Red River ‒ Episode 12
Although Red River is usually quite good with its history – and the scene at the end of the episode where we see the aftermath of the Pharoah Tutankhamen's death leads into one of the more fascinating pieces of Hittite/Egyptian diplomacy – I regret to inform you that Mattiwaza's finale as depicted is, well, wrong. In history, he doesn't go to Babylonia; he's installed on the Mitanni throne by Kail's father after marrying one of Kail's sisters. In fact, he seeks refuge in the Hittite court after the war we've just seen depicted. It's not really something worth griping about (there are so many other issues with this show), but it is interesting to think about why Chie Shinohara made that choice. In the short run, it does make Kail's victory look more decisive, while Mattiwaza giving Yuri his sister's earring is symbolic of him giving up on his ambitions while acknowledging her as Ishtar. That wouldn't have worked had he accompanied the Hittite army back to Hattusa. Authors must be allowed to make history more figurative than it actually was, after all. Stories would be pretty dry else.
And while Red River's anime may be many things, “dry” isn't one of them, even if the manga has been stripped down to its bare bones. Take Ilbani's plan to keep Yuri in the past, for example: he knows Kail won't listen to him, and he knows that it's in everyone's best interest (except maybe Yuri's) to make sure that she becomes his queen. Rather than enlist others to his cause and risk Kail's wrath, he instead orchestrates a remarkably unsubtle maneuver to let Urhi know that Yuri's on a timeline. He knows that if Nakia's stooge hears that Yuri could leave, he'll take action to make sure that doesn't happen. (Why Urhi, a sorcerer priest, wouldn't have known about this in the first place isn't addressed. Maybe Nakia's bad at sharing.) Poor Kikkuri is embroiled in the whole ordeal, but Ilbani doesn't care; he's thinking about the good of the nation.
It's a bit more forethought than we've seen almost anyone else utilize, particularly in this episode. This really does feel like the barest outline of the story, and by this point, it's become clear that things tend to follow a distinct pattern:
1) Yuri, a supposedly smart woman, does something that gets her in trouble
2) Another man tries to make a move on Yuri
3) Yuri shrieks a bit
4) Magic is threatened or involved in an attempt to subjugate her
5) She gets rescued, usually via cosmic coincidence or her horse
6) She and Kail make out while she cries a little
This episode absolutely follows that pattern, with the Prince of Darkness being the captor and his own soldiers staging a coup filling the role of cosmic coincidence. Things are mixed up a bit when Kail kills a guy while making out with Yuri, which shows that he's got great multitasking skills, but there's still a dreary sameness to the proceedings. For anime-only viewers, yes, these same events do play out in the manga, but with additional scenes and dialogue that lets us know that Yuri isn't just the child she was when she landed in the past. As presented here, she's done very little growing, which may be the major plot problem. To be clear, she's absolutely justified in breaking down sobbing when she realizes she won't be able to go home. Her attempt to feign joy before the feast is also believable. It's the rest of her behavior when on campaign with Kail that's difficult to stomach.
The next arc of the story may fare better. It's very much rooted in the historical record, in the first missing persons case in recorded history, in fact. Plus we get a new character who is basically “Kail, but Evil,” which I could see this adaptation hamming up. But I'm keeping my expectations tempered. I can't recall the last time a show let me down this badly.
Rating:
Red River is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.
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