What do you think?
Rate this book
Redman: The Kaiju Hunter
Redman: The Kaiju Hunter
He is Redman, the Kaiju Hunter... Trapped in a desolate and yet somehow familiar world populated with an vast array of the ferocious beasts known as "Kaiju," Redman continues his endless Red Fight, battling tirelessly to cull the monsters. With each fierce battle, the mysterious, blood-splattered "hero" sinks closer to his prey, ready to strike. This while a sinister form watches and records his every move... The original Redman television series from Tsuburaya Productions debuted April 24, 1972. It ran for 138 episodes, ending in October of the same year. Its penchant for unusual treatment of its main hero as well as for the creatures he dispatched each episode led to the show finding status as a cult hit and internet phenomenon. Now artist Matt Frank (Godzilla, Transformers) and colorist Gonçalo Lopes (Bio Wars, Dodge City) bring the tokusatsu hero back to life in the pages of a new comic series and no kaiju is safe!
128 pages, Paperback
First published August 8, 2018
31 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
March 16, 2020
If you have no idea what this book might be about, first, let's start with a video introduction. Go ahead, this review will wait. Just watch a moment.
Notice the low budget values? The way the monster seems to be frolicking along just fine and suddenly a red-suited killer shows up and slaughters it? The somewhat odd, sometimes out of place sound effects? The utter lack of story? Did you think, "Well, that's an interesting clip, but what's the background?," or maybe, "The monster must'v done something horrible, right?" That's just it, what you watched was Redman. Imagine a Ultra- series devoid of plot, devoid of the human element, devoid of the heroic, all of which were excised so that the entire thing is just the monster fight sequences. Imagine a series shot by a crew with a series of re-purposed monster suits in various backwoods locations they scouted, some of the crew being fairly new to the game, and somewhat making it up as they go along. Imagine, even, that this is supposed to be an Ultra-like hero, several dozen meters high fighting full on huge kaiju, though nothing to that effect is ever present on the screen (and often contradicted...unless those are supposed to be mega-flora and massive cliffs in the background). That's Redman.
There is a story in there, told almost entirely in off-camera suplemental fluff about a hero fighting monster spirits or some noise. Perhaps, at the time, with the suits having previously showed up in various series where kids watching it might have been able to associate Monster A with Monster-A-from-the-show-where-Monster-A-ate-a-school-bus...but I don't know. As an anthropological piece of tokusatsu, it is a surreal trip into low budget film-making and ad hoc fight choreography with a distinctively...70s horror vibe.
Where Matt Frank's version comes into place is to add some to the story. Not so much in this volume. Just some. What if Redman is an apex predator in a world full of apex predators? What if this strange show was actually something like reality TV for another, more blood thirsty audience (no spoilers, but fans of Ultraman will get the reference to the audience shown). It also adds some visual flair, makes the monsters more sympathetic (even when they are more legitimately bad)...and even slightly "humanizes" Redman himself. It fixes the terrible handling of size (the comic feels like giant-fighting-monster material). It does lose a lot of charm to be had by the low-rent horror sets of the original series, mind. The graphics are nice, the various touch-ups are nice, and though it does a few weird things, I didn't mind. It takes a tiny amount of time to read, but there are some things worth looking back over, and it does a good job with providing [albeit slight] extras with some insight into the original production.
Overall, it is almost like an experimental retelling of something that had almost no story to tell. Just fights. Bloody, serial killer type fights. I am very curious to see where this is going in the next volume.
Notice the low budget values? The way the monster seems to be frolicking along just fine and suddenly a red-suited killer shows up and slaughters it? The somewhat odd, sometimes out of place sound effects? The utter lack of story? Did you think, "Well, that's an interesting clip, but what's the background?," or maybe, "The monster must'v done something horrible, right?" That's just it, what you watched was Redman. Imagine a Ultra- series devoid of plot, devoid of the human element, devoid of the heroic, all of which were excised so that the entire thing is just the monster fight sequences. Imagine a series shot by a crew with a series of re-purposed monster suits in various backwoods locations they scouted, some of the crew being fairly new to the game, and somewhat making it up as they go along. Imagine, even, that this is supposed to be an Ultra-like hero, several dozen meters high fighting full on huge kaiju, though nothing to that effect is ever present on the screen (and often contradicted...unless those are supposed to be mega-flora and massive cliffs in the background). That's Redman.
There is a story in there, told almost entirely in off-camera suplemental fluff about a hero fighting monster spirits or some noise. Perhaps, at the time, with the suits having previously showed up in various series where kids watching it might have been able to associate Monster A with Monster-A-from-the-show-where-Monster-A-ate-a-school-bus...but I don't know. As an anthropological piece of tokusatsu, it is a surreal trip into low budget film-making and ad hoc fight choreography with a distinctively...70s horror vibe.
Where Matt Frank's version comes into place is to add some to the story. Not so much in this volume. Just some. What if Redman is an apex predator in a world full of apex predators? What if this strange show was actually something like reality TV for another, more blood thirsty audience (no spoilers, but fans of Ultraman will get the reference to the audience shown). It also adds some visual flair, makes the monsters more sympathetic (even when they are more legitimately bad)...and even slightly "humanizes" Redman himself. It fixes the terrible handling of size (the comic feels like giant-fighting-monster material). It does lose a lot of charm to be had by the low-rent horror sets of the original series, mind. The graphics are nice, the various touch-ups are nice, and though it does a few weird things, I didn't mind. It takes a tiny amount of time to read, but there are some things worth looking back over, and it does a good job with providing [albeit slight] extras with some insight into the original production.
Overall, it is almost like an experimental retelling of something that had almost no story to tell. Just fights. Bloody, serial killer type fights. I am very curious to see where this is going in the next volume.
May 1, 2019
I just read the Japanese version of Matt Frank’s new adaptation of Redman—the first volume anyway. Unfortunately I have never watched the source material, but I’ve been a big fan of Kaiji for ages. In this, basically there is almost no story (which apparently mimics the show). Still, I thought the art is among Frank’s best. I can’t get very invested given the lack of plot, but it was an enjoyable if slight read.
I read it at the Kitakyushu Manga Museum. If you haven’t been, I highly recommend it!
I read it at the Kitakyushu Manga Museum. If you haven’t been, I highly recommend it!
October 6, 2018
Redman is an obscure tokusatsu hero who starred in low-budget 5 minute long episodes where he brutally fought various kaiju from Tsuburaya Productions other shows (notably Ultraman). Matt Frank has shown he loves weird things from Japan through his work on Godzilla comics for IDW and now he dives even deeper to create an original official Redman comic that was released in Japan before getting an English language release this summer. This comic is mostly just a dude in red and silver slaughtering monsters and that's ok by me. Frank is weaving a weird tale of intrigue while keeping the basic premise of just Redman fighting monsters. It's a bizarre distillation of brutal violence and eeriness but with the passion and enthusiasm of the 8 year old kid whose favourite parts of Ultraman were the fight scenes. But somehow it works and I'm looking forward to see where this crazy train takes me next.
August 24, 2018
Finally got my claws on REDMAN: THE KAIJU HUNTER by Matt Frank and I’m floored. I’ve followed Matt for years, even working with him on a few projects, and REDMAN is not only his best work but a total immersion into and expansion of the bleak world and dynamic violence of Tsuburaya’s darkest cult hero.
May 19, 2019
A really fun premise with minimalist storytelling and gorgeous artwork.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews