Dorohedoro volume 16 was released in Japan a couple of months back, and I lost patience waiting for the translation, so I looked at the Japanese raw. To make a long story short, I'm now completely obsessed with Dorohedoro again in general, and Dokuga in particular. Actually, it only took this picture to get me re-obsessed with Dokuga, before I even saw 16, but 16 definitely cemented the obsession. I can't say why, since it involves a spoiler for those still waiting on the English translation, but yes, there was blood involved. I say once again, I love Dokuga for the content of his character, and not the color of his blood! Sure I only started noticing him after he got roughed up by Shin in volume 12, but nevermind that!

Dokuga is like fine tea. While the overbearing presence of the bolder, more prominent "black tea" characters eclipse him at first, Dokuga is like a green or oolong tea - more subtle, but with a richer complexity of flavor once you really start to savor it. On the surface he is calm, smart, and loyal, but after more re-reading and paying attention to details, you begin to notice how caring, considerate, sensitive, responsible, reliable, kind, humble, idealistic and adorably naive he is....... when he's not killing people... which he's really good at, by the way. ^^; But he's still much more reasonable in this than others, since he actually asks questions before attacking. Dokuga also tops my very short list of datable characters, which is quite an achievement! I'd love to have some tea with him out at some quiet spot in nature. I've even had several dreams about him, which is another rarity, and greatly strengthens my sense of connection to him as a character.

ANYWAY, I've moved Dorohedoro up to #3 on my Top 10 Anime/Manga Series list. Although my obsessions with Saint Seiya are more intense, Doro is still unquestionably better in quality. I've been hesitant to place Doro that high before since, despite its amazing story, I didn't feel as strong a personal connection to it, and so first wanted to see how it ended. But now, thanks to Dokuga and a deeper appreciation of the Doro world, it has earned this higher rank regardless of what happens. I have also added a new entry to my Favorite Pairings list, though it could hardly be called a "couple": "Ai" x Nikaido/Risu/Dokuga. Yes, it's as complicated as it sounds. It was a tough call to decide whether I liked them or Sam x Frodo better, but I settled on placing AxNRD at #8 because "Ai" wears a cap with a magic 8 ball, which corresponds to the number of his personalities. >_>;

And, of course, Dokuga is now on the Top "10" Anime/Manga Guys list. He was notoriously hard to rank, since he has qualities that resonate with Kurama, Zelgadis, Hiei, Gilbert, and Anotsu, and so could potentially play their "roles" on the list, placing him anywhere between #4 and #9. I put him at #7 to play it safe, plus that spot has an extra appreciation boost since "7" is one of my favorite numbers. There's so much politics, balancing, numerology, and "role"-playing that goes into ranking these characters, y'all have no idea. XD This puts Dokuga above Gilbert, and Vincent hasn't even made it on the list yet. D: (WHAAAT??) But I love Dokuga sooo much! (Above Gil??) I genuinely like him as a person and I feel good about this decision!! (ABOVE GIL?!?) Maybe he can be moved around later, but I really don't see him going anywhere but up. (What about Luffy??) I still like Luffy, he only got dropped to Runners Up! ^^; (And Ichigo?!?) We don't talk about Ichigo. =_=

New Ramblings added: Dorohedoro World. Cross Eyes vs. En's Cleaners added to Top 10 Anime/Manga Fights list.

The news for the month of October '11 has been moved to the Old News page and the countdown in Beliefs has been changed to Imbolc.