Red River by Chie Shinohara is so indulgent and melodramatic that if I was 12, I’d have strong opinions about it. As an adult, it’s like feeding my brain Doritos.
Evil Queen Nakia wants her son to be king in the ancient Hittite empire. But as the youngest of the current king’s sons, the little princelet has a few people in front of him. So Nakia plans to kill her son’s half-brothers. This is all straightforward, but it gets ridiculous and convoluted because she’s an idiot.
Nakia is a sorceress and one of the most powerful people in the empire, so assassination should be easy with her magic and royal powers. Her plot requires human sacrifice. She could just grab someone disposable off the street; instead Nakia’s magic travels thousands of years into the future to kidnap Yuri from modern-day Japan (the 90s). Why? Chicken thigh.
All questions about this story can be answered with chicken parts.
Yuri is the star of Red River, by the way. She’s a normal teenage girl dumped in the middle of ancient Hittite royalty succession drama. Luckily, Yuri is saved by Prince Kail, who is the most viable candidate for the regency. Everyone wants him to be the next king because he’s cool.
For some reason, Kail falls madly in love with Yuri and vows to send her home with his own magic (which I don’t think he ever uses, but it’s super powerful). Until then, he protects her by making her a concubine. But they don’t have sex. He respects her so much that he figures out how to reign in his lust.
There is a decent amount of sexual assault (mostly not from Prince Kail) because Yuri is so irresistible. But it’s pretty clear nothing bad will happen to her. She won’t really be hurt. It’s the safe kind of fantasy (for the protagonist). War, torture, and assault are for the other characters.
Meanwhile Nakia does successfully assassinate some princes through proven methods like stabbings and hiring professionals. That doesn’t stop her from pursuing her original stupid assassination plot that involves taking the now beloved-by-all Yuri. The people literally worship Yuri now and call her the goddess Ishtar because she has a vaccination history. Nakia needed to learn about the sunk cost fallacy.
Most of the manga isn’t about Nakia making a Rube Goldberg path to the throne for her kid. That’s just the part I liked. (Her magic can time travel and mind control! How is she so bad at this?) Most of it is about Yuri being adored. And her romance with Kail. Also the war, etc. that I alluded to.
I’m sure someone else could – and has – said great and true things about the series. What I can say about it is that I like Doritos, but I can only eat so many. I couldn’t read the last few volumes.
I am happy the series is getting an anime adaptation over 20 years after it ended. I probably won’t watch it, but I do love a win for shojo, especially the girly stuff.
