Red River

Episode 7

Now this is more like the Yuri I love from the manga. She's taking decisive steps, making meaningful change, and saving people left and right without wailing about anything. It's nice to see, and I can even, if I'm feeling charitable and particularly patient, admit that I can see why someone might have wanted to wait to bring her into her own until this point. As I mentioned last week, historically the Hittite queen some people believe Yuri is based on, Puduhepa, is from Kizzuwatna. Therefore, it wouldn't make sense for Yuri to be widely known as Kail's concubine and the incarnation of the goddess Ishtar until major events in Kizzuwatna occurred. Her renown coinciding with the battle for the city-state gives Red River a stronger historical leg to stand on, grounding Yuri's widespread recognition in Puduhepa's hometown.

For what it's worth, I do think there's enough to link Chie Shinohara's Yuri to Puduhepa, even if it's not a one-to-one comparison. But it's also worth remembering that a lot of what we know about the ancient world, particularly the ancient Mediterranean, comes to us through accidental preservation – writing was done on clay tablets, incidentally fired when cities were sacked and burned (or just burned). As we see this week with the war in Kizzuwatna, fire was a major destructive force in times of war, as was the indiscriminate attacking of women and children. I won't even get into the slavery angle here, but suffice it to say, there's plenty you can read about the subject out there. (A good starting point is Emma Southon's Not Built in a Day.)

We don't know how much Yuri learned about ancient warfare in school back in Japan, but we can all be glad she decided to ignore the way things are “supposed” to happen. Her declaration to the women who help her that the Hittites will not be raping and murdering is mind-blowing for them. It's a modern statement of human rights that didn't really exist when real-life Mitanni and Hittites fought, and when Yuri actually follows through and the Hittites tell them that there will be no widespread humanitarian crisis of that nature, it's no wonder they view Yuri as a goddess. Ishtar may not necessarily be known for compassion (that's more Kamrušepa's deal), but she is one of the enforcers of divine justice. Yuri's decree absolutely aligns her with the Kizzuwatnan women's ideal of what that might look like. When Kail calls her Ishtar, they have all the proof they need to believe him.

This really is the first time Yuri has truly come into her own. She disrupted a battle before, but that wasn't quite as deliberate as this, and her lack of skill on horseback undermined her feat. But this time she makes all of the decisions herself: she goes to get Kail, she saves the child, she announces that no women or children will be harmed, she and her ladies make sure that's carried out. Her every move is intentional, and that, more than her initial decision to stay with Kail or her weepy thoughts of love, lets us know that she's made her choice and she's sticking with it. If Kail still needs convincing, well, that's on him…Although I do like that he's at least attempting to curb himself. Yuri's gained his respect as well as his attraction, and that's an important piece of the romance plot, plus it leads to her smacking him with a pillow, which I found entertaining.

It's just too bad this still looks awful. There's some really weird running and galloping this week, and I'm not sure what's going on with everyone's chins when they're talking. I will say that Nakia's smug facial expression when she thinks she's managed to get Kail and Zannanza disinherited is very good, but it's not quite enough to save, well, the rest of the visuals. I suppose I should take what I can get on that front.

Before I end, I feel we should all be talking more about how the ending theme seems to be a love story between Yuri and her horse. I was never a Horse Girl™, so I don't know how that might play into it, but it says something about how the people creating this show feel about the romance plot. Sorry, Kail, I think someone thinks Yuri would be better off with Aslan than you.

Rating:

Red River is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.