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ドッグスレッド [Dogsred] #2
Dogsred, Vol. 2
ROU ONCE CHASED FIGURE SKATING GLORY—NOW HE CHASES REDEMPTION IN THE ICE HOCKEY RINK.
As the school year comes to a close, it's time for the powerhouse Oino-kami High ice hockey team to win the championship once again, but have they lost their edge? Then, after one of the biggest natural disasters in Japanese history, the people of northern Japan are determined to carry on. When the new school year starts, Rou and his friends from Miyamori enter Oino-kami High School. They decide to try out for the hockey team, but before they can join, they have to survive a grueling day-long trial under the eye of the eccentric Coach Nihei.
As the school year comes to a close, it's time for the powerhouse Oino-kami High ice hockey team to win the championship once again, but have they lost their edge? Then, after one of the biggest natural disasters in Japanese history, the people of northern Japan are determined to carry on. When the new school year starts, Rou and his friends from Miyamori enter Oino-kami High School. They decide to try out for the hockey team, but before they can join, they have to survive a grueling day-long trial under the eye of the eccentric Coach Nihei.
192 pages, Paperback
Published June 17, 2025
About the author
Satoru Noda
66 books91 followersSatoru Noda (野田サトル, Noda Satoru) is a japanese mangaka.
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
November 19, 2025
3.5
can Oino-Kami high Ice Hockey team win the championship for the 20th time running?
as the new school year starts Rou and friends try out for the self same team...but the Coach?!?!
can Oino-Kami high Ice Hockey team win the championship for the 20th time running?
as the new school year starts Rou and friends try out for the self same team...but the Coach?!?!
September 10, 2025
same as the first one but even better
August 6, 2025
I liked the first one of these a lot more than this one. I never got my footing regarding who was who, and the world building seems a little too intense and detailed for a second volume; more exposition than story.
...and then there's the... checks notes... waterboarding part of the book?! Yeah, I think I'm out.
I think there's a high probability I'll pick up a third volume... but only because the main character is (which featured, which isn't a hell of a lot in this volume) hilariously over the top. But the drop between the first volume and second was steep for me.
...and then there's the... checks notes... waterboarding part of the book?! Yeah, I think I'm out.
I think there's a high probability I'll pick up a third volume... but only because the main character is (which featured, which isn't a hell of a lot in this volume) hilariously over the top. But the drop between the first volume and second was steep for me.
April 28, 2025
If I had read this before I knew anything about hockey I might have really enjoyed the explanation of hockey terms that are peppered throughout the story. However, since I spend an unhealthy amount of time dealing with hockey and a hockey player, I found that they took me out of the story. Obviously that is a me problem and not a story problem. My biggest issue is that the relationship between Rou and Keiichi still feels very much like a typical BL enemies-to-lovers trope and it's not and it makes me sad. Actually, my biggest issue with this volume might be Coach Nihei. Rou and Keiichi have entered Oino-kami High and are trying out for the hockey team. Coach Nihei is an dick. He literally waterboards students. I don't care how good of a coach you are, or how many titles your school has won in a row (19 in this case but they lost the last one so ha!), being an abusive POS is not cool, even in manga. Also, I still don't love the art style. That being said, I'll probably continue to read the series.
February 17, 2026
Picking up where I left off in my previous review of Dogsred, volume two throws us back onto the ice with Rou Shirakawa in the aftermath of his first and only game with Miyamori Junior High. The school is dissolved after its final year due to low enrollment, effectively ending his brief introduction to organized hockey. Despite insisting that he will not pursue the sport further, Rou briefly appears ready to return to figure skating at his sister’s urging. She pushes him to attend the Interhigh Championship to watch the performance of Masato Yaginuma, his long time rival. Masato masks a deep respect for Rou behind performative hostility, driven by the frustration of always feeling second best. Yet Rou, moved by his experience with Miyamori’s team, ultimately skips the skating event to attend Oinokami High’s historic hockey match against Sameoh High. By the end of the volume, he commits to joining Oinokami’s ice hockey team during a rebuilding year, a decision that angers several people tied to his past, including his sister. He enters training camp on his own terms and ready to make a new name for himself.
One of the major mysteries from volume one concerned the explosive opening chapter, in which Rou won a major figure skating competition shortly after losing his mother in a car accident, only to immediately destroy the podium and set, earning himself a lifetime ban from the sport. Volume two finally provides clarity. Rou once loved figure skating, but as his talent grew, so did the expectations placed upon him. Him competing at the Olympics became his mother’s dream before her death, and after she passed, that dream lingered as a burden rather than an aspiration. His twin sister continued to push that same goal, and Rou eventually snapped under the weight of living for someone else’s ambitions. People were projecting their desires onto him, and his outburst was a rejection of that pressure. At the start of volume two, Rou is more determined than ever to forge his own path. If he still has Olympic aspirations, it may be on his own terms and perhaps through hockey instead.
Sandwiched between the Interhigh hockey game featuring Oinokami High and Sameoh High and the later chapters focused on offseason training, Dogsred makes a narrative choice that completely caught me off guard. I had taken for granted that the story was set in 2011 without really thinking about what that implied. Right as Sameoh High celebrates a hard fought Interhigh victory that ends a nineteen year dynasty, the city of Hachinohe in Aomori Prefecture is struck by the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, one of Japan’s most devastating natural disasters in modern history. We see several characters react to the destruction in real time. Sameoh’s goalie ignores orders to remain on school grounds and nearly gets swept out to sea while trying to rush home and save his grandmother, who has mobility issues. Thankfully, the team survives, as their area was not hit as catastrophically as others along the coast. Even so, the region’s vital fishing and shipping industries are devastated, and many buildings are left in ruins.
The emotional shift is striking. The team talks about continuing its championship reign, but not everyone seems ready to move forward as if nothing has happened. When thousands have died, high school hockey can feel trivial. That tension adds real weight to the story. Instead of introducing a new unstoppable rival as a conventional sports manga would, the series resets both teams in a far more grounded way. Trauma, rebuilding, and perspective become the new obstacles. It is an unexpected turn that deepens the narrative and proves this series is willing to challenge genre tropes rather than simply follow them. I know as a reader I've been conditioned to root for Oinokami High and see Sameoh High as the villains, but this whole chapter makes me question that - I want them both to be successful.
According to a quick stroll over some damage statistics for the quake on good ol' Wikipedia, it appears that the real world city of Hachinohe experienced significant but comparatively less catastrophic damage than areas farther south in Miyagi and Iwate. Thankfully, there was only one death and one person missing, but economic damage was widespread. Tsunami waves flooded industrial zones, damaging fishing vessels, warehouses, and seafood processing facilities central to the city’s economy. We see a lot of that sort of damage briefly in the comic, as the author took famous photos of ships on dry land and conveyed them in the chapter.
Overall, I would say this volume of Dogsred is stronger than the first. We get a great mix of pulse pounding action during the Interhigh Championship, intense drama throughout the tsunami chapters, and something close to screwball comedy in the dry land training sequences. With that range on display, it almost feels like I have now seen the full spectrum of tonal shifts this series is capable of delivering. Given how wildly Golden Kamuy could pivot between brutality, absurd comedy, and heartfelt character moments, I am confident that if Dogsred follows a similar tonal philosophy, it will never feel stagnant. Not everything will stay heavy and dark, and not everything will be light either. As before, I am thoroughly enjoying the ride and plan to keep reading. Speaking of Golden Kamuy, I recently started watching the anime for it due to this comic, and I am also enjoying that, I will have to review soon.
Stay tuned for more!
https://arcadiapod.com/2026/02/17/rev...
One of the major mysteries from volume one concerned the explosive opening chapter, in which Rou won a major figure skating competition shortly after losing his mother in a car accident, only to immediately destroy the podium and set, earning himself a lifetime ban from the sport. Volume two finally provides clarity. Rou once loved figure skating, but as his talent grew, so did the expectations placed upon him. Him competing at the Olympics became his mother’s dream before her death, and after she passed, that dream lingered as a burden rather than an aspiration. His twin sister continued to push that same goal, and Rou eventually snapped under the weight of living for someone else’s ambitions. People were projecting their desires onto him, and his outburst was a rejection of that pressure. At the start of volume two, Rou is more determined than ever to forge his own path. If he still has Olympic aspirations, it may be on his own terms and perhaps through hockey instead.
Sandwiched between the Interhigh hockey game featuring Oinokami High and Sameoh High and the later chapters focused on offseason training, Dogsred makes a narrative choice that completely caught me off guard. I had taken for granted that the story was set in 2011 without really thinking about what that implied. Right as Sameoh High celebrates a hard fought Interhigh victory that ends a nineteen year dynasty, the city of Hachinohe in Aomori Prefecture is struck by the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, one of Japan’s most devastating natural disasters in modern history. We see several characters react to the destruction in real time. Sameoh’s goalie ignores orders to remain on school grounds and nearly gets swept out to sea while trying to rush home and save his grandmother, who has mobility issues. Thankfully, the team survives, as their area was not hit as catastrophically as others along the coast. Even so, the region’s vital fishing and shipping industries are devastated, and many buildings are left in ruins.
The emotional shift is striking. The team talks about continuing its championship reign, but not everyone seems ready to move forward as if nothing has happened. When thousands have died, high school hockey can feel trivial. That tension adds real weight to the story. Instead of introducing a new unstoppable rival as a conventional sports manga would, the series resets both teams in a far more grounded way. Trauma, rebuilding, and perspective become the new obstacles. It is an unexpected turn that deepens the narrative and proves this series is willing to challenge genre tropes rather than simply follow them. I know as a reader I've been conditioned to root for Oinokami High and see Sameoh High as the villains, but this whole chapter makes me question that - I want them both to be successful.
According to a quick stroll over some damage statistics for the quake on good ol' Wikipedia, it appears that the real world city of Hachinohe experienced significant but comparatively less catastrophic damage than areas farther south in Miyagi and Iwate. Thankfully, there was only one death and one person missing, but economic damage was widespread. Tsunami waves flooded industrial zones, damaging fishing vessels, warehouses, and seafood processing facilities central to the city’s economy. We see a lot of that sort of damage briefly in the comic, as the author took famous photos of ships on dry land and conveyed them in the chapter.
Overall, I would say this volume of Dogsred is stronger than the first. We get a great mix of pulse pounding action during the Interhigh Championship, intense drama throughout the tsunami chapters, and something close to screwball comedy in the dry land training sequences. With that range on display, it almost feels like I have now seen the full spectrum of tonal shifts this series is capable of delivering. Given how wildly Golden Kamuy could pivot between brutality, absurd comedy, and heartfelt character moments, I am confident that if Dogsred follows a similar tonal philosophy, it will never feel stagnant. Not everything will stay heavy and dark, and not everything will be light either. As before, I am thoroughly enjoying the ride and plan to keep reading. Speaking of Golden Kamuy, I recently started watching the anime for it due to this comic, and I am also enjoying that, I will have to review soon.
Stay tuned for more!
https://arcadiapod.com/2026/02/17/rev...
October 12, 2025
I liked this volume more than the first, just because it felt like there was a bit more clarity of characters and conflict. Overall, it's feeling like your average sports manga but with the bonus of being very much a Noda story full of cultural details, irreverent humor, and a great sense of place. In this volume, we see Rou and his sister have a hear to heart, where he explains how he wants to pursue his own dream, and that she wishes she could have had more time with their mother and that skating is what made her feel close. It's nice to see some depth in their motivations added. Oinokami loses to Hachinohe (a school from Honshu), thus ending their 19 year winning streak. It feels like they'll be the big rival to contend with going forward. There's an interesting bit about them dealing with an earthquake and tsunami, which I'm wondering if it'll play a role going forward for their plot as they rebuild after the destruction. The volume ends with some wonderfully unhinged training with Nihei.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 5, 2025
67%
Still a fun read, but definitely not as strong as the first volume, to be honest. I wasn’t super interested in the high-school hockey final, and while I get its purpose was to transition the main crew from middle school to high school hockey, I just didn’t have much reason to care for the high school hockey team. Because of that, the match wasn’t all that exciting (but I’d say it wasn’t bad, just okay).
This volume also tried to introduce a whole bunch of the regional hockey teams, but only hearing the names didn’t do much to make it stick for me. Maybe if they spotted a player somewhere and people went ‘oh, that’s ____ from _____ high school, he’s a great player!’ like in other sport manga, it’d stick better, but idk.
Otherwise, the training arc so far is okay. Kinda standard, with the occasional Noda flair, which is the main thing that makes this worth reading for me. Imma still read the next volume tho - I hope it follows our main guy into some actual games, though.
Still a fun read, but definitely not as strong as the first volume, to be honest. I wasn’t super interested in the high-school hockey final, and while I get its purpose was to transition the main crew from middle school to high school hockey, I just didn’t have much reason to care for the high school hockey team. Because of that, the match wasn’t all that exciting (but I’d say it wasn’t bad, just okay).
This volume also tried to introduce a whole bunch of the regional hockey teams, but only hearing the names didn’t do much to make it stick for me. Maybe if they spotted a player somewhere and people went ‘oh, that’s ____ from _____ high school, he’s a great player!’ like in other sport manga, it’d stick better, but idk.
Otherwise, the training arc so far is okay. Kinda standard, with the occasional Noda flair, which is the main thing that makes this worth reading for me. Imma still read the next volume tho - I hope it follows our main guy into some actual games, though.
January 24, 2026
Soyons honnête, je ne suis pas quelqu'un qui regarde des matchs de sport et je ne connais absolument pas les règles du hockey... Ou du moins c'était le cas avant cette série ! Même si je ne passe pas davantage de temps sur un écran à suivre des joueurs, je dois bien reconnaître que j'ai pris plaisir à en apprendre davantage sur le hockey sur glace au fur et à mesure des chapitres. Je ne suis pas du tout le public type pour ce genre d'histoires mais le manga est si bien fait que je n'en décroche plus ! (comprenez : si même moi j'aime, il y a des chances que ça vous plaise à vous aussi ;)) Et lorsque je referme un tome, j'ai encore les frissons du match que je viens de lire, du suspens, de l'esprit d'équipe de ces jeunes passionnés et des rebondissements variés.
Je ne sais pas encore quoi penser du héros auquel je m'attache très lentement, mais son rôle de clown de service allège parfois l'atmosphère donc je vais attendre de voir ^^
Je ne sais pas encore quoi penser du héros auquel je m'attache très lentement, mais son rôle de clown de service allège parfois l'atmosphère donc je vais attendre de voir ^^
December 7, 2025
Ups and downs -- that's what this volume is all about.
Winning, losing, giving up, persevering, changing your mind, sticking with the same thing.. these pushes and pulls are the foundation of Dogsred. Sometimes, tragedy -- whether it be the death of a loved one or a natural disaster -- knock us off our feet, and the decisions we make in the face of those tragedies determine our course for the rest of our lives.
I loved how the tape over Rou's scar came off in this volume following his confrontation with Haruna. To me, that really symbolized him finally accepting his mother's death and being able to fully choose his own course of action.
I'm totally locked into this series. And these Viz Signature editions are just gorgeous, same as Golden Kamuy. Can't wait to order more from the library!
Winning, losing, giving up, persevering, changing your mind, sticking with the same thing.. these pushes and pulls are the foundation of Dogsred. Sometimes, tragedy -- whether it be the death of a loved one or a natural disaster -- knock us off our feet, and the decisions we make in the face of those tragedies determine our course for the rest of our lives.
I loved how the tape over Rou's scar came off in this volume following his confrontation with Haruna. To me, that really symbolized him finally accepting his mother's death and being able to fully choose his own course of action.
I'm totally locked into this series. And these Viz Signature editions are just gorgeous, same as Golden Kamuy. Can't wait to order more from the library!
November 13, 2025
Sad that I didn't enjoy this volume as much as the first one. I actually enjoyed the champtionship came. I thought it was suspensful and didn't drag on too long. And then the training segment at the end... yuck. The coach is a bully, using very old school, abusive methods, like not allowing the teenage athletes to have any water even after running for hours. At one point, the kids are encouraged to wet their throats by vomiting. Maybe this series will eventually get around to condemning these archaic, abusive techniques, but I didn't get that sense from this volume.
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July 17, 2025
I'm wondering if there's going to be a plot reason as to why that earthquake and tsunami was relevant, otherwise there's kind of no reason for it
I'm so excited to keep reading this series, it's sort of like Haikyu but for hockey, but if Aoyama from MHA was the main character and also buff
I'm so excited to keep reading this series, it's sort of like Haikyu but for hockey, but if Aoyama from MHA was the main character and also buff
October 21, 2025
i really like how the manga showcases the history of japan, and also informs the reader of the japanese hockey history. Having recently visited tomokomai, I really feel a kinship with the manga. I want to continue reading it.
June 21, 2025
I’m enjoying this so far. The story, art, and pacing have been great.
June 26, 2025
It’s not really a Satoru Noda story until someone gets into a fight with a bear, is it?
October 3, 2025
I really enjoy it. I can't believe how much fun this is. The art is great. It does a great job explaining the rules of the game of hockey and keeping you in the story.
January 2, 2026
Still amusing and engaging
January 19, 2026
Looooove this series but you should’ve seen how the smile dropped off my face when I realized what day it was in That Chapter
February 6, 2026
I'm glad I've read / watched Golden Kamuy, otherwise I would be very wtf
February 21, 2026
Alexa play drag path by twenty one pilots
Read
April 26, 2026SNOOPY!!!
August 26, 2025
Loved how the momentum in both the sport and in the personal lives kept going. The coach is insane and I love that for him. Rou is changing and I also adore how we get little face cameos from Golden Kamui here. Definitely will continue this series.
May 23, 2025
[I received an ARC of this title from the publisher in exchange for my honest opinion.] Dogsred vol. 1 started with a rampage and that kind of chaotic energy continues with vol. 2. We've got the two different kinds of disasters as described in the blurb: one high school sports dynasty falls, while the new defending champ's season gets rocked with a natural disaster (based in reality). We had the start of Rou's journey in the last volume; this time around we get some insight into Rou's reasoning for why he chose such a dramatic exit to figure skating. As if that was not action packed enough, Rou joins his high school's hockey team and they start a very unconventional dryland training regimen in the "experimental forest" behind the school. But wait, is that a bear claw? I guess I would have to stick around for the next volume.
April 28, 2025
This was a great manga and I still don’t know anything about hockey but I am enjoying the story and I am figuring out the game as I read. It continues the story with Rou choosing to chase hockey instead of going back to figure skating since he didn’t really have a passion for it and he was mostly doing it to fulfill his moms dreams and going all in at his new school to make the team. I can’t wait to read to next one and see how he does when he knows all the rules of how to actually play hockey.
Thanks to Viz media and Netgalley for the complimentary copy of this book. All opinions in this review are my own.
Thanks to Viz media and Netgalley for the complimentary copy of this book. All opinions in this review are my own.
July 23, 2025
Rou makes the choice to become a hockey player after one game shows him that he can still use his figure skating skills outside of the figure skating world. (We also get his reasons for his outburst that got him kicked out in the first place).
Anyway, there’s a game. We’re introduced to the main villains/rivals except they’re also just high school kids so there’s nothing there for the reader to not like about them.
So Rou gets into high school and joins the team and gets introduced to the chaos that is Nihei. It’s very Satoru Noda, so be prepared for that special brand of humor.
Anyway, there’s a game. We’re introduced to the main villains/rivals except they’re also just high school kids so there’s nothing there for the reader to not like about them.
So Rou gets into high school and joins the team and gets introduced to the chaos that is Nihei. It’s very Satoru Noda, so be prepared for that special brand of humor.
June 22, 2025
Cried actual liquid saltwater tears in two beautiful streams down my cheeks and into my beard, then laughed so hard the next chapter that the cats got scared and ran away. Noda sensei, I would like to shake your hand.
July 17, 2025
this volume slightly shook my wanting to continue the series. Slow plot movements and the humor isn't hitting me like how it did in GK, as well as the depiction of Naoto Koro is rubbing me the wrong way...its annoying to see black characters still drawn like that y'know?? 🙃
June 22, 2025
it was okay, just a lot of plot building and not so much interesting stuff but good for what it was
June 23, 2025
This series is great!
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews