The anime adaptation of Aito Aoyagi’s novel Akazukin, Tabi no Tochū de Shitai to Deau — known in English as Red Riding Hood: A Detective Story — has locked in its debut window. The production team revealed the anime’s first trailer, first key visual, additional cast and staff members, and a January 2027 premiere.
Crunchyroll also confirmed that it will stream the series worldwide excluding Asia, giving the show a same-window home outside Japan. Before its television debut, the anime will hold its world premiere at New York Comic Con on October 9.
Release date and where to watch
Red Riding Hood: A Detective Story will debut in January 2027 on Tokyo MX, BS NTV and Yomiuri TV. Crunchyroll’s worldwide streaming (excluding Asia) means the mystery series will be available to international viewers close to its Japanese broadcast rather than months later.
Cast and staff
The anime stars Yume Miyamoto as Red Riding Hood and Akira Sekine as Pinocchio, the two leads revealed so far.
Itsurō Kawasaki is directing the anime at Benten Film and also writing the script. His previous directing credits include Baban Baban Ban Vampire, Cardfight!! Vanguard and Lady Jewelpet. Manami Minakata and Yūko Yahiro are designing the characters. Izumi Hoki and Hiroshi Katō serve as art directors, Tomoe Yoshimura handles color setting, Rieko Koike is the compositing director of photography, and Daisuke Hiraki is the editor.
The full production credits bring together staff who have worked across a wide range of recent series, from Kaguya-sama: Love is War and Aharen-san wa Hakarenai on the character design side to Bocchi the Rock! and Backflip!! in editing.
What the story is about
The premise turns a familiar fairy tale into a mystery. On the outskirts of town lived a girl called “Red Riding Hood.” One day she is forced to set out on a journey for a certain purpose, and along the way she keeps getting swept up in incident after incident. Using her innate curiosity and a clever mind, she sets about solving each mystery — all within a world everyone recognizes as a fairy tale.
It is a setup built for episodic cases with an overarching journey, which is why the “detective story” framing in the English title is more literal than decorative.
Novel, manga and a Netflix film
The source goes back further than the anime. Futabasha published Aoyagi’s novel in August 2020. Tanakanoka launched a manga adaptation in Futabasha’s Monthly Action magazine in January 2023, where it serialized until the magazine ceased publication in February 2024. The manga then moved to Futabasha’s Web Action website in April 2024 and ended with its fourth compiled volume, which shipped in June 2025.
The novel had also already inspired a live-action movie adaptation that streamed worldwide on Netflix in 2023, with Kanna Hashimoto starring as Little Red Riding Hood. So the anime joins a property that has already proven it can carry across formats.
Why it matters
Mystery anime with a strong hook and a recognizable fairy-tale skin sit in a sweet spot: they are approachable for new viewers and easy to recommend, and the source material already has a finished manga and a Netflix film behind it. Adding a first trailer and a January 2027 date gives the show a clear place on the winter slate, and the New York Comic Con premiere on October 9 means early reactions should arrive well before the broadcast.
The one thing still unknown is who fills out the rest of the cast, something the announcement teased with an image but did not spell out in text. Expect more names as the January premiere approaches.
If you like mystery-driven anime, we also covered the Antiquarian Bookshop Biblia’s Case Files anime, which brings another case-of-the-week premise to April 2027.
Source: Anime News Network
Featured image: Key visual for the Red Riding Hood: A Detective Story anime, via Anime News Network.
