Early this year it was announced that Chie Shinohara’s popular shoujo manga series, Sora wa Akai Kawa no Hotori or Red River (or what long-time fans called Anatolia Story) is getting an anime coming out this July. Now I’m actually a HUGE fan the manga as a I own most of it in English, thank goodness for 3-in-1 releases the so I can get rest of it though I have read it all in English and I also own the complete set in Japanese. I also have other merchandise like the art book and the few of the sound theaters, so I’m a fan.
So when I heard it was finally getting an anime version it was surreal. Then the teaser trailer came out and OH BOY do I thoughts.
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First a brief history, despite Shinohara’s tenure of work she has only had two of her past works get any kind of animated treatment. That being her series Umi no Yami, Tsuki no Kage (Darkness of the Sea, Shadow of the Moon) getting an OVA in 1989 as well as Yami no Purple Eyes (Purple Eyes in the Dark) getting an experimental music video also from teh 1980s So Red River getting full anime treatment is a first. The point is that we a little a small sample to judge how her art-style gets translated to animation.
Red River is by far her most popular work to date and the plot goes like this in a nutshell, Yuri* is modern day Japanese teenager who get pulled across space and time to land in 1400 BCE in Anatolia (modern day Turkey) during the height of the Hittite Empire. She was brought there as a human sacrifice so the current Queen can cast a curse on her step-sons so that her son can become the heir to the throne. However Yuri is saved by one of these Princes. The story is very much a romance but it also dramatic, intense and quite “spicy.”
So what are my first impression of this trailer?
First Some Positives
I think the music sounds good even if the chorus chanting what I think is “Hattusa” is a little silly. The voice acting also seems good, no complaints on that at this point.
I like that there a historical expert on staff. This manga is set in 1400 BCE around the time of King Tut and while he himself is not a character there are characters that are based on historical figures. The manga does take a lot of liberties so it comes off as less a historical romance and more fantasy especially since magic is a major aspect of the story.
So this might sound weird but it’s an aspect built into the story, I like that Kail has a darker tone to his skin. Because while we do not know what precisely a Hittite person looked like, in the story much is made of the Yuri’s looks because she is Japanese so her looking different from the other characters is baked into the story and is a plot point. Though I have seen comments that Kail isn’t dark enough. He is darker than manga and from an anthropological perspective we do not know what a Hittite people looked like. So at least the anime does try I guess.
The jewelry design is alright, it seems somewhat detailed and colorful and does look somewhat to manga. hasn’t seen enough of the clothing to form an opinion but irrationally I’m annoyed that the Yuri’s modern clothes don’t have the plaid pattern on the shirt.
I like the bird flying over the river with surrounding forest, that’s pretty. It’s either a hawk or a falcon, guess a falcon though, can’t recall if the manga specified the species or not but Yuri does aquire a one in the manga so it could be her’s or a random one.
Now on to the Negatives
The animation and art-style looks so standard and uninspired. The art-style of the manga itself is actual fairly complex and simple, clean yet lavish. The characters rendered with thin delicate line that are very gives them a sense of refinement. The architecture, clothing and jewelry are all very highly detailed.
As previous stated Shinohara has had one of her works animated into an OVA and while animation still simplifies her artwork, it still resemble’s Shinohara’s manga art more, especially in the eyes which are more oval in shape.
The lines are thinner and characters have the similar proportions. The colors are more muted and leans yellows and blue to express the horror element but it emulates her art-style more than the Red River Teaser.
I’d say that if the Red River anime was doing one aspect of her style be it the signature eye shape or the character proportions it would be fine but it just seem like a redesign with similar clothing and jewelry.
It looks very different. The characters are rounder with a thicker use of lines. It could be modern sense of style creeping in or budget maybe a little of both.
There is a simplifying of details and the animation looks very basic. And this might be a super nitpick but the hair looks flatter in anime than in the manga which is most like harder to animated. Now it is a trailer maybe it’s not done yet but still it’s not inspiring confidence.
Speaking of the animation it looks very rudimentary. Mostly it shows some important plot scene like Yuri being taken via a puddle but the teaser mostly showcases flat low-motion action scenes. But what gets me is very bright over-saturated colors. There is no mood or drama and the look so far look too cheerly and juvenile for strong the story is in its plot. You can also tell the who however edited this teaser kind of knew this because two of the antagonists characters are shown in interiors when every other scene in this teaser is outside. Maybe the production is fighting against type for stories set in the ancient world are dark, moody with low-lighting since the ancient world was colorful and its people enjoy bold bright colors and not always darker and moody but the trade off looks boring and less like Shinohara’s art-style.
The trailer also seems like the first season is either going to long thus covering a lot of the story or very fast pace. There are 28 graphic volumes, though volume 28 is mostly the ending with a few epilogues. However the teaser shows a character introduced in volume 8 and I believe one shot looks it from either volumes 13 or 14. So who know how much of the story will be cut or rushed. The casting list also spoiled how far this anime gets in the plot. If I had to venture a guess as to how much of the manga the anime covers I’d say half the series up to volume 14. I also wonder how much they will tone down some the “spicer” elements because the manga does go a bit too far in places.
Final Musings
The fact this manga is getting an anime adaptation is wonderful and I’m very happy about that. I hope the anime is more stylish and beautiful than this teaser trailer because it is teaser trailer it could go either way. I still want to enjoy this anime when it comes out.
*I pronounce the main character’s name as “Yuuri” as that is the way it’s written in Japanese but I know enough that it’s more common in English to refer to her as “Yuri” but they are two different names and written with different kanji and to be more nitpicky her name is written out mostly in katakana not Kanji in the novels. It feels odd to refer to her as Yuri and not Yuuri for this post though.
While we are on the subject of names the leading male character Prince Kail Mursili. I’ve always read his name like “Kale” the vegetable but it’s written out with the katakana “Ka, I, Ru,” and in the sound theater this sounded a lot like the name “Kyle,” which sounds weird to me. However I do wonder of the intent behind his name was more akin to to “Ka-il” with a slight pause much like another characters’s name “Il Bani.” If that was the case it would make his name seem more of the ancient world.
