Dogsred Volume 1 Review
We don’t tend to review VIZ Media titles much on Anime UK News as we don’t get review copies, but I wanted to give my views on this title, which I purchased myself, for a few reasons. First of all, I’m a fan of ice hockey (I support my local team, Billingham Stars) so out of all the reviewers on the website I guess I’m the one WITH the most in-depth knowledge of the game. Secondly are the somewhat troubled origins of Dogsred.
While Dogsred began in 2023, it actually dates back to a manga from 2011 called Supinamarada! However, this series was unsuccessful and only ran for six volumes before publisher Weekly Young Jump dropped the title. The creator, Satoru Noda, then decided to create a totally new series: the award-winning historical hit Golden Kamuy. Once that ended, Noda, now with the extra clout he got thanks to the success of Golden Kamuy, decided to reboot Supinamarada! under the new name Dogsred, once again published by Weekly Young Jump, and indeed it has got much more attention that the original did.
Dogsred follows 15-year-old Rou Shirakawa, a brilliant figure skater who has just survived a car crash that killed his mother. Despite this, he still takes part in a tournament, and comes out on top, but his demons eventually catch up with him, and in a fit of rage he throws a chair onto the ice and knocks down a billboard listing all the sponsors. As a result of this, he is given a life-time ban from figure skating.
Rou and his younger twin sister Haruna end up moving to Hokkaido to live with their grandfather. Rou then goes out skating on a frozen lake with an ice hockey goal on it. Some local kids warn him to move away as the goal belongs to local junior hockey player who has beaten up people before for getting too close to the goal in the past. That player, Keiichi Genma, does indeed appear and attempts to knock Rou out, but thanks to his figure skating skills, Rou is able to dodge most of the attacks. However, one dodge leads him to accidentally crack the lake ice and sink the goal.
At his new junior high school, Rou finds an old goal which he plans to give to Keiichi to make amends. The school team says he can have it, but on condition he plays for the team as they are shorthanded, to which Rou reluctantly agrees. It turns out the game in question is the last the team is ever going to play as the school is closing down due to a lack of students. To make things worse, they are playing the best team around, a team which has Keiichi Genma on it, as well as many people who used to be members of Rou’s school before they ended up jumping ship.
Things start off badly, what with Rou having to play in his grandfather’s antique hand-me-down gear, and not knowing the rules of the game. He almost instantly gets sin binned for hooking (stopping an opposing player by using his stick to hook him). As the opposition is so good, all Rou’s team want to do is score just one goal – something which, despite his lack of knowledge of the game, Rou is able to help conjure up.
There are several elements worth highlighting. First, if you are new to ice hockey, do not worry. The back of the manga contains details on the main rules that feature in this opening volume. One fun thing I learned from this is that in Japan, another name for the penalty box or “pena-bako” is the “buta-bako” – the pig box. This is a good moment to mention the editing team of the manga. Translator John Werry, letterer Steve Dutro and editor Mike Montesa all do great work. In a nice touch, they’re also given their own numbers in the credits page like hockey players.
Second, the artwork is very appealing. Rou has some similarities to Golden Kamuy’s lead Saichi Sugimoto, in that Rou too has a scar on his face due to the car crash he was in. There are some peculiarities however, namely when it comes to showing the faces of the characters during the game. I’m not sure if there is a technical name for it, but if there isn’t, I’m going to coin the term “eye space” – namely, that Noda is more than happy to make some things suddenly vanish if it means you can see the eyes or indeed the entire face of certain characters.
To explain: you know how in certain manga series, you come across a character who wears glasses, then you get a shot of the character in profile, and all of a sudden the bit of the frame that covers the eyes suddenly disappears so you can see the eyes of the character and thus see their expression? In Dogsred, the grille in front of the helmet often suddenly goes away to show the eyes, or indeed the entire face. It’s one of those oddities that crops up frequently in anime and manga which feels worth commenting on. It doesn’t detract from the work, but it does at times feel a bit odd.
Third, this opening volume feels very much like a platform from which the series gets started properly in the next edition. It’s already mentioned that the school Rou is playing for is closing down, and as Rou is entering the school in his third and final year of junior high, we know that the main action in the next volume will see him starting in the first year in a more senior school.
Another way in which this is clearly a platform to other things is the manner of how Rou is able to set up his team’s goal – by which I mean that it’s a way so ridiculous it would never happen in real-life. For starters, he decides to skate on the puck. After dodging an attack from Keiichi, suddenly all of his antique gear suddenly collapses, all at once. One skate breaks, then the other does, and then his stick breaks, but he’s able to use the bottom half to pass the puck to a team mate to make the winning goal. Now, jockey sticks breaking is common enough, but for both the skates to go at the same time as all that? Like that would ever f***ing happen!
That ludicrous moment aside however, most of the manga is good, and like the best sports manga, it should appeal to those both new to the sport and those who are already fans.
