©Q Hayashida, Shogakukan, Viz Media
The April issue of Shogakukan’s Monthly Shonen Sunday magazine announced on Thursday that Q Hayashida’s Dorohedoro manga will get a new one-shot story in the magazine’s next issue on April 11, to commemorate the start of the anime adaptation’s second season.
The science-fiction manga debuted in Shogakukan’s Monthly Ikki magazine in 2000, and later moved to Hibana and then Monthly Shonen Sunday. The manga’s main story ended in September 2018. The manga’s 23rd and final compiled book volume shipped in November 2018. The manga published a special one-shot story in 2020, over a year after its finale.
Viz Media publishes the manga in English, and it describes the story in the first volume:
In a city so dismal it’s known only as “the Hole,” a clan of Sorcerers have been plucking people off the streets to use as guinea pigs for atrocious “experiments” in the black arts. In a dark alley, Nikaido found Caiman, a man with a reptile head and a bad case of amnesia. To undo the spell, they’re hunting and killing the Sorcerers in the Hole, hoping that eventually they’ll kill the right one. But when En, the head Sorcerer, gets word of a lizard-man slaughtering his people, he sends a crew of “cleaners” into the Hole, igniting a war between two worlds.
The anime adaptation’s first season debuted on Netflix in Japan in January 2020 with 12 episodes. Netflix streamed the season outside Japan in May 2020.
Yuichiro Hayashi (Garo the Animation, Garo: Divine Flame, Kakegurui) directed the first anime season at MAPPA. Hiroshi Seko (Banana Fish, Mob Psycho 100, Vinland Saga) was in charge of the series scripts. Tomohiro Kishi (91 Days, Garo -Vanishing Line-) designed the characters. (K)NoW_NAME (Sakura Quest, Fairy gone) composed the music.
The new season will debut on April 1 at 11:00 p.m. JST (10:00 a.m. EDT) on various platforms “almost simultaneously worldwide.”
Crunchyroll will stream the second season in April, and it is now streaming season 1. Season 1 is available with English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and Thai dubs worldwide, and with Japanese audio with subtitles in all regions except Japan and China. Netflix also confirmed it will stream the anime starting on April 1.
Most of the staff is returning from season 1, but Miho Sugiura is the art director for the new season. Itsuku Onishi has been promoted to the color key artist. Yuichiro Hayashi is returning to direct the new season at MAPPA. Tomohiro Kishi is returning as the character designer.
The new season was previously scheduled to debut in 2025.
Sources: Monthly Shonen Sunday April issue, Comic Natalie
