4 out of 5

This is the template for any sports manga (or, by extension, any 80s sports underdog movie): rapscallion protag discovers unusual skill applicable to a sport, and has to fight against their own foibles to become the better person and take their newfound team – and friends – to a championship. …And now overlay that template with the fantastic characterization, masterful combination of slapstick and action, and meticulous fact-dropping of Golden Kamuy’s Satoru Noda, and you get the bundle of prime entertainment that is Dogsred.

After a championship skating performance that puts him on the path to the Olympics, 15 year old Rou instead decides to throw a fit, trashing the set of an interview, and being dubbed “the rabid prince” by the press. Ousted from the skating world, Rou and his sister head to Hokkaido to stay with their grandfather, and start over again at a junior high school. While there’s chatter about the passing of Rou’s mum as background for his outburst, his motivations aren’t wholly clear; Noda seeds in some further background to set the relationship between Rou and his sis, Haruna, as contentious but caring.

Casually skating on a local pond, Rou runs afoul of a member of the local high school hockey club; through circumstances he shows off his skating skills, but also makes an enemy… and puts himself in a spot to need to buy the Miyamori school’s club a new hockey net. Bartering back and forth (and the convenience of his grandfather’s old skating gear) puts him as the final member of the always losing Miyamori team for a game, and the team they’re playing – Hokuryo – happens to count Rou’s new enemy as a member.

The bulk of vol. 1 is dedicated to that first outing, with Rou humorously learning the rules and penalties as he goes along. In typical underdog fashion – but elevated by Noda’s skill at zooming in and out of a narrative, and dropping in background and character work when necessary; hopping over to slapstick or drama as needed – we’re not after a win in this first game, just a relative one: a non-shutout. But it’s tough: Noda makes the reader (and Rou) earn it, as knowing how to skate well is an advantage, but maybe not when you’ve never played a game of hockey before.

There are definitely the beginnings of some potentially deep storylines here beyond the overarching underdog one, with Rou’s relationship to his mother and sister already showing a lot of dimension, and some history between the two teams we’ve seen absolutely going to provide space to explore many of the side characters as well. And then there’s the education bit, which is going to give us hockey facts along the way.

Artwise, I’m sure there’s been some convention established with how to draw characters in face-covering helmets, but regardless if Noda is adapting that or working his own thing, the method used is really seamless; you get it right away even though it’s a visual “cheat” – fading the mask out in front of the person’s face – and it still manages to convey the weight and bulk of the mask. With that established, although the crowds and rink take detailing (and there are researchers credited, and hockey clubs / rinks thanked), this perhaps isn’t as intensive as the nature backgrounds in Golden Kamuy, and so I don’t see any assistants credited. Of course, this is a first volume, so Noda might just’ve had more ramp up time here, and we’ll see assistants in the future. Whatever the case, we know Noda can do characters and action, and that’s all perfectly in play here. It’s so easy to get swooped up in the book’s flow.

My first spots manga. Aw. But no one’s hands I’d rather be in for this ride.