Thank you Viz Media and NetGalley for the digital ARC of the first volume of “Red River (3-in-1 Edition)” by Chie Shinohara

“Red River” is an older manga first published in 1995, and this new edition collects the first three volumes of the historical/fantasy shōjo series. The main character Yuri Suzuki time travels to the ancient Hittite Empire (modern day Turkey, north eastern Syria, and northern Iraq) and becomes entangled in the machinations of the sorcerer queen Nakia. She is rescued from death by the third prince, Kail Mursili, who pretends to take Yuri as a concubine to protect her from the queen, and hopefully get her back home one day. I had a good time reading this manga, there was plenty of excitement and adventure, along with the beginnings of a romance between the prince and Yuri. I wasn’t absolutely sold on the romance at first, but by the end of the third volume I could see the potential it had. Yuri starts out the story fairly useless and naive, but already I can see her developing into a true heroine as she learns from her mistakes and grows stronger. If you enjoy stories about modern-day girls being dropped into ancient worlds of magic and danger, you should give this series a try. The art is also beautiful, if you love the artstyle and character design of the 90’s this collection is a great example of it. I would give a few warnings before you pick it up though, there are a few instances of intense violence, and Yuri is almost raped twice. If these are triggering for you, you might want to proceed with caution. Taking this content into consideration I would wait on recommending this series, and only give it to older teens.

This is a great and expansive story that will interest manga readers across many audiences. The art is fantastic and the story was engaging. I couldn't put this down.

(Cue the music)

"MEMORIES!! ALL ALONE IN THE MOONLIGHT!!!"

This was an absolute BLAST from my past and I AM DOWN FOR IT. I don't care that the story has plot holes you could drive a tanker truck through. I don't care that characters who should know better do stupid things to further the plot along. I don't care that if I read this for the first time now, I would probably chuck it across the room in disgust as my tastes have changed since I first read this. I DON'T CARE.

This was one of my favorite series from my youth and I had been spending a large amount of time (and money) buying the individual volumes as I came across them in stores and online.

Now they are being released in three volume omnibuses and I AM REJOICING. I already own a physical copy for my personal library and highly recommend it to those who are into DRAMA with a capital D-R-A-M-A, lol.

Warning: LOTS of brutal violence and attempted sexual assaults. This series is a time-travel one where a modern-day 15 year old girl is dragged into ancient Anatolia (think Biblical time and location, complete with the way people were fighting for power, only magic exists too). So definitely for YA readers on up.

5, I need the all of the rest to be published NOW for my library kk thnx, stars.

My thanks to NetGalley and VIZ Media LLC for an eARC of this book to read and review.

Red River is considered a shojo classic. As a fantasy fan, I added it to my to-read list, but the English release has been out of print for quite some time. It's very exciting that the series will be republished in 3-in-1 volume bindups.

It follows 15-year old Yuri, who ends up being pulled back in time and space to the capital of the Hittite Empire in Anatolia, which is now modern day Turkey. The setting is very interesting as it's definitely not one I encounter a lot in manga nor other types of media that I follow. Yuri ends up being taken in by a prince, who quickly falls for her. Yuri is obviously devastated to be taken from her home and wishes to find a way back.

The story at its core is very focused on what brought Yuri back in time, on Yuri navigating this strange world, and on how Yuri can get back. But at as shojo, there is an emphasis on the romance. I think the romance moves a little too quickly for my taste. The Prince takes advantage of Yuri at the start, and Yuri is sort of beholden to him given her circumstances. On the other hand though, Yuri is maybe a very believable and fickle teenage girl, so perhaps it speaks more to the target audience.

I look forward to continuing the series and see how the characters develop.

It's clear why Red River is such a classic and beloved shojo. In the first three volumes of the series, Chie Shinohara builds a rich and complex world that immediately sucks readers in. The main character Yuri may be young, but she is headstrong and determined to move forward despite her circumstances. The series touches on war, power struggles, grief, acceptance, and so much more

A classic in manga, it's nice to see this series making a comeback in 3-1's by Viz for newer readers to pick up.

In the sea of isekai stories that have been released as of late, we have here a historical fiction similar to other classics such as Fushugi Yuugi. But while FY came off as light hearted and fun, Red River doesn't shy away from the dark side of the past.

We have politics, a clash of old and new philosophies, and more await the hapless heroine of Red River, as she finds herself drawn into a plot to take over a country and Prince who is more than he seems at first.

Overall I enjoyed this first part and found the characters to be interesting, I found myself caring about even the smallest characters only to have my heart broken as the story went on. The past is not a pleasant place to be trapped in, but for Yuri it seems like destiny can't stop her from trying.

Thank you to Viz and to NetGalley for a digital arc of the new 3-1 edition of Red River, I can't wait to get a physical copy!

Some Grade A classic shoujo manga, here. Some of it is a little dated, and as another reviewer points out, there's some age-gap stuff here that comes off a little sketchy, but it definitely sits comfortably in the classic formula.

I love 1990s shoujo manga – I grew up on it. Likewise, I adore Chie Shinohara's work, and I've always been sad that only Red River ever came out in English; both Ao no Fūin and Mizu no Sumu Hana are also excellent. That said, I also recognize that some aspects of Shinohara's works, and Red River in particular, are very much of their time and don't necessarily hold up today. So much as I love this series and am excited that it's getting a re-release, I need to say that this first omnibus is just full of sexual assault, sometimes by the romantic lead, Kail.

If you can deal with that, this is an excellent book. The story follows Yuri, a regular Japanese teenager, who is somehow targeted as a sacrifice by the queen of ancient Hattusa, a Hittite city in what is now Turkiye. Queen Nakia, who is determined to see her son, the youngest prince of the empire, on the throne, reaches through space and time to snatch Yuri into the past, where she intends to kill her. Yuri escapes from Nakia's clutches and is taken in by Kail, the third prince, who through the magic power of his tongue in her mouth grants Yuri the ability to speak the local language. Yuri is completely at sea in this B.C.E. world. She ends up posing as Kail's concubine and the avatar of the goddess Ishtar – the only way to keep Nakia's claws off of her.

The story is a time travel delight. Shinohara has done research (when I saw Hittite swords in a museum after first reading the series, I knew exactly what they were without reading the signs.) Yuri's headstrong qualities are balanced by her confusion and upset at having been wrenched away from her time. Her unsettled emotions are further thrown off by Kail himself, who is certainly not shy about how he feels about her. (At least, on a physical level.) Her new world is rife with danger to the point where there's barely room to breathe in the story, something that's particularly apparent in this omnibus compilation of the first three books in the series. Yuri is whisked from one danger to the next, with Nakia's insidious power – the control of water – inescapably around every corner. It's high drama, a war story, and a palace melodrama all in one, and it is addictive.

There are a few oddities in this book, the main one being that Yuri, who was taken from 1995, keeps saying that she's from the “twenty-first” century. Background characters are not drawn by Shinohara in an oddly apparent way, and Kail's hair is nearly a mullet, which is unfortunate. Despite being very much of its time in some ways, Red River is a story that holds up. It's intense and hard to put down, and that's true of this re-read of a story I've read many times before.

Red River is a classic. If you loved Inu Yasha or any books where the main character goes back in time and has to learn to live then this is for you!

I absolutely loved this and cannot wait to purchase a physical copy and continue this series.
Having grown up reading/watching 90s shoujo, this was such a delight. I'm honestly surprised I've not read this before. But, it should be said that this is definitely a 90s isekai shoujo, and it is important to know it is product of this time.
I'm messy and I love the high levels of drama presented, but for many there are a lot of triggering themes in this book. Honestly specific imagery and a plot point (both were gore-related) had me shocked. But I found the plot of this to be so interesting that even with it giving me a little scare, I wanted to continue forward with it.
This is something I would definitely recommend to fans of older shoujo series, but I would definitely give some trigger warnings to people who are not as familiar. The best general warning I can give is if anything in the television series Game of Thrones has made you very uncomfortable, I might steer you away from this title. A lot of the same triggers exist between the two.

I'm going to be honest, I had forgotten that I've read this before when I requested an ecopy of the omnibus from NetGalley. I was going off the excitement of a classic shojo being re-released, but as I was reading I was like "Hey wait a second. . ." So, as it happens, my teenage self definitely read a scanlated version of this as a kid. Does it hold up? No clue honestly. I like the first three volumes and I want to read the rest, but I recognize that this manga is very much of its time.

Red River is about a young girl named Yuri who gets sucked into the ancient past (think during the reign of Tutankhamen) so she can be used as a sacrifice by the evil queen to put a curse on the prince candidates of the country. Yuri gets saved from certain death by a very hot guy with a very pointy chin, no nipples, and a fast and loose concept of consent. When her friend gets murdered, Yuri vows to get revenge on the ones who killed him.

Red River felt very nostalgic for me even though several parts had me raising my eyebrows. There's definitely some inherit sexist language and imagery at play here that probably wouldn't make it to the final draft of any current manga. At its core Red River kind of feels like a Harlequin Romance novel. It has all the parts of one: virginal heroine, scantily clad women, some frankly concerning age gaps, and pseudo soft porn plotlines (looking at you "We can't sacrifice her because I deflowered her scene"). However, Red River is the unmistakable progenitor of series like Yona of the Dawn, Dawn of the Arcana, Inuyasha, The Water Dragon's Bride, and similar series.

So is it good? Eh. I had a good time. I remember eating this up as a teen. There's some genuinely beautiful panels of art in this series. The villain is dramatic and over wrought, the romance develops DEFINITELY too fast and is a little Stockholm flavored. It's more of a "I can't stop watching this. Hand me the pop corn" situation. If anything, I think if you call yourself a shojo fan, you should probably at least give Red River a try. There's also something to be said about Red River being one of the classic manga that wasn't afraid to push boundaries, even if those ideas are bit offensive in many ways. Red River is a testament to the fact that shojo is and always has been a varied genre. Someone gets skinned alive in like the second volume and that's honestly pretty metal.

Trigger warnings for sexual assault, nudity, and gore.