Akai Kiri no Naka kara
From the Red Fog

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There's only three chapters released (or at least translated) right now, so I don't know if the story will get better with time, but from what I have read I'll say this story premise had a lot of potential with poor execution. I liked the idea of a social outcast experiencing the real world for the first time, interacting with others, getting character development etc, but it just blatantly missed the mark. Rwanda escapes from his prison basement and there's no culture shock, he doesn't even get a sunburn from seeing sunlight for the first time lol, he kinda just goes around killing everyone he ... interacts with. Nothing he does ever has any consequences, and he's gotten no character development at all. Although it's only been three chapters, the story is *extremely* fast-paced (another gripe I had with it...) so at this point he should have shown some sign of struggle or character development or something. The murderings don't even serve any value as shock material because of how often they happen.

I can't express the amount of potential this manga has, although only 4 chapters have been released as of this review I'm writing it has grabbed my attention and won't let go.

For those who have read the series Record of Ragnorok and liked the character Jack the Ripper, this manga is the perfect match up for that kind of thing.

So it is better to read this series knowing that this isn't from the perspective of a good guy.

I highly recommend this for those who enjoy manga's that aren't always from the perspective of a protagonist who is trying to save everyone, but rather someone who ... hates the world and will "remove" anyone that he dislikes.

I'm a follower of the author, so I'm writing this as a fan who's also critical of their work. I'm quite passionate about this one, so this is a lengthy review, sorry.
Masae Nohara is a great artist and character designer. From their social media, you can tell they have a passion for horror and psychological settings, and they have a lot of love for the characters they created for this manga. Passion, however, can only take you so far.

"From the Red Fog" had a lot of potential, with an intriguing plot and interesting characters. Its main issue, however, is its pacing and character development. With ... it being only 25 chapters long, it tries its hardest to show the whole picture of Rwanda's story while also giving some spotlight to the other characters, but it ultimately has no time to truly develop them, which is not surprising, as it barely has enough time for its own protagonist in the first place.

As a result, every character besides Rwanda and his mother feel like they have missed potential, especially Macalo and Midwinter. Since her first appearance, Macalo seemed like she would play a bigger part in the plot with how she connected with Rwanda when they met, but she disappears for a long time and, when she makes a comeback, it's over very quickly and ultimately feels underwhelming since it has no bearing on the main story.

As for Midwinter, his backstory was very underdeveloped, as were his motivations, which were very superficial and cliché. I kept hoping the story would further develop his subplot, especially with how big the scale of his plans seemed to be, but we barely get to learn about it. By the time that arc comes to an end, it seems to get resolved off-screen, as the manga deals with his character in a way that is more of a let down considering how big of a presence he had until then.

The ending of that arc itself was fine -- it was satisfying enough, though I do wish its execution was better. Although I said that Rwanda's mom is one of the better developed characters, that isn't to say her character writing was particularly clever, and I did wish her backstory was more relevant.

Then there's the next and final arc. There's not much left of the manga at that point, so it feels more like an epilogue than anything else. The idea of exploring how Rwanda was going to deal after the end of the previous arc is a nice one, but the execution wasn't good. A lot of new characters get introduced, but there's not enough time for the reader to get invested enough to care about them even if they wanted to. The villain of this arc was very disappointing too, he honestly felt like the character with the least heart poured into, as he wasn't original at all, nor was his writing any good. I was also disappointed with how Macalo's character turned out, as she barely held any resemblance with the character we first met. The author tried to bring back some of the stuff from Rwanda's past, which would've been nice if there was enough time to actually explore it. Even with the open ending, the fact there were so many things left unresolved really bothered me.

I keep repeating the word "time", but that's because I really feel like that's the main problem here. I know the author wanted to show as much as they could with what time and power they had. However, in trying to show both Rwanda's past and present, while also trying to give attention to other characters, even minor ones, everything ended up feeling rushed, and the pacing was awkward even when it wasn't trying to rush. Had it been a lenghtier manga, there would have been more time to properly develop every plotpoint and character. Maybe we would get to see more of Rwanda's childhood and his time at the hitman organization would've had more of an impact on him. Even the last arc could've been more enjoyable once we actually connected with the new characters, even if it would still have its flaws.

I see some people complaining about the characters bringing up family and love, but I honestly feel like these are genuinely important ideas to be explored here, with the focus on Rwanda's upbringing and what brings each character to kill. There's also a short discussion about whether attachment makes you weaker or stronger, and it would've been nice to see Rwanda figure this out by himself through his connections to characters like Ivan and Macalo. But, of course, none of this gets explored past surface level, and none of the questions brought up in the later arc are any better.

My personal rating is a 6, if only because of how much I like these characters, but critically, I can only give it a 5 at best. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who knows their way around psychological manga, because the higher your standards are, the more disappointed you'll be: there probably isn't anything here you can't find somewhere else done better. If you still want to give it a try, I suggest not reading past volume 4.

There's only a dozen or so chapters out right now but this manga has still grabbed my attention and won't let go. The art is unique and fantastic and I'm a sucker for the classic historical England x blood/gore combo. Also, the three main characters are all super intriguing characters, and it's even more interesting because they're young children. The main character, Rwanda, doesn't really have a motivation at this point besides killing, whereas a lot of main characters DO have a main motive to drive the plot by this point, so that's why I give the story an 8 and all other aspects a ... 10. But Rwanda and the story have so much untapped potential so I definitely recommend checking this out.

Akai Kiri no Naka kara is a gory psychological manga that starts out pretty average and suffers an extremely bad second half.

Our main character is a boy named Rwanda. His mother is a murderer who kept him locked in her basement for all of his childhood. He manages to escape and realizes that he quite likes killing people as well. Rwanda's character is obnoxiously edgy, but he has an inner conflict that he himself doesn't seem to understand, which makes him occasionally interesting. Unfortunately, seeing as the manga is only 25 chapters long and has tons of other stupid bullshit going on, his character ... is never fleshed out beyond vague hints at his underlying loneliness.

Some other characters are: Macalo, a girl who was introduced as a kindred spirit to Rwanda and ended up being so underutilized that it made me want to throw my phone at the wall, Ivan, an annoying kid whose rivalry with the MC was so cliche, it reminded me I was reading a shonen manga, a very forgettable villain, and some forgettable side characters.

Plot-wise, the first 3 or so volumes were pretty average. The dialogue was the same cringe pretentious "is it bad to kill people?" drivel that you've read in every other psychological shonen horror manga (though, this one isn't actually horror, it's just gory). It has some weird battle shonen chapters, some almost-horror chapters, some drama chapters, all crammed into around 15 chapters to make an incohesive edgy hodgepodge. But, it wasn't horrible.

The villain reveal is when it gets good - the pacing is turned up to the max, resolving the whole conflict of the first arc in like 3 ultra rushed chapters of pure confusion, poor Rwanda's backstory gets retconned to high hell, and I was just sitting there wondering why they were rushing the ending so badly when there were still 2 more volumes left.

And then I found out...with the remaining 2 volumes, they just had to start an entirely new arc with only a strenuous connection to the first, introduce several new characters for absolutely no reason, and throw the already shaky characterization of the existing characters out of the window with no explanation.

If I haven't made it clear enough, this manga is bad. Regardless of whether or not it got axed (and believe me, it reads like it was), it is unjustifiably bad. It is not worth your time. I was honestly wondering if the mangaka kept getting bored when writing Akai Kiri no Naka kara and just decided to start new plot threads every 3 chapters.

I feel duped.

The Victorian horror vibes from the cover made me begin From the Red Fog believing that it would be at least somewhat intelligent. But no, it is not. It is a hodgepodge of messy, clashing ideas and an even worse execution rushed into a nonsensical train wreck of a finale, and in spite of only being 25 chapters long, you'll feel awash with the sense that you should've wasted your time on something less pretentious.

Every character is either a grimdark edgelord or a forgettable shounen Power-of-Friendship-Speech machine. Though I cringed a little at the protagonist's incredibly gory murder exploits, excessively traumatic backstory, and ... edgy worldview, I was willing to read through it. I thought that From the Red Fog might be a gorefest with a villain protagonist who outsmarts everyone.

I was baffled by the subsequent twists and turns. Some plot twists practically retconned the protagonist's backstory. One major character was so underutilized that their entire plotline got ignored even through the final chapter. The atmosphere at the start of the story implies that the protagonist will remain an axe-crazy loner who wants connection and gets revenge in fucked up ways, but then there's a jarring shift into everyone making cliche, preachy shounen-esque speeches about friendship and family and love. There's a timeskip that leads effectively to nowhere. There is no plot resolution. The characterization is half-assed and inconsistent throughout.

I realized, much to my misery, that this manga is an edgy, juvenile foray into exploring philosophy and human connection. The stereotypical "this serial killer is actually just lonely and doesn't understand feeeeelliiiiiings" type of story.

So if you want to read that, go ahead! But if you're anything like me, I recommend that you don't.

the big plus point is the art, its just perfect, blended perfectly.

the time in which the story was set is also very interesting... visually speaking, it gave a nice aesthetic to the work.

but in short, i expected much more from this work for what happened in the first 5 chapters...had a LOT potential.
its not a BAD work, but it could have been infinitely better developed, definitely.

hated how things happened VERY quickly, unnecessary...if there is no time to dedicate to the work, simply take a break and come back when you can to continue the work calmly and attentively.

the ending left something to be desired, but ... left an air of "to be continued"...

disappointing, i would say.

TW: Mention of Murder And also spoilers(at least till chapter 3)



I mostly agree with ekubosama senpai, the pacing is too quick and there are no real consequences (at least yet) for his murders, and he also has no regret or remorse for doing it. One reason might be his blood, which comes from his mother, which probably is one of the reasons she has a screw loose cause the dude was literally killing babysitters left and right. Other than that I see this manga being really successful if executed in the right way

Finally, I would like to end this review hoping that the series isn't ... dropped since similar things have happened with manga/manhwa I really liked and had psychological or other interesting themes and I very much think I'll like this too if executed right

I am shocked to see the reviewer here. Are we really reading the same manga? I know some reviewer here only read about 3 chapters but I already notice character development since chapter 1. How can anyone think there is no character development here? Let me explain this part as objective as possible, I will even tell you the chapter you can refer to as proof.

First of all, I'm the type of person who like character development. I won't read manga that is "killing for the sake of killing" or "This character already evil since birth". But I see this manga is not like that ... since first chapter.
This manga is not the type of manga that tell us the character is evil since birth and I know from chapter one when Will said it and Rwanda replied, "It's too late" and show some emotion there, he falter. I assume Rwanda is psychopath who since birth lack of empathy but it seems he can show emotion and as the author already mention in Rwanda's biography, I think he is more toward narcissistic personality disorder (Well, since I am not psychiatrist I can't diagnosed him but the symptoms are resemble NPD).

Rwanda said it himself "I live hidden in basement, it seems I never grew most of those feeling". And so the first thing we see is how Rwanda feel something (You can see a glimpse in chapter 1) and you can see more when Rwanda meet May. That's the type of emotion Rwanda never experience and he is scared of it so he run away by planning to kill the source of his feeling and in this case May. It will be more clear in chapter 11 and 19.

Why Rwanda kill other people? May already explain it in chapter 11. The fact that he is feeling something in the beginning, it's character development. The fact that he falter to kill May in chapter 11 and Will in chapter 1, it's character development. The fact that he is accepting his feeling in chapter 19, that's character development, little by little, naturally. So I don't know what the hell people here mean by character development. Of course he won't change to be suddenly won't kill anyone and become proper person, of course his character development will be baby step, he is been hidden in that basement his entire life. If you still don't know what is character development, you go search in google, basically it's the changes a character undergoes over the course of a story as a result of their actions and experiences. And it match this story 😂 Did he change? Yeah. The proof? A lot since chapter 1 but the most visble one is chapter 11 when he is about to cry and didn't kill May and chapter 19 when he cried and he acknowledge the feeling that he has. However small it's, it's character development, don't reduce it to "No development".

Some people here said he doesn't get any consequence. What kind of consequence? Go to prison? Tortured? Tbh I don't think Rwanda need that now. The reason is because he already experience too much bad things in his life. Until chapter 19, nothing is going right for him, even the thing he want the most, he lose it. What someone like Rwanda need is affection and kindness, if he got punishment, he will become worse, not better because he doesn't understand the significance of what he did. Can you imagine if someone suddenly told him he is a murderer and people hate him early in the story? I believe he will think something like, "So what?" But if this type of thing happen later in the story when he understand more about him, other people and experience kindness, it will affect him. If he will get punishment for killing, it will be later in story or at the end of story like Lelouch of Rebellion, Banana Fish, 91 days etc.

"The pacing is too fast"
Well, I think me and everyone else see this manga from different perspective. I see this from his character development so for me the pacing feels so natural. I see those killing as his stepping stone to understand more about himself not as "shock value". For example, in chapter 1 he kills a lot of people, it's not the matter of how many did he kill but what is the meaning of that. He kills those children because he feels something inside him is lacking. Next he kills Will and he falter a bit there. From this 2 event, we can see there is character development here for a bit. He still kill Will in the end, but the fact that he is able to falter means that he develop from previous killing which he could do without much consideration.

As you can see, this is psychological manga. As someone who read a lot of psychological manga, article about psychology, have mental illness and have many bad experience myself, I can tell this manga is on the proper side, I know at least the author doing some research on the human psychological.

Overall, I think this manga is good psychological manga that show us natural development of characters. The psychological insight also match my own experience and knowledge I have about this matter. If you like gore, you will like this.

THIS REVIEW HAS SPOILERS
The story takes itself too seriously, making the main character seem like a cartoon supervillain. So fast-paced that relationships go stale, the side characters get no screentime and when they do, they are even duller than MC. MC is trash and his killings aren't even memorials, just a stab or two. All adults in this story are trash. The side characters that are adults are torturers, abusers, killers, sadists, or rapists. I was honestly confused about why the author was trying to make it so edgy. I feel like they had to do all this awful shit to the MC so ... I would have an ounce of remorse in his killings and justify why he killed random kids. The main character kills people yet the cops somehow are so incompetent that they can't put the pieces together that it's him. The Mc got plot armor and he won't ever get consequences. Almost every character hates him and bullies the main character for no reason during the first few chapters. He also can kill a grown man, when he is about 10. Most characters introduced that you think may be important are just cheeky pricks that the MC will kill later. When you do meet the people MC stays with for a while they bring nothing to the plot but some gang shootout and no gravity knife fights, who knew kids some 3-foot kids can jump over a 7 feet tall man and slice his throat? I didn't know until I read this manga!
The MC's solution to everything is murder, he can't come up with something new? He disposes of bodies and kills people with no blood on his clothes. A whole knife fits in his pocket not cutting him too. The good thing about this is the art but the story can make even great art feel awful. Plus if people are going missing, wouldn't it be very easy to track down since so many deaths are happening in that one orphanage/laboratory where they kidnap children and "experiment" on them?? There is also some woman who does acrobatics in heels and has somehow left the dude shooting wounded with her with knives. How do you lose when you have the upper hand with a gun??? Murderer child is now in some gang and defeats adults and now is some killing pro (Of course he is). The author tried to make it like MC has an adult mind of a clever killer psychopath at age 10. Whenever it cuts to some 10 year old trying to sound smarter for his age, I just cringe.

Just don't take this as a serious read, the author was going for a serious psychological read and it failed in that. Something I would recommend that I believe would be better than this would be, Brutal: Confessions of a Homicide Investigator. It has a better plot, good and memorial killings, the people actually deserve to be killed, and a better crazy MC.

I've read the manga due to it being recommended to me from a close friend and it gravitated towards me as the protagonist was a cute yet well-drawn main character and the aesthethic from the art showcased in the manga.

It was currently at 17 chapterwhen I first read "Akai Kiri no Naka kara" and I haven't been able to turn back to it. The story is boring and isn't worth getting into unless you're able to sit down and read a poorly rushed and written story filled with shock value. The author definitely had the right idea where the manga was going but it ... fell apart when it was executed due to how over the place the entire story is.

The protagonist is a young boy named Rwanda who's held captive by his mother who's kept him locked in her basement for the duration of his childhood. He escapes the basement and from his mother, yet, realizes that he also enjoys killing people. And I must add, you will never see or learn about Rwanda and his relationship with his mother past this point.

Rwanda's character is so unbearably edgy that it's hard to sit through and understand of who he is written for as he's just unlikeable and barely interesting. He doesn't really have a personality outside of being lonely and being obsessed with killing people.
Rwanda kills or attempts to kill every character he interacts with and never faces any consequences over it, (or at least for now) and never really develops or struggles with anything other than fighting Ivan, another boy who apparently develops a bond with Rwanda.

Excluding everything mentioned so far, this manga is definitely style over substance as the art style is purely the only thing that kept me wanting to continue to read but there's so much edgy and random storytelling someone can handle before it gets too unreadable, hence why I'm dropping this manga.

2/10 - Horrific amounts of missing potential from this manga.

The pacing is just way too fast, little to no character development for anyone. The premise is interesting but there is just not sense to any of it. No motivations, no consequences or stakes. I think this manga may still have the potential to turn itself around but it's just not for me. I do like the 19th century setting. I wish the story would take more time with the characters and introducing them, the main character seems rather flat just "kill for fun" which I don't have a problem with that kind of murderer protagonist but it's not interesting or entertaining to follow him.

Given the grim cover and the setting, late 19th century England, I was hoping "From the Red Fog" would be an interesting story with a controversial protagonist, but sadly this manga turned out to be a wasted opportunity, because it's bad, really bad.

The story begins in an unspecified city in the English province and the protagonist is a boy named Ruwanda. Her mother is immediately introduced as the most ferocious killer in the world, who kept him locked up in an underground room throughout his childhood to deal with "fixing the corpses" for her. At one point he runs away and starts killing random people.
Even ... though he is presented as someone who since birth "never felt the sun's rays on him", as soon as he steps out into the outside world he doesn't suffer any kind of shock. So it completely bypasses how the outcast is supposed to experience an unfamiliar world for the first time. Ingenuities like this are innumerable, but nonetheless the story takes itself ridiculously seriously. Other examples are wanting you to believe that a frail little boy who has lived in unsanitary conditions in a cellar for 12 years has the strength to slit the throat of a large adult - the same adult by whom, on page one, he was easily blocked in an half rape scene thrown there, or that he is capable of learning fighting techniques from an expert assassin in just one night, who knows how to hold a gun without ever having seen one, who is very intelligent for his age and therefore knows how to get by in any situation.

Even wanting to leave out all this because it is still a shonen and within certain limits a little absurdity could even be tolerated, the most serious flaw is the terrible narrative rhythm: everything is too fast, often there is no continuity between the panels, so much so that it seems to be reading a series of events thought individually and stuck together without any logic. All then seasoned with trivial and embarrassing dialogues.

The secondary characters are all forgettable and have a non-existent characterization, essentially they appear and the next page they are taken out, also in the clumsy attempt to redeem the protagonist in the eyes of the reader, they are more or less all presented as bullies who want to hurt him. The adults in this manga, on the other hand, are apparently all imbeciles since no one can stop him.
After various pages in which exactly the same things follow one another, at a certain point the villain of the situation comes into play who, we don't know how, becomes aware of the protagonist's great abilities and wants to use him to dominate the world through the traffic of a some kind of drug - the platitude fair. He is presented as an apparently wealthy and influential man who has a group of henchmen on his side, the "cruelest and most evil killers", but obviously in their place he hires Ruwanda, this little killer boy found by pure chance because, quote from the text, " he will change the world”. Okay, the Victorian age became known for child labor and in the manga itself the children of the slums are shown in inhumane conditions, but this is an exaggeratedly stupid gimmick, the meeting between the two and the motivations behind their collaboration could certainly be handled more plausibly.

The psychological introspection of the protagonist is too inconsistent, the insights necessary for a story with similar premises are missing. Everything is based on the superficial picture of a childhood characterized by the sketchy figure of an absent and abusive mother, what is supposed to be his tragic inner conflict would be wanting to find friends but at the same time wanting to kill them, against the background of some tearful skit full of set phrases and comic moments badly inserted into the narrative. In fact, they clash annoyingly with the gloomy atmosphere established from the beginning, proving the lack of continuity and the ill-defined temperament of the characters. In summary, Ruwanda is not interesting at all.

The gory scenes are poorly drawn, going against what should be the horror nature of the manga itself. Faced with such scenes, being so frequent and repetitive, one remains almost indifferent, since they are absolutely devoided of pathos.

This manga is clearly the immature and pretentious work of an amateur, I struggle to understand why it has been published.
A better work with a madman as the protagonist, who succeeds in everything this manga fails in, with well-conceived gory scenes and a truly ruthless protagonist but still appreciable in his madness, is "Brutal: Satsujin Kansatsukan no Kokuhaku".

The 19th century England town setting and the art style are luring. It starts-off pretty solid, the mc had a vivid personality, unfaltering in any situation. The way he moves from place to place giving us these short arcs was also interesting. Then things got bigger and busier, past intertwined with the present and possible future, little plot twists, and curious events occur. The last arc was to be honest a bit laggy but still doesn't change the fact it was overall a really fine read. Lots of my questions remained unanswered but I feel like the ending left a safe place for a ... sequel,If the writer ever decides that...I hope they do... I wanna read more.

This manga is alright. It's just mediocre. I do like the whole victorian era vibe there is to it, but the story just doesn't stand out to me too much. The characters are okay (I just really hate Rwanda tho, dude pisses me off beyond), the art is alright and the story is well....... I guess it's also just fine too? It's just that the pacing is way too fast. They have to slow down the pacing. There was also an extremely sudden timeskip, where Rwanda is an adult now? Which was weird to me but alright.

I'm giving the manga a 5/10 for now, ... but maybe in the future I'll change my mind and give it either a higher or a lower rating.

Overall I did enjoy this manga for what it was, some edgy food to munch on. But the ending was terrible I can't lie, everything leading up to it was fun, interesting, and a good time, but everything came to a screeching unintelligible halt. I think if given more time it could have done so much better with the premise it had. But the ending we got was rushed and left so many things unresolved. It was hardly an ending, it felt like the ending of an arc to lead to more possibly interesting things, but it just stops there.

All in all, read at your ... own discretion, you may find an enjoyable time despite the ending, I did at least, but I cannot in good faith recommend this as something to read because of its disappointing finale even if it couldn't be helped.

I love this manga so much def recommend to those who love psychological stories and books but there is gore , deaths and exucutions in the manga, the main protagonist is Rwanda a killer , This manga is about killing and death if u are not a fan of death then please don't read this and he is also a kid tho overall one of my fav mangas of all time. English name for manga is " From the red Fog".
The art style to me is unique and beautiful .
There are some small plot twists that made me shocked .
I definitely recommend it ... and its short too I finished it in 2 days so yeah if ur bored try it
:)
Good Luck reading this beautiful manga