Being a Canadian born in the Maritime province of New Brunswick and raised on the edge of rural Ontario, hockey was an inescapable, all-consuming passion seemingly anywhere I went. But as a nerdy child who drifted towardanimeand manga, I was outside the gravitational pull of my nation’s favorite pastime, content instead with reading about everything from Go players toseinen dark fantasy. WithDogsred’ssurprising introduction, I finally got to embrace the best of both worlds, with the manga speaking to me on a near-spiritual level as a Canadian, seeing hockey through the eyes of Satoru Noda.
Satoru Noda launchedDogsredon August 11, 2025, in the seinenWeekly Young Jumpmagazine following the best-selling success ofGolden Kamuy, withDogsreditself being a remake ofSupinamarada!The manga showcases Noda’s obvious adoration for the sport popularized and perfected by generations of the Great White North. However, it’s also an endearing sports comedy appealing to aspiring young athletes and hockey fans. Despite years of not following the sport,I felt the inevitable pull ofDogsredas a manga fan and hockey dabbler, and I’m eternally glad I did, because it’sfantastic.
Dogsred Is Satoru Noda’s New Hockey Manga Following Golden Kamuy’s Success
A Biweekly Gem in the Seinen Weekly Young Jump Magazine
Dogsredbegan its run in the Summer of 2023, coincidentally the day afterOshi no Kobegan its-interlude-phase following a particularly controversial subplot. It’s available for North American readers via VIZ Manga and the Manga Plus reader apps,with a physical release of volume #1 being localized on July 16, 2025. The manga follows Rou Shirakawa, Minami-Fushimi Figure Skating Club’s ace skater, who outrageously rebels after a record-setting success at the All-Junior Japan Championships. His dreams of success as a figure skater were attained, but his beloved mother wasn’t around to see it happen.
Dogsredessentially tells much of the same story fromSupinamarada!, down to referencing the Spin-O-Rama 360-spin play meant to feint before taking a shot on goal, making up for the muted reception to Noda’s first outing with his hockey manga serial.
I remember seeing posts aboutDogsred,such as fromManga Mogura on Xor through VIZ Media’s manga portal, and despite its massive selling point being that it’s from the creator ofGolden Kamuy, one of thebest seinen manga ever, I’d not gotten around to it. But with my brother becoming a veritable hockey fiend in the past couple of years and my father being a lifelong Montreal Canadiens fan and memorabilia collector, I figured it’d be an appealing way to share my manga passion with their love for the sport.ButDogsredis more than “the hockey manga.”
Dogsred Remixes Contact Sports and Figure Skating Manga
Hockey Is a Small Yet Growing Passion in Japan
I remember being as surprised byDogsredas I was byEyeshield 21by futureOne-Punch Manmanga artist Yusuke Murata, and much like American football, I didn’t think hockey was big enough in Japan to warrant a manga.Japan, however, has a long-documented love for North American sports, particularly baseball, noted as far back as 1964and further such as byThe New York Times. This contact sports manga is an appealing and thrilling proposition for readers. Combined with Rou’s particular edge as a top-notch figure skater, he is a natural talent in the Oino-kami High School team.
As noted inDogsredchapter #5, professional teams in North America recruit figure skaters to be their skating coaches because hockey is fundamentally all about skating
Dogsredisn’t merelyYuri on IceorTwo on Icewith hockey elements. It depicts the growing camaraderie of its illustrious Japanese hockey team trying to retake its national top spot.Rou’s unorthodox yet highly relevant techniques make his radical ideas and Olympic ambitions compelling.As noted inDogsredchapter #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 overt figure skating may set in for fans hoping to see more,Dogsredbrings its strengths.
Satoru Noda’s Dogsred Has the Best Sports Training Arc in Years
Phallic Logs, Bear Attacks, and Snoopy Aplenty
While the earliest chapters ofDogsredintroduce readers to Noda’s idiosyncratic and highly technical vision of hockey manga,chapter #14-onward shows the start of a grueling dry-land training arc. Oino-kami’s methods, helmed by coach Nihei, are decried by Rou as archaic, such as running with 6kg Bokko for practicing stick-handling. However, Rou’s Bokko is distinctly more…phallic.Dogsredexpands on this arc with endurance training enhanced even by building the team’s poker faces. With the antics coach Nihei and the seniors pull to get the recruits to smile and fail, I couldn’t help but laugh in every instance.
Noda indicates Coach Nihei is the descendant of Tetsuzou Nihei fromGolden Kamuy.
This arc is great for introducing readers to Oino-kami’s teammates, but most notably, coach Nihei’s unhinged wisdom, probably my favorite character inDogsred. Very few training arcs are as wild as a group of students seeing a bear on campus, collectively deciding torun(bad idea), and treating it as exercise. Name a wilder recent moment than a hockey coach, fresh off of having his vehicle “buggered” in the rear by an errant log (his words),choosing to mow down the bear with his car, crashing into a tree, all while surviving and rescuing his Snoopy dashboard ornament,I dare you.
Dogsred Speaks to Hockey Fans and Casual Manga Readers
Boasting a Historical Edge with Reverence to the World of Hockey
Dogsredconsistently uses the term “ice hockey” when referring to the sport. At the same time, as a North American and, more specifically, a Canadian, I was always raised to see that term as redundant. But this is a way to appeal to sports fans who are curious about the series. After all,My Heavenly Hockey Clubintroduced a shojo twist to a hockey manga nearly a decade beforeSupinamarada!Additionally,Go!! Southern Ice Hockey Clubwas a shōnen spin even further back.Dogsredprovides a detailed, technical, hilarious, and contemporary perspective on the sport.
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But even general manga fans like myself can appreciate the powerful hockey camaraderie inDogsred.When Rou finally manages an assist on his doomed team’s only goal, preventing a dreadful shutout, the shot of his exhausted and jubilant team hugging him fills my heart with joy in chapter #7. The manga only reachesits first full-fledged, post-training game with Sapporo Sekka High School in chapter #32. Despite this, the team feels lovable and dynamic even as the goons on the other side of the line force them to rack up penalties, sucking their thumbs in the penalty box as penance.
Satoru Noda Gives a Unique Perspective on 2010s Japanese Hockey
Another Shot on Goal After Supinamarada!
Even my limited hockey experiences were fairly joyful: fellow boys from the area, our fathers, and I gathered weekly for floor hockey. The night I scored my first two goals, I was celebrated as a hero, especially as I clinched it in overtime. I feel a sense of kinship with Rou fromDogsred,tapping into the hockey-loving energy of the area while being such 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, as I did too.
Hockey is on the brain for Noda and hisDogsredcharacters, and it’s so wonderful to see him take another shot on goal without the puck slipping away this time.
Dogsredtaps into the hockey fervor of Hokkaido’s city of Tomakomai, which feels like something of an oasis for the sport. I strongly identify with the predominant hockey culture from my upbringing,to the point where people learned to correctly pronounce my surname the same way as the Francophone pronunciation of Patrick Roy’s. Hockey is on the brain for Noda and hisDogsredcharacters, 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 aboutDogsredis that the series is written with hockey-agnostic readers in mind, as it carefully introduces the game’s intricate mechanics. Beyond Noda’s intricate writing, my gripe is that the translation doesn’t seem to show that same care and passion, such as spelling Sidney Crosby like “Sydney” or referring to goalie pads as “goalie leg things.” ButDogsredis a magical and brilliant manga experience I now look forward to biweekly, and I can’t recommend it enough to non-hockey fans in my life so they can see what they’re missing.
