Manga Review: Red River
First let me introduce you to Typical Shojo Heroine:
Skinny teenage girl who's good at sports, bad at math, clumsy around boys, hates violence, cries easily, is a strong believer in treating people equally, she manages to make best friends out of people who previously hated her guts, every single (and not so single) guy in the entire series adores her, she's constantly being kidnapped/nearly raped/otherwise in need of rescuing by--
The Toxic Prince:
Tall, handsome, more than a little androgynous, easily made jealous, alternates between trying to seduce Typical Shojo Heroine and pushing her away because he's not right for her (boy has be got that last part right), every woman in the world wants him, men follow him or try to steal Typical Shojo Heroine from him.
Why do I call him The Toxic Prince? Because that's his effect on Typical Shojo Heroine. At first the relationship is rocky and Typical Shojo Heroine isn't even sure that she likes him. When she finds herself liking him she beats herself up over it because of some problem with making the relationship work.
In the case of Red River it's because Typical Shojo Heroine, Yuri, is from modern day Japan and The Toxic Prince, Kail, is from Bronze Age Anatolia. Yuri got sucked into that world through, of all things, a rain puddle.
I'm seeing shades of Fushigi Yugi on the horizon.
Thankfully, Yuri isn't anywhere near as suicidal as Mika from Fushigi Yugi. Not that it'd take much. When she isn't thinking about her handsome prince she's really a very capable leader. And when she isn't just about being raped she can fight.
That last really bothers me. Here's this girl who learned how to use a sword with amazing speed. Yet a guy makes sexual advances on her and she's suddenly helpless! Your legs are free, kick him where it hurts! Your hands are free, scratch his eyes out! *Do* something! Don't just lay there screaming "No!" and wishing for your prince to come save you.
And when the golden couple get intimate do we really have to see them pressing flesh, kissing each other's chests, and groaning? They're in a bed room looking longingly into each other's eyes and the door's closed. You can cut right there, we get the idea. Hitting us about the head with a flowered sledgehammer is unnecessary.
Not only that, but the readers are supposed to want these two to end up together, right? I didn't. Not at all. I wanted Yuri to go home as soon as possible. And it didn't have anything to do with the near constant dangers of that world or the perpetual plots to tear these two apart. It was the terrible effect Toxic Prince Kail had on her emotional and mental well being.
Every stinking time she thinks about that guy or is separated from him her confidence goes out the window. She's not worthy, she's always making mistakes, she's just dragging him down, yadda yadda yadda. Que total psychophysical meltdown.
It is disturbing that there are women who write stories like this. A lot of stories like this. This is why I never really got into shojo manga. There are more believable relationships in shonen manga. And without anywhere near as much nudity.
And this is *shojo* we're talking about. Intended for the under 18 female crowd. Josei is for older women and supposedly is more sexually explicit.
More? I fear for the Japanese culture if that is so.
I give this series, and most of the shojo genre, a thumbs down.
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irish_brigid) wrote,
annoyed
