The shōjo manga series Red River was written and illustrated by Chie Shinohara. The sixty untitled chapters were serialized in Japan in the bimonthly manga anthology Shōjo Comic from 1995 to January 2002. They were then collected and published in 28 tankōbon volumes by Shogakukan, and later republished in 16 bunkobon volumes. The collected volumes have sold 16 million copies in Japan.
Viz Media announced on February 13, 2004 that they had acquired the series for an English-language release in North America, with volume 1 scheduled for a second-quarter release. Viz released volume 1 on June 23, 2004, and volume 25 was released on April 2009.Red River is also published in Germany by Egmont Manga & Anime, and in Italy by Star Comics.
Red River is about a Japanese girl named Yuri Suzuki who is magically transported to Hattusa, the capital of the Hittite Empire in Anatolia, during the reign of the historical King Suppiluliuma I when the Hittite Empire was near its peak of power, rivaled only by Egypt, then ruled by the young Pharaoh Tutankhamen. Many of the people and events in the story are drawn from known history.