From the Red Fog, Vol. 1

紅い霧の中から / Akai kiri no naka kara #1

by Mosae Nohara

Born in darkness, a young boy steps into the light. Raised in a cellar steeped in solitude, his entrance into English society at the turn of the nineteenth century is anything but painless. From place to place he journeys, seeking companions who share his unusual interests. But always, always a red fog follows, consuming everything in its path...

Genres: Manga, Horror, Historical Fiction, Mystery, Crime, Historical, Graphic Novels

182 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 27, 2020

About the author

野原もさえ

Reviews

[Rebecca · Rating 1 out of 5]

CW: violence, rape, child harm

Say what you will about Moriarty the Patriot - it never achieves the lows that this one does. Our protagonist was kept by his psychopathic mother in the basement of their home for his entire twelve years of life, made to dismember her murder victims until he, too, began to kill out of sheer boredom. Then when the cops come for her, he escapes to a city where he's picked up by a rich man...who rapes him, at which point Ruwanda kills him and embarks upon a murder spree at an orphanage that attempts to take him in.

To call this distasteful may be an understatement. It seems to want to cover similar thematic ground as Moriarty (minus the Holmes angle), but it revels in its horror to the point where that gets lost. Emphatically not for me.

[Dreamcatcher (HIATUS) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Review for chapters 1-25 (whole manga)

If finishing plotlines that you started was a competition, this book wouldn't even qualify to compete.

Nevertheless, it wasn't terrible. I liked Ivan. Wish Macalo did more. The art and Ivan made this a tolerable experience, and for that it gets a two.

[sandro · Rating 3 out of 5]

the pacing and dialogue is so shitty but i’m kind of interested?? idk how to rate this

[Maria · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solo per adulti. Psicologico.

[Mika (Hiatus) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not sure what to think so far about this manga. The art style is aesthetically pleasing for me. I love it SO MUCH!! The story is so far also good, just bothered me a bit that it's always dark and sad, the book makes it seem like there are no good people (yes I know someone had faith in him, but Ruwanda said he only pitied him). Dark aspects are cool and I enjoy them a lot, but only making people look bad doesn't really sit right with me.

[nastia · Rating 4 out of 5]

it's a very interesting psychological manga, with lots of murder and stuff though, so def not for everyone, but yeah i like it very much so far :')

[Myriam · Rating 5 out of 5]

La naissance d'un psychopathe, les premiers pas d'un tueur en série dans l'Angleterre du XIXe s.
Gore, mais fascinant et captivant tant le rythme est effréné !

[Oliver Clarke · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hmmmm, not a fan

[Axolotl · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was so certain I'd like this because violent historical stuff is really up my alley, (I even bought the second volume of this before I read the first because I thought for sure I'd like it), but this is just so pointless and confusing. Between chapter one and chapter two, I honestly thought for a second that we were following a different main character, because he acted so differently, all of a sudden he was in a different home, etc. It's...sort of explained later in the chapter, but very poorly. Why would a child like Ruwanda want to live with someone who whips him at the drop of a hat when he could just kill her and live in the abandoned house? He seems to only want the freedom to kill as much as he can. Which leads me to wonder what's going on in his head, or rather, the writer's head. As a character Ruwanda is confusing and doesn't have a point or any real psychology.

For example, Ruwanda is raped at one point, and he kills his rapist. Honestly, I have no problem with that, but that event doesn't seem to affect him outside of that scene, it only serves to be gross and horrible because that's what the book wants to be--extreme. I would've liked to read how an event like that would've shaped his worldview and how it would've really solidified the idea in his head that all adults are only out there to use him, and see how he lives with that.

[Anna · Rating 2 out of 5]

A dark story about a child serial killer named Ruwanda (which was immediately awkward to my ear, kinda like naming your protagonist 'Spayn' or 'Mongoleea') in Victorian England, which goes a bit over the top on the violence and melodramatic evil (too many serial killers, pedophiles, and cartoonishly sensationalistic child-abusers - think foaming-at-the-mouth bellowing and swinging fists - everywhere you go). It's unclear whether his also-murderous mother was a courtesan or local gentry who somehow managed to hide a pregnancy and then hide her kid in the cellar for years. For a little while it seemed like they might set up a story of internal struggle between his good and bad sides, which might have been interesting, but then it became just a bunch of gleeful 'how can I indulge my killing urges', which is less interesting. Every time it seems like we might get some plot-thickening developments, it gets dropped for more of the same. By the very end of volume 1 they hint at a goal Ruwanda has in mind, but I'm not interested enough to hang on through more gratuitous gore.

[Caroline · Rating 1 out of 5]

I usually don’t even rate Mangas on Goodreads, but I need some place to complain about this. I’ll be honest, I had high hopes for this Manga. The art looked amazing, the plot sounded interesting. But what was actually going on here? Everything was happening way too fast, and at some point I didn’t even try to understand what was going on, most of the time I just accepted that the MC was killing everyone. I don’t even know what I could really complain about because really, it’s everything. The thing about our MC is that he is too cruel to feel bad for him or relate to him, so to make him an interesting character the author could have simply pulled the Light-Yagami-Psychopath-Card, but while it is obvious how insane our MC‘s actions are, he is never really portrayed as the antagonist but more like: „Yk, he’s a mass murderer but he gets treated like any other protagonist would“

Just no. Please don’t read this. I’m sorry for rating this badly, but this manga honestly traumatized me.

[Morgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 maybe??
So the art is amazing, and the character designs as well. This takes place in 19th century England so the costuming is really pretty (not sure how exactly accurate it is but it's really pretty).
It's an interesting plot and I am intrigued and like the characters. But, it feels like it's missing something idk. Maybe it's kinda too predictable?? But it seems that the story structure is getting mixed up now so I don't think that will be the case anymore. There's just like something thats holding it back for me, but idk what that is. Still good though, and would like to continue this one.

[Hikaoru · Rating 2 out of 5]

Are we in the mood to be emphathetic today? Our protagonist doesn't seem so sooooo probably no.

We have a child serial killer who sometimes struggle with compassion but a lot of his victims just had it coming. He also attracted horrid people so not his entirely his fault.

Art is superb but won't continue the series.

[Preethi · Rating 3 out of 5]

The mangaka's footnote lol:

*MURDER IS A CRIME, AND RUWANDA IS A FICTIONAL CHARACTER. GOOD BOYS AND GIRLS SHOULDN'T VIEW HIM AS A ROLE MODEL!

My footnote is that children shouldn't be reading this :)

[Lu · Rating 4 out of 5]

continue nov23 - may24
‼️ TW : SA, gore, violence, child harm

This work is a story about a boy, Rwanda, whose mother is a vicious murderer, set in England at the end of the 19th century. Rwanda, who has long been confined in the basement, grew up and left the house after a certain incident. Eventually, he arrived at the town and was picked up by a staff member of the nursing home and decided to live in the facility. But peaceful everyday life is only boring for Rwanda...


FINAL REVIEW !!!
It was good, Rwanda's character was well written. He was as similiar as his mother, whom never felt anything but a killing for desire. He murders to stimulate for his own pleasure and desire. I was only interested in him but some other characters were interesting also. The art was written beautifully and the characters design is so gorgeous omg skhdkj, the plot was good but in the end of the volume it unfortunately went downhill :((. And some ambiguous stuffs happened. it would have an great potential but I loved this book sm. it was rollercoaster I loved it!

4/5

[Takunoshi Books · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quick, simple review - NO spoilers ~

I was introduced to this when there was only 2 chapters out, and I finally got ahold of the Japanese psychical copy and read online. Even though I cannot speak Japanese I needed this in my hands. It has came up to be one of my absolute favorites, I love these types of genres all mixed together. It has historical elements like the setting, it’s got murder, stealing, hitmans, etc. There is however elements that could trigger some readers like rape, pedophilia, of course murder/blood/some gore, and possibly others to come in the future. Though I do not mind and if you don’t you’d probably enjoy it! I really cannot wait for more, I have volume 2 to read after this and then we wait for 3! :)

[Kasha Michiels · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is brutal. 😂 It's so dark i love it. Ma boy needs a different hobby besides murder.

[Lanie Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ruwanda is the son of a serial killer, left almost completely alone with just his nannies his entire life when his mother is finally arrested he does what any child who has spent their life cleaning up bodies would do: He runs. However, it doesn't take Ruwanda very long to realize that he's not the same as other children, the only thing he finds fun for starters is murder. And so with nothing to his name Ruwanda sets out to find a friend. A bird of a feather that flock together with him.

First of all, this is extremely violent. So let's get that out of the way right now. Not for kids, not for the faint of heart and there are multiple trigger including sexual abuse and drug use, not to mention lots of murdering.

Moving on.

On the surface, this appears to be an extremely violent series, which it is, but we've got a couple of deeper conversations taking place here. One and the most obvious is given the environment in which Ruwanda was raised was there ever a chance for him to be anything but a deranged killer? To be fair I don't think so. He's flat told he doesn't exist by his mother and then forced to clear away the bodies of the people she killed, quite frankly if Jesus Christ himself was raised under these conditions he'd be a tad cracked too. And we do see instances where Ruwanda does realize that there is something very wrong with him but thanks to existing in a society where children are not seen as people he figures out rather quickly that he can actually find adults that embrace his violence instead of attempting to help him. While it appears this is set in Victorian England, and Ruwanda's nature may be extreme, there are children trapped in similar circumstances today.

Which brings us to the second conversation; the absolute hypocrisy of adults. When Ruwanda does finally meet a young girl who seems to share his same predilections we discover that her parents have told her that she's abnormal, that she's basically a broken human being. Fast forward a few pages and her parents make Ruwanda look as gentle as a lamb. Again, this may seem extreme but it truly isn't. Convincing a child that they are "wrong" or "bad" is an abuse tactic as old as humanity itself.

Finally, we have Ruwanda being roped in to a drug dealer's ring. Again, we have a tactic not only used often I've met the children of drug dealers who were raised to assist in the trade. Who is going to expect a 10-year-old to hand off opiates? Not many people. In Ruwanda's case in particular, it's like a bonus for the drug dealer; Ruwanda has a sense of right and wrong whatever portion of him that made him *care* about it is gone though. A perfect tool for a man who only cares about money.

This was an extremely interesting start to a promising series and I will definitely be picking up Vol. 2!

[kat · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did ask a friend who'd read the volume already to spoil it for me. I wasn't sure if I'd be into it. That brief window had me interested enough to request it's e-ARC from Seven Seas. I was pleasantly surprised. Ruwanda is 12 when the story begins, but we flashback to his childhood enough to get a handle on his character. His mother was a serial murderess who cared little for Ruwanda. She caged him up in their basement and had him clean up her dirty work.

A product of his upbringing Ruwanda begins to find pleasure in homicide himself, especially after praise from his cold mother. When he runs from his home after a break in he finds himself homeless. The story carries on from there and we see how Ruwanda fairs in the outside world away from his mother.

It's definitely not a story for everyone, it is not uplifting and I seriously doubt we're in for a happy ending. But I'm really interested to see where it goes and will be picking up volume 2.

[Elijah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loved the art although the story starting off is a bit iffy. Pretty much about a boy essentially abandoned by his serial killer mother in Victorian England and him coming to grips with his own tendencies. Very dark world that's not gonna be for everyone, but I'm definitely intrigued enough to continue

[Chrissie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Der Manga beinhaltet so ziemlich alles, was mich anspircht.

Viktorianisches England? Check.
Mord und Totschlag, dass das Blut nur so spritzt? Check.
Der Protagonist ein gestörter Psychopath und Serienmörder? Check.

Wenn der Plot jetzt noch etwas Fahrt aufnimmt, consider me hooked.

[Azbaqiyah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Writing Style - 3/5
Cover - 3/5
Illustration - 5/5

Overall Rating - 3/5

[Gabrielle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Edgy as hell but enjoyable enough.

[Julia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Überaus brutal, dabei aber unerwartet gut. Erschreckend, blutig, gewalttätig, dabei aber spannend.

[Skjam! · Rating 3 out of 5]

The place is England, in the late Nineteenth Century. Ruwanda Bailey is twelve years old, and from his earliest memories, his mother has kept him locked in the cellar. Miranda Bailey is beautiful, often compared to a rose, but her “thorn” is her habit of murdering people. Despite her hatred of children, Miranda would let Ruwanda up from the cellar at night to help her dispose of corpses, and he developed a taste for killing people himself, usually the nannies hired to give him a basic education.

The story proper begins with their house being broken into by men who might have killed Miranda (she’s certainly not in good shape, but Ruwanda is in no position to verify) and are about to search the cellar. The boy flees by a side entrance, and goes out into the world for the first time. He soon discovers that many adults are not to be trusted, but they’re also not prepared for children that can fight back.

The one adult that Ruwanda meets that seems genuinely compassionate is Will, who runs an orphanage for children who lost their parents during the recent war. Ruwanda doesn’t disabuse Will of the assumption that he too is a war orphan, but things go poorly when the lad murders most of the other orphans for fun.

A fair distance away, Ruwanda is taken in by another murderous adult, who works for a “Lord Winter.” In the nearby woods, he meets a girl named Makarau who likes hunting and killing small animals. They hit it off, but she must leave for London.

Lord Winter appears, and he has a job that requires Ruwanda’s special talents. In London. You don’t need to feel too much pity for the lad’s targets this time around as their specialty is torturing young boys to death. But it does lead to some personal…regret, perhaps, for Ruwanda.

Having retrieved a certain object, Ruwanda meets a boy named Ivan who is both murderer and thief, who takes him to Lord Winter’s hideout. This turns out to be a den of assassins who work for the lord, with an eye to eventual higher power and control over society.

This blood-soaked manga has some nicely-detailed art.

The Victorian Era setting feels inauthentic, honored primarily in costumes, while the random-sounding names and dubious social interactions play against it. One thing that doesn’t work for me is all the murderers acting with complete impunity until they run into other murderers. There’s not one mention of police. (When Victorian authors wanted such a setting, they put the story in the Eighteenth Century.)

While Will believes that no one is born evil, it’s notable that the murderous children have murderous parents, so there’s some implication that it’s “in the blood.”

To be honest, there’s no characters here that I am especially interested in following. Ruwanda murders defenseless children for fun, and there’s no antagonist who is less murdery/has limits for me to root for. Lord Winter may be more evil overall, but that just makes me want to have the cops arrest everyone.

Content note: Gory murder, including of children. Ruwanda is raped, with the act itself offscreen. Child abuse in general. Animal death. Body function…humor? Alcohol abuse, and it is set up that drug abuse will be a thing in future volumes. Male nudity from behind.

I know there’s a market for stories about unrepentant murderers up against other murderers. Dexter fans might like this. I, though, will be skipping future volumes.

[Raquel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ruwanda is a twelve-year-old boy raised under unusual circumstances. Kept locked in a basement most of his life by his mother, he helps her dispose of the bodies of the people she murders and eventually starts murdering people himself as a way to please her. When he witnesses his mother being stabbed by invaders he escapes into the outside world for the first time. Forced to learn to care for himself in a world he doesn’t know how to navigate he ends up leaning on the only skill his mother taught him: the art of killing. His reliance on the skill is only reinforced after meeting different types of people and discovering that he finds ordinary life quite boring.

I surprisingly really enjoyed this manga — probably because I was in the mood to read something dark and this manga definitely fits that bill. It reminded me a bit of Black Butler since Ruwanda is an unhinged child who is quite diabolical. It also takes place in England during the 1800s so it’s got that historical vibe to it. This was definitely an introductory volume as it’s not super clear where the plot is going. It’s mostly about Ruwanda moving from place to place after running away from home, but the ending has me hopeful that Ruwanda has finally found a place to stay for a while.

I’m not quite sure what to make of Ruwanda. It’s hard to hate him completely because even though he’s committing horrible acts it’s clear that’s only due to the fact that he’s a child who was raised terribly. I hope he learns that murdering people for fun is bad, but I have a feeling this will be more of a character regression story than a character growth story. I’m not too put off by that though since having the main character be the villain is an idea that’s not done enough. Plus, I find it interesting that he still craves human connection while killing practically everyone who gets close to him. I want to see what the mangaka does with those two conflicting goals of his.

Ruwanda encounters a few people throughout this volume, but so far the only one who’s stood out to me is Ivan. He’s a boy around the same age as Ruwanda and is the only one who has had the guts to mess with Ruwanda. I love seeing tough characters taken down a notch by characters who are equally full of themselves. I feel like I’ll really come to like their dynamic because I’ve enjoyed what I’ve seen so far.

I absolutely love the art style. The thick and sweeping lines are perfect for the dark vibe of the manga. The cover art and chapter art is some of the best I’ve seen in a long time. The art is so detailed and the posing feels dynamic and fluid. Each character, even the minor ones, had great character designs. You are able to glean the personalities of these characters at just a glance based on their designs and expressions. I wish I could get prints of this mangaka’s artwork because I really do love it.

From the Red Fog has been a surprising find for me. Even though this volume was mostly used as an introduction I’m already attached. I desperately want to know what happens next and luckily I own the next few volumes so I don’t have to wait!

[Enairolf · Rating 4 out of 5]

J’avais repéré ce titre lorsque j’ai jeté un oeil sur les prochaines sorties et celui ci a clairement attiré mon attention. J’ai fini par me pencher sur le résumé et là je dois dire que j’étais plus que tentée de me prendre le premier tome. J’étais vraiment curieuse et je voulais découvrir cette histoire. J’ai, bien évidemment, fini par craquer et j’ai enfin lu ce premier tome. Et que dire! Je sens que cette nouvelle série va énormément me plaire et je sens que chaque tome va être passionnant! C’est une excellente découverte et j’ai vraiment adoré!

Dans ce premier tome, on se retrouve dans l’Angleterre du XIXème siècle. Déchiré entre ordre et chaos, entre richesse et misère, vit un jeune garçon nommé Ruwanda. Fils d’une terrible tueuse, il passe son existence enfermé dans le sous-sol de sa demeure. Un jour, il finit par réussir à se libérer et s’enfuie. Il découvre le monde, les mains couvertes de sang. Mais quel sort le destin lui réservera, lui qui n’a connu que la mort et la souffrance?

Franchement, je dois bien avouer que je ne m’attendais pas à grand chose tout de même lorsque je l’ai lu. Du moins, je ne pensais clairement pas que j’allais autant aimé ce premier tome. J’ai trouvé l’histoire vraiment passionnante et surtout sanglante! Clairement si vous n’aimez pas le sans, ne lisez pas ce manga parce que je devais résumer ce premier tome en un seul mot ça serait clairement : sanglant. Lorsque j’ai vu Ruwanda réussir à s’enfuir, je ne m’attendais pas à ce qu’il prenne ce tournant là dans sa vie. C’est tout de même un brin perturbant de le voir comme ça. C’est limite si il ne nous fout pas la chair de poule. C’est terrible le regard qu’il peut avoir et c’est tellement bien retranscrit. Franchement pour un premier tome, ça donne clairement envie de lire la suite! Et je ne peux m’empêcher de penser que la suite sera encore plus géniale que ce premier tome.

Tout est réuni dans ce premier tome pour passer un excellent moment. On a un univers passionnant à découvrir, on a une intrigue plus que sanglante, là où la violence et les meurtres sont le centre de cette histoire. Le personnage de Ruwanda est un personnage complexe mais oh combien fascinant. On a tout de même pas mal de mystères, j’attend d’avoir certaines réponses aux questions que je me pose. Toute cette organisation est elle aussi mystérieuse. Sincèrement, je suis très hypé par cette nouvelle série, j’ai vraiment adoré ce premier tome et je sens que la suite sera tout aussi passionnante. Je suis plus qu’impatiente de découvrir la suite des aventures de Ruwanda!

[Lissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kaori Yuki meets the hopelessness of a Series of Unfortunate Events with an even darker edge

3.5 for accuracy of rating.

This manga is not for the faint of heart. Saying it was intense is a complete understatement. I warn you going in: there are no silver linings to be found here and I highly recommend you take heed of any trigger warnings you see for this series.

On that note, if you're someone who's into dark, edgy mysteries and are able to handle some pretty harsh stuff, then I say this manga is something to read. It's got an interesting start--admittedly a lot of what was at the beginning seemed to be mostly shock value and setting up how much of a psychopath Ruwanda is. You go through a lot of him just killing in various ways and... That's about it. He doesn't discriminate. He kills innocents and evils alike (and the evils in this manga are just purely wretched). Bottom line: lots of murder and the creator doesn't skimp on the artistic details!

However, in the last chapter of the volume we finally get some sort of set up for a real story. A mystery is afoot: an evil man and his organization of assassins attempt to take over the world in one of the most cliché ways possible. And yet, I'm intrigued enough to move forward reading the second volume when it releases. Ruwanda has a rival, who is decidedly more goonish yet more pleasant of a character than Ruwanda, and perhaps they might team up and actually try to do some good in the world. I doubt it as, I said before, this manga seemingly has no silver linings, but who knows? Maybe we'll be surprised.

[Lili · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ll redo my review because I don’t plan on reading the other volumes and I want to give my full opinion on this book.

Some scenes are really uncomfortable to read trough I rarely saw so much violence in a single volume. I am usually not bothered by it that much but this time it left me with an uneasy feeling for the rest of the day. I think in theory Ruwanda is an interesting character but he doesn’t get any development at all which ruins his potential. Any character has to face difficulties even if said character is a murderer. I don’t think he faced any major issues, yes, he found himself in terrible situations but he could get away almost too easily each time.

The plot could have been an amazing concept but I think it was too rushed and I know that many agree with me. On a more positive note I adore the character designs especially macaro’s. I do not plan on reading more volumes because it’s simply too generic and fairly kind of disturbing. I still think there’s positive points so I will give it a final note of 3 stars !!

[H.P. Holo · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars because what it sets out to do, it does very well, even if I didn’t ultimately enjoy it. Its art especially has a sort of sketchy refinement that heightens the dark, creepy atmosphere of it all (and was the reason I picked up the book in the first place).

However, it ended up not being for me, simply because there’s not a single redeemable character in the entire volume.

The characters are all well-realized, but they’re also relentlessly bloodthirsty murderers/assassins who *delight* in killing, and I spent the entire volume hoping that at least one likable/valiant character would show up to be the antagonist, just so I’d have someone to root for. Add in the dark circumstances of it all - none of the characters have happy lives, and the main character is r*ped 15 pages into the book - and it becomes a volume that’s hard to enjoy, unless you’re specifically looking for dark content.