'Red River' #1 Review

Since I've gotten back into this, I've only been reviewing American comics so let's get back into some manga! Like I've mentioned before, I usually get most of what I review on here from the library. I've been seeing this series Red River there for a very long time and they have over twenty-five volumes there! So I figured I'll review the first volume, if it's good then I'll read more and if it sucks then I probably won't. Well...it was alright. I'm pretty neutral about it. Before I go into Red River, I'd like to bring up something that's on the first page of this volume. It's VIZ's super hip layout, they've got a definition of Shoujo, Pulp Fiction style. It says SHOUJO n. 1. Manga appealing to both female and male readers.
...what the hell? I was amazed by this. Are they saying that shonen (or any other type of comic for that matter) isn't appealing to males and females? Like they're being so edgy and radical by having their type of comic appeal to both sexes? For the record, I know a LOT more gals who like Naruto and Bleach than I do guys. Have I ever met a guy who liked any shoujo? No. I'm not saying it's impossible for a guy to like shoujo, there are some out there that I really like! (Absolute Boyfriend, Alice 19th, CLAMP shoujo) I was just really surprised by this whole GUESS WHAT OUR MANGA ACTUALLY APPEALS TO EVERYONE thing they had to say.
Now that I've got that out there, I'd like to say that Red River is most definitely for female readers. I can't see many dudes spending money on this manga.

Also, check out that cover. Our heroin looks like she's about to be stabbed or worse by multiple people. That's pleasant, right? And the with a title like RED RIVER, my mind is automatically thinking blood since we've got knives on the cover. THIS IS SHOUJO?

Plot Summary

So the manga opens with Yuri Suzuki getting her first kiss. Then the guy immediately ditches after kissing her like a jackass. Later than night, Yuri notices water seems to be acting different around her. Cups of water are sloshing and bubbling when she's near them. At school the next day, two arms shoot out of a fishtank and grab her but then disappear. When she takes a bath at night, the arms reappear and drag her under the water. She nearly drowns before her family busts in from all the noise. She decides to stay away from water  (so i'm guessing she didn't shower for a while) and later when she's walking with her beloved Satoshi, the water hands strike again!! They emerge from a puddle and drag her all the way in by the feet. She's under the water for a while and manages to break free and reaches the surface. She finds herself in an old bathhouse looking area full of strangely dressed folk. She's been transported BACK IN TIME to what is now TURKEY! She meets up with a super hot, angsty guy while on the run (he's destined to be the main hot guy of this manga) and he saves her from being captured. She runs away from him and gets captured anyway and we meet the antagonist of the tale, this crazy ass magician woman who is also the queen. We find out the super hot guy is one of the princes (there are six and I'm sure they're all super hot). So they're about to sacrifice her because the crazy queen bitch wants her dead when suddenly the hot prince KAIL says that she isn't a virgin and he was unaware she was supposed to be a virgin sacrifice. Yuri goes along with his lie and he takes her to his bachelor pad. Prince Kail tries to have her for real but she freaks and yells SATOSHI! So Kail leaves her alone and we all know she's gonna get with him eventually anyway. She gets a servant guy named Tito (which I thought was hilarious) and he's a cool kid. But the queen hypnotizes him and has Tito try to kill Yuri. The volume ends with her still on the run from the queen with Kail.

I didn't have much of an opinion on volume one. It wasn't terrible but it wasn't great. The art style almost reminds of Osamu Tezuka's (Astro Boy) whimsical kind of style. Unfortunately there was one panel in here that was pretty awful looking, it actually scared me. It's just a shot of Yuri's profile view but the placement of her GIANT eye is so low on her head, it's practically below her nose. Pretty terrifying.
I might read volume two if I'm up for it.

Red River #1 - 5.3/10