Snow White with the Red Hair

Episode 7

Your dose of warm fuzzies this week come courtesy of Snow White with the Red Hair. The start of this week's episode is heartwarming and adorable, finally giving us romantics out there the feeling that while Zen may be the more open of the two when it comes to emotions, Shirayuki is nonetheless feeling the same ones. Sure we've suspected as much for the past six episodes, but seeing it spelled out (albeit in actions rather than words) is pretty sweet, and I mean that in both the sense that it's wonderful and that it's very touching. The fact that Shirayuki initiates is a nice bonus, to say nothing of being necessary since she's been the more reticent half of the couple. On a slightly different note, it's also really nice to see a couple in a shoujo story that is equal in terms of the power dynamics within the relationship. Yes, Zen is a prince and thus socially above (and more powerful than) Shirayuki, but within their actual romantic relationship they treat each other as if they're on the same level. In a genre plagued with much less healthy depictions of love, it's a treat to see a story do something that is both different and right.

Sadly for mush-lovers but good for the plot, the whole episode does not consist of Zen and Shirayuki being romantic. It picks up from last week, with Zen's older brother, Crown Prince Izana, being very leery of his relationship with a commoner. This isn't, it turns out, because he has concerns strictly about political alliances (though in his position, he really does have to think about that) or royal bloodlines, but rather because he's genuinely worried that this is a relationship that will suffer because of their differences in status. Not only is Shirayuki a commoner, she's from another country whose prince has been quite outspoken about her and who once tried to make her his mistress. That's a lot of social baggage to bring to a royal relationship, and if the pressure and the potential stigma get to either she or Zen, things could get ugly fast, both personally and politically. Seen from this angle, Izana's being both a concerned older brother and a good politician, because you don't have to have read Anne Sexton's Transformations to know that fairy tale romances don't always end well.

And Izana is canny. Zen tells Shirayuki about an incident when he was younger where Izana managed to manipulate two warring, corrupt lords into revealing their true natures so that he could depose them and rid the kingdom of two powerful men who were doing it no good, and most likely some real harm. It's done masterfully, impressing Zen and doubtless influencing him in his own policies, and it also speaks to his conflict with how his brother is currently acting. Emotionally he's really unhappy with Izana's actions towards Shirayuki, but intellectually he knows that there's got to be a good reason for it. He's confident enough in the woman he cares for that he can at this point stand strong, but Izana remains an influence, and just because right now things seem to be working out – Izana's name for Shirayuki at the end of the episode certainly indicates that he's coming to terms with the relationship – doesn't mean that will always be the case. Although Izana isn't a “bad guy,” he's certainly going to bear watching as the story goes on.

We do bid farewell to Raj again this week, which is good because he wasn't really adding anything to the story with his continued presence. His interaction with Shirayuki, while important, felt a bit forced, and trying to use him for comic relief just didn't quite work as well as the show wanted it to. This really was an episode where it felt like everyone beyond Shirayuki, Zen, and Izana felt extraneous, something that looks like it's going to be remedied next week with more about Zen's younger days. (Will we get Shirayuki's as well at some point? I hope so.) Snow White with the Red Hair isn't a fast-moving story or a terribly complex one, but as this episode once again proves, it is still a captivating one...and this week, a very sweet one as well.

Rating: A-

Snow White with the Red Hair is currently streaming on Funimation.

Rebecca Silverman is ANN's senior manga critic.