The struggle between hunters and werewolves is depicted in unique art! Man or beast, who will emerge victorious in this fight to the death? Shonen Jump kicks off the search with this grim fantasy tale with a lot of style!

The 14th Gold Future Cup rookie manga competition winner is now available as a full series!

The mangaka Kawaguchi Yuuki is known to have experience as an assistant to Kohei Horikoshi, the mangaka of My Hero Academia.

Manga Name: The Hunters Guild: Red Hood (レッドフード, Reddo Fūdo)

Author: Yuki Kawaguchi

Genre: Action / Adventure / Fantasy / Shounen

Story

Heavily inspired by the Grimms brothers’ ‘Red Riding Hood’, the story makes many references to the children’s classic.

The story is centred around the existence of paranormal shapeshifting beings in the form of Werewolves (and perhaps others in the future) that terrorise human beings as defenceless hamlets and villages fall prey to their menace. People that are known as ‘Hunters’ hunt and kill these beings that continue to threaten humankind.

The protagonist of this story is known as ‘Velou’ who lives in a small hamlet which recently lost all their hunters to a werewolf that terrorises that town.

The story begins when the town’s mayor calls for ‘The Hunters Guild’ which is a guild that specialises in hunting down monsters and paranormal beings. They are infamous for being pricey but getting the job done.

Velou’s fate takes a momentous turn when ‘Grimm’, a hunter from the hunters guild arrives at their Hamlet.

Characters

Some of the characters that we have seen so far include; a classic shounen protagonist, a kind and fatherly figure and other regular shounen side characters. The series also has a strong female lead character, a character named ‘Grimm’ who is a direct reference to the main character of ‘Red Riding Hood’ is actually a lot more experienced and stronger than the protagonist.

Notable Characters

• Velou - The protagonist of the story whose parents were killed by a werewolf and is known within the hamlet of Kasoka to be good at using a musket.

• Grimm - a mysterious professional hunter who is part of the well-known ‘Hunters Guild’ who was hired by the Mayor to exterminate the werewolf that was amidst their village.

• Mayor / Oldman (by Velou) - The mayor of Kasoka Village and a strong hunter, Velou looks up to him.

World

The world of ‘The Hunters Guild - Red Hood’ is full of fantastical and supernatural creatures as well as mysterious weapons that are used by hunters. It was hinted that dragons may have existed in this world before until the humans wiped them all out.

Out of some of the few hunter weapons and gadgets that we saw in the first chapter, there were some very unique designs and concepts introduced. Mysteriously, they did not seem to be just made from magic. Although it yet is too soon to know how these gadgets are made and how they came to be.

Art

The manga has a very modern art style incorporating both digital and traditional methods. The backgrounds are very detailed and the character designs are unique and easily recognisable.

Conclusion

Overall, the art is very good, and the concept catches your eye, But as it is a newly released manga, it is difficult to know if it will build a name for itself just yet. The next few releases will be crucial for world-building, so perhaps we can expect to see more information about the characters, monsters and the rest of the world as the story develops.

The setting is intriguing and makes you want to read more. But the lack of character information and unrelatable characters can be off-putting for some.

Be sure to read and stay up to date with the manga through the Manga Plus app or website.