Red River

Episode 9

Malatya is, like most of the locations in this show, a real place. And unlike most of the others, it's still a thriving city in Türkiye. It's not in the exact location the ancient city was – that's in Arslantepe, a name which conspicuously has the word “arslan” or “lion” in it, which is important in the context of Red River because lions are sacred to Ishtar; in fact, she was said to ride a lion. The ancient city is in ruins now, but it's neat to think that the place lives on in a different location. Constantly inhabited ancient cities happen, but not as often as Rome's existence might lead you to believe.

And now I suppose I need to talk about the episode. Oh, or I could tell you that senet, the game Kail and Yuri play this week, is a real board game from Ancient Egypt! You can even still buy a copy today, although I've never played it. (I went through a massive mancala obsession in middle school, though.) It's interesting how many ancient board games are still being sold and played; it's in some ways the ultimate form of living history. You can even get a hnefatafl game board printed on leather so you can feel like a real Viking.

Well, I guess that's all the history distraction I can do for this week. Time to actually talk about the episode. It's not terrible, as these things go – I very much appreciate Yuri's little horny ditzy girl act at the banquet. It's funny, yes, but it also shows how far she's come and how much more comfortable she's gotten with her new role in life. Does she love Kail's apparently boundless sexual desire for her? Not really, no. But she's aware that it's how things work in this world, and she's ready and able to use it to her advantage. It also can be read as her disdain for the rule that women aren't allowed in the banquet hall, presumably out of fear that they'll go wild and start menstruating all over the place. She's also smart enough to know that as a foreigner she has more leeway with the local customs. If Kash or Kikkuri had just charged in, everyone would have known that something was up; if Hadi, Ryui, or Shala had, they wouldn't be able to hide behind the dual masks of being from away and the prince's consort. Given how foolishly Yuri has behaved at other points in the story, this feels like a major character moment.

Not that it stops her from being ridiculous at other points. She is right that Kail's retainers are shorthanded and could use some help scouting around, but she's also not thinking about how bad a position she'd put Kail in if she were captured – something that comes back to bite everyone when Urhi knocks her unconscious, and the Mitanni Prince of Darkness decides to throw a woman on top of his piles of loot. Women aren't necessarily treated as people in this time, at least not as we think about it, and that's not something Yuri has fully realized yet. Being in peril from Kail's sexual predations is one thing; he's proven that he'll listen to her when she says stop, and based on attitudes at the time Red River's manga was written, a shoujo manga heroine might not be inclined to fully reject her boyfriend, which Kail basically is. (Flip through almost any mid-to-late 90s issue of Cheese! or Sho-Comi and you'll see what I mean.) But she can't just make the Prince of Darkness stop, and he hasn't imbibed Nakia's colored waters, so she can't make him barf up his lust. Whether she knows it or not, Yuri going off on her own has just made a very dangerous mistake.

She, of course, has also handed the Mitanni a weapon to use against Kail, but the potential upside to this is that she's also aware (or will be when she wakes up) that the Mitanni holds something similar against Nakia – the talisman she was after. Whether or not she can make this situation work to her advantage, and whether the anime can make us care about it, remains to be seen. But one thing's for sure: it'll probably involve some weirdly drawn bodies and awkward walking.

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Red River is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.