Sora wa Akai Kawa no Hotori

Red river, ah yes one of the stories i will always remember.

It takes the best out of history fantasy and some reality mixing it in a way I just love and have never found before or after.

It's not just happy go go all the time or the depressing atmosphere all the time,it got it's more happy moments and moments that makes you cry making it more easy to relate to and makes the story more alive.

For all romance, fantasy out there this is a most read

I have been reading manga for as long as I can remember and this story has always been my absolute favorite. I've reread it multiple times and I always find myself coming back to it because I've never found another story quite like it. 10/10 would recommend.

My review apparently has to be longer but idk what else to say to convince u to read it. It was one of the first mangas I read as a teenager. I've seen and read so much more material since then but Red River is still the best. It has elements of time-travel, royalty, history, romance, and its also a gender-bender (at times).

Yes, Anatolia Story (Red River) is a shoujo manga, but perhaps more importantly it provides an outlook along with commentary of the Hittite empire. If you're like me and have a slight interest in historical empires or simply history itself I'll go ahead and state that you should read this manga because I found that to be the primary focus of the content.

STORY (8) - Shinohara did a great job of mixing mostly accurate history and fantasy to create a historical shoujo story. The story starts off strong and pulls you in (ba dum tss) to the world of the Bronze Age featuring the Hittites. I was pleasantly surprised with how accurate the timeline was in addition to the King's bloodline. I had a limited scope of knowledge about the Hittites from World History class (waaay back in the day) so I learned a ton about the relationship between the Hittites and other empires on my own time because this manga was the catalyst. Now on to the bad parts about the story. It gets repetitive and frustrating with the same antagonists making appearance after appearance. Fortunately, you'll still want to keep turning the page to see what happens next hoping for a good resolution. It's a hard life for us readers, sigh.

ART (6) - There are your typical shoujo drawn scenes with big eyes, flowers, etc. I didn't judge it there, but rather on character detailing and environments such as the empire, palace, and battle grounds. Shinohara does a decent job here, but overall characters look "2D" and at times inconsistent (Ilbani's eyes and eyebrows for example), battle grounds and armies didn't leave me impressed either. Some characters look too similar such as Kail, Zananza, and Urhi. It's confusing and to be honest kind of lazy on Shinohara's part. The art gets the job done I guess and this is disregarding some of the lesser quality scans floating around.

CHARACTER (7) - Yuuri goes through multiple character development arcs. Great to see her become a respected leader which goes against the grain of a female lead generally being helpless. Kail's character is sufficiently fleshed out although I would have liked to see a backstory of him and his family. I would have also liked to get some insight on how he became the type of leader he was. Side characters get a respectable amount of attention, but Ramses steals the show overall as the second lead. The development for the antagonists I felt was too little too late, which in turn factored in to the anticlimactic ending (more on that later).

ENJOYMENT (7) - Main thing to point out here is that the historical aspect really carries the show as opposed to the increasingly silly antagonist background plot. The repetitive dilemmas and at times suspect art take the enjoyment down a couple of notches, but I still had a good time reading through the story.

OVERALL (7) - Would have liked to give it a 7.5 fwiw. Admittedly, I haven't read many shoujo manga, but I'm glad I read Red River. I feel that the unique historical environment helps it escape common shoujo tropes such as a story becoming progressively less interesting. The ending I felt was anticlimactic as a I stated above because I had a hard time empathizing with the antagonists. I felt as if there was something missing, I kept reading on and thinking, "There's gonna be a huge reveal soon, right??". But, the backstory on the antagonists was meh except for one small twist. Again, I would definitely recommend Red River to anyone who likes history and wants to learn for themselves about historical empires in the mediterranean. I normally wouldn't look for shoujo manga to read, but after reading this I'll have an open mind to them now!

Yuuri, our protagonist, is a highschool student going about her normal life like a normal highschool chick (don't you hate it when people keep saying a 'normal'-something and then something un-normal seems to happen to them?) but when her mom tells her to get a drink for her dad for dinner, the drink suddenly takes shape and... *

*:P read the manga to find out what happens next

The story is premium quality with a lot of shady ideas, it had many dimensions and it was not REALLY shallow, if you get what I mean. Honestly, the main character (the chick, Yuuri) reminds me of Jeanne of Arc/The Maid of Orléans.

In what way?

Her character is surrounded by the ideas of 'sent by gods' and (more than a little ironically) the story is filled with magic.

I liked the developments of the story but clearly, the quality of the ideas worsened as the story continued; however at the start of the story, there was historical accuracy and characters were solid and had personalities. Which brings me to the art...

The art was sad; (quality-wise) in the first volume, I was awe-struck at such historically-accurate art and it had some good details however I was angry, (Yes! Folks, ANGRY!) at to how the art drastically worsened.

Compared to most manga it was good but if you compare it with itself {1 volume to 15 volume} you would turn yellow at the face and it shot the story's foot since it is supposed to be historical, the art is EXTREMELY, (let me emphasize this) EXTREMELY important.

At one point it looked like the god-damn 21st century, the illustrator seemed to spit at the writers face even if they ARE the same person.
It was appalling at best.

If you are willing to sacrifice the art and have great imagination to continue the story in your minds-eye, you may be willing to read this manga because the story itself wasn't bad... Except, well, for encouraging forbidden magic, making rape cool and inciting idolistic worship of a human being. You know all the things you should never do.

In the 10 years of my life of reading manga, I have never encountered one with such absolutely pathetic characters. Don't get me wrong, the idea was good, but the characters were so underdeveloped and the obstacles the heroin had to face were so horribly thought out, that at one point you have to think "What obstacle will they throw at use now? Will it be that the girl can't be with the guy of her dreams because he's a blonde? Oh, the horror! Society shall never approve!"

I'm one to complete my manga's, since I've learned through the years that sometimes manga's get better as you read one, but this one only got worse and it actually became excruciatingly painful to complete it. Unfortunately, I had trusted the reviews I had seen here and decided to read it. I read it after completing Fushigi Yuugi, a fellow "girl gets sucked into another world" themed manga, so I'll admit, expectations were high. But for it to have been such an epic fail...oh my.

The female lead was unlikeable. She made obstacles for herself to not be with the guy she loved most, which was annoying since it was so obvious it was just so that the series could drag out longer. What I hated most of all was the main villain, the evil queen. Her character was the worst underdeveloped character with the most pathetic evil-schemes I have yet to encounter. You would've easily thought they took her out of a Disney classic film like "Snow White" and even then, it would be an insult to Snow White.

All in all, I must say that this manga is pathetic. Do not be fooled by these reviews! It would only be enjoyable for possibly an manga newb, and even they deserve better. I mean, jeez, even Inuyasha's "Naraku" had a semi-thought out past that led him to be "evil" (was sick-fell for kikyo-gave up his body to demons to be stronger to be able to BE with kikyo-was only a half demon-wanted to become a full demon to find his place in the world-did evil things to obtain the one thing that could MAKE him a full demon)

This is a FANTASTIC manga I have read so far! I have read it and re-read it over and over again.

The story somehow drew me in by how a girl who is yanked through time to the Bronze Era by an evil witch of a mother, of his love. At first I was skeptical if I would like it like many I know read this because it sounded really cheesy and drawn out.(To be honest the first time I read it, I read the first chapter then went to the last one because I was doubtful and that was a HUGE mistake! I missed everything!!!!) To my surprise it was really a great read with an interesting look at how history could have gone ( & Personally think should have gone).

This is a great read for anyone who loves the combination of action, love, drama, magic, myths, real history, and GIRL POWER! It keep you entertained and as Jasonbear said:
"at times, made me develop a passionate desire to punch some characters, kiss them, hug them, cry for them, pull their hair, cheer for them, throw my oversized textbooks at them"

All-in-all, I love this.

PLUS!! Just an idea, It should be made into an Anime. I would watch it so much. I would love to see it on screen and not use my UN-creative mind.

This is a beautiful manga and a beautiful story! The growth of the characters and their perseverance through tragedy and hardship is inspiring and well portrayed. The characters themselves are very easy to become attached to, especially the two main characters: Yuri and Kail. The kind of love, trust, and loyalty that is apparent in their relationship is exactly what I have been looking for in any manga ever. I have gotten so tired of all the romance mangas with wishy-washy and idiotic (though good-intentioned) female leads that worry and fret and don't take any action against those attempting to sabotage their love. Or those who attempt to "sacrifice themselves for the greater good" rather than actually putting effort into fighting back. Female leads that make every dilemma more complicated and difficult because of their low self-esteem drive me crazy (because my own low self esteem drives me crazy) and Yuri Ishtar is a refreshing change. She is a strong female lead that anyone would appreciate and enjoy. Don't get me wrong, it is not as though she never doubts herself, it is the way she pulls through every time that is inspiring! (Sorry to ramble about Yuri so much.... I just may have fallen in love with her character). Anyways, the ending (don't worry this isn't a spoiler) of this manga was found somewhat wanting. With such great plot twists and action throughout the manga I guess I was just left wanting more. Although I guess that's just another sign of how great it was. It IS always nice to leave a little bit to the readers imagination. Other than that, the art was great, as was the story, and it was nearly impossible for me to stop reading. I read all 94 chapters in about two days (I didn't get much sleep).
So like I said: this manga was incredibly enjoyable and beautiful and I loved every minute of reading it. My only complaint was that I wanted more, more, MORE!!!!!!! (which tells you how great it was).

Okay, so I disliked this story so much it prompted me to write my first ever review on this website. I truly do not understand how people could have given this series such fantastic reviews. While it's true that I was only able to get through 5 chapters, it just goes to show how bad this story was.

I'd first picked up this manga because I'd heard such fabulous reviews, and I was looking forward to it since I've been binge readings historical themed mangas recently, and this was next on my list. But my god, I could not get through it.

First, the story is horribly predictable. I can almost already guess what the ending will be, and frankly, I'm not willing to read the 90+ chapters it'll take to get there. The almost-rape that was seen in the first chapter nearly had me permanently lodging my eyeballs to the back of my sockets, and the rest of the few chapters weren't that great either.

Second, the characters were terribly bland and their actions were also highly predictable. I could not get over the vast amount of predictable character tropes in a drama series' like this, and the fact that they had no uniqueness to any of them. I could probably predict what a few of the characters introduced in the first 5 chapters would do throughout the rest of the story, but I don't feel like reading the rest of the story to see if I'm right.

Perhaps you're saying, "maybe if you read more than FIVE chapters you'd feel differently", but honestly, no I don't think so. Unless there is some huge revamping of the character's personalities and the overall story in the coming chapters, I don't think I'll come to like this manga very much. So, I'm sorry if this is your all-time favorite story in the entire world, but I just can't do it. Maybe if I had come across this story back in my early years of reading manga (which was when I was 12 maybe?), I would have felt a lot differently about this story.

Anyway, I'd like to end this on a positive note, so I will say the I enjoyed the art very much (I'm a sucker for the late 90's early 00's style), so at least this manga has that going for it.

Maybe my next review will be a positive one (but likely not as I don't ever have much motivation to write reviews, oops). I'll try, though. Maybe.

Story: 10
I really enjoyed the story of Red River/Anatolia Story. It was engaging, interesting, ocasionly funny and supensfull throughout all of the story.

Art: 8
The art is the one thing that acording to me isn't perfect. But the artist did a great job of capturing the characters feelings and the feelings they have one and other.

Characters: 10
Pretty much all of the characters in this manga have a good background and are all used minor characters and mayor characters the same. I got emotionly invested in pretty much every character even in some of the villains as you learn that each and every one of them have there own reasons to do what they do even though they may seem monsterous. Another great thing is character development that exists in this manga.

Enjoyment: 10
This is according to me the most important factor to a manga was it enjoyable or not. If a manga isn't enjoyable then it can't be good and my god is it enjoyable you are literaly on the edge of your seat throughout the manga.

Overall: 10
This manga is clearly a favorite of mine. I found so good it has a spot in my top three manga. I say spare no moment and run away to your local book store or your favorite manga streaming site and read the heck out of this manga you will not be dissapointed.

Story: The beginning of this story isn't terribly unique. It's a heck of a lot like Inuyasha, but from there it takes a much different turn. I loved the way that the story played out, it had excellent pacing and I never felt bored. (10/10)

Art: I had a difficult time rating this one. I really disliked the artwork at first. Then again, I'd been reading more modern manga, like CLAMP and Fruits Basket, both of which have beautiful artwork. But the farther I got into the story, the more I began to like the artwork. There is just something about it that is appealing. The characters emotions are expertly portrayed. (8/10)

Character: The characters in this are excellent. They all change and develop like a character should in a good story. Yuri is such a great female lead. She changes and adapts from being a typical lighthearted high school student into a strong leader, friend and lover. (10/10)

Enjoyment: I finished this manga within about two weeks, which is saying something considering that it has 28 volumes. I enjoyed it so much that when I finished reading, I missed the characters.(10/10)

Overall: One of my favorite manga. It's a sign of a good story when you finish it and you feel like you're saying goodbye to a friend. Red River was like that for me. (9/10)

I highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys romance, historical fiction, strong female leads, and a good solid story. I will warn you though, the manga is a bit more adult than say... Sailor Moon. There are a lot of scenes of nearly naked (ie, barely covered) bodies. But it isn't done distastefully.

Red River is the oldest manga I have ever read, having been released the year I was born. I had put off reading it due to the art style (I was used to round, fluffy shoujos) and finally, after running into it for the hundredth time last year, I decided to stop putting it off. I was caught right away, and I could not stop reading. I read every chapter in three days.
The last volume was a bit dull after the main story ended, but I liked the insight into the side characters lives, and even the little after stories. But either way, it was a great end to the best manga I have ever read.

At first, the art was a big no for me, but as I got use to it, I realized it wasn't bad, just different. And for a manga that came out sixteen years ago, it was actually fairly well drawn and a perfect style for this story.
The characters were wonderfully created, and everybody had their own distinctive personality. Yuri, the main character, was definitely not some helpless fifteen year hiding behind her romantic interest the entire series. She was actually surprisingly independent, fighting her own battles without help from Kail, except a few times, of course, where the female protagonist has to play damsel in distress. Sadly, those kinds of scenes are in every manga, but despite them, Yuri proves herself to be a reliable character. At the end of the manga when she's about nineteen or so, you can see how much she had matured and changed her views on the "reality of the world", yet still harbors a feminine-innocence.

I really enjoyed this manga, and I recommend it to /anyone/. And if you're putting off reading it because of the art or story or whatever, stop it. Give it a chance, and I hope you wont be disappointed. My only problem now is finding a manga that could ever live in the shadow of Red River.

Oh geeze, where to start with this! After reading it, it's always been my favorite. The drama is perfect, the characters are unhateable (unless we're talking about the Empress Dowager who's absolutely wonderful to hate) and overall it's got a good storyline. A lot of the time, I compare this to Fushigi Yugi and I think, "Dang. It fills in a lot of the random questions I had about Yuu Watase's story."

The entire time I read this, I was hanging off the edge of my chair, just waiting to see what happened next. I love it so much that I've read all the chapters multiple times with the same anticipation, regardless of my knowledge of what happens next.

If you like romance and drama, go with this. You won't regret it.

Overall enjoyment: Top notch

This is hands down my favorite Japanese series of all time. In fact, of my top 10 media I've ever consumed, this would be in there. Note I said media - I'm including video games like LoL, movies like Lion King, and books like the Silmarillion in here.

I don't expect anybody else to love this manga to my extent, but give this 3000 page story a try. If you're a fan of isekai or romances, I guarantee this series will surprise you with how enjoyable it is.


Now if I have your interest, please read on for more details!


Framework:

With the advent of SAO, people forget that isekai stories used to be female focused, often featuring strong female main characters. Don't let the shojo label turn you off though, the story is beautifully written and very action packed.

This is a work of historical fiction involving being trapped in a foreign world (3500 years in the past). We get a first-person view of the hero's journey, as our main heroine must traverse the dangers of political intrigue in the Hittite royal court.


Story:

The main plot is that our heroine Yuri Suzuki is brought to the Hittite Empire at the height of its glory. She was to be sacrificed by the evil queen, who wishes for her son to be the next king.

Yuri's life gets saved by Kail Mursili (King Mursili II, real first name unrecorded) the third prince of the royal court. Through sharp wit, bravery, and a fierce resolve Yuri and Kail must foil the evil queen's numerous attempts on their lives, all while ruling one of the most powerful empires of the ancient world.

The story is very action packed, but don't expect any DBZ power levels or stuff like that. Everybody is a normal human being after all, so it is more focused on trying to outsmart the queen. Of course, it's not a suspense either, so it focuses on emotional impact rather than strategic plotting.


Historical:

Chie Sunohara did a tremendous amount of research on the Hittite Empire. Almost everything fits one historical theory or another of the Hittites. The main difference is our time traveling heroine, whose actions are based off Puduhepa but her chronology places her as Gassuliwaya (one generation ahead).

Just this fact alone deserves special praise, that a wonderfully crafted story can be written without deviating very far from history.


Characterization:

This is perhaps the strongest points of the manga. When it comes to shojo romances, we often think of shallow characterization, ham-fisted explanations, and a lot of illogical thinking.

Not here though.

Yuri doesn't mindlessly accept status quos, but she also does not expect people to accept her own ways without taking personal action. Yuri also is not the perfect princess; she has her own insecurities, and some of her actions even do not work as she planned.

Likewise, Yuri behaves in a realistic way to the events around her. Traumatic experiences don't just disappear overnight. Any conflict between Yuri and Kail doesn't magically disappear - there's usually a good reason for love, forgiveness, anger, etc.

While we do see glimpses into other characters, the manga is mostly a first-person affair. We pretty much only see things through Yuri's perspective, so while Yuri is fully fleshed out, we only get incomplete pictures of the supporting cast. And that's perfectly fine - in real life we don't know anybody's psyche other than our own.


Cons:

The main problem is the villain, the evil queen Nadia. We only ever get the smallest of glimpses into her reasons for so mindlessly wanting her own son to be king. Her second-in-command Urhi Shalma likewise never exactly revealed why he was so devoted to Nadia.

However, in story this shortcoming itself is acknowledged. Yuri herself has asked Urhi why he takes his actions, as it doesn't seem to give him any benefit whatsoever. Nadia also makes it clear she never intends to let anybody know her true reasons.

In addition, this is a 1995 manga. Its art style is gorgeous, especially given this was 20 years ago. However, its age does show at times.

I don't usually write reviews, but after reading many of the reviews for this manga, I felt the need to address a couple of things. This may contain minor spoilers in regards to the mindset of the characters and their specific actions. Also, there might be a slight rant.

Story (6/10):

The story is of one about a modern girl getting sent back in time by an evil queen hoping to take her body for a ritual. The MC finds herself surrounded by many physically strong men of high social status. The story is definitely a harem romance type.

Art (8/10):

I actually liked the art. Though the art progressively got messier, it fit the ambiance of the series in a sense. It is hard to describe unless you read the manga. As someone that does not mind different types of art and how bad it can get, I can still read the series. This does not mean that everyone can tolerate the art though. However, I can say that the art in the beginning is fantastic. The details are there and the clothes designs, specifically, are elegant.

Characters (4/10):

This is where I believe the manga lacks significantly in, where it is also the reason why I did not enjoy the series very much. Many reviewers constantly bring up how the MC is different from the typical female, weak character. However, I see the MC as a stereotypical magical girl. As a "magical girl," she has a special ability that none others have. This makes her special, but as someone who has read many manga in the shoujo genre, she fits the pattern of one that uses that power to gain attention in order to secure her spot next to her loved ones (I know its a "duh" that's what the main character with super powers should do, but you will see later on how she carries herself in the series). In other words, she gains the praise of other male characters to stay where she is, but in the end, still relies heavily on them to save her.

Furthermore, though people say she is strong-willed and smart, she may be this way in some instances, but she continuously lets male characters take advantage of her. IT'S RIDICULOUS. You see that she has gained powers, but she STILL let's herself stand weak against men! For a majority of the series, she makes it acceptable for the men to manipulate her to the point where she realizes too late that she will be raped! In MANY instances, she is on the verge of getting raped until another male character or other side characters jump in to save her. That is also another thing I would like to bring up.

She saves some people with her powers is some nonchalant way where everyone is overly joyed and is unnecessarily surprised by, but she is always saved by some male character! Whether it is against enemies or whether she is being sexually assaulted, she is almost always saved by men. I see her special ability as a facade that many readers do not uncover and see that she is the weak girl always being saved.

There is also little character development in the male characters. They do become nicer to the MC, where in the beginning, they only saw her as a helpless female. They started to have more respect for her, but in the end, they constantly showed their sexual desires for her. There was little development in their outlook on her as a sex toy, though they do start to let her have more of a say in what goes on.

The evil characters also have a great lacking in character development. The queen specifically, does not learn from her own actions. It is actually sad because you barely learn much about her. She has the same level of development as she did in the beginning of the manga.

Enjoyment (5/10):

I honestly did not enjoy the manga very much. The art was good, not consistent, but good, however, the characters really downplayed the series; the characters are supposed to be the main point of focus to make a series great and I did not see great character development. There were poor messages portrayed in the manga where sexual harassment was an acceptable occurrence from both genders, though obviously, not as acceptable from the female side than the male side. The opinions of other readers saying that the female character was "different" from others because she was smart and strong really made me sad in which it just showed that other readers did not see depth in the psychological mindset of the characters. I may be reading into the characters too much, but it was just too obvious for me not to point out (I am absolutely not saying everyone does not read into characters at all, I just see a different side of the story). Though I did find myself wanting to read it to pass times. There were some instances where I just kind of mindless-read for the plot to continue, with the tolerance of some degrading actions from some of the characters.

Overall (5/10):

If you like to pass by time and just read about the epic adventures a girl traveling through time who experiences a constant danger of evil, it is an interesting series to read. So those that enjoy shoujo, romance, some smut, and historical manga, would be assumed to like the manga. If you also like to read something very light-hearted (mindless, but not extremely mindless reading), then read this. However, if you like true character development and are looking for true female main characters that are strong and smart, do not read this because you will see that the female character is only praised for her powers and doings by the male population in the series, not necessarily praised for her true independence.

Personally, I liked how you could mindless-read and understand the plot without problem. It was the character development that I was hoping for that let me down. I get that the manga is historical so some of the actions are shown to be more acceptable according to the time period, however in my opinion, if there was more character development all around, then the actions of some would not be criticized as mindless and sporadic. Also, if the female character did grow into one of more significant independence and more self-reliance in her own capabilities, then the actions brought upon her would have been seen as more sympathetic.

Thank you for taking the time to read this! (: