The Hunters guild: Red Hood Vol 1 by Yuki Kawaguchi

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.

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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

Publisher: VIZ Media
Publication Date: December 13, 2022
ISBN: 9781974734689 (Paperback)

​Tags: Rating: 5/10, Suitability: High School, Manga, Folklore, Action Adventure, ​VIZ Media