Red Riding Hood: A Detective Story Sets January 2027 Premiere

Red Riding Hood: A Detective Story will begin airing in Japan in January 2027 on Tokyo MX, BS NTV, and Yomiuri TV. The October 5 announcement also delivered the television anime's first full promotional video, first key visual, and six additions to its voice cast, including a narrator.

The trailer brings the fairy tale mystery into view

The new promotional video shows Red Riding Hood meeting Pinocchio before the pair are pulled into a case. Its setup establishes the adaptation's central twist: familiar fairy tale figures inhabit a world where Red Riding Hood repeatedly encounters suspicious deaths and applies her curiosity and deductive skill to solve them. The key visual gathers the central pair with the newly revealed supporting characters, giving the anime its broadest look at the ensemble so far.

Five performers have joined the character cast. Takuya Sato voices Jill, Atsushi Tamaru plays Antonio, Motoko Kumai voices Rodrigo, Kotaro Nishiyama takes the role of Paolo, and Sakiko Uran plays Thumbelina. Ryoko Shiraishi will provide the narration. They join the previously announced leads Yume Miyamoto as Red Riding Hood and Akira Sekine as Pinocchio.

The revealed characters all appear in the newly released promotional material. The cast announcement connects names and voices to faces shown alongside the leads, while keeping the focus on Red Riding Hood's first encounter with Pinocchio and the case that follows.

The key visual places Red Riding Hood and Pinocchio at its center, surrounded by Jill, Antonio, Rodrigo, Paolo, and Thumbelina. The trailer's meeting between the two leads previews how the series begins building its mystery format, while later shots introduce other figures who appear during the journey.

Who is making the adaptation

Itsuro Kawasaki is directing the series at BENTEN Film. He is also handling the scripts and serving as sound director, placing several of the adaptation's major creative responsibilities under one lead. Manami Minakata and Yuko Yahiro are credited with character designs, while Jun Ichikawa is composing the music. Additional credits name Izumi Hoki and Hiroshi Kato as art directors, Chie Yoshimura for color design, Rieko Koike as director of photography, and Daisuke Hiraki as editor. Ryota Tamura, Satoru Kiyomaru, Shunsuke Masuda, and Yasuhiro Iwabuchi are main animators. Jazzline Monteron handles prop design, Yoshinori Iwanaga handles trick design, and TOTONYAN is credited for art.

The anime adapts Aito Aoyagi's mystery novel series, which Futabasha began publishing in Japan in August 2020. The books follow Red Riding Hood on a journey through a recognizable storybook setting that becomes a chain of murder investigations. Four novel volumes have been published in Japan. A manga adaptation illustrated by Kanoka Tana later ran from January 2023 through May 2025 and concluded with four collected volumes. The property also inspired the 2023 live-action film Once Upon a Crime, but the television anime is a separate adaptation with its own cast and production team.

The announcement narrows the anime's previously disclosed 2027 window to January and identifies its Japanese broadcasters. A specific first broadcast date has not been announced. For now, the first trailer, ensemble visual, expanded cast, and staff credits define the production ahead of its confirmed January 2027 television launch.