Kara Dennison
February 20, 2025 
Titan Manga’s March 2024 slate is full of returning titles, including Alpi the Soul Sender and Burst Angel. Also in the lineup is the first volume of Dopeman: an action thriller set in a world where Japan has legalized narcotics. But it’s not just the drugs we know that people are using. There’s a special one that can unleash unbelievable powers.
Who fights the Dopemen? Who has the moral high ground? And what awaits in this alternate Japan? Read on to find more about the new release!
The Team
Dopeman hails from writer Ryo Yoshigami and artist Yuhei Ogino. Yoshigami will be a name well known to hardcore PYSCHO-PASS fans, as he’s penned both light novels and scripts for the series. He also worked as a scriptwriter for the 2022 Black Rock Shooter: Dawn Fall.
Ogino has also teamed up with MITA for the manga Kodoku no Immoral, about a man tangled up in the world of compensated dating. The series ran from 2022-2024 in Kadokawa’s Young Drago Age magazine, clocking in at 21 chapters. So what happens when these two team up for an entirely new story?
The Story
Dopeman takes place in an alternate version of Japan where all drugs, including narcotics, have been legalized. Among the drugs on the market is Icarus, which manifests unique powers in its users. Icarus users are called “Dopemen,” and their crimes would be the purview of the police department. However, it takes Dopemen to bring down Dopemen… and that’s exactly who’s at the forefront of the story.
In particular, we meet partners Tojima and Matrix. Matrix’s body can synthesize any drug; she also believes in redemption for Dopemen, preferring to arrest them rather than kill them. Tojima’s Icarus-fueled powers are not fully explained in the first volume, but they appear to combine to make him extremely difficult to kill. He, unlike his partner, wants every Dopeman dead. In this first volume, we observe them on a case. Then, we witness Matrix’s backstory prior to meeting Tojima.
The Appeal
Volume 1 of Dopeman is action-packed and fast-moving, and not every bit of information will be immediately evident. There’s a lot to learn about the team, about how the world got this way, and about the space Dopemen occupy in this new society. The whole thing clocks in at three volumes, so it will ultimately be a quick read.
While action is absolutely the immediate draw, the story goes much deeper, even in the first volume. At the center of questions of morality and justice is the divide between Tojima and Matrix. Do criminals deserve a second chance, or is there no hope for them? Who gets to make that call? While some of the manga’s viewpoints on drugs (legal and otherwise) may feel a bit out of sorts to an American reader, it’s still a fascinating and absorbing read.
