Synopsis: As the newly arrived witch floats in the sky next to the gigantic werewolf, she remarks about all the bumpkins staring up at them. While Velou and the villagers freak out about what they're seeing, Velou questions how a werewolf could be so huge. Grimm, seemingly horrified and like she knows something, tells Velou to take the villagers and run. As the giant werewolf loudly reassures the villagers that he's not here to eat them at the moment, just to check on his sons, the witch spots Grimm and points her out to the wolf, calling him Lycaon, and the both of them recognize her as 'Grimm of the Hundred Cannons'. Wasting no time, Grimm leaps into action with a chain, saying that she doesn't care why they're here, all werewolves have to die. Lycaon says her response is worthy of her name, and swings his fist so hard that a shockwave destroys much of the village. Grimm, anticipating this, used the chain to gather together debris and form a ball and chain, slamming the spiked debris ball into the werewolf's head. While the wolf is hurt, he tells Grimm it's time to stop buzzing around like a gnat, and swings another fist, much harder and faster than the previous one. Velou is shocked that such a large creature can move so fast, but to both he and Lycaon's surprise, Grimm is alive, having taken the blow from behind, though clearly the worse for wear. She tells Velou again to run and get the villagers out of here, and Velou starts to comply. Lycaon is impressed by Grimm's strength, but just then, her body starts to smoke. Grimm laments that time's almost up, and the witch mockingly asks 'Grimsey' if her magic spell is about to wear off. Velou stops upon hearing those words, and Lycaon notices at last that it's not Grimm he smells the blood of his sons on, it's Velou. Lycaon bends down to talk to Velou, saying that Dodou's regrets in particular are clinging to Velou's spirit, proving him as a warrior. While the witch sighs saying that Lycaon's doing it again, Velou picks up a hoe and brandishes it at the giant wolf, vowing to give everyone time to escape. He tells Lycaon that if he's talking about familial revenge, then that's a feeling he knows all too well. Much to Velou's surprise, the gigantic wolf merely laughs before standing tall once more. He applauds the youth for wanting to take him on with a simple farmer's tool, and says that killing a werewolf at such a young age is no small feat. Out of respect for Velou's bravery, Lycaon doesn't plan on eating him right now. Instead, he'll wait until Velou is a true warrior, and he'll look forward to savoring the taste of his blood at that time. Grimm tries to tell Lycaon that they can't leave, but Lycaon tells the witch that his sons are dead so it's time for them to go home. The witch whines that she hasn't gotten to do anything yet, so Lycaon asks her – revealing her name to be Cinderella, the Ashen Witch – to light a final bonfire as a signal pyre for his sons' journey to Valhalla. The witch readily agrees, and uses her wand to set off a fireworks like spell that lights the remaining buildings of the village on fire. As Velou tries to find some way to put the fire out, a villager drags him away towards the lake, all while Lycaon loudly chants something in a foreign language. Before they can leave, Grimm (now reverted back to her child form) asks Cinderella a few final questions. She refers to Cinderella and Lycaon as 'direct retainers', and wonders why they'd come all the way to such a remote location just to check on two minor flunkies. Between that, the axe, Velou himself, and how attracted werewolves are to this place, she knows something must be going on, and asks them what they're really after. Cinderella scoffs and says that instead of answering that, she'll give Grimm a message to take back to the guild: the Red List is on the move again. She tells Grimm that they can hunt and kill as many as they want, the list will only get longer because they want to live as well, and someday, there'll be too many of them for humans to handle. With that final message spoken, the pair disappear. A short time later, Velou and Grimm sit overlooking the destroyed hamlet. Grimm says that her mission was an utter failure, and as agreed upon in their contract, she'll return the fee the mayor paid to Velou. Velou tells her to keep it however. He laments that Kasoka Village is no more, with many people missing and the confirmed survivors moving on to search for new homes. Velou angrily reiterates that he'd sworn to protect them all, and he failed. Grimm says that she'll call in a new hunter and reinforcements to search the area for the missing, and once that's done, she'll be leaving. Velou at last asks her to take him with her when she goes, saying he's ready to go to the Hunters Guild. Review: *deep breath* Ho. Ly. CRAP. There is a LOT to unpack from this chapter, and let me start out by saying that this is absolutely the best chapter the series has had since it's start, possibly blowing away even it's opening chapter. There is clearly a lot of world-building going on here, most of which we can only begin to speculate on as of now, but I'll do my best to reign in my excitement and analyze or theorize what we do have to talk about here. Right off the bat, there's a notable difference in Grimm's reaction to seeing these two compared to how she reacted to the previous werewolves. Whereas before she was confident and pushed Velou to stand and fight, here her immediate reaction is to tell him to run. It's made very clear throughout the chapter that she knows more than she's letting on about these two as well, so it's not just that she can tell these guys are in another league – it's that she knows exactly how dangerous they are and that Velou isn't anywhere near ready for them yet. The main spotlight of the chapter is on the giant werewolf, Lycaon. That name looked familiar to me, but I couldn't quite place it at first. One short Google trek later, and I was reminded that this was the name of a character from a famous Greek myth. That Lycaon was the King of Arcadia who, after deciding to test Zeus' divinity by feeding him one of his own sons, was turned into a wolf by the enraged god. This could simply be the author pulling a somewhat known werewolf related name into the mix, or it could potentially be something more than that. Don't forget, the series has established that nobody knows what exactly causes a person to become a werewolf. The series itself also brings up the idea of it tying back to a curse, so what if it's exactly that? Instead of being a witch's curse however, it could be a curse from a god. Not Zeus himself per say, but a series original god. At the same time though, what if it IS Zeus? Lycaon does bring up the idea of Valhalla, the resting place of great warriors from Norse myth, later on in the chapter. Maybe it's not so crazy to think that the likes of Greek and Norse mythology exist in a much more real fashion in the world of Red Hood. Or maybe the author has just done his research and is pulling in names that he thinks fit and also sound cool. Either one is possible, and either way I wouldn't be too surprised to see the likes of Romulus and Remus or even Fenrir (who may also have inspired this gigantic wolf Lycaon, come to think of it) at some point. In addition to the lore behind his name, Lycaon also serves as an excellent showcase of just how big the world outside of Kasoka Village is, at least in terms of strength. Sure, Velou has proven himself to be a capable fighter, and he's even killed a werewolf (and aided in killing another), but he's got a long way to go before he'll be able to tangle with the likes of Lycaon. Heck, even Grimm seems like she's barely able to keep him at bay, and there's lots of things to suggest Lycaon was far from going all out here. To make matters worse, Grimm later refers to both he and Cinderella as 'retainers', which means that they're both only servants to someone – maybe even multiple someones – even stronger than they are. Needless to say, it's a good thing for both Grimm and Velou that Lycaon seems to operate based on some sort of warrior's code, or they would have been completely annihilated right here and now. With all of the great things that Lycaon brings to the table, it's unfortunate that his counterpart Cinderella doesn't get quite as much attention. She seems to be the 'brains' of the duo, as well as the one that can use magic, but for now that just amounts to her noticing Grimm and bringing her to Lycaon's attention, and serving as their means of coming and going. Her naming scheme doesn't really bring anything else interesting to the forefront either, as it's of the same mold as Grimm's own name – which actually, now that I think of it, does bring something interesting up, but I'll touch on that in a moment. We're also treated to a spell by Cinderella, showing that witches do use wands in this world. Yay for more minor lore building, I suppose. It's through both Lycaon and Cinderella together that we start to get a better picture for just who Grimm is as well, though a lot of it is still kept really vague for now. She's apparently a well known enough Hunter for both of them to recognize her by name and sight, though that could simply mean that they've encountered each other before as well. Grimm's apparent nickname is 'Grimm of the Hundred Cannons', and though nothing is shown or explained why she's called that in this chapter, I'm almost wondering if it has something to do with her ability to continually pull guns out of her case. It seems like it either has something to do with that, some past event she was a part of, or an ability of hers that we've yet to witness. One mystery that's been at least partially solved though seems to be Grimm's true form being that of a child, and her adult body being achieved through some sort of spell. Which leads to a new theory I have in regards to Grimm – she herself is a witch, or connected to witches somehow or another. Perhaps she's only half witch, or is descended from witches, or something of the sort. There's a few reasons I'm starting to think this, first being that she can use magic, something that thus far seems exclusive to witches. Secondly, there's a moment where Cinderella refers to her as 'Grimsey'. This could be nothing, but between Cinderella being who first notices her and this informal, familiar way of talking to her, I sort of get the feeling they know each other pretty well. And finally, there's the fact that they both share fable based names. Perhaps there's a naming scheme going on here, akin to the ones Toriyama uses in Dragon Ball, and all witches have fable-related names? Only time will tell how right or wrong I am on any of this. Cinderella also ends up dropping some one more piece of world-building on us before making her exit, namely the 'Red List'. It's not made entirely clear what this is, but with the context given, I'd wager it's some sort of organization made up of witches, werewolves, and perhaps even other creatures, all fighting to try and make more of themselves so that they'll be able to rule over the world instead of humanity. It's name could even come from an actual list that the Hunters guild has – a list of monsters that need to be exterminated by the Red Hood, ie the Red List. The notion of this being a battle for survival between humans and supernatural creatures raises a lot of possible moral questions that the series could explore with time. Perhaps humans aren't as blameless as we'd think in how things are – perhaps this world had something similar to our world's Salem witch trials, and the witches went into hiding and are now striking back. A similar sort of bad history could exist for the werewolves as well. If this does become a thing much further down the line, it'll be really interesting to see how Velou, with his rather rigid sense of justice, responds to it. As many questions as this chapter answers, it raises so many more theories and leaves even more questions, some of which we've had since chapter one, still unanswered. If these two are retainers, who or what are they retainers for? Why does Kasoka Village seem so important, even now that it's been wiped out? What language was that that Lycaon was chanting as the village burned, and what was it he was saying? What is it about Velou that interests Grimm so much? And just what is the deal with the mayor's axe? All of these questions will probably be answered in the future, but I wouldn't expect many of them to get resolved in the next chapter. It's clear the author is setting up for the long game here, and I hope they get to see it through. Until next time! Favorite Panel: Next Time: Chapter 6
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About the AuthorAspiring author and big anime/manga fan, just trying to do my best in the world. For more details, go to About Me. Archives
September 2022
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