prepared this week were in service of that hunt. The show hasn’t identified a prime candidate yet…”
I love this show’s attention to detail, as we do have a candidate. First, there are two clues in this episode – En’s men see a camera in the smoke shop Nikaido went inside and while he was getting measured for his suit, one of En’s men also straight-up tells him that they found evidence of a time magic user being in the shop.
Remember a couple of episodes back, when Nikaido sold a sample of her smoke? The camera footage of her entering and leaving the shop has a timestamp for both events. The timestamps are prominently centered at the top of the scene. From that scene we learned that Nikaido’s magic is both unique enough that the shop owner would both get in trouble for possessing it and thought it was valuable enough that he cleared his shop of cash to pay her. We also learned that Nikaido was willing to kill in order to keep the nature of her smoke secret. We also know she escaped to Hole as a child, vowed never to use her magic again, and is on very friendly terms with a devil.
I see the clues as pointing toward Nikaido as the time magic user. For the non-manga readers, what do you think?
Regarding Risu, a friend I watched this episode with pointed out that the Risu doll made by Turkey was really tall compared to the rest of the cast. In this episode we are introduced to Aikawa, Risu’s partner. Notice that Aikawa is just as tall as Risu. Of the characters introduced so far, only Noi, Caiman, Aikawa, and Tanba are shown to be as tall as Risu. This detail may be unimportant, but the story so far is a murder mystery with amnesia involved.
Another old detail we forgot about was in the very first episode, when Fujita was briefing En on the attack. Right after Fujita says magic doesn’t work on Caiman, En says something to the effect of “Heh! Or maybe some other magic was already affecting him”. This episode we learned that the Risu in Caiman’s mouth told Ebisu that she is the “one who got in my way”. Wouldn’t that mean that Ebisu’s transformation magic, which was regularly sold by the smoke shop mentioned earlier, was used on Caiman and is possibly interfering with whatever Risu’s magic is, resulting in Caiman being immune to magic as a result?
I’ve been spoiled on who the time magic user is, which is the main reason my post didn’t go into it. You make a strong case for your suspect, though. You were the one who pointed out the security camera footage several weeks ago when Nikaido roughed up the smoke broker, right? Looks like it came back around after all. I must have forgotten the detail about her escaping to Hole as a child, though – if that was the case, why was she working as a cleaner when she stumbled upon Caiman’s body?
Of course there’s also Nikaido’s magic door: A VHS tape with fast forward and rewind symbols on its center, and with a hourglass on the left-bottom corner.
This all could be red-herring, sure, but it point only in one direction.
Woah, that went right past me. I just went back and watched episode 3 again, and you’re right. Such a neat detail on Hayashida’s part.
Two things. Firstly, Nikaido was present in Hole before the decapitation but I think it was pretty clear that Nikaido first met Caiman when she came to the alley. Secondly, I think the main reason Caiman left Nikaido was because he didn’t want her to be in danger again. His demeanor only changed after she was badly hurt trying to help him. I’m still not sure if he has accepted that she’s a sorcerer or even really cares, especially if you look how he acts towards the sorcerers he works with. He seems to have chilled on his killing spree a bit.