Sora wa Akai Kawa no Hotori roughly translated means Heaven by the red river (I know Sora means sky but the Kanji is actually Ten wa or Heaven. Why it is pronounced sora is beyond me). The official translation from Shogakukan is "The Sky is by the Red River" (or Anatolia Story for short). .
However you choose to interpret the title the story is still wonderful. It begins with a girl, Yuuri, being pulled through a puddle of water and ending up in Anatolia right in the middle of the Hititie Empire. When she pops up in the water hole she is surrounded by strange people speaking a language she doesn't understand and she runs. Guards ensue a chase and she runs into Prince Kail (KaIRu). Kail, when he realizes she is being chased, proceeds to take her in his arms and french kiss her. He at the same time pulls her to the ground and covers her with his cloak sending the guards on their way. After the kiss Yuuri suddenly understands the language perfectly and can speak it. From there we follow Yuuri as she tries to get back home to her own time period, making friends and befallen with hardships along the way.
This begins the story which has gone since 1995 to the present and just recently ended in January 2002. The story consists of 28 manga, a fan book (with an extra story in it) and 6 radio plays so far (which cover the manga story). There is also an Art book out there that covers art for manga 1-14 and the Covers for the Radio Play cd's.
The story is set in the Hititie Empire during antient Egyptian times and seems to be historically correct for the most part. The love story of Kail and Yuuri is better even than Mamoru and Usagi or even Miaka and Tamahome (no really!). The art work is original and refreshing. Yuuri is also a very strong character. None of this waiting for her man to save her. By the time he gets there she usually has saved herself. She goes through a lot and is as strong willed as she is strong in character. I would be hard pressed to find another female character like her in the anime or manga I have seen. Why this is not an anime yet is beyond me. But maybe we can still hope for that in the future.
With this page we hope to bring the world of the Red River to the web. I have visited a few other pages on the manga and they all seem to be translated from the Chinese...this page is done from the Japanese manga. This means that some of the information will be different as well as the names. Our knowledge of Japanese is limited so most full translations we will have help on and will take time to get done. If you see anything you wish to question feel free to write one of us at the email addresses listed in the email page. We (Kail, Hero and I) hope that you go away learning something new about the story or go out and get your own copy of this wonderful manga series.
Lynx