From new announcements to surprising turns, the entertainment landscape never stops shifting. The latest talking point is Red River ‒ Episode 4, and here is the full lowdown.
Entertainment headlines have a fresh entry this week, and Red River ‒ installment 4 is generating real conversation. Here is everything you need to know about the story that everyone is talking about.
The Story So Far
There's nothing worse than a lost possibility, and as of this moment, that's what Red River's Japanese animation adaptation feels like. Even if you leave out the awkward CG battle moments reused over and over again in this installment, this is something of a bare-bones version of Chie Shinohara's Japanese comic. The narrative is the same, and even the narrative progression is in line with early Japanese comic chapters, but what's lacking is the nuance.
Without it, Yuri's sudden thought that she's in love with Kail just feels silly. Yes, instalove is a significant component of many romance narratives, and physical reactions to danger can lead to the misattribution of arousal, AKA the suspension bridge effect – and Yuri's certainly had enough peril since arriving in Hattusa, with Kail as her only stable source of protection.
So it's not the fact that she voices those feelings so much as it's the failure of the series to make them feel collected. It's true that shoujo Japanese comic of days gone by (and particularly the 1990s) had a…less sound understanding of consent and that “but he loves her so much he can't help himself” got passed off as a measure of true love a lot.
(See: 90% of Mayu Shinjo's work from the period.) There's some value in understanding how the march of time and increased knowledge changes the way popular culture embodies relationships. But Red River is barely making any efforts at all beyond “he kissed her forcefully, it must be love.” These are narrative points that work in the context of the Japanese comic, but the Japanese animation, particularly installment four, is stripped of a lot of the emotions and nuance that Shinohara brought to the source material.
Part of that is the clunky animation, part of that is the decision to make Yuri sound much more incompetent than I read her lines in my head in the books, and part of it is simply the need to get through these early parts of the narrative. It's not a great combination. That stated, we're starting to see Yuri earn her stripes as Ishtar, even if she does it basically by accident here when she jumps on a horse and rides into the midst of battle.
She's just trying to get away from Zuwa, but the result is that she turns the tide, because no one is used to seeing people actually ride horses. Ishtar (or Innana) isn't typically associated with horses in the mythology – lions are her animal – but her aspects as the goddess of war and love/fertility are what's important here.
Yuri rides into battle (war) and saves Shala (love), and her position as Kail's concubine brings the fertility aspect into play. This threefold manifestation of Ishtar's powers is tantamount to her acceptance in Hattusa, but also in convincing Hadi, Ryui, and Shala that Yuri is not the one who murdered Tito – but even if she did, that might be viewed as part of her goddess of war identity.
More interestingly, Yuri's Sleeping Beauty moment, where Nakia's white water poisons her into a state of deathlike sleep, is an important piece of Ishtar's mythological lo…
As the story continues to develop, TeraMovies will keep you updated with every new detail. Until then, this remains one of the most closely watched entertainment stories of the week — and the conversation is only getting started.
With audiences keeping a close eye on this one, the conversation shows no signs of slowing down. TeraMovies will be here with every update, so stay tuned.
