Red River ‒ Episode 15
If you're worried about Kail kissing Yuri at the end of this episode, don't be. That's not history talking (well, not entirely; Kail's fate is a matter of historical record), but epidemiology. There was, in fact, an outbreak of disease in the Hittite empire that killed Kail's father. But the general consensus is that it was tularemia, or rabbit fever, a zoonotic disease that can't spread between humans – it's contracted via insects that have fed on an infected animal (like Lyme disease is), drinking contaminated water or by breathing air contaminated with dust from an infected animal's feces. Improperly cooked meat from an infected animal may also be a source of infection. I don't know if it's truly impossible to catch it a second time, as Kurk says (and if it's not, that means original manga creator Chie Shinohara is hedging her bets as to what the plague was), but if Yuri and Kail avoided other infectious vectors, there's little to no chance they'd catch it.
Incidentally, this is something that the historical Hittites eventually picked up on, and they managed to use infected sheep as history's first recorded case of biological warfare (or at least that's the theory). And if you've noticed that we've got a lot of historical firsts during the time Red River is set, that's largely because the Hittites were excellent record keepers…and they wrote on clay, so when buildings burned, the letters were accidentally preserved rather than destroyed as the clay was fired.
And now I suppose I have to actually talk about the episode, don't I? The False Ishtar plotline isn't a favorite of mine – it's much less cunning than Nakia's usual plans. If she wanted Yuri to catch the so-called ten-day fever, she could simply have kept her in the palace given that the king just died of it, and she ought to have learned by now that getting Yuri away from Kail and attempting to kill her basically never works. Perhaps it's a sign of Nakia's growing desperation – with Šuppiluliuma dead, she doesn't have much time to get Juda named crown prince. Kail, she must know, is the most popular choice, and Juda doesn't even want the throne, as he can be heard explicitly telling her. She and Urhi are running low on time and opportunities to get rid of Yuri, and seen in that light, ruining Kail's reputation through her isn't a terrible plan…although it's one that hasn't worked for Nakia yet.
This time is no exception, of course. While I applaud Kail's efforts to keep Yuri from learning about the false Ishtar, Ramses really had the right idea by telling her. While I'm not a fan of Ramses, he's got clearer eyes when it comes to Hittite politics because while he's attracted to Yuri, he's not in love with her. Ramses wants Kail to be king for his own reasons, and one of them might be that he sees Yuri as someone who could be beneficial to Egypt, or at least Hittite/Egyptian relations. Would he kidnap her at the drop of a hat? Absolutely. But unlike Nakia, he's got more than one idea in his head and that both makes him more of a liability for Kail and a more interesting character.
Unfortunately, the bulk of this episode follows the usual formula: Nakia does something underhanded, Yuri takes the bait, Yuri gets in trouble but everyone decides they love her, Kail rides up to take her home. History is reduced to footnotes for the most part (the manga does go into more detail) and there's some badly animated kissing. Roll credits. I am glad that the line about “where is there trouble in the city” was left in, though – for all of his consent issues, Kail does know Yuri quite well.
At this point, with the number of episodes left, I am hoping that there won't be a rush to try to adapt the entire manga. There's a decent stopping point coming up, and I hope they take it. But whether they do or not, and whether these reviews continue into the fall or not, I hope people will pick up the manga. It still has its 1990s-era issues, but it really is better than what we've been watching.
Rating:
Red River is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.
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