As a Canadian born in the maritime province of New Brunswick and raised on the outskirts of rural Ontario, hockey was an inescapable and overwhelming passion, seemingly everywhere I went. But as a nerdy kid who turned to anime and manga, I was outside the gravitational pull of my country’s favorite pastime, content to read about everything from Go players to seinen dark fantasy. With Dogsred’s Astounding introduction, I was finally able to embrace the best of both worlds, with the manga speaking to me on an almost spiritual level as a Canadian, seeing hockey through the eyes of Satoru Noda.
Satoru Noda released red dogs on July 27, 2023, on seinen Weekly Young Jump magazine after the sales success of Kamuy Douradowith red dogs itself being a remake of Supinamarada! The manga shows Noda’s obvious adoration for the sport popularized and perfected by generations of the Great White North. However, it’s also a captivating sports comedy that appeals to aspiring young athletes and hockey fans. Despite years of not following the sport, I felt the inevitable pull of red dogs as a manga fan and hockey playerand I’m eternally glad I did, because it’s fantastic.
Dogsred is Satoru Noda’s new hockey manga following the success of Golden Kamuy
A biweekly gem in Seinen Weekly Young Jump magazine
red dogs began its run in the summer of 2023, coincidentally the day after Oshi no Ko started your -interlude- phase after a particularly controversial subplot. It is available to North American readers through the VIZ Manga and Manga Plus reading apps, with physical release of volume #1 located on March 18, 2025. The manga follows Rou Shirakawa, the skater of the Minami-Fushimi Figure Skating Club, who scandalously rebels after record-breaking success at the All-Junior Japan Championships. His dreams of success as a figure skater were achieved, but his beloved mother wasn’t around to see it happen.
I remember seeing posts about Red dogs, like Mogura no X manga or through the VIZ Media manga portal, and despite its big selling point being the fact that it is from the creator of Kamuy Douradoone of the best seinen manga of all time, I hadn’t had time for it yet. But with my brother becoming a real hockey fan in recent years and my dad being a longtime Montreal Canadiens fan and memorabilia collector, I figured it would be an attractive way to share my passion for manga with his love of the sport. But red dogs It’s more than “the hockey manga”.
Hockey is a small but growing passion in Japan
I remember being so surprised by red dogs how I was Eye protector 21 for future One punch man manga artist Yusuke Murata, and just like American football, I didn’t think hockey was big enough in Japan to warrant a manga. Japan, however, has a long-documented love of North American sports, especially baseball, noted as early as 1964. and even more so as The New York Times. This contact sports manga is an attractive and exciting proposition for readers. Combined with Rou’s particular advantage as a top-tier figure skater, he is a natural talent on the Oino-kami High School team.
As noted in red dogs chapter #5, professional teams in North America recruit figure skaters to be their skating coaches because hockey is fundamentally about skating
red dogs it’s not just Yuri on ice or Two on ice with hockey elements. It depicts the growing camaraderie of their illustrious Japanese hockey team trying to regain first place nationally. Rou’s unorthodox but highly relevant techniques make his radical ideas and Olympic ambitions convincing. As noted in red dogs Chapter 5, Professional teams in North America recruit figure skaters to be their skating coaches because hockey is fundamentally all about skating. While the gradual lack of figure skating may affect fans hoping to see more, red dogs brings your strengths.
Satoru Noda’s Dogsred Has the Best Sports Training Arc in Years
Phallic Records, Bear Attacks and Snoopy Galore
Although the first chapters of red dogs introduce readers to Noda’s idiosyncratic and highly technical take on hockey manga, chapter 14 onwards shows the beginning of a grueling dryland training arc. Oino-kami’s methods, led by coach Nihei, are considered archaic by Rou, such as running with a 6kg Bokko to practice stickhandling. However, Rou’s Bokko is clearly more…phallic. red dogs expands that arc with endurance training enhanced even by building the team’s poker faces. With the clowning coach Nihei and the seniors trying to make the recruits smile and failing, I couldn’t help but laugh in every case.
This arc is great for introducing readers to Oino-kami’s teammates, but most notably, the unhinged wisdom of coach Nihei, probably my favorite character in red dogs. Very few training arcs are as wild as a group of students seeing a bear on campus, collectively deciding run (bad idea) and treating it as exercise. Name a recent moment wilder than a hockey coach, fresh from having his vehicle “destroyed” from behind by an errant log (his words), choosing to knock the bear over with your car, crashing into a tree, all the while surviving and rescuing your Snoopy dashboard ornament, Dare.
Dogsred Speaks to Hockey Fans and Casual Manga Readers
Boasting a historic edge with reverence for the world of hockey
red dogs consistently uses the term “ice hockey” when referring to the sport. At the same time, as a North American and, more specifically, a Canadian, I have always been raised to consider this term redundant. But this is a way to attract sports fans who are curious about the series. In the end, My heavenly hockey club introduced a shojo twist to a hockey manga nearly a decade earlier Supinamarada! Additionally, Go!! Southern Ice Hockey Club it was a shōnen spin even further back. red dogs provides a detailed, technical, hilarious and contemporary perspective on the sport.
But even general manga fans like me can appreciate the powerful camaraderie of hockey in Red dogs. When Rou finally gets an assist for his doomed team’s only goal, avoiding a terrible draw, the shot of his exhausted and jubilant team embracing him fills my heart with joy in chapter 7. The manga only catches up your first full post-training game with Sapporo Sekka High School in chapter #32. Despite this, the team feels friendly and dynamic, even when the goons on the other side of the line force them to rack up penalties, sucking their thumbs in the penalty area as penance.
Satoru Noda offers a unique perspective on 2010 Japanese hockey
Another shot on goal after Supinamarada!
Even my limited hockey experiences were quite joyful: local colleagues, our parents and I got together weekly to play floor hockey. The night I scored my first two goals, I was celebrated like a hero, especially because I won it in extra time. I feel a sense of kinship with Rou since red dogs, Tapping into the region’s hockey-loving energy and being an outsider, I’m practically a different breed. Even one of the characters, Koichi Genma, kept a poster of Patrick Roy on his bedroom wall as his NHL goalie idol, a funny coincidence, just like me.
red dogs explores the hockey fervor in the Hokkaido town of Tomakomai, which feels like something of an oasis for the sport. I identify strongly with the predominant hockey culture of my childhood, to the point where people have learned to correctly pronounce my surname in the same way as Patrick Roy’s French-speaking pronunciation. Hockey is on the minds of Noda and his red dogs characters, and it’s so wonderful to see him take another shot on goal without the puck slipping away this time. It even mentions the 2010 Winter Olympics, a wonderful and triumphant moment in Canadian hockey.
What’s fascinating red dogs is that the series was written with hockey-agnostic readers in mind, as it carefully presents the game’s intricate mechanics. Aside from Noda’s intricate writing, my complaint is that the translation doesn’t seem to show the same care and passion, like spelling Sidney Crosby as “Sydney” or referring to goalie pads as “goalie leg things.” But red dogs It’s a brilliant, magical manga experience that I now look forward to bi-weekly, and I can’t recommend it enough to any non-hockey fans in my life so they can see what they’ve been missing.
Sources: The New York Times, Mogura no X manga