Editorials
The Pure, Delightful Madness of “Dorohedoro” [Anime Horrors]
I am used to weird stuff. Art that challenges convention tends to attract me; I want art that confronts me in an abrasive way, that pushes my buttons and encourages unique angles to observe and learn from.
Yet, for the longest time, I could not get into Dorohedoro.
I started the first episode three times. The best way I can describe my initial reaction to those first two viewings is “confused.” With all its wild visuals, its equally grim and fascinating world, and all its narrative detail – Dorohedoro tosses one into the midst of chaos. This is an anime that delivers some of the most absurd characters and events I’ve seen in a long time.
That said, when I finally sat down for that third viewing, embracing all the madness being thrown at me, I eventually found myself hooked.
The Dorohedoro manga, written by Q Hayashida, made its release in 2000 – but for the sake of this article, I’ll be speaking to the 2020 Netflix anime. Please note, some spoilers ahead.
The story follows Caiman and his friend Nikaido; the former is a dude who happens to have a lizard-like head. With no memory of how he ended up with the lizard head, Caiman tracks down sorcerers, questioning them to see if they know who changed him. He does this by placing their head into his mouth, where the sorcerer then sees another man coming up from Caiman’s throat to question them.
The show takes place in one large post-apocalyptic world made up of two different dimensions: The Hole (where humans live) and the sorcerer’s world. Whereas other anime may take their time to explain world lore, Dorohedoro does so in a matter of a few seconds. Whereas other anime may take time to introduce the drive of the main protagonist, the viewer is almost immediately thrown into the jaws of Caiman.
The audience learns that Caiman wants to regain his memories and his original head. From there, the anime moves from one absurd violent event to the next. Though there are brief details provided about The Hole and the sorcerer’s world, there isn’t much to understand the overall logic of the story universe. This is where the anime initially threw me off. Within episode one, I’m watching this big lizard man shove a person in his mouth, to then see another adult inside that lizard man’s mouth, to then see another dude shoot black smoke out of his hands, to then see another dude do the same thing and turn a person into a bug.
Dorohedoro offers its exposition briefly and without any lingering. If one follows and keeps track, they’ll pick up on the fact that the black smoke is meant to represent the release of magic. Sorcerers throughout the show display different magical abilities; there’s the guy who can turn people into bugs, while there’s another who can spring mushrooms to life (and even turn people into mushrooms).
All of this is a lot to take in for a viewer going in blind. Dorohedoro counts on its audience to trust the experience; that no matter how odd things may get, how little is shared in context, or how fast the narrative may move, they will continue to follow through with the story.
At first I found myself confused about how magic worked in this universe and why there was a separation of humans and sorcerers. However, what got me scratching my head the most was the use of masks. Many of these points become clearer in time, whether there are specific story details to provide clarity or one connects the dots themselves – but there really isn’t anything that clarifies the uses of masks in Dorohedoro. Some folks have a partial mask over their mouth; other folks have full head coverings that look like animals or other objects (like a skull). My favorite character Shin has a mask that looks like a heart.
For the audience, the masks make for some wacky and badass visuals – which speaks to one of Dorohedoro’s greatest strengths. This show is wonderful to look at. Not the sort of wonderful that is soothing, but the kind that is an Alice in Wonderland-esque trip laced with extra drugs. From a plethora of color to all the bizarre masks and intriguing locales, the world of Dorehedoro is a fantastic rush.
Along with the fun visuals, the story ends up further developing, offering depth to its central premise. Caiman’s hunt to find the sorcerer that changed him ends up branching off into a greater conspiracy; while he as a character is fun to tag besides, it is the cast that surrounds him that really shines. There’s particular focus on one group involving Shin, his partner Noi, and En that is really intriguing to follow. To accompany the ever-escalating suspense is a good dose of violence. Dorohedoro’s violence ranges from, “That’s brutal” to “OH %$#@ that’s nasty!” Shin uses a hammer in combat and also has a unique magic ability to separate limbs and well… the gruesome level is a pretty brutal.
When making the decision to stop questioning world logic, allowing myself to be present in the narrative, I began to embrace the show’s chaotic nature. I stopped asking what purpose the masks served and just learned to accept them as part of the world and people’s identities. Rather than ponder why the human world was the way it was, I found myself discovering the answer a few episodes later. And though that “ah ha!” moment was nice when it arrived, I found myself already on board for the next round of craziness to come.
There is a freeing sense giving one’s self over to Dorohedoro. Though it may provoke some confusion from its audience, it is a show meant to be rolled with. There’s plenty to wonder and observe regarding characters and plot, but Dorohedoro is best experienced when the viewer accepts all the oddities at face value.
Dorohedoro’s first episode is a fun tease – it lures one in with interesting visuals and immediate action, while also displaying a small taste of the weirdness to come. If one allows themselves to go with the flow – to accept the general premise, to not question the world and bizarreness too much – they will discover one hell of a gem. From the escalating mystery and surrealness, to the fun characters and unique settings, this is an anime for those in need of something a little stranger. This is a show that thrives on madness.
Some movies are just so beloved that you can experience them through cultural osmosis without ever sitting down to actually watch them. From loving parodies to meticulous recreations of iconic scenes, memorable filmmaking lives on even after the curtains close on the silver screen. And when it comes to horror, few films can compete with the massive impact that Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining had on popular culture as a whole.
Whether or not you think the flick is a good adaptation of Stephen King’s seminal novel, 1980’s The Shining slowly but surely grew into one of the most influential genre movies ever made, inspiring everything from surprisingly heartfelt sequels to classic episodes of The Simpsons. However, not all The Shining references are created equal, and today I’d like to shine a light on six unexpected homages to Kubrick’s iconic film.
In this list, we’ll be focusing on references and Easter eggs that either came out of the blue or came from creators that you wouldn’t expect to be fans of this classic ghost story. That being said, don’t forget to comment below with your own favorite references to the Torrance family and the Overlook Hotel if you think we missed a particularly memorable one.
With that out of the way, onto the list!
5. A Nightmare on FaceTime – South Park (2012)
Regardless of the brand’s iffy reputation among former employees, the death of Blockbuster Video was a serious blow to fans of physical media. Of course, some folks were more affected by this than others, and South Park’s Randy Marsh definitely took things a little too far in the twelfth episode of the show’s sixteenth season.
Titled A Nightmare on FaceTime, the main plot of this 2012 story is a surprisingly faithful recreation of The Shining where Randy purchases an empty Blockbuster store and begins to go mad once he realizes that his investment may not have been a very good idea due to the rise of streaming and the now-defunct RedBox storefronts.
4. The Overlook Hotel Level – Ready Player One (2018)
I was never really a fan of Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One, so I viewed Stephen Spielberg’s divisive adaptation of the novel as an improvement over the source material despite having its own narrative issues. In fact, I actually prefer how Spielberg changed the story by removing several references to his own work and replacing a lengthy Blade Runner detour with an over-the-top homage to The Shining.
A CGI-heavy recreation of the film’s most iconic moments that feels like a big-budget ghost train ride set within the Overlook Hotel, this intense sequence is more of a recreation of the freaky aesthetics of The Shining rather than its mind-bending narrative. However, it’s still fun to see Spielberg make a heartfelt tribute to a filmmaker that was once his close personal friend.
3. IKEA Singapore Halloween Ad (2014)
It makes sense that commercials don’t typically borrow from the horror genre, as it might be a bad idea to scare away potential customers, but some references are just too much fun to pass up.
That’s probably why the publicists behind this Ikea ad from Singapore were allowed to turn their commercial into a genuinely unsettling recreation of Danny’s tricycle scene from The Shining. After all, nobody cares if your store is haunted so long as it offers late-night shopping hours and a large selection of merchandise that you can become lost in forever and ever…
2. The End of ‘Bondage and Beta Male Sexuality’ – Community (2014)
Community is no stranger to recreating iconic movie moments within the show, and the series had previously tackled horror tropes in episodes like the fan-favorite Epidemiology. However, the most laugh-out-loud moment on this particular list comes from a brief gag towards the end of the season five episode ‘Bondage and Beta Male Sexuality’.
The majority of this episode has nothing to do with scary movies, but there’s a brief subplot involving supporting character Chang and a possible encounter with ghosts that leads him to question his own existence. This subplot culminates in the episode’s hilarious ending where the camera zooms in on a black-and-white photograph of Chang in period clothing at some kind of celebration, just like Jack Nicholson at the end of The Shining.
However, the picture’s subtitle eventually reveals that it’s merely a conveniently placed keepsake from the ‘Old Timey Photo Club’.
1. The Overlook Hedge Maze Sequence – Zootopia 2 (2025)
Disney movies are pretty far removed from both the gruesome horror of Stephen King and the heady filmmaking of Stanley Kubrick, so I don’t think anyone was expecting the climax of last year’s Zootopia sequel to take place in an animated version of the snowy hedge maze from The Shining.
In this unexpectedly intense sequence, friend-turned-villain Pawbert Lynxley (an unhinged lynx cat played by Andy Samberg) chases our protagonists through a creepy labyrinth in a loving recreation of Jack Nicholson’s icy demise outside the Overlook Hotel. The actual ending here might be a little more child-friendly than what’s being referenced, but it’s amazing that the filmmakers were able to push the horror elements as far as they did – especially since the scene doesn’t really have anything to do with the rest of the movie.
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