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Reviewed by Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarlane Red River is a title I'd vaguely heard about for years and kept meaning to check out, and getting a review copy of the latest volume was a great excuse. Courtesy of a well-stocked local library (which is actually a bit hit-and-miss, so evidently someone there likes this series; I'm not always able to catch up on titles this way, unfortunately), I spent a week or two finding out what I'd been missing. Having caught up, I'm putting this on my unwritten list of "titles that are somewhat based in history and/or reality, the accuracy of which I am not qualified to judge." The main character, Yuri, is a Japanese schoolgirl who is magically torn away from her modern-day life and finds herself in the ancient Hittite Empire, where the Queen Dowager, Nakia, intends to use her as a sacrifice. Through the course of the series, Yuri not only survives Nakia's machinations and captures the heart of Kail, one of the empire's princes (now the emperor), but also wins the love and loyalty of individuals and nations alike. She is regarded as the incarnation of the war goddess Ishtar, and it may even be true--I attribute her incredible luck to that (since it otherwise pushes the bounds of believability further than I like), although she's also very resourceful and clever. There are plenty of series that follow the same basic pattern as Red River (girl is swept away to another time/place and winds up doing something very important there, often due to destiny), and I haven't read many of them, but I'm enjoying this more than I would have expected. One general aspect that appeals to me is that magic is real and very powerful, but that it's hardly relied on at all, other than Nakia's initial transport of Yuri and her ability to control people. It's treated as a fact of life, and not even a central one. As I've said, Yuri's luck (she survives countless plots and kidnappings, among other things) is tremendous, but I'm willing to accept that because it puts her in quite a few genuinely interesting situations. At this late point in the game, she's in Egypt, orchestrating a rebellion to help the Egyptian general Ramses, a recurring antagonist; she realizes that he's the best hope for the country's people, who're suffering under their current rulers (masterminded by Egypt's own dowager queen, Nefertiti, who's desperate to maintain her own power). Like many shoujo heroines, Yuri is tremendously empathetic and does her best to help everyone she can, and in this case she also sees the parallels between Nefertiti and Nakia and the ways they attempt to maintain control over their countries. This volume really brings home how personally Yuri takes things, and how willing she is to set her own wishes aside to do what she can to help. As has been noted previously on this site, Red River's artwork gives it a very classic feel. (It originally ran between 1995 and 2002.) It's not outstanding in its own right, but it's solid and carries the story well. Each volume of Red River is sold shrink-wrapped. Review copy provided by VIZ Media. Comment on this review of Red River v22 on the Manga Life Forums. |
6 October 2009
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