Voice of Vesper

Something goes wrong, and you realize you're not the same after all. And then you realize they never really understood. Once you recognize a small difference it grows exponentially, until they become something unrecognizable. You still see yourself in them, kinda. But it's like a funhouse mirror. Mocking you. You end up wishing you'd never met them at all.

My closest friends are all pretty different from me, and I think it's because when I meet someone who's Almost like me, it honestly hurts worse than if they hadn't been like me at all.

Dorohedoro dodges this trap through the raw power of good writing and panel to panel composition. Kai is a plain character. He does not have a "look" that isn't already established (minor characters have cross eyes, many wear dark clothes). He's Big and he Kills People, on paper not much different than Shin and Noi, or even Ton. But Kai is written (and lit, and paced) to have gravitas. The paneling pauses on him, bends around him, to make sure that we understand the difference.

When Kai kills people it is more awful, more violating. Gore around him is never comedic. Much like the classic slasher, even just standing and walking looks evil on him. A character like Shin is similar in profile, but a known quantity in intentions. Shin will kill people for his boss, and for Noi, and maybe for fun. This de-mystifies him - Shin can kill a character you'd prefer he didn't, but after his introduction he is no longer really "scary". Kai is a black box, who kills or spares or stands or watches for reasons we cannot know. Chidaruma lolling his tongue out is ridiculous, meant to demean his own character, but with Kai it is meant to unnerve. And it does.

Anyways thanks for sharing nothing but the sexiest and correctest takes. I dearly wish we didn't have to wait another couple of years for the fandom to cool down, read books, touch grass, grow up, and start appreciating what we've got here, but alas.

Engaging with fandom when you're almost 30 and have already seen this song and dance happen so many times is like

Intersex bodies do not need correcting, intersex bodies are not unnatural. Intersex people deserve autonomy.