Dorohedoro – 09 [Ah, Flower Smoke]

This episode was mildly confusing to me. Some of you might be surprised to read that, but it’s my belief that Dorohedoro should be presenting itself in a measured, straightforward manner. These weekly assaults of new plot points and ideas are great, but their greatness is sometimes in spite of that rapid clip. Take this episode, for example. Yaku and Baku have cool powers, and it’s appropriate that Shin and Noi get truly threatening antagonists. But what about our cleaner duo makes Yaku and Baku want them as partners, specifically? Even if the show provided that bit of info (and I don’t believe it did), it wasn’t sufficiently clear. And how about Noi’s stunted growth during her devil training? The last phase was only supposed to last one year, but Shin appeared to age much more than a year during that time. Even Risu’s recovery after getting blasted with smoke, while it makes perfect sense, doesn’t gel in the moment because the show’s focus shifts to Noi. I know Dorohedoro is on a journey to a particular stopping point in the manga, but damn, can’t it hold my hand for two minutes before moving to the next checkpoint?

What I really ought to do is watch the show twice: once without taking notes or screencaps, and once while doing those things. Probably should have watched episode 8 again as a refresher, as well. But I just haven’t got the time – I’m busier than usual these days, and Dorohedoro is quite the busy show, too. This episode alone was responsible for delivering Shin and Noi’s backstory, concluding their present conflict, confirming Nikaido’s time magic, commencing En’s pursuit of her ability, healing Risu, giving Caiman a glorified cameo, diving into Fujita’s shattered confidence, suggesting his partnership with Ebisu, and the list goes on. If there’s one I ought to mention first, it’s Nikaido’s time magic, which several of you predicted in the comments. Though she didn’t appear until Vaux’s birthday celebration at the end of the episode, this was a highly important reveal. En is a real mover and shaker in the sorcerer’s realm, and his ability to target her across dimensions spells disaster for her character. Asu (her devil friend from episode 5) was right when he said, “You can’t escape them anymore.”

More central to this installment (in terms of screen time, at least) were Shin and Noi’s past and present stories. Their shared history, in particular, was my favorite part of the episode, largely because of its structure. Though the show presented the scenes as though we were time traveling, the in-universe story was told by En to Fujita and Ebisu. Thus, the man responsible for Shin and Noi’s partnership relayed their story to another pair of future partners. En himself is looking for a partner, too – the show is making it very clear how important this ritual is. The flashback itself was excellent, echoing shots of Noi eating across from Shin by setting their conversations at Flower Smoke (her uncle’s restaurant). Learning that people can train to become devils has big implications for the nature of the magic users’ world; perhaps it’s closer to an earthlike version of hell, rather than a hellish version of Earth. Noi heals her senpai in two instances here – their first encounter, and her last moment as a devil-in-training. Shin owes her his life many times over, it seems, so I’m predicting that he’ll die saving her near the story’s conclusion.

Caiman and Risu crossing paths was a neat bit of trickery on the series’ part. Their failure to recognize each other may signal that, as a commenter theorized several posts ago, Risu and the presence inside the lizard head aren’t the same. Caiman needs to chomp on people’s faces to know for sure whether they’re related to his decapitation, but even without that level of scrutiny, you’d think their stories would have converged here if they shared a sufficiently deep bond. Risu, for his part, is more concerned with someone named Aikawa – he mentions his name seconds before passing Caiman on the street. (That close timing could be its own sort of hint as to our protagonist’s identity, but Dorohedoro seems willing to keep that book closed for the time being.) As we learned last week, Aikawa was Risu’s partner before his death at the hands of a shadowy Cross-eye. Risu’s search has spanned two episodes now, so I’m expecting we’ll meet the guy sooner rather than later, or else learn that he’s dead – I just hope the show prioritizes clarity once we get there.