Red Riding Hood: A Detective Story sets a January 2027 TV debut and adds five cast members in its first full trailer
BENTEN Film's anime of Aito Aoyagi's fairy-tale murder mysteries will air on three Japanese channels next winter, with Itsuro Kawasaki directing, writing and handling sound.
Before she gets anywhere near Grandmother's house, this Red Riding Hood has bodies to explain. Aito Aoyagi's fairy-tale whodunits, adapted for television as Red Riding Hood: A Detective Story (Akazukin, Tabi no Tochu de Shitai to Deau), now have a broadcast window: the show starts next January across three Japanese channels, Yomiuri TV, TOKYO MX and BS NTV. Pony Canyon shared the news on October 5 together with a first full trailer and key visual.
The new footage opens with the heroine meeting Pinocchio, after which the pair are swept into an investigation. The key visual puts the two of them at its center with the supporting players gathered around. An exact premiere date and the Japanese streaming lineup are still pending; outside Asia, Crunchyroll is set to carry the series.
The trailer also brought five new voices. Jill is played by Takuya Sato, Antonio by Atsushi Tamaru, Rodrigo by Motoko Kumai, Paolo by Kotaro Nishiyama and Thumbelina by Sakiko Uran, while Ryoko Shiraishi provides narration. They join the two leads named earlier: Yume Miyamoto in the title role, with Akira Sekine voicing Pinocchio.
Itsuro Kawasaki holds three jobs at BENTEN Film, serving as director, scriptwriter and sound director. Character designs are shared by Manami Minakata and Yuko Yahiro, and Jun Ichikawa is writing the score. The adaptation itself was first revealed in August 2026.
Aoyagi's books, issued by Futabasha under its Futaba Bunko imprint since August 2020, follow a curious, quick-witted heroine who wanders a storybook land and keeps tripping over strange crimes. Four volumes were out by July 2025, and the series now has 600,000 copies in print. It has been adapted twice before: Kanoka Tana drew a four-volume manga that ran from 2023 to 2025 across Monthly Action and Web Comic Action, and Netflix released the live-action film Once Upon a Crime, with Kanna Hashimoto as the heroine, worldwide in September 2023.
