Dorohedoro’s English editions
Licensed in 2009, finished in 2019: the English run took nearly a decade of its own.
Dorohedoro reached English readers in two waves. First, unusually early, as digital chapters in Viz Media’s SigIKKI, the online English edition of Ikki magazine, from 2009. Then as books: 23 volumes, March 2010 to September 2019, in the large trim Viz reserved for its Ikki line.
THE PRINT RUN
Viz Media, 2010 to 2019
Volume 1 · 2010
Viz Media · 16 March 2010. US cover price $12.99. The painting is the Japanese cover, untouched.
Translation
The English text is by AltJapan, the localisation studio of Hiroko Yoda and Matt Alt. Book design is credited to Sam Elzway for volumes 1 to 21, with Izumi Evers on volume 22 and Kam Li on volume 23.
The trim
Viz published the series in the Ikki line’s larger format, roughly five and a half by eight inches, bigger than standard manga paperbacks, with the art given room to breathe. For a series drawn at this density, the trim is not a luxury.
THE SLOW LANE
How the cadence wentThree a year, then two, then one
The early run moved briskly, three volumes a year from 2010 to 2013. It settled to two or three a year behind the Japanese pace, and the final stretch crawled: volume 22 in May 2018, volume 23 in September 2019, a sixteen-month wait for the ending.
Reprints
The run has stayed alive through reprints rather than new editions. Comic shops list many volumes in second or later printings, which is the sign of a steady backlist seller: never huge, never gone.
THE LAST BOOK
The pairVolume 23, twice
The last book, in both languages
Viz kept Hayashida’s art untouched on every volume and rebuilt only the frame around it. The cover comparison page in this archive goes volume by volume through what that frame changes.
THE ART BOOK CROSSES OVER
2026Mud and Sludge, in English
Viz published the art book as a hardcover on 22 September 2026, ISBN 978-1-9747-6565-2, all 344 pages. It is the first Dorohedoro companion book to cross over, six years after the Japanese edition. The All-Star Directory remains Japanese only.