ドロヘドロ Season2

It feels so good to see his death animated omg. After learning his whole story at the end of part 1 it feels like there's really nowhere else to take the character, En and En gang fatigue was hitting me hard. Soooo satisfying to see him get his well deserved death, good riddance! Can't wait to spend more time with the cross eye squad and their ascent to new top crime syndicate. Dorohedoro peak incoming!!

Ai Coleman - a regular human from Hole. Received surgery from Kusakabe to turn him into a sorcerer (probably implanted a Devil Tumor in him) which gave him split personalities - Aikawa and the Cross Eyes' Boss. Risu - friend of Aikawa. Was murdered by the Cross Eyes' Boss, which activated Risu's magic, Curse, to seek revenge against CEB. At some point, Aikawa/CEB gets turned into Caiman via Ebisu's power, whom we know was selling bottles of her smoke to fund her Black Powder addiction. Lizard head gives Caiman amnesia, and prevents him turning into the CEB. But this also somehow traps Cursed Risu inside Caiman, which is why he calls Ebisu "the one who got in my way". Last episode Ebisu died, which lifted the transformation on Caiman, and then Caiman/Aikawa died, freeing Cursed Risu from his body. With nowhere to go, Cursed Risu flew back and joined with the Risu revived by Kikurage, like a soul returning to its body. Also, Aikawa/CEB probably has a regeneration type power, which is why he disappeared from the coffin, was able to regrow his head after being decapitated, and returned to life after being killed by En.

I don't think the Aikawa/Ai/Caiman/Cross Eyes' Boss thing is that simple...I had to go back and check but Ai Coleman, Aikawa and the Boss look too different from each other to be the same person. (Ai is pale and of average height with thin eyebrows, Aikawa is tan and tall with thick but neat eyebrows and sideburns, Boss's skintone is darker than Ai's yet lighter than Aikawa's, his eyebrows are bushy and he has sideburns; when Ebisu's magic dissolved and Caiman still had his memories during the fight against En he had no cross-eye marks but when Boss fights En at the end of this episode the cross-eye marks are there.) An additional mystery is the man at the end of last episode's memory bubble segment who's standing with his shirt open and eyes closed asking to die. At first I thought he must be Boss but his eyebrows are slightly different and he has no sideburns. I'm starting to wonder if it's possible for the Boss to be an entity similar to Risu's Curse, though that still doesn't explain why the Cross Eyes gang all seem to have such fond memories of the Boss. Additionally, in ep 5 Dokuga straight-up asks Caiman whether he's Aikawa and does not seem to think Aikawa and the Boss are the same person.

Yeah there's more to Ai et al, but we don't know all the info yet so I simplified a bit. There likely is a shapeshifting/transformation aspect in addition to the split personality. Last ep Aikawa's face was covered in goo, probably from when he fell into the toxic magic sludge as Ai, so maybe foreshadowing that his head can transform, like a slime type creature? (His clothes and body don't change when he swaps personalities, only his head.) I also think there might be another personality associated with the CEB, so like a kind CEB and murderous CEB, which might explain the discrepancy in Dokuga and gangs' memories of him. Dokuga also seems to know something about CEB having split personalities. Remember when they were telling the stories and everyone's was about the kind CEB, but only Dokuga's story was about psychopath CEB (how they got saved by him and followed him through the door). And CEB was the one who killed Risu, which was why Dokuga did not want to tell Risu who killed him. Also in last ep memory bubble, Aikawa has a memory of Dokuga passing him a bag, which I presume was Ebisu's smoke, to help him suppress the psychopath CEB persona.

> Ai Coleman - a regular human from Hole. Received surgery from Kusakabe to turn him into a sorcerer (probably implanted a Devil Tumor in him) which gave him split personalities - Aikawa and the Cross Eyes' Boss. I rewatched s1 as well as the s2 episodes over the past week because I couldn't remember all the details. (there really was a shitton of smaller stuff lol) What I still find confusing here is that Ai Coleman looked different than Aikawa and also had a much more meek build, so I think there is still more to it. What also doesn't add up yet, is how the Doctor recognized the wax figure of the boss as Ai Coleman when it presumably had Aikawa's face. Unless the face did look different than Aikawa, the viewer didn't get a good look at it which might have been intentional. > Aikawa/CEB probably has a regeneration type power My current theory on the magic: The boss persona was hunting powerful sorcerers and collected their heads, so I think he might either be able to absorb or replicate their powers that way (like Sylar from the TV series Heroes lol) or maybe even is able to revive/survive by "swapping" out his head. There is also a head swapping scene in the OP which I don't think was completely randomly put in. When Ai Coleman lied dead on the street, it wasn't quite clear if the head was cut off though. From the looks of it, it could be a curse similar to Risu's magic. However, if the CEB generally wants the heads, it begs the question why he split En's head instead of cutting it off. Maybe En was still too powerful so he had to make sure to prevent him from using any magic.

The show has brought up the Devil tumors so many times it has to come into play somehow. In this episode Kasukabe had to check whether Ebisu's Devil tumor was still okay, which makes me think En's head being split right in the middle means his Devil tumor was destroyed and they'll need something more than just Kikurage to get him back. My current theory is that Kasukabe and Ai collected Devil tumors from the dead sorcerers and somehow cobbled them together into a working one (the same way Kasukabe was able to reconstruct a door), and then did the surgery to implant this makeshift Devil tumor into Ai to turn him into a sorcerer. Then Ai encountered Boss and got his head added to the collection, maybe? Though again this does not explain how the wax figure of the Boss looks like Ai.

I think each different persona is in the same body and because they share similar traits but aren’t the same personality wise, their physical attributes change. They have somewhat similar abilities, different personalities and because they’ve been implanted and experimented with many different heads (sorcerers powers), they must have different powers too. Only put this together thanks to this thread here but it would explain the overlapping despite there being discrepancies.

To be fair, the entire series IS a living/breathing horror show lol As for Ebisu, I expected as much. It just feels like it's the universe's way of saying "you're too innocent/good for this world, I want to protect you from all the nastiness, but ofc there's a catch". Ebisu would obviously disagree for sure, but I think she's better off with her current state until the entire systemic discrimination of non-magic users gets sorted out or reformed. But hey, I bet she'd take being alive (albeit thoughtless) than dead-dead. Or alive but hurting--missing her parents constantly

At least Nikaido is free from the contract and shrooms, I suppose. I still don't want En to stay dead, it would actually be cool if they could team up against the cross-eye boss - or whatever that *thing* is. He seems like a real menace and I'm pretty sure he'll be out for Nikaido too since he already knows about the time magic. It was speculated before and now that we got confirmation that he (kinda) was Caiman, some earlier scenes make more sense too. (I just rewatched all episodes over the weekend. lol)

Yeah, I'm pretty sure it was the boss persona who killed Risu. And Curse still seems to be out for him too. I actually think there is still some switcheroo going on with the cross-eye boss. Dokuga mentioned the boss was super strong and weird, but generally the gang all had a nice impression of him which doesn't quite fit with the bloodlust we've seen so far. Unless he's actually nice towards other cross-eyes, we haven't seen that either yet. I mentioned this in another comment too, one more thing that doesn't add up yet is how Doc Kasukabe idenitified the wax statue of the boss as Ai Coleman but we saw in the flashback that Ai looked completely different from Aikawa and the cross-eye boss we saw in this episode.

> And now it's fujita vs crossboss.. what was fujitas power again? are we about to see a real fight I don't think Fujita stands a chance if it were to come to a fight... 😢 He seems to have some bullet-type magic. It was shown very briefly in the very first episode (of s1) when he shoots some black smoke out of his finger at Caiman. It was very ineffective tho. lol Then, during the fight with Nisebisu last episode, he shot the creature with his finger gun too before using the black powder. We didn't see the powered up version though. The aftermath looked like the "bullets" went wild, there were multiple holes and burn marks in the floor along with blood splatters and a large dent in the wall behind the dead creature with it's missing upper half of the head.

Here's something that's probably even more astonishing: Having noticed the subtitle issue, I came here to see whether anyone else experienced it. This gave me an idea, so I switched subtitles from English to German (my mother-tongue). Apparently, putting less than bare-minimum amount of effort into the subtitles is an English-Sub-issue, because the German subs have all of her lines on the respective other side of the screen AND in all capital letters to help distinguish that they belong to Kikurage.

> For some reason, they couldn't translate Kikurage's lines when someone else is talking in the scene >_< That was so annoying, they had one job! Fansubbers 20 years ago already did a better job for free. lol Style limitations are no excuse either, they *can* put subs at the top and bottom at the same time or worst case just stack the 2-3 lines in either position. I actually felt bad for En and hope he can be saved. It looks very bleak though. I mean, he's not the best guy around but he also isn't terrible towards everyone and does care a lot about his family. The cross-eye boss seems like a much worse ... *thing*.

> Besides, who doesn't enjoy it when the bad guy gets some comeuppance? That's one of the interesting things about this series. What makes you say En is the bad guy? En brought relative stability and order to the world of the sorcerers & his family essentially acts as the internal police force. The cross Eyes are the ones going around and breaking the law/killing sorcerers/ manufacturing the Black Powder. The only reason En is after Caiman in the first place is because he killed Fujita's original partner, Matsumura & his Cross Eyes connection. We are viewing the story from Caiman's perspective (usually) but none of the characters from any faction are really out to do evil.

>En brought relative stability and order to the world of the sorcerers & his family essentially acts as the internal police force. The cross Eyes are the ones going around and breaking the law/killing sorcerers/ manufacturing the Black Powder. For self-serving reasons and merely the good of his bottom line and his family. If non-sorcerers weren't treated like crap and thrown/segregated into the Hole, maybe people like the Cross-eyes never banded together and resorted to shady dealings or a life of crime. >The only reason En is after Caiman in the first place is because he killed Fujita's original partner, Matsumura & his Cross Eyes connection. That's fine and dandy, but why force Nikaido into a (partnership) contract against her will? Because he basically wants her unique time-manipulation magic all for himself. >none of the characters from any faction are really out to do evil. So just because Shin and Noi are simply doing their jobs, obeying En's orders to dispose of his enemies or 'clean up' whatever's left of them--or when En leaves all the dirty work to them--he's innocent from propagating evil because he merely ordered the hit? En kills people if it meant he could get further ahead--objectively speaking, that's bad no matter how you slice it. There's a reason Chidaruma--a devil of the highest power (the Evilest one of them all)--considers En as his favorite pet/sorcerer. I mean, you can't really spell Devil without evil. Ultimately, I do get what you're saying. While En and his family are still presented as very 'likeable' and 'cool' (which are usually the case in pop culture) **for a syndicate boss**, at the end of the day, being the boss of a (crime) syndicate that incites violence IS still bad. Being a morally gray, complex character doesn't make En not the bad guy when he's one of the obstacle that has kept Caiman and Nikaido from being together.

I agree it's getting better, but also I think they are utilizing 2D animation and hybridization too. Towards the end of season 1 there were a quite a few scenes, particularly I think Shin vs. dinosaur Ebisu? That were entirely 2D. In some ways I wish it was all 2D but that might have been too difficult/costly. No matter what there would have to be the use of it to aid in the animation since the character models, particularly Caiman, that would be really really really difficult try and animate from scratch. But anyways I am so happy this series exists and ALSO got a season 2. Maybe that means they are seeing it to the end? That would be at least 2 more seasons I think. I've been reading it since 2010 or so and I thought the design and subject matter would make it near impossible to get an anime adaptation. Very pleased to be watching what it is now.

Great questions. I've been asking myself almost all of them as well. First things first, it’s clear to me that Aikawa, Ai Coleman and the Boss are the same "person" (or at least share the same body). However, it’s not yet clear how they are related, if that makes sense. The thing is, the Boss could be anything at this point. One possibility is a split personality caused by the surgery, either due to the physical damage or related to the magic that awakened in him. We don’t even know exactly what the surgery did to him yet, anyway. I doubt it’s as simple as putting a devil tumor inside his brain since they needed a mass of sorcerer bodies just to perform the procedure. Plus, if it were that simple, he wouldn't be able to fully become a sorcerer and use magic -and we learned from Kasukabe that he experimented at least once before his apparent death as Ai Coleman- because he would lack the organs to produce smoke. So, there is definitely something more at play here. Could the Boss be a curse similar to Risu’s? Maybe that is Aikawa's magic, who knows? What exactly determines the type of magic a sorcerer has anyway? Is it the devil tumor, the smoke-producing organ or something else? One thing I'm sure of after this episode is that for the Boss to "come out" Aikawa/Ai Coleman needs to decapitate himself. Well, maybe not *needs* to, but it's something he does. Perhaps because of the pain, similar to how Caiman ripped his skin off once his memories started to come back? And yes, the character designs are very similar but different enough to throw me off, too. Not to mention the cross marks forming around his eyes. Anyway, my theory is: headaches **→** decapitation **→** the Boss. I’m assuming the reverse happens as well, though I doubt Aikawa has complete control over it. From what I understand, it takes a while for the change to happen and for his head to regrow, but maybe Kikurage sped things up in this episode. This also leads me to my crackpot theory about the final sequence of episode 6 and the Boss's powers, but I don't want this to turn into a whole essay.

Let’s start with the most recent and easiest one to explain. I think what makes the Boss so strong is his ability to distort his immediate surroundings, almost as if he’s warping reality or creating a pocket dimension. In this episode specifically, his effect on sorcerers feels similar to how the rain in Hole affects them and makes them sick. Since the rain in Hole is caused by the accumulation of smoke and Hole itself is fundamentally distorted by magic, it connects perfectly to Ai Coleman jumping into that lake, becoming "one with the Hole" and being reborn as a sorcerer. Essentially, the Boss is the physical manifestation of the distortion caused by accumulated magical residue. It’s a compelling narrative if the mangaka intends to go that route: Magic vs. its own despised byproduct. Now, onto the more disjointed and "crackpot" side of things: I suspect the beheadings serve a greater purpose than simply killing sorcerers or harvesting their devil tumors. I feel like Aikawa (as I’ll call him from now on) possesses an internal dimension where he can store people, curses, or magical powers and the beheadings are somehow the key to this. It might even be a way for him to swap personas and powers, similar to the Faceless Men in ASOIAF. The place we see at the end of Episode 6 seems to be this inner dimension, where everyone appears headless. I initially wondered if it was a purgatory of sorts, but seeing that figure roughly the size of a devil tumor almost crawling out of his mouth convinced me it’s an internal space. Plus, the imagery is strikingly similar to how Risu’s curse is physically manifested in Caiman’s throat. This would also explain how the curse ended up inside him in the first place. There’s also the dialogue about Risu leaving that place and "changing" because he stayed too long. Perhaps that’s what lies behind the Aikawa's instability and his ongoing "personality split": his mind has become a melting pot of dozens of different people. Back to Risu: Aikawa killed him while in his "Boss" persona -someone he viewed as a dear friend and comrade, hence the grief- and "stored" him, along with the curse that later manifested. I’m assuming his resurrection is what allowed him to leave, though that could also support the purgatory theory. It’s hard to say for sure. Furthermore, I believe Aikawa possesses some form of regeneration or even resurrection. He has decapitated himself and died in numerous ways, yet he always returns. In the sixth episode, there is a close-up shot of a headless body with smoke emanating from the neck. It also possible he is "burning through" the lives or powers of the sorcerers he has collected to regenerate but then again, that wouldn't explain how he was able to resurrect the very first time he died as Ai Coleman in Hole. As you can see, it's messy. There are probably many things I’ve forgotten to mention, but this is roughly it. I'm open to theorycrafting as well.

> Anyway, my theory is: headaches → decapitation → the Boss Oh shit, those are all some good questions and theories! I didn't piece together how he might decapitate himself after the headaches, but now the headless figure in the hallway makes sense too. I too think the boss persona is something similar to Risu's curse, at least the shadowy figures of both look quite similar. What still confuses me is that Ai Coleman, even after the surgery, looked completely different than Aikawa. And Kusakabe identified the wax figure as Ai Coleman which I find strange if it looked like Aikawa. Unless there is something I've missed. (which is entirely possible with how much is going on in this series lol)

That headless figure is exactly why I’m so sure about this. If you look closely enough, he’s wearing the exact same outfit as Aikawa/the Boss. Plus, he was "staring" at them intently. Also, in the pan shot right before that, the building looks isolated from the background almost as if it's in a separate space, much like at the end of the last episode. There was even a close-up shot of a headless body with smoke rising from the neck in that episode. I’ll dive deeper into this in my other reply regarding my "crack theory." If the Boss persona truly is a curse, I wonder if those crosses were originally a sign of being one before they became the symbol of the Cross-Eye gang. Even though Risu’s curse transformed completely and became its own entity, his new set of eyes still has those crosses. This could explain why the crosses disappear and reappear between Aikawa and the Boss: when the curse takes over, the crosses manifest and since Aikawa doesn't have them tattooed, they vanish when he reverts. It might be a stretch, but it’s a thought. However, this still doesn't explain why Caiman’s crosses disappeared as his memories began to return. Based on what we’ve seen and been told, a few things are certain: Ai Coleman looks identical to the wax figure of the Boss, Caiman is Aikawa and Aikawa somehow "turns" into the Boss. They are all the same person/body. In my opinion, the wax figure looking different from the Ai Coleman we saw in the Hole is simply the mangaka’s style of depicting the transition from teenager to adult. Remember how much Shin's appearance changed from his youth? It’s the same with Ai. They both grew from skinny kids into muscular figures. As for Aikawa looking different from the Boss, I’m still not sure. I mentioned how they look slightly "off" in my original reply. I can't tell if it’s an intentional exaggeration, a production inconsistency or a hint at something more. We really need to see the Boss interact with another human being -aside from just beheading them- to finalize these theories. Since he’s already here, we’ll likely see that happen in the next episode.

I wonder a bit if Caiman was inherently using that magic too which is why he is immune - it's some kind of nullification. But for some reason he couldn't cast magic and its ability was nerfed - not a sorcerer, so he wasn't affected by Hole's rain. It's pretty OP which is probably why Aikawa/???/cross-eye boss was able to kill so many people. But there was very real skill as the guy seemed to move scary fast and super accurately. Like if he hadn't known and been able to cut En's throat at at that very moment to cause blood to clog any smoke coming out he would have been screwed. Also, En can emit smoke from his fingertips too but Aikawa/??? had to wait until he chose not to do that.

Watching dorohedoro nigh effortlessly mix its goofy wholesome characters with the intense gore and horror and then other shows not being to do thar with the same grace just makes me appreciate how good dorohedoro is at setting its unique tone. I was watching FMA and thought the jokes are a lot more deliberate and stilted compared to how natural dorohedoro or golden kamuy does it. In fma often it feels like the previous scene stops in order to make a joke.