Changes: Kaiman

Revision as of 23:13, 13 January 2020

Kaiman (カイマン), or the Magician Killer is the main protagonist of the manga and anime series. He is a human born in the Hole with an immunity towards magic. He has made it explicitly clear that "Kaiman" was not his actual name, but was given to him by Nikaido after he began suffering from amnesia. His lizard head being the result of a Magic User's curse, his main goal is to seek out the one to cursed him in order to change himself back. Because he can't remember who cursed him, due to his amnesia, he instead resorts to clamping his mouth around the head of every magic user he comes across, letting them see the "little man" in the back of his head before pulling them back out so he can ask them all the same question: "What did the guy inside my head say?"

Appearance

Kaiman anime design — Anime color scheme

Throughout most of the series, Kaiman, true to his moniker, takes on the appearance of a lizard-like entity. Though his body is consistently human with a tall and muscular build, his face and head have changed dramatically due to the effects of a Magic User. He most closely resembles a Caiman lizard, (though some think he looks more like an Iguana) his hair being replaced by long, very sharp spikes. It appears that despite having his head chopped off, he can regenerate it in a few days time. He sports small crosses over his eyes and wears gas masks most of the time, though he refrains from wearing them later on in the series.

Personality

Kaiman usually takes on the personality of someone arrogant and lazy, but deep inside he's rather caring and cares a lot for his best friend, Nikaido.

Rude, stubborn and prone to resolve anything with violence, there's a few things in Kaiman's mind and heart, wishing to have his normal head back, eat gyoza and having more money (in that specific order); only caring about subjects related to those three things and showing no regard or concern about anything else.

He sees Magic Users as scum, killing them in the spot after interrogating them and showing no remorse for that, he hates them and he even would start a mass slaughter in the middle of their realm to find the one responsible for his head.

He has constant nightmares about his creation and death, causing Kaiman to wake up tired, worried, scared and trying to forget them, even if sometimes they have a connection to his past.

He has shown to be easily distractible as during both his jobs he finds himself easly distracted by things.

History

Past

Main Article: Kai

Present

Patrolling Hole

For over two years, Kaiman and Nikaido have been hunting down the Magic Users that invade Hole. Before taking their lives, Kaiman engulfs their heads in his jaws, which allows a mysterious man living inside of Kaiman's mouth to identify the individual. After a few moments, Kaiman asks the magic-user what was said to them, which usually results in something along of the lines of 'He says that I'm not the one.' killing the sorcerers after that. He has obtained some notoriety in Hole among residents even as far as being dubbed the Magician Killer.

To earn money and look for answers about the Magic User who turned his head like that, he took a job in The Hospital in the Hole Section for Magic Users Victims, working with Dr. Vaux. Lazy and easy to bore, he was more a nuisance than anything else, only doing chores and asking for money to Vaux's annoyance. His infamy even reached the magic world when Kaiman and Nikaido killed Matsumura and injured Fujita, two magic users who were employed under En; a notoriously wealthy and powerful magic user.

KaimanWithoutHisMask — Kaiman Without his Mask

During an every day routine going to see the photos of his mouth to look at "The man inside his mouth", they found a Magic User trying to create a Door to the sorcerer Realm, (at this point travel between Hole and the Magic User World was restricted on En's orders to prevent any Magic User going to hole and being killed). Kaiman and Nikaido approached the small Magic User (Ebisu), chopped of their fingers to prevent the smoke output, and tear their skull mask off to reveal that she was little girl. Kaiman didn't hesitate and devoured the girl's head to interrogate her. In that moment, Fujita saved the girl by opening a door from their world and dragging her through it, her face being torn off by Kaiman's mouth in the process. Feeling down for not have an answer this time, Nikaido shows the photos, to reveal nothing more than tooth decay, to Kaiman's annoyance. _{Chapter 3}

Trying to find a cure for his head, Nikaido accompained him to Migimaru-Hole, a dangerous place far from the city to find a Magic-User called "The Acupuncturist", knowing that he have the power to change people faces. They spent a night in a rent tent and then headed to Kannon of a Thousand arms, a bar where they found him. Willing to kill him not knowing who he was, the Magic User explained to them he was a nice guy, living peacefully there and sometimes helping people. After a painful acupuncture session, they left the bar, and Kaiman suddenly felt a itch in his face, eager to see the results of the sorcerer magic, he found that his face was just shedding, to Nikaido's disgust. _{Chapter 6}

During the last Day of the Living Dead, a moment of the year when Hole's rain effect resurrect the people killed by magic users turning them into zombies, Nikaido and Kaiman were preparing to hunt zombies to collect the bodies' metal badges (a way to identify corpses after they come back to life) and exchange them for a mincer for Nikaido's restaurant. _{Chapter 7}

In the middle of their hunt, they were assaulted by En's cleaners, Shin and Noi, sent to Hole in order to find the people responsible for the murder of Matsumura and the recent deaths of other sorcerers. Kaiman fought Shin, believing it would be easy considering his immunity towards Magic. It proved to be extremely dangerous, overpowering Kaiman and even fatally wounding his head with a hammer. In the last minute he was able to engulf the cleaner's head to be interrogated by the man inside his head. Shin saw him and understood Kaiman was a serious opponent. During the fight Shin chopped off Kaiman's head with his hammer, a blood stream bursted from his neck and Shin was able to see a Cross-Eyes head with an evil grin through the blood. Noi overpowered Nikaido and before both get killed, she used her magic, revealing her as a Magic User and opened a Door to escape to the Hospital. _{Chapter 8}

Dr. Vaux assisted them the same night. Kaiman regrew his head, but kept his severed head for not been able to dispose it, Vaux teach him how to put it in formalin, cutting the spikes of the back of the head and put it in a jar, (Kaiman found this disturbing and disgusting, but kept the head anyways).

After a while he finally accepted the proposition to dissect his severed head to understand the secrets about him, during the head autopsy, the hospital had a blackout and the head was stolen (later revealed it was the man in his mouth the responsible, during a moment when the responsible for Kaiman's head wakened for been at the verge of death, and swallowed the Head before return to Kaiman mouth). _{Chapter 9}

Kaiman signed up to a underground box match against Red Brake in the Noshinto Gong to look for Nikaido after days without see her, he found a flyer about the match in her room and knew she tried to win the money price to pay for the restaurant bills (Kaiman never pay for the huge amount of gyozas he eats every day), during the match, Kaiman was strong enough to almost defeat Brake in a few punches but the boxer was empowered by magic with inhuman strength, and almost killed Kaiman, but Nikaido in the last moment killed the Magic User who run the underground box match (also a sell point for Magic User who bought the defeated humans for magic practice) leaving Brake as a fragile old man and Kaiman stuck him on the wall in a single punch, later he scold Nikaido for taking the money price (because it was dirty money made by human slavery) only for her to scold him for been the direct responsible for this mess because he never pays what he eats, Kaiman, ashamed for this, only agreed with her. _{Chapter 11}

During a trip in New year night, Vaux asked him and Nikaido to go to the house of an old friend of him, they got lost for hours in the huge mansion, warped by magic and they finally gave up, and had their new year's dinner in the kitchen room, were they found Prof. Kasukabe, an old scientist who research about Magic Users, studding the corpses of sorcerers killed by them, after a weird meeting, the Professor explained to them his research, and Kaiman chooses to go to the Magic Users Realm to track down the sorcerer responsible for his head, using an artificial door that Kasukabe made using the sorcerer's corpses. _{Chapter 13}

Going to the Magic User World

Kaiman'sMagicUserDisguise — Kaiman's Magic User Disguise

Before go the professor gave them a guide about the sorcerers culture, disguises (both with a bunny theme) and enough magic smoke spray to return when they done. Immediately after they passes through the door, in the Magic User realm, Kaiman planned to slaughter every single sorcerer they could find until they get the one who cursed him, Nikaido told him to stop it, and only kill people in places with no crowds.

They spend a couple days living in the apartment of a taxi driver Magic User that he killed in the city, Kaiman was disgusted by the weird way the sorcerers live, going into a restaurant, he tried a strange drink and got sick at the moment then pass out in the restaurant bathroom, and during a horrible nightmare, he found a name, Risu, after that, he woke up, flushed the toilet were he barfed and was almost burn by it, (a toilet directly connected to hell, which Kaiman found stupid and labelled the Magic Users as crazy weirdos). Having that sudden spur of memory he told Nikaido they needed to find the man called Risu, as the only link he had with his past. They had to leave the sorcerers realm after Nikaido tried unsuccessfully to kidnap him and headed to Hole using a smoke spray that Kasukabe gave to them, so Nikaido could have a surgery for the mushroom her back (an effect of En's magic).

Back to Hole, Questioning his choices

Back in Hole Kaiman carries his friend to The Hospital in order to let Dr. Vaux and Prof. Kasukabe to operate her, diligently helping them while they are working and giving them some tea later, he tries to cook some gyozas while vagely hearing the Professor talks about the effects of the rain in Magic Users, he does not pays too much attention, kicking the door to bring Nikaido's dinner, a charcoal-like gyozas with raw garnish inside, nevertheless she still eats them.

Vaux and Kasukabe ask the lizard head what happened to his friend to have so many wounds aside the big mushroom in her back, and shows a little card they found in her clothes, the professor explains that was made by a Devil and only high class magic users have them. Kaiman stop him knowing where this is going, and the doctors explain to him that they operated Nikaido with their own hand, her physiology is different than them, she is in fact a magic user. In that moment Kaiman hears a scream and runs to his friend room to find she is gone, quickly jumping to the streets to chase whoever kidnap her, thinking how could be possible that Nikaido didn't put a fight and got capture so easily, remembering Kasukabe's early explanation of how rain weak sorcerers.

The lizard head chase them to the sewers where he finds a giant mutant cockroach blocking the way. Kaiman engage in a fight with the creature but its unable to even scratch it and is overpowered by it, even having part of his arm rip apart, thinking there is no use to fight the monster, Kaiman escapes while the cockroach eats the piece of his flesh. Finding a door and the end of the corridor, he sees Nikaido wounded in the floor and the mysterious man yelling about how she "Doesn't have a pearl" Kaiman is about to kill him when he calls "Jonson" the giant cockroach from earlier and restrain Kaiman in the floor while the man talks about how he can become a Magic User using "Black Pearls", nothing more than human bodily waste as Kaiman yells at him. The man is about to gouge the Lizard head body when his legs are chopped and fed to Jonson to get out of the room, he bleeds to death while telling Kaiman that he saw him before his head was transformed, and his friend was there too, Vaux and Kasukabe helps Kaiman with Nikaido in his back, leaving to the hospital once again.

Kaiman'sBaseballUniform — Kaiman in his baseball uniform

In the Hungry Bug Nikaido prepares some gyozas for Kaiman when 13, a recurring customer of the restaurant comes to eat some gyozas (Kaiman is automatically pissed about this believing he want to eats his precious gyozas), Vaux also appears sulking about how they will unable to play against the Sharks (the Heiwa Clinic baseball team) unless they find another player, 13 enrolls in the team. Nikaido and Kaiman are ready to play, but Vaux is also concerned about how difficult is to finish a match thanks to Kaiman's rutless way to play, knocking unconscious everyone last year, leaving the match suspended.

Prof. Kasukabe introduces another member of the team to Kaiman and Nikaido, Jonson, the giant cockroach was found by the professor and he experimented with the creature making it docile and even teaching him to speak (only able to yell Shocking!) Kaiman is really disturbed by this. Suss (Vaux younger brother) and his friend Kink appear too to prepare the team. 13 ask Kaiman what kind of relationship he has with Nikaido, the lizard head simply replies that they are friend, 13 mentions if he don't mind if he tries to go with her, Kaiman tells that he can always try. During the baseball match Kaiman is really pissed for some reason and during his turn at the bat swings so hard that scores a home run and destroys a magic user corpse from the torture square in the process. The match is suspended thanks to Nikaido, during her turn to the bat he knock outs the clinic director with a ball directly in the face.

Kaiman stayed in Hole until the nightmares returned, now more painful and real than ever thanks to his stay in the Magic Users Realm, wondering about Risu, the only person he remembers back there, thinking how much he can remember if he goes back there again. Nikaido ask him if he wanna eat some more, and looking at her back, still recovering from the surgery to remove the mushroom from her back, Kaiman understand that he cannot let her get involve any further in his quest to find his past, leaving the hungry bug and telling her that he is going to work, he wonders about if she would recognize him the next time they met, believing he is going to look different, saying good bye in his mind, and telling how she is his only friend regardless the fact she is a Magic User. The next day in The Hospital Nikaido appears agitated and asks him where is Kaiman, the Professor explains that he appeared yesterday to use the Magic Door to the sorcerers realm, shocked, she realized that Kaiman went back there without her.

Back to the sorcerers world

In the Magic Users Realm Kaiman met Fukuyama, a Magic User bullied and almost killed in the streets. Kaiman beat one of the Magic users and the other one was killed by Tanba, Fukuyama's Boss. Grateful for saving his employee, Tanba hired Kaiman as his brute to work in his Restaurant. Living to anyone expectation, Kaiman was lazy and usually ate Tanba's meat bags (the restaurant's main dish) and then got beaten up by Tanba for doing so (so far the only character in the manga able to subdue Kaiman and even make him cry).

Kaiman sneaked in En's Mansion to look for clues about him or his past, but was found by Tanba and got beat up again. After that, spoiled the lizard head with money for some food in the festival, angering even more the boss.

Without knowing he indirectly saved Shin and Noi from Yaku and Baku, magic users who kidnapped the cleaners for the blue night, with Fukuyama's help, they killed both leaving the mansion and the cleaners safe._Chapter

Unable to sleep thanks to some recurring nightmares, Kaiman went to Kesber Park again in order to ease his head. Worring about his employee, Tanba talked with Kaiman, asking what was going on, and forcing him to accept his help with whatever he needed. When Kaiman explained the situation, and the need to find The Cross-Eyes, his boss knew exactly what to do.

He delivered a last meal to a prisoner in hell's prison, a regular customer in the cross-eyes that recognized the man inside Kaiman's mouth, as Risu, Confused and angry, he tried to understand the meaning of all that, but it was too late, and Shimizu was sucked straight to Hell and along with it, almost Kaiman and the Tanba crew were sucked to if wasn't for the opportune help of a Devil.

Kaiman'sPiemanCostume — Kaiman's Pieman Costume

Kaiman was approached by Asu, a Devil friend of Nikaido that told him to rescue her, finding out that Nikaido was kidnapped by En (tracking the magic used on her back, and incarcerate Dr. Vaux, 13, Jonson and Prof. Kasukabe in the process).

Kaiman Crafted a ridiculous suit and went with the name of Pieman, the recently married wife of Tanba who gave her figure and her life to the meatbags (Tanba was really pissed of about all that but couldn't do anything about it at that point). Tanba fired Kaiman so he could go to rescue his friend, promising he would go back for his money (even though Tanba wasn't going to paid him anything).

And fought a brainwashed Nikaido until both fell in the catacombs of the Devil Church, were Nikaido finally regained consciousness when her contract with En was removed (forcefully by staving her in the back) by Kaiman (briefly dominated by Kai inner urges to kill powerful magic users). They were helped by Asu, to escape as far as they could from En so the contract inside her would not regenerate again, and using Chota (one of the En Family Members) as a decoy by morphing him into a exact replica of Nikaido to fool En to not look for the original.

After a warm reconciliation and promising each other to watch the other back, the still cross dressed Kaiman told Nikaido they needed to go to Berith a city where Risu, they found out that Asu sent them to Mastema, a city far away from En's Mansion, nagged for be too far away from everything, they stumbled with Natsuki, a newly enrolled Cross-Eyes girl that took Kaiman as her superior thanks to the crosses in his eyes and accompanied them to her town, where they stole some clothes. The young Cross-Eyes was deceived by her superior Maki, who sold fake Black Powder to third-class addict Magic Users, when he was about to kill her for insubordination, Kaiman teamed up with her to kill Maki and Natsuki thankful for it tagged with them as a guide to go to Berith.

The trip was long and they ended in Zaga City, where they found an old abandoned school, Kaiman suddenly felt a strong headache and knew that place triggered some of his memories, eager to look for answers, he started to dig in the old building, thinking if he was a professor, student or even a janitor in there. He found an old archive with files of the students who where there, and saw Risu's picture in there, in that moment a painful shock, followed by the memories of his past self talking to Risu rushed through Kaima's head, and found out the "truth" about his past, believing that once was a Magic User, he torn the skin out of his face and entered in a catatonic state, the crosses in his eyes dissapeared too, Natsuki and Nikaido healed his wounds using a medical magic mask and continued their travel to Berith.

They crossed a couple Magic Users who wanted to kill Nikaido because they believed she was an impersonator of "Lady Nikaido" (Chota was filling the role for her) and she had to dealt with them all by herself because Kaiman was unable to move, he later told her how scary it was, because he wanted to attack all of them, even her, and could't bring himself to do that, becoming even more depressed and quiet. They ended in a luxury hostel and stayed a night in there, Natsuki told them that once they reach the Cross-Eyes headquarters, they would found Risu and the Top Officers would pay for the night in the hostel (The Cross-Eyes top officers were working in there as part timers in order to get some more money too). Eventually they relaxed and got drunk in their room, Natsuki in particular, even declaring she loved Kaiman and kissed him (more like as part of her playful nature). During the night, Nikaido approached Kaiman, still drinking but finally ok, she told him that she wanted him as a co-worker at the Hungry Bug, he was shocked, and even told her if she was ok having someone like him as a partner, and she happily said yes, because in other way she would go to bankrupt if Kaiman remained as a customer, making him finally smile.

Kaiman walked in the night wondering if he actually was a Magic User, and even attempting to use some Black Powder Natsuki gave him when they met, but in that moment he saw sorcerers with corss-eyes like he used to have, Dokuga and Tetsujo, who were looking for coins in a bending machine, Kaiman could not even grab his knife and was cornered by them, demanding to know who the hell he was and why he was going to attack them, not knowing what to do, he replied "Im Risu's friend", Dokuga told him if he was Aikawa, and Kaiman was shocked to hear that name, but in thet moment, the hostel was attacked by En, now knowing about the scam of Asu, he came to kidnap Nikaido once again, in the middle of the destruction, Natsuki found the other Cross-Eyes in there and came along with them to Berith.

KaimanNoLongerHexed — Kaiman No Longer Hexed

Kaiman tried to escape with Nikaido but En found them and finally got his showdown with Kaiman, the lizard head believed he could easily kill the Magic User because he was inmmune to magic, but En, anticipating this, seeded the air with spores and torn Kaiman from the inside out using his Mushrooms, in his final moments he was able to smash En's face, enraged, he expelled a huge amount of smoke which make the mushrooms inside Kaiman grow (at the same time that Ebisu was killed by her doppelganger) dispelling the curse in his head to let Nikaido see him with his real face one more time before dying at her arms, the curse inside him flew away and his body was retrieve by the now turned again to magic user Asu.

Main article: Aikawa

The "Second Kaiman"

During the events of The Central Department Store, a half turned Devil Nikaido found a disoriented Kaiman in the floor of the building, eager to hug and salute her lost friend, Nikaido became suspicious immediately about how could be possible that Kaiman, a being created by a series of opportune events, exist in front of her, (now knowing his origins and because The Cross-Eyes Boss is in the building) she hit him demanding to know who he was, with Kaiman only answering only in the rude and silly way he is know for.

Noticing the way the spikes of his head were cut, and the fact that this Kaiman does not remember anything after the last Day of the Living Dead, she formuled the theory that this is a "New" Kaiman, resurrected using the head torn apart by Shin a year ago and stoled by Curse (know in her room in En's mansion).

Disoriented and overwhelmed for the situation, the devil side of her took control and promised Kaiman to tell all the things he always wanted to know, who cursed his head, who he was, how his face actually looks like, but they needed to find The Store's Kitchen Knife first to get out of the building, making him confused and angry.

Finding The Black House, an entity related to The Devils, Nikaido asked it to send them to Haru, the Devil that had the Knife and after a brief pacific negotiation ended in failure, they attacked Haru, taking the Kitchen Kife from her at cost of Kaiman's life, killed by the Devil's acid breath, Nikaido went back in time to prevent this outcome and leaving the knife to her past self, who gave the Knife to his friend before banish to let the time traveling Nikaido who prevented the previous future exist.

Kaiman eventually was possessed the Ai's spirit, the other entity that have some control over the warped reality inside the Department Store, using the Knife to kill Devil Kai, (Kaiman was barely able to hold the extremely heavy weapon, but due his control of the surrounding reality, Ai was able to freely use it). Ai explained that this body is a separate being from both him and Hole, sensing no traces of Hole inside the body, and only having memories of his few years in Hole, his existence is a completely unexpected outcome to everyone involved, and Ai wasn't sure how the result of the battle will affect Kaiman, he remained possessed by the spirit until their arrive to the battle between Magic-Users and the Hole Entity.

Once Ai abandoned Kaiman's body and the mask of Aikawa dissolved from his head, Kaiman woke up disoriented, not understanding where he was or what was happening, only to find an almost fully Devil transformerd Nikaido in a mushroom suit, Kaiman Couldn't believe any of that. Chapter 146

Kaiman lend the store's kitchen knife to Risu in order to strike the final slash on Kai's body (now possessed by Ai spirit) the lizard head asked who he was, Risu simply replied "For you, a nobody". Once the last head was cut, Kai emerged once more for the final laugh before the room became dark, acid started to flow to our characters feet and after screams and call for help, a creature came from the now empty lake of refuse, Chidaruma declared that all the people inside the store died, and went to receive the creature, he named it, Hole.

KaimanFreakOut — Kaiman during most of the chapter

Kaiman woke up inside a strange place, and with him, Nikaido, in her normal form completely naked, he started to talk about how a bulky man was pretending to be her and to put some clothes. She explains that they are now inside her, and that was the only way to save him, he looks through some holes and spots Kawajiri in the floor, still not understanding anything, he almost drops the kitchen knife, this infuriates Nikaido and she kicks him out of her body, outside, he finds out that Kawajiri saved them teleporting them to the black house, but he was only able to grab Nikaido (with the lizard head inside) so he could not save Risu.

In that moment Nikaido started the final phase of transformation, becoming a full devil (the process was quite disturbing and Kaiman was quite scared to look at her). After find out that Store, the creature from where the knife comes, was there with them after demote all the devils inside the house back to magic users, Kaiman was attacked by Zombie Kasukabe, who pursue him until the lizard head had enough and slapped the professor to cut it out. Chapter 149

Trivia

It is shown that Aikawa/Kaiman are actually a split personality of Ai Coleman
In a twisted way, Kaiman, even amnesic, kept doing his previous work (like The Boss), by killing Magic Users indiscriminately, maintaining traits from both, Aikaway's and Kai's personalities.
Kaiman's head design in the chapter 1 is strongly reminiscent to a caiman head, this design was altered almost immediately in future chapters, giving him a more lizard-like head, with a short snout and more human eyes. His body was also altered, from a slim figure to a bulky and heavy muscle appearance.
It was revealed in a interview of Q Hayashida in 2006 that she tends to start every chapter of the manga where Kaiman is present drawing him in his true form, overdrawing his head later. Reference
For some unexplained reason after Ai left the second Kaiman body the Crosses in his eyes disappeared.

@@ Line 2: / Line 2: @@
 Part Time Job at [[Restaurant Tanba]]</strike>
-Part time job at [[Hungry Bug]]|Magic = None|Weapon = [[Combat Knives]] (Bought at the Central Department Store)|Mask = Personally-Modified Gas Mask|Volume = [[Volume 1]]|chapter = [[Chapter 1]]|Image Gallery = [[Kaiman/Image_Gallery|Kaiman Image Gallery]]|Voice Actor = Wataru Takagi|Episode = [[Episode 01]]}}
+Part time job at [[Hungry Bug]]|Magic = None|Weapon = [[Combat Knives]] (Bought at the Central Department Store)|Mask = Personally-Modified Gas Mask|Volume = [[Volume 1]]|chapter = [[Chapter 1]]|Image Gallery = [[Kaiman/Image_Gallery|Kaiman Image Gallery]]|Voice Actor = Wataru Takagi|Episode = [[Episode 1]]}}
 '''Kaiman '''(カイマン), or the '''Magician Killer''' is the main protagonist of the [[Dorohedoro|manga]] and anime series. He is a human born in the [[:Category:Hole|Hole]] with an immunity towards magic. He has made it explicitly clear that "Kaiman" was not his actual name, but was given to him by [[Nikaido]] after he began suffering from amnesia. His lizard head being the result of a [[Magic User]]'s curse, his main goal is to seek out the one to cursed him in order to change himself back. Because he can't remember who cursed him, due to his amnesia, he instead resorts to clamping his mouth around the head of every magic user he comes across, letting them see the "little man" in the back of his head before pulling them back out so he can ask them all the same question: ''"What did the guy inside my head say?"''