I have finally got around to reading this manga and unfortunately I am pretty disappointed. There was nothing different or unique about this and I really didn't love the art style. I will not be continuing with this volume.

I received an eARC of this title through NetGalley in return for an honest review.

I thought this manga was okay. The story is interesting, filled with a world full of werewolves and witches, the protagonist learns that not everything is as it seems. The art is well done and the story is intriguing. However, I found myself losing interest at some points as the explanation of the world seemed to be a bit of world dumping instead of finding it all out organically.

I think this manga has some potential though. There are some twists and other cool aspects that leave you wanting more by the end.

This was an interesting read for me. I think that it wasn't exactly my favorite art style, but the story was interesting. I liked the twist of the fairy tales. I will wait to see what else before I think I can fully judge the series. I give this a 3/5. Thank you to Viz Media and NetGalley for the chance to review this manga!

The artwork is ugly to me and the action scenes are hard to follow, though I am reading it on a small screen using an app, so if it was on a bigger screen or in "tree" book form it might be easier to follow. It's ugly, so I wouldn't be pressing it to my face to make it out better. I just read the dialogue and continue to where the visuals make sense, but that's just me. YMMV

I DO however like the storyline, as I don't quite know where it is going yet and I'm curious. I figured out the one twist as soon as I saw the one *spoiler* character, but that didn't bother me too much, as the "why" wasn't revealed and I hope the next few volumes give us some more into that.

This is one I am reading more for the story then for the art. I like the MCs and I can't wait to see how they do in training to join the group!

3, this has potential and I want to continue with it, stars.

My thanks to NetGalley and VIZ Media LLC for an eARC copy of this book to read and review.

Fun read, albeit short-lived in Shonen Jump. Would love more of this story. It is familiar in terms of Shonen tropes but also puts a twist on fairytale retellings and werewolves.

Velou is a young boy whose entire family is killed by werewolves, and he’s taken in by the mayor of a small hamlet. When werewolves attack the hamlet, Velou vows to protect the villagers who have given him so much. The mayor hires a hunter from the Hunters Guild to come help protect the town, but the hunter who shows up is a tiny girl. When it’s go time, though, Grimm transforms in to a voluptuous woman with terrifying fighting skills. With her suitcase of never-ending guns, she works hard to save the village and convince Velou that his future outside the village as a hunter, protecting towns all across the land.

This title was plagued with ill-timed moments of explanation. Kawaguchi loved breaking up the action scenes with moments to explain how werewolves came to be, or how the hunters' society works. Kawaguchi even pokes fun at this when an explanation starts in the middle of a fight with a werewolf - the werewolf pretends to be a student in a class, taking notes, while Grimm is the teacher lecturing at the front. Once Velou and Grimm leave the village, everything has really convenient timing in order to move the plot forward. Like they just so happen to show up at their mode of transportation on the exact day it's leaving, and would have had to wait three months for the next one to come by if they missed it. Most of the strong female characters so far also have comically proportioned chests with very small heads. A female character introduced towards the end of volume one is subjected to quite a bit of fan-service shots of her cleavage and posterior. This might be one to skip for now unless it gets a lot better down the line.
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​Sara's Rating: 5/10
Suitability Level: Grades 9-12

In this first volume, we follow Velou, who wants to get revenge on the werewolf that killed his family. His village is attacked by a werewolf and the mayor sends a message to the Hunter's Guild to send them a hunter to kill the werewolf. The hunter arrives and things get a little crazy. No spoilers here about what happens - but I'm very excited to read the next volume!

I was really excited for this series since it had an interesting premise, but I ended up dropping it. The story dragged on and there was nothing that made it stand out from other series. I found the characters and action scenes to be very forgettable. I think it has potential to become more interesting later on in the series, but I wouldn't purchase it based on the first volume alone.

Before I begin this review, I would like to thank NetGalley and Viz Media for a chance to review this title.

We’re heading into a rare category when it comes to adaptions. There have been adaptions of various subjects in the manga world, including fairy tales. Take, for example, Snow White with the Red Hair, which is loosely based on the fairy tale Snow White.
Luckily, we got a new addition in this category, The Hunters Guild: Red Riding Hood is another loosely based fairy tale.

It was written and illustrated by Yuki Kawaguchi. Our story begins with a young boy named Velou, who lives in an isolated hamlet and wants nothing more than to protect his neighbors from a werewolf that has terrorized their town. Their most skilled huntsman, the Mayor, was unable to handle the situation, so he had to hire the Hunters Guild to exterminate the werewolf. In the process, he bankrupted himself to afford their services. The town was disappointed to find that the Guild sends a small girl in a red hood named Grimm instead of a bigger hunter. Velou is skeptical of Grimm and her abilities, is there more to her than meets the eye?

The Hunters Guild: Red Hood is an interesting take on an old classic. It offers the charm of the classic story and brings readers a sense of horror and a shonen-style adventure that is filled with quirky characters and a unique way of world-building.

The first early chapters focus on Kasoka Village and Velou’s preparation to become a new Hunter and setting up the lore for this new world. The action sequences are drawn well and blended with some brief comedic moments that help keep the story enjoyable. A fun fact about the mangaka, Yuki Kawaguchi was one of Kohei Horikoshi’s assistants for My Hero Academia and is working as an assistant for Yusei Matsui.

As much as I would love to list more of what I enjoyed about this first volume, I have to be honest with the negative side of this title. With great character designs and uniquely drawn creatures, this felt more like it had a Demon Slayer premise to it. Unlike the popular shonen title, it offered readers the opportunity to enjoy and imagine a different approach to a beloved fairy tale. But at the end of the day, it is a clone of Demon Slayer.

The Hunters Guild: Red Hood Volume One introduces the protagonists and the fantasy world of the series.

The Hunters Guild: Red Hood Volume One
Written by: Yuki Kawaguchi
Publisher: Shueisha Inc.
English Publisher: VIZ Media
Release Date: December 13, 2022

The story opens in a tiny hamlet called Kasoka Village, where a orphan boy named Velou lives. In this world, werewolves are real, and they ate Velou’s parents. Unfortunately, the werewolf attacks on the village have only gotten worse over time, and the population has basically dwindled down to those who are not able-bodied enough to fight (i.e. the elderly and children). The mayor has sold everything he owns so he can hire a hunter from the Hunters Guild. When the hunter from the guild arrives, her name is Grimm and she looks like a little girl. Unfortunately, due to the cost of cancelling Grimm and requesting a new hunter causing the cost to shoot up, the village has no choice but to accept her.

Velou is assigned to act as a guide for Grimm. When the two of them find the werewolf, Velou gets a couple of surprises: the identity of the werewolf, and the fact that Grimm can transform into a woman. As it’s revealed later, Grimm is actually an adult but had a hex placed on her by a witch.

After taking down this werewolf, Grimm and Velou find themselves working together to take down a couple more werewolves that are threatening the village. Since Velou has decided he wants to protect the village, Grimm tries to use this opportunity as a learning experience. While things don’t go entirely to plan, it seems like everything works out… until an event happens that forces Velou to leave the village. Velou decides he wants to become a hunter, and the volume ends with Velou just starting out at a grueling training camp for hunter candidates.

After reading The Hunters Guild: Red Hood Volume One, I felt that Kawaguchi did a great job of establishing Velou and Grimm as characters, as well as the interactions and relationship these two have. The first five chapters of the series build the foundation for the story, and these chapters effectively establish basically everything the reader needs to know about the world, the story, and the characters before Velou sets off to become a hunter.

In the sixth chapter, the reader is introduced to two new characters: Tylty and Mylty, a set of siblings who already attempted the hunter training camp once and failed. The two of them join Velou for the next session of the training camp. With the introduction of these new characters, it’s established that the hunter training camp is quite grueling, and that only a very small percentage of each group goes on to become hunters. Considering Velou’s skills are limited, it sets the stage for Velou to potentially not make it through the camp. The training camp is just getting going as Volume One ends, so I feel confident that the focus of Volume Two will be on the training camp and whether Velou can become a hunter with his first attempt. I really don’t have a whole lot to say about the character of Tylty and Mylty yet, since they were introduced so late in the volume. The only other major character introduced in this volume is Debonair, the instructor of the training camp. Her appearances in the final chapter make it clear that she’s going to be a tough instructor.

Ultimately, The Hunters Guild: Red Hood is a story that sees a young person, who has lived in one place all their life, go through tragedy (or, in this case, multiple tragedies) and be forced to go on an adventure in order to become a hero. While this may be a standard setup for a “hero’s journey” story, the series still manages to make it interesting and not simply feel like yet another take on the hero’s journey.

When it comes to the art, I find it to be a mixed bag. There are some great panels with a lot of detail in here, and they look great. There are some panels, especially ones that feature Velou, that aren’t as detailed and make me think of some of the look and expressions that I’ve seen in the My Hero Academia manga. This kind of makes sense, though, since prior to this manga, Kawaguchi served as an assistant to Kohei Horikoshi, the creator of My Hero Academia.

Overall, I found myself enjoying this volume and I would be interested in reading the next one in the series if VIZ Media makes a digital review copy available to reviewers. If you’re a manga reader who enjoys fantasy stories featuring a young protagonist going on a “hero’s journey,” then you’ll probably like The Hunters Guild: Red Hood Volume One.

A combination of little red riding hood and werewolf folklore, with plenty of violent action sequences. This fairy tale epic starts off with a young village boy, Velou, who has been raised by the village mayor after his parents were killed by werewolves. Determined to protect his tiny hamlet, Velou wishes to become a mighty huntsman. When werewolves begin terrorizing their town and killing off the villagers, the Mayor pays the Huntsmen's Guild to send a huntsman. When a tiny girl shows up, things look grim.
It turns out the petite huntsman is actually an accomplished fighter, with a curse inflicted on her appearance. Velou is able to unlock his own abilities while helping her to eliminate the werewolves. He decides to join up with her and become a member of the Huntsman's Guild in order to protect his village and others like it.

Plenty of violent action scenes with a raw feeling to the artwork. Fans of fairy tales with a twist will enjoy this title. A little too on the nose and obvious for me, it feels like your typical hero's arc story. But if it ain't broke, why fix it?

This graphic novel, while all over the place, at times really comes together to make an interesting story. There are characters you think you recognize but realize are completely different from what you’re expecting. Red Hood probably does have some reference to Little Red Riding Hood, since Cinderella shows up later in the book. However, these are not the fairytales you grew up with. Werewolf’s are just one of the creatures once they taste human flesh, they must be killed or your entire village is done for. A small village hires a red hood, who happens to be a cursed girl/woman who is not only good at her job but recognizes talent in others. The talent that VELOU has comes from his need to protect his village and a want of revenge. After what happens in the village, he decides to try and join the hunter’s guild. We leave off at the school and find out that one of the village citizens you thought dead is still alive. This book is a quick read and is interesting enough that I think I need book number two.

This title didn't take itself too seriously, and I think that worked in its favor. The story beats follow a Red Riding Hood, but werewolf hunter type of story with some shounen adventure elements for good measure, which is fine for what it is. I was engaged with it, but not enthralled. I did like a lot of little touches in this story, The designs of the werewolves being more of a cartoonish nightmare, or a gunline being named "Chekov." This was fun, a bit average for my taste, but I still liked my time with it.

3.5 rounded up.

You all know the story of Little Red Riding Hood, and you may even know the tale of Stubbe Peter, an early werewolf. Both of those are brought together here in this title from one of Kohei Horikoshi (of <i>My Hero Academia</i> fame)'s former assistants - <i>The Hunters' Guild: Red Hood</i> is a shounen action series rooted in werewolf lore and the fairy tale known as ATU333. It's certainly a combination that makes sense - over the years, Red's story has evolved and been tinkered with to make her a much more active (and at times less active) character, and the earliest European variants make it clear that the wolf is, in fact, a werewolf. Both werewolves and LRRH also lend themselves surprisingly easily to the shounen action formula, which in this case takes Velou, a young country lad, and sets him on the path to becoming a Hunter. Naturally he first shows great ability, and just as naturally he ends up in an intense training camp, which few aspirants will come out of. The use of folklore - and one excellent last page plot twist - help this to stand on its own two feet. If you don't care for shounen action, this still may not work for you, but between the Seussian werewolf designs and the nods to various fairy tales, this is an interesting start to a series that could be a lot of fun.

This is not my preferred read at all, but it is husband approved (and he is admittedly a much bigger manga fan than I am, so his opinion does hold weight). This book is definitely gritty.

For Libraries: For adult collections

Another reimagined fairytale, "Red Hood" hits the mark by being unique in the fact that the monsters in the story are a lot more hideous and creepy than a lot of other retellings I've read. I enjoyed the concept of the story, the twist at the end of the book, and the gorgeous art. However, I didn't really connect with the characters and the plot didn't hold enough interest personally for me to read the next volume. If you're into action, adventure, and violence then I'd recommend giving this book a read.

I really liked this book. It took some pretty cool spins on fairytales. A wolf hunting Red Riding Hood has been done before, but the fact that Cinderella is a pyrokinetic witch feels both unique and completely sensible. Velou was quite a likeable character, and his relationship with the villagers, especially the mayor, was quite heartwarming. The werewolf designs were pretty unique and the action was fun. The ending caught me off guard and I'm super interested in what will happen in the next volume.

I do love it when folks rework the Grimm tales and interconnect them, and this volume gave me that. Red Hoods are hunters after werewolves, vampires and more. These creatures look super demonic while staying true to stories.
ALSO, THAT TWIST!