Dokuro (毒狼, lit. "Venom Wolf" but a pun on the word "skull") is a 2005 Seinen manga by Tetsuya Saruwatari of Riki-Oh and High School Exciting Story: Tough fame.
In a Japan where religions are given numerous tax benefits and are engaged in numerous forms of economic activity, Kikuchi Takeo is the best assassin of the Nirvana Church of Creation security department's Canis division, but has turned his back on the church and wants vengeance since they corrupted his mother and turned him into a killing machine.
Not to be confused with Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-chan (though both have Gorn). Or the video game.
Tropes:
- Anti-Hero: Takeo Kikuchi is a brutal killer, but all of his victims are rotten to the core.
- Big Bad: Kanehira Aiichiro, founder of the Nirvana Church of Creation.
- Bald of Evil: Kanehira Aiichiro, who is obviously completely bald.
- Create Your Own Hero: Kanehira taking sexual advantage of and then casting Takeo's mother aside motivated him to take down the Church.
- Driven to Suicide: Takeo's mother; this is why he turns against the Church.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Kanehira's morbidly obese, psychic assistant, Kazu, becomes disgusted at Kanehira and even calls him out for being a twisted parent after he admits to her that his lifestyle matters more to him than his daughter, Reimi.
- Expy: Takeo shares a lot of similarities to Riki-Oh, sharing the same superhuman strength, stoic personality and long black hair. Which is interesting since Dukuro and Riki-Oh were both made by Tetsuya Saruwatari (though he only did the art for the latter).
- Fat Bastard: Kanehira Aiichiro is overweight and a truly repulsive monster.
- Kazu fits this trope even more, to the point of being deathly obese.
- Good All Along: Mudo, who turns out to be a mole to the Church.
- Groin Attack: Takeo rips the penis off of a prisoner who plans to rape him.
- Hate Sink: This story is full of characters like this. First we have Kanehira Aiichiro, a complete psychopath who pretends to be a kind, merciful religious leader in order to manipulate the public so he can do evil things behind closed doors. Then he we Kuwashima Junta, a vile and sadistic warden who abuses children both physically and sexually. There's also Daimon Tetsuo, a depraved prison rapist and self-admitted necrophile. And finally there's Professor Koganei, a Mad Scientist who conducts inhumane medical experiments on people.
- Hooks and Crooks: Takeo's weapon, the Fangblade Wire, is a wire with a hook at the end.
- Jerk with a Heart of Jerk / Ignored Epiphany: When Kanehira's daughter, Reimi commits suicide by slashing her own throat right in front of her father after learning that he cares more about his lifestyle and wealth than her well being, Kanehira first appears to be heartbroken and horrified over her suicide, only to turn around and say he doesn't really give a damn about her, proving her right in the process.
- Orphanage of Fear: The Church has one of these; Kawashima is the head, and children are horribly abused.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Takeo is on one for what the Church and Kanehira did to his mother.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Mudo really wants to bring down the Nirvana Church of Creation by any means necessary, even if it means pretending to be on their side while secretly killing off members of the organization.
- Would Hurt a Child: Kawashima Junta. It's even heavily implied he rapes them too.
- Villain with Good Publicity: Kanehira Aiichiro is a perfect embodiment of this trope. He portrays himself as this compassionate, noble paragon of kindness and love, but of course this is just a facade he uses to his advantage to get what he wants. And beneath that facade, he is one of the most evil, vilest villains ever seen in a manga.
