Sora wa Akai Kawa no Hotori (Red River)

Alternative Titles

Synonyms: Anatolia Story, Heaven by the Red River, Orontes Renka, Orontes Love Song, Where the Sky and the Red River meet

Japanese: 天は赤い河のほとり

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Information

Type: Manga

Volumes: 28

Chapters: 96

Status: Finished

Published: Jan 5, 1995 to Jun 5, 2002

Genres: Action, Adventure, Award Winning, Drama, Fantasy, Romance, Supernatural

Themes: Historical, Time Travel

Demographic: Shoujo

Serialization: Sho-Comi

Authors: Shinohara, Chie (Story & Art)

Statistics

Score: 8.30¹ (scored by 10,090 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #356²

² based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #786

Members: 27,314

Favorites: 1,277

Resources

Wikipedia

8.30

Ranked #356Popularity #786Members 27,314

MangaSho-ComiShinohara, Chie (Story & Art)

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Volumes: /28

Chapters: /96

Red River

Vol. 1
$6.99

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Synopsis

A seemingly ordinary modern day teenager, Yuri, is suddenly whisked away to the Hittite empire in ancient Anatolia, where an ambitious queen wants the girl for a blood sacrifice in order to murder all heirs but her son, thus seizing control of the throne. Luckily, the timely intervention of Prince Kail saves Yuri from the queen's grasp. Kail promises to send Yuri back to her home, but the queen's persistent schemes to kill them both, plus their growing feelings for each other, keep those plans delayed.

(Source: Wikipedia)

Included one-shot:
Volume 28: Orontes Renka

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BackgroundSora wa Akai Kawa no Hotori won the 46th Shogakukan Manga Award in the Shoujo category in 2000.

The series was published in English as Red River by VIZ Media under the Shojo Beat imprint from May 26, 2004, to January 12, 2010, and as 3-in-1 omnibus volumes since October 15, 2024.

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Reviews

Nov 29, 2008

Jasonbear

Recommended

An extremely fantastic manga, if I may say so myself.

I absolutely adore this manga and i'm honestly shocked that there are not many other reviews for this. I found this manga to be brilliant, not to mention thoroughly entertaining.

The story is basically about a girl who is brought back in time to the ancient Egyptian time by an evil queen. Sounds pretty bland and cheesy, but surprisingly it was rather fresh. Red River is a wonderful combination of genres wrapped all in one single manga and presented in a way that will, without a doubt, keep you entertained. Action, romance (definitely!), drama, evil sadistic ... ness- this manga dipped into a lot of genres. This manga did a wonderful job pulling readers into their plots. Reading Red River, at times, made me develop a passionate desire to punch some characters, kiss them, hug them, cry for them, pull their hair, cheer for them, throw my oversized textbooks at them (and let me tell you, they’re big and heavy enough to knock a bear out), and many more.

The art of Red River was pretty old school, but still was very charming and definitely not so old school that it may repulse people who can get easily distracted by awful art (haha, i'm one). Actually, to the contrary, I thought the art was really good looking most of the times. In the beginning of the manga, where the background was still in modern day Japan, I probably would've found the art to be just satisfactory. But when the background of the story changed to Ancient Egypt, the art did a 180 and turned absolutely gorgeous. The ancient Egyptian clothes were everything that I wished it to be and more. The artist was wonderful in drawing the clothing since it was clear in the manga that the artist knew how to draw peasant clothes, flashy clothes, plain clothes, beautiful clothes, all those types, with the same charming style. Not to mention, all the characters were drawn rather well and, at many times, there were characters that were so good looking, I swooned a bit.

The characters. My goodness, I cannot even describe how much I enjoyed the characters of this manga. They were all wonderfully unique and realistic in their own way, with the addition of each having their own charm. Character development was clear in this manga and it was done extremely well, in my opinion. The main protagonist of this manga developed from a feeble young girl to somebody who could be reckoned with and I loved it! At the dark and dramatic times of this manga, it was quite surprising who was revealed to be the evil character. I mean, there were quite a number of times new evil characters popped up, and I must admit I was suspicious of everybody and to my delight and surprise, characters I didn’t expect to be evil were evil and the characters I did were not (with the exception of the main antagonists)! The main male character I found to be incredible sweet. Such a love sick puppy I found him to be, yet still strong and upholding as any character I’ve met (read about) thus making such a wonderful character to favor. Honestly, I really can’t describe how much I enjoyed this manga’s characters so I apologize that this section probably just consists of relatively useless blabber.

Maybe I’m at a lost for words, or maybe I’m just having a writer’s block, so please do your best to not judge this manga on the fact that my review is both choppy and probably not that great. But despite what my lack of writing skill may present to you, I really, honestly and purely, definitely recommend this manga; if not for the wonderful and relatively unique plot, or the gorgeous art, or the fantabulous characters, then for the pure and simple fact that this manga is such a sweet romance story, it can give you both an achy tooth and swell your heart up full of love.

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Oct 1, 2009

Marigolden

Mixed Feelings

I discovered Red River about last year- a friend of mine had it, told me it was worth a read, and she, myself, and another friend all decided to read it. The story is this: Yuri Suzuki is an everygirl who is transported back through time and space to the Hittite Empire, summoned by the Empress who wants to use her as a blood sacrifice to ensure her son inherits the throne. Yuri manages to escape and falls in with Prince Kail Mursili, third in line to the throne. She joins his court, and, through a series of odd coincidences, becomes mistaken for ...

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Jan 21, 2011

Towa_No_Hana

Not Recommended

In the 10 years of my life of reading manga, I have never encountered one with such absolutely pathetic characters. Don't get me wrong, the idea was good, but the characters were so underdeveloped and the obstacles the heroin had to face were so horribly thought out, that at one point you have to think "What obstacle will they throw at use now? Will it be that the girl can't be with the guy of her dreams because he's a blonde? Oh, the horror! Society shall never approve!"

I'm one to complete my manga's, since I've learned through the years that sometimes manga's get better ...

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Manga 'Sora wa Akai Kawa no Hotori' Receives TV Anime in Summer 2026

Production company VAP opened an official website for a television anime adaptation of Chie Shinohara's Sora wa Akai Kawa no Hotori (Red River) manga on Sunday,...read more

Feb 14, 7:00 PM by Vindstot | Discuss (29 comments)

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Petition for Anime!!!! piyopiyo - Jul 17, 2009	14 replies	by Hickykissy »» Feb 16, 5:34 AM
Poll: Sora wa Akai Kawa no Hotori Chapter 10 Discussion Felix-san - Jul 17, 2019	4 replies	by ShadowoftheCrow »» Jun 28, 2025 7:30 PM
Poll: Sora wa Akai Kawa no Hotori Chapter 4 Discussion LastLuminescence - Jun 21, 2019	2 replies	by lumi-nescent »» Dec 22, 2024 4:55 AM
Poll: Red River Chapter 29 Discussion hirahira - Jan 10, 2010	2 replies	by addictedtoliving »» Sep 7, 2024 2:08 AM
Chapter lengths Deanomac2010 - Dec 17, 2023	2 replies	by Estefan »» Jan 23, 2024 10:05 AM

Sora wa Akai Kawa no Hotori
Red River
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