Hi! I've been reading your text posts on and off, and I think it's great that there are people like you who are discussing and analysing Dorohedoro as a literature piece which contains ideas (very simply put) that are worth looking into (even though, as you rightfully mentioned, the mangaka didn't put much needed depth into said ideas).
The thorn in my side would be Aikawa. He is such a hypocrite it genuinely makes me so freaking mad. Aikawa (Ai) wanted to be a sorcerer — but *his* life as a sorcerer in a sorcerers' world was waaay better than of an ordinary mage.
A) Aikawa was LOADED. He had a place to stay, he could afford large quantities of food, he had no trouble with funding his stupid studies. He never struggled financially, unlike Kaiman btw.
B) Aikawa is strong enough to fight and to intimidate others from starting confrontations. He stated that he could produce a little bit of smoke, and I would assume the stolen devil tumours are in Kai's head thus his to control, but that fact didn't seem to bother him in the slightest. Aikawa never knew the feeling of inferiority of being pretty much magicless in magical world, and he has never tried black powder to our knowledge.
Aikawa loved "being a sorcerer" but what about the others? His bestie Risu? The cross-eyes? Common folk? Magically disadvantaged sorcerers must constantly operate in survival mode, face discrimination, manage their lives and all the issues arising from not being privileged enough. Did he even care about those? Did he ever help in a way that really mattered? Let's also mention humans kidnapped and trafficed into the world where they are viewed either as slaves, subjects for experiments or primitive animals. Very neat. I wish him and Kirion had a conversation, it would be interesting to see, two humans living completely different lives.
That's why I feel averse to Aikawa — all the torture he goes through feels deserved for being passive, complicit and ignorant dumbass.
Anyways, would love to hear what you think, or would love to be redirected to a post if you already had made one on the topic in the past. Signing off~
That's the thing about Aikawa. He's a fucking class traitor and a coward at his core. And like the majority of characters in Dorohedoro he's deeply selfish*.
*[It is deeply fascinating to me that some of the the most altruistic characters in Dorohedoro are the Crosseyes and the Tanba pie crew]
Aikawa exists to be Ai's wish fulfilment dream life as a sorcerer and be all the things a human wanting to escape from the Hole fantasizes about sorcerer life. Being financially comfortable, being safe, living a good life free to do what he wants.
And AIkawa is extremely sensitive and avoidant of anything that would ruin his dream life or make it more difficult than he wants it to be.
Remembering his human past as a depressed teen? Would bring down the mood, distances himself so hard he gets amnesia about it.
Hates Kai b/c Kai's memories in the memory pool are unpleasant and also a reminder of all the violence that his fun time is literally built on and funded by. And other ways Kai disrupts his dream life by literally putting Aikawa's existence on occasional hiatus when Kai has control of the body and doing shit that sometimes messes up Aikawa's status quo like... killing people that AIkawa knows.
Want's his Partner Risu to quit working for the Crosseyes** b/c Aikawa doesn't like the organization that is working towards changing the status quo of the sorcerer world*** to the point of attacking and maiming Risu's coworkers. But notably never tries to help Risu find another job outside of the Crosseyes. Never really acknowledges that the only reason Risu can eat, has a place to live, and can afford to go to school is because of the Crosseyes employing him.
**[also Risu was not in danger from the Crosseyes until he told Aikawa and only AIkawa about his magic. And then Aikawa never did anything to protect Risu from Kai, even tho he knew that Risu was going to be targeted b/c that would mean interrupting his status quo and not being able to hang out with his bestie. ]
***[Regardless of Kai canonically not giving a fuck about making the world a better place, the bitches actually running the Crosseyes, Dokuga and his gang, did give a fuck about making the world a better place and Kai allowed them to act as they wish and use him as a figure head and cludgel towards bad influences in the organization.]
And speaking of Aikawa being a selfish coward! The narrative framing wants us to really feel for the horror that Aikawa is dealing with sharing a body with the evil unknowable boogeyman that is Kai. It's supposed to be sooooo torturous, so terrible. All his loved ones are in danger. He has no true control over his life. He doesn't feel like a real person.
But here's the thing? Aikawa is actively choosing not to do shit about the monster he turns into. He knows people are in danger and chooses not to warn his loved ones. He chooses to keep people in the dark [because it's easier; b/c it disrupts his desired status quo less to lie and avoid and do nothing at all].
Aikawa chooses his comfort and his fantasy life over the literal lives of people he claims to love. That's is immensely unsympathetic when one stops to actually think about what he's doing. Like yeah, he's traumatized and depressed but like? That don't excuse shit and he ain't the only traumatized and depressed bitch in this series.
And once he finally does decide to do shit about Kai? It's literally too little too late and a lot more focused on ending his own existence than like actually stopping Kai [specifically thinking about when he stabbed himself to death as a form a suicide and not really doing shit to keep his body from reviving yet again. And arguably the attempted pie suicide b/c he never explained to the Crosseyes why they shouldnt revive him].
And yeah... most of his suffering is really just kinda self inflicted.
"Aikawa loved "being a sorcerer" but what about the others? His bestie Risu? The cross-eyes? Common folk? Magically disadvantaged sorcerers must constantly operate in survival mode, face discrimination, manage their lives and all the issues arising from not being privileged enough. Did he even care about those? Did he ever help in a way that really mattered? Let's also mention humans kidnapped and trafficed into the world where they are viewed either as slaves, subjects for experiments or primitive animals. Very neat. I wish him and Kirion had a conversation, it would be interesting to see, two humans living completely different lives."
I sincerely doubt that AIkawa has ever spared a thought about helping anyone who isn't a friend of his. And even with his friends his help is... shallow and self centered.
Especially not helping the poor, disadvantaged/disabled, or slaves. Man probably actively avoids the poor areas of the sorcerer world b/c it harshes his vibes.
Very likely, I think that Aikawa would abandon any conversation bringing up his past as a human. And just as likely actively avoid people he knows are human for the same reason.
💬 0 🔁 1 ❤️ 11 · But also yeah, that's what I mean when I say that Aikawa is the worst kind of werewolf, metaphorically.
He's the kind of
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I do actually put a lot of fault on Natsuki's murder on Aikawa's cowardly class traitor ass.
By choosing to no
💬 0 🔁 2 ❤️ 9 · ya know... effectively...
Ai [in Aikawa's subconscious who is significantly weakened due to AIkawa's amnesia/wanting to fo
💬 0 🔁 4 ❤️ 21 · Rereading dorohedoro realizing why I liked Aikawa sm it's that he's so fucking horrible when you think about it he's a cla
