Dorohedoro – 11 [See You at the Food Stall]

This episode wasted no time in picking up where the previous one left off, and right away we were hit over the head with a connection I should have made last time. The brawl at the town gate positioned Shin against Kasukabe, the doctor who saved his life during his time in Hole. You’d think that a former patient ripping off his savior’s arm with a hammer would leave a bigger impression, but sometimes Dorohedoro is in too big a hurry to emphasize those sorts of crossed paths. Not this week, though, as Shin’s easygoing nature triumphed over his bloodthirst, and we got a rare moment of cooperation between him and the gang from Hole (including Thirteen, who must be regretting his involvement by this point). For all of this show’s violence and grotesquerie, the scenes where even mafia cleaners and occultic professors manage to find common ground are among the best moments on offer.

Shin may be willing to overlook the invasion of his boss’s castle town, but En surely wouldn’t be so soft-hearted. As terrible as Shin’s backstory was revealed to be in episode 6, it’s got nothing on a childhood of forced labor, followed by a premature trip to hell. En’s pitiable history is delivered to Nikaido in the form of a biopic* (directed, starring, and written by the man himself), and though Noi describes it as “highly dramatized,” the reality of his upbringing is stark. Upbringing is the wrong term, actually – without parents to care for him, no one can be said to have brought him up. He survived on mushrooms as a baby, until one day a man came to his house and stole him away, then sold him to a smoke-sucking factory. In the film’s narration, En described the man as “probably a burglar,” but I wonder whether that’s true. With devils and farsighted sorcerers populating this other realm, there’s a good chance that En’s confinement was orchestrated by someone who wanted to control his magical development.

(* I’ve noticed that Dorohedoro loves to present backstories [among other bits of information] in alternate formats. In addition to the film we got this week, En formally narrated Shin and Noi’s shared history in episode 9. There have been a handful of dreams that accomplished similar purposes, and a couple of recipes presented in the style of cooking shows. If I missed any, let me know!)

Whether my pet theory about En’s factory work is true, it’s a fact that he was left for dead, mistaken for a corpse, dumped into hell, and rescued by Chidaruma (who’s looking more plot significant with every episode). His subsequent ascension to mushroom-themed crime boss lines up with what we already knew about his past, but it’s the story about the menacing Cross-eyed sorcerer that really stood out to me. En’s obsession with the guy is what drives him to this day, as his pursuit of a time-traveling partner has been in service of revisiting that encounter. There’s a high chance that the Cross-eye, decapitated by En’s outpouring of magic, is the same headless body that Nikaido found in the alley in Hole. If that’s the case, the presence inside Caiman may recognize En as “the one,” if and when he gets the chance to sink his teeth into En’s neck. That reality may come to pass as soon as the next episode, since Caiman is about to face off with Nikaido, and En will certainly catch wind of the fight once it breaks out.

I just hurried past a lot of content in an effort to get a prediction out there, but rather than talk too much about the pie-selling contest or new girl Asuka (Tanba’s ex-employee), I want to draw special attention to the show’s backgrounds. They always look great, of course, but they were top tier this week. The use of 3D environments was especially impressive, with tricks that allowed for quick time jumps (rotating from one side of the pie truck to the other as a full day/night cycle passed) and helped visualize a character’s change of heart (the camera doing a 180 around Caiman after he spotted Nikaido and decided not to give up on her). The steepled cathedral that overlooked the town square was magnificent, and gave Asu a perfect vantage point from which to watch the food truck showdown. And right before the ED kicked in, the space between a hostile Caiman and Nikaido was interrupted by multiple spires in the foreground, representing their now-fractured relationship. I highly doubt that all of these layouts were pulled straight from the manga, so hats off to whichever ambitious episode director handled this installment.

How long before En realizes his new partner is MIA? Will we ever see Asuka and Angel again? Was I supposed to laugh at Caiman dressing up like a woman? All these questions and more might be answered in next week’s final Dorohedoro post! See you then.