Red Hood

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Alternative Titles

Synonyms: Yadokari no Kuni, The Land of Hermit Crabs, Myakunashi, No Hope, No Pulse

Japanese: レッドフード

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Information

Type: Manga

Volumes: 3

Chapters: 23

Status: Finished

Published: Jun 28, 2021 to Nov 8, 2021

Genres: Action, Adventure, Fantasy

Demographic: Shounen

Serialization: Shounen Jump (Weekly)

Authors: Kawaguchi, Yuuki (Story & Art)

Statistics

Score: 6.38¹ (scored by 9,099 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #16956²

² based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #972

Members: 18,994

Favorites: 116

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6.38

Ranked #16956Popularity #972Members 18,994

MangaShounen Jump (Weekly)Kawaguchi, Yuuki (Story & Art)

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Volumes: /3

Chapters: /23

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Synopsis

In a world of fantasy creatures and dreadful monsters, the Hunters Guild, a large agency of mercenaries, welcomes dangerous jobs of slaughtering the beasts for money. Though many rumors are spread about the greed of the hunters, no one can deny that the job always ends up being done.

When a small hamlet is plagued by a man-eating werewolf amongst its citizens, the mayor hires a hunter to take it down. Grimm—the hunter who arrives—leaves the villagers in doubt due to her childlike appearance, but, as they have no alternative, they pray that she lives up to the guild's reputation.

Velou, whose parents were eaten by a werewolf when he was young, wishes to join the hunt but is deemed too inexperienced. However, when tasked with guiding Grimm through the forests and eventually fighting the werewolf alongside her, he is invited to join the Hunters Guild. Though Velou finds the offer to exterminate werewolves enticing, he still worries about his hamlet. Grimm, intent on recruiting new hunters into the guild, decides to put his worries to rest.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Included one-shots:
Volume 2: Yadokari no Kuni (The Land of Hermit Crabs), Myakunashi (No Hope, No Pulse)
Volume 3: Red Hood (pilot)

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Background

Red Hood was published digitally as an English simulpub as The Hunters Guild: Red Hood through MANGA Plus service. The volumes have been published by VIZ Media under the Shonen Jump imprint since December 13, 2022.

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Characters

Grimm

Main

Velou

Main

Diamond, Debonair

Supporting

Bonkers, Bikjoe

Supporting

Bremen

Supporting

Cursa

Supporting

Tarpan

Supporting

Red Hood

Supporting

Lycaon

Supporting

Naraoia

Supporting

Reviews

Dec 31, 2021

ScalchopWarrior

Recommended

Little Red Riding Hood, a fairy tale as old as time, one that every kid knows in and out. And that’s just one of many stories within the ever famous Grimms’ Fairy Tales, also containing famous narratives like Hansel and Gretel, Rapunzel, and Cinderella among many others. Remixing these tales into a new kind of story is certainly not a brand new idea; movies like Disney’s famous adaptations of some tales or Hoodwinked certainly show that. However, these adaptations are most often just that; adapting the source material in often more child friendly or optimistic ways, or else using them as parody for another kind ... of story entirely. Red Hood does something else entirely, which we see as we delve in this strange, twisted world of fairy tales.

Perhaps fitting a story based on classic tales, the story of Red Hood is one of its stronger points. Without explicit spoilers, it takes what would otherwise be a dull and repetitive shounen manga story and twists it, much like it does to the stories of its origin. By the end, the story isn’t at all like what one would have believed it to be like at the start, and it gets there by means of a gripping, interesting, if sometimes cliche, narrative that keeps you invested.

By far one of Red Hood’s greatest strengths though, is its world. Pulling from the Grimm tales, the world is all at once familiar and completely new, taking these familiar tales of old and putting them through a new take that drastically changes how we view them. Stories like Cinderella and Red Riding Hood are seemingly warped and changed, forming a world of fairy tales unlike I’ve seen before. It’s truly remarkable, and something I wish could have been explored more than it was.

That lack of exploration is regretfully one of Red Hood’s primary flaws, and it really rears its head regarding the characters. While most are fine and a few even interesting, the little we got of them was simply not sufficient to make most fully fleshed characters in their own right, feel like little more than caricatures in a fairy tale novel. The beginnings of something were evident, and many have compelling character with which showed easy promise to grow, but the time was simply not given, leaving the cast feeling rather paper thin.

Lack of time leads to another of Red Hood’s issues, being its pacing. While the story runs itself fairly regularly at a decent pace at the start, the further we go into the manga’s run, the quicker and less reasonable its pacing becomes, up until the end begins to move at an absolutely breakneck speed that the limited setup it has simply cannot support. It’s an understandable issue for some unfortunate real life complications, yet one of the most notable to exist.

Red Hood’s themes are by far its most interesting aspect of the manga, mostly in how they seem to evolve in response to real life occurrences. The Shonen Jump ax is an all-too familiar fact of manga nowadays, where any series can and will be cut off at the whim of Jump, forced to rush an ending in a few chapters. For most series this is rather indicative in the reading, mostly in a sudden rushed pacing and raised stakes that clearly heads straight for the story’s endgame. And, while Red Hood is similar in that manner, there is also something else of note, that being how its themes changed to handle this sudden shift.

To say the themes completely changed wouldn’t be completely accurate; the makings of the story’s final message were certainly always present even if not always emphasized. But what I find truly remarkable is how Red Hood used its real life impending cancellation to better push its own theme, the rushed pacing and sudden conclusion almost add to the impact its message creates. It’s not something I want to spoil, as the manga is short enough to be a quick read for one to experience it themselves, but it managed to stick with me in a way no other canceled manga did.

In conclusion, Red Hood is a prime example of the unfortunate circumstances behind Shonen Jump’s trigger happy axing of manga. The series had a strong narrative and world with slightly lacking character and pacing that nevertheless had much promise, along with its interesting themes, but was cut short and thus never achieved the heights it displayed the capability to achieve.

Grade - B-

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May 5, 2022

DakimakuraThor

Mixed Feelings

Character design A1. The mangaka definitely has a thing for strong, thicc women. Can't complain. Some of the monster designs are unique, have a real old-timey eldritch horror vibe.

Story was promising at first, but felt like it lost it's direction and went really off-kilter by the end. I suppose that is par for the course for a to-be-axed manga. Just a shame to get our feet wet and then have your excitement cut short.

Would love to see this author take a crack at another series, perhaps after some serious pre-planning, world-building, and structured story pacing.

Overall, if you want to enjoy some art and feel a ...

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Jan 17, 2022

Another_Badger

Not Recommended

“Werewolves are the same as humans. They must eat, or they will starve and die. There’s nothing “good” or “evil” about it.”

- Grimm, Chapter 1

Red Hood is an interesting case of a manga that had a strong core idea but quickly lost sight of what it was trying to say. This led to an unfocused and chaotic series that ended up privileging style over story and suffering for it. If it had a more developed concept then it could have gone far but, unfortunately, it fell at the first hurdle.

The plot of Red Hood is easily its weakest and its most under-utilised element. Its ... initial premise of a young boy training to be a hunter is very reminiscent of other Shōnen titles and so it can feel like a very over-used plot starter and struggles to make Red Hood stand out amongst other publishing titles. It would have been more successful if it included a clearer focus point for the readers to work towards. For example, the Mayor could have been utilised more in the first chapter; creating a mystery that the reader could latch onto and try to uncover as the narrative progressed. Instead, there is a large enough break between his appearances that it makes his reappearance feel more like an attempt to drive up readership. This lack of clarity also leads to Red Hood quickly becoming riddled with contradictions. No moment is more obvious than in Grimm’s early speech about werewolves being neither good nor bad, instead simply fighting to survive. By creating the implication that werewolves aren’t evil, Red Hood could have explored this aspect more; presenting the werewolves as morally ambiguous or verging on sympathetic characters. Instead, this statement is immediately contradicted as the only werewolves we see are portrayed as being stereotypically evil. This inability to commit to ideas is repeated throughout Red Hood and the contradictions only become more apparent.

Perhaps Red Hood needed a stronger editorial presence to help guide it down a more certain path as it could have covered some really interesting ground. Even within the short length, we see a dense plot that has a lot happening in it. Obviously, due to the series being cancelled, the main plot points are condensed and are very fast-paced as Kawaguchi attempted to demonstrate his vision all at once. I think that, if the series had been longer, this could have developed a very interesting tale to see unfold; especially if the character development was slower and given the time to grow naturally. This would have been bolstered by how well Red Hood plays into its fairytale setting. It strikes up a rather interesting relationship with pre-existing fables which could have been explored more. Unfortunately, these moments become buried under the sheer volume of different ideas that are being pushed onto the reader; noticeable in the rather abrupt narrative changes which take place.

It is the characters who suffer most from the inconsistent tone and pacing. The two main characters are almost polar opposites of each other in terms of how they are presented but they both suffer from serious problems. Grimm, the experienced hunter, has a hex placed on her so she can only access her true strength for a couple of hours at a time. Velou is a young boy who wants to become a hunter and goes through an exam to become one, he also suddenly develops an incredible power. This is very similar to the early plot of My Hero Academia, which Kawaguchi worked on as an assistant. While it isn’t rare for previous work to influence newer stories, it can often feel like Red Hood lacks its own distinct voice. Only during the final few chapters do we see these two develop in a way that could have been really interesting. Unfortunately, it was all crammed into the final few chapters, making any character development feel like a personality transplant.

The rest of the cast is also awkwardly handled, with most of them being introduced at the same time. This makes it difficult to remember who each character is and what their skills and abilities are. There is also a reliance on backstories to build certain characters in the latter half of the manga which means readers aren’t given time to form their own opinions before being told whether we should feel sorry for a character or not. Characters who aren’t given any semblance of a backstory tend to be quite forgettable.

The art style, while reminiscent again of My Hero Academia, is striking and perfectly fits the rustic fairytale setting of Red Hood. This is especially true for the settings and character designs; in particular, the werewolves are both grotesque and interesting, offering a unique interpretation of the creatures. The other non-human designs also reflect a strong aesthetic vision that struggles to balance out the noticeable problems with Red Hood’s plot. The fights are fairly engaging and easy to read although there is little experimentation with panelling; especially when recalling previous scenes where a whole page is copied into the background with the text removed. This makes it difficult to pick out any moments of significance and comes across as a little bit lazy. There is also a reliance on the art to carry the exposition-heavy moments; usually leaning into a more comedic approach. It often creates a jarring tone that could have been handled better by committing to the more serious nature of Red Hood’s story. Much like the rest of this manga, it boils down to style over function and that can quickly alienate the reader.

Overall, Red Hood is a series that suffers from a lack of consistency and no clear direction beyond a very overused plot structure. During its later chapters, it tried to make a statement about storytelling but ended up falling into too many pitfalls itself. I wish Kawaguchi all the best for the future as he has a really interesting artistic vision, all that’s needed is a plot that can match it.

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Poll: Red Hood Chapter 18 Discussion Kuma - Nov 7, 2021	30 replies	by CaptainKenshiro »» Jul 9, 2023 8:33 PM
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Red Hood
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