Red River

Episode 6

Of all the things that Red River could safely abridge, I have to say that I agree with their choice to pare down Zannanza's medically induced abduction of Yuri. It's definitely still uncomfortable here, but not nearly as much as in the manga, with his physical acts scaled back so that he “just” kisses her against her will. (Well, along with kidnapping her.) Given the source material and '90s shōjo's willingness to go all-in on scenes of sexual violence disguised as “love,” this is one update I can get behind.

Apart from fidelity to the manga, I could see an argument being made that toning this bit down makes Nakia look at least slightly less powerful and evil. As we saw with Tito, her colored waters have the power to completely overwhelm someone's good sense and natural inclinations, meaning that Zannanza is either stronger than Tito was or the rose water is weaker than the black water. The point could also be that Zannanza is too wholly good at heart to be swept up in Nakia's magical schemes, which feels more likely. As Kail's younger brother and the sibling he's closest to, Zannanza is the person Kail appears to trust the most. He has him training Yuri in the art of sword fighting, which means that he has complete faith that Zannanza won't randomly decide to actually kill or injure his concubine, something we can't brush aside given that Tito and his sisters, whom he also trusted, tried to murder her and that Nakia is actively after her head. Zannanza is the one person Kail trusts implicitly.

That's what makes it so frustrating that Zannanza makes it incredibly easy for Nakia to use him. She may be mustache-twirlingly evil, but Nakia's not an idiot, and she sees through his gallantry to the feelings underneath. He's basically Tito 2.0 for her, a different trusted individual she can twist to her will with magic, only this time she's using his sexual feelings for Yuri to get Kail to dump her. Or to fight with his brother, clearing the way for her son. It's hard to say; not only is she ambitious, but she's also remarkably indiscriminate as long as she gets what she wants. It's a good thing the king is astoundingly oblivious to her machinations, because Nakia is not subtle.

Of course, that could be put down in part to the production values here. When Zannanza's eyes first turn red, my immediate thought wasn't “he's been possessed”; it was “MECHA ZANNANZA!” Later he gets more of a cat-eyed look, but that first shot was comedy gold. It's part and parcel with the questionable visuals this series indulges in, from Yuri's amazing increasing hair volume (though in all fairness, that's a manga issue, too) to the truly weird way Zannanza jumps out the window, with a bonus of the Mitanni soldiers just repeating the same two motions to beat on Zannanza later on. On the plus side, Yuri's large, round earrings do look a lot like Hittite collections I've seen in museums, albeit with colors more in line with Byzantine jewelry, but that could be an issue of age combined with creative license. In fact, many of the bits and pieces of Hittite life – jewelry, cups, swords, Nakia's staff – are decently accurate, and we must find joy where we can with this adaptation.

The war about to commence seems likely to be the third campaign between the Mitanni and the Hittites. Mattiwaza was actually Shattiwaza in the historic record, but the instigator of the fights was either Kail's father or Tushratta, Shattiwaza's father. More interestingly, Puduhepa, who is the likely inspiration for Yuri, came from Kizzuwatna, the city where Yuri and Zannanza currently are. That's a point in the manga's favor, of course, rather than the anime's, but if I can't get you to read the manga based on how lame this adaptation is, at least I can point out the cool things it does with history.

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Red River is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.