at this point i cant helped but be pissed about how many guys fall in love kiddnap and try to rape the girl. i thought the girl would be strong but she NEVER fights back against them. and she even always forgives them. she is SO naive!! a good story with plot ruined as always with naive shoujo girl that everyone falls in love with.

    While Anatolia Story is definitely a classic historical shoujo manga, anyone looking for a strictly historical story will disappointed: the author did use her artistic license. Even ignoring the existence of magic which begets the story and other small factors, there are quite a few things that payed history little to no heed. That said, there are plenty of good historical details and it is not as though the changes are coming from no where. (A few quick searches on Wikipedia will tell you a lot, and the single-ancient-world-language thing is to simplify story-telling.) These changes do, however, make for a good story. E.g. instead of the historical Mursili II, Shinohara gives us Kail Mursili. Anatolia Story is more of a tale occurring around the time of Mursili II than anything else.
    As for the sort of story it is, this manga is a historical romance centred on the growth of Yuri. All in all, Shinohara did a good job in presenting her growth from school girl to leader, but there are a few problems. (Let's leave the artwork out of this since it works and has a classic feel that's mostly an acquired taste.) First, there is no variation in the source of problems: the antagonist is tediously consistent, which also makes the motives and so on far too predicable (considering that, there is a fair bit of variation, but not in the general scheme of things). To sum the issues up: considering its length, its one antagonist is too few and its reliance on melodrama too great. The only other bone I have to pick has to do with the transitions: there are several points where there was possibly a peaceful time skip, but rarely is any indication provided. Fortunately, the aforesaid aren't so pervasive that they completely drown the story. Overall, Anatolia Story is enjoyable and fairly well done, with a good sense of humour as well, but (as I mentioned) there are not inconsiderable issues.

... Last updated on April 25th, 2021, 4:43pm

This manga is trying to imply that if a man forces himself on you(force kiss, attempted rape), you will fall in love with this guy. Like how does that even make any sense..? There are much better historical shoujo manga around that are much better to me. Give this manga a miss if you cannot stand melodramatic stories.

Oh my god I hated Nakia a lot. Not just the her character but the very idea of her character.


... Last updated on February 16th, 2016, 3:32pm

Red River is fairly melodramatic. Characters often have fixations that are awkward. The story is complete and has a sensible timeline with each arc. There's a good mix of smut as well. Quite a good read overall.

If you love reading smut manga, you will notice many many of them are short stories and lacking in plot. This is where Sora wa akai kawa no hotori offers a long smutty story to satisfy you in interesting historical background of Anatolia / Turkey. The arts is 90ish style, so some of you need to get adjusted by it. Every bishies will fall in love with the main character and want to have her, often by force. Except for the one she loves. There are some aspects in the story that rise my eyebrow though, when it ignored sensibility for the sake of the story. The girl, Yuri, is very OP. She is just a normal teenager on modern day before being sent to the past, depicted as small and skinny (cute). But without any experience and skill required, she can jump on a running horse and riding it (without a saddle ofc), i know how hard it is to ride a horse as a small asian girl. Then she is able to fight and defeat men on sword fighting, defeat a lion, all without getting hurt, and many more rising eyebrow scenes. Said to possess those qualities to be a queen; leadership skill, wisdom, winning the heart of people, discipline, etc. ...She is flawless. And the antagonist, the queen, is a stereotypical classic antagonist who were there to bully the protagonist and make the story going. It's boring to see this villain keep trying and fail and keep trying and fail again without character development. I can accept all of these because the selling point is the smutty romance drama. So yeah, this is a good manga if you are looking for a long smutty romance.

... Last updated on October 20th, 2015, 6:35pm

It's a tragic/melodrama kind of manga, enjoyable for shouju lovers. The historical aspect gives it a plus, although the super heroine act is too unbelievable especially because she's 15, who knew that girl that age could handle armies? It's long, but no too long and hard to find in good quality unless you buy it. It has three side stories, not just one. Check Wikipedia for that. So, do I recommend it? He, why not? It's worth a read if just because you'll learn some history too. Just beware, there are main characters death, lots of love triangles, and a power-craze queen. Although good drama, it can get emotionally exhausting, but for some reason the story rarely loses momentum.

... Last updated on April 17th, 2015, 9:07pm

It is unexpected that I have finished Red River even if it is a clear smut manga that fails history. It has naked military leaders mud wrestling towards the end, at least one multiple days lasting sex session and gratuitous nudity after all. This is the only such manga I can recommend that comes to mind. I blame it on the suspenseful story a lot of good drama and decent leads. It is also surprisingly violent. The ending is very nice too and resolves everything I wanted. The clear art has its moments but did I mention the endless/pointless nudity? So girls want to read about contently naked women (and men of course) too I guess. Some brain dead stuff like the multiple rape attempts, the love triangle that anyone can figure out after volume one, way too many melodramatic deaths, a cringe-worthy subplot about miscarriage and the unneeded time travel didn´t need to be here. Enough of the journey works though to stick around till the end. Her next best and very similar manga Yume no Shizuku, Ougon no Torikago never truly got going so I kicked it early on.

... Last updated on July 5th, 2019, 5:56pm

There is a lot of rape scene but it doesn't mean the author think females are weak and vulnerable. Seriously! Whoever make that argument should just.. I don't know.. crawl into a hole. We see the female lead leaps into battle field and become a military commander despised being raped. It shows that no matter what happen, she can still surpass it and come out stronger. Then we see a female character sacrificing herself for the sake of the country. Not to mention the three sisters who are both smart and physically strong. Sure the main lead sometime emotionally break down and cry but that is what normal people do. Not all females are strong and brave, some are weak and dependent, and that doesn't make them any less real (sorry i had a problem when people complaining about a manga character who is weak and cry a lot and how those type of character doesn't represent real "female"). Sorry for the random sentence, but anyway, this is a really manga, and if rape scene bother you, then skip them, and she wasn't really rape.. attempted rape scene might be much more correct.

I can't help comparing this to Basara. They're both so similar - both are war mangas with a strong female lead; both have exceptional art and storytelling flow.

But, I must say, the one thing I loved about Red River is the historical and educational content - I mean, I've never even HEARD about the Hittite Empire until I read this LOL, and then I was like wow... some of this stuff is actually real! And the mangaka manages to incorporate all of that so well into her story with her time travelling character too. *applaud* Thank you, Shinohara Chie-san, for making history / mythological class so interesting.

Unfortunately, it contained a bit too much fan service for my liking. Just read the title of the comment below mine LOL, says it all. Just... smh. Naked people every chapter, man, every chapter. I mean, come on, I'm not a horny teenager anymore.

But really, I'm just so surprised no one has mentioned Basara. Cuz dude, if you read this and thought it was good, then you have GOT to read Basara. NOW!

Why, you ask me? Because Basara > Red River.... hands down, any day. My opinion only, of course - you read it and then decide for yourself.