*Contains spoilers
Titles: Akatsuki no Yona, Yona of the Dawn, Yona: The girl standing in the blush of dawn, 暁のヨナ
Released: 2014
Genres: Shoujo, Adventure, Romance, Action, Comedy, Fantasy, Historical
Studio: Pierrot
I found this anime thanks to a friend. One day she asked me if I’ve ever watched Akatsuki no Yona. To her surprise I did not, so the short explanation she gave me about the series was that this one includes a strong princess with red brilliant hair that was forced to give up her luxury life, the guardian of the princess, and the four dragons of the legend of Kouka’s Kingdom. Curious, I decided to give it a go, so here’s my anime review for this series.
Akatsuki no Yona (Yona of the Dawn)’s Plot
The story is based in Kouka’s Kingdom, the place where the spoiled princess Yona lives with her father, King Il. She has an uncommon bright red hair, which is affiliated to the ancient history of the land where she lived all her life. We can say that she has a one-sided love with her cousin, Soowon with whom Yona wants to get married despite her father’s opposition.
One night after the banquet of her birthday, her life ended turned into a nightmare when she went to look for her father in his chambers, only to find his corpse and someone standing behind him, his dearest cousin, Soowon. Holding a bloody sword, Yona escaped with Hak, her childhood friend and one of the elite soldiers in the kingdom. They successfully escaped from the palace, but the trauma that Yona carries is strong. She is forced to change herself, change into someone that is sufficiently strong, capable of doing things on her own and protect what is precious to her.
Story
I usually like shoujo anime series but is still extremely weird that they would end up in my top list of anime. Surprisingly, Akatsuki no Yona ended up in that list. I did not expect to find one female protagonist that changes herself that fast. Yona, at first sight, is a spoiled girl with beautiful red hair that does not know anything about the outside world. She never left the palace, and all her life was based on enjoying a luxurious life, surrounded with love and appreciation inside the palace. She grew up thinking that she will end up marrying her cousin Soowon and live a quiet and lovely life till she gets older. Sadly, her plans were all ruined the night of her birthday banquet, a night where she found how malicious the world can be, and that was something that made my heart ache. Finding her father was murdered by Soowon, she tried to run away but got caught and almost got killed but Hak, also known as the “Thunder Beast”, and her guardian, saved her.
They managed to run away but since that moment Yona got traumatised, she felt betrayed, and did not know how to react so Hak needed to take care of her. That was one of the reasons I thought Yona would be the type of protagonist that would need protection all the time since she did not know anything. But, as time passes, she ended up finding what the real world was, that she still had things to protect, people that were precious to her, and those were one of the first reasons that made her decide to learn how to protect herself. She came to learn more about the outside world and the situation, which was, terrible, because the people of her Kingdom did not live a good life as she thought. Then, she decided to follow an ancient story of the land which involve the four dragons, it says that they were scattered around and they will only serve their master and no one else. The four dragons and the little boy Yun gave to the anime that “something” that was needed, Ki-ja, Shin-ah, Jae-ha, and Zeno, all of them have a unique personality and story.
Yona can be the perfect example of how the situations and adversities that life put in the path can make someone drastically change their way to live for better or for worse. She who was a helpless little princess to a powerful heroine that helps everyone that needs, little by little she grew stronger, less dependent and more capable of reasoning and taking action to protect her people. The development of her character is amazing and how the other characters complement the plot is something great, everyone has their own stories but they ended up supplementing each other to learn and to grow, which is something that I find delightful.
Characters
In my opinion, each character in Akatsuki no Yona’s story is well developed, each one has their own detailed story where we can see what kind of burdens they hold and how much they ended up growing as the story goes by.
Yona: At first, I was not that much into her character since I thought she would be one of those female characters that would end up being protected all the time by Hak and the dragons, however she ended up stealing my heart. If have to be honest I fell for her, because she learned how to improve herself to achieve what she wanted to, I would dare to say that is one of the best female characters.
Hak: To be honest, he was the one who convinced me the most to see this anime, what can I say? He has the word perfect wrote all over his body: strong, handsome, intelligent. Especially that unrequited love for Yona, a cute simp who was willing to do anything, even the impossible, to protect the princess. His character got to me.
Soowon: At first, I did not have the slightest idea that he would dare to betray nor kill anyone, I mean he looked so pure to me at the beginning. Despite this he has his reasons, right? Of course, but that does not make me want to forgive him for the trauma he gave to our red-haired protagonist and his dearest friend Hak. Still, I have to admit that he is one of the characters with a great and powerful mind.
Art and animation
I know that some people usually do not like the work of Studio Pierrot, but Akatsuki no Yona had a good animation in general. Of course, it has a few scenes where the art might seem weird, but most of the time it has a good quality in the art/graphics and the scenery was magical. I would also say that they made efforts while making those dawn sceneries which is kindly appreciated.
Soundtrack
For me, the whole soundtrack of Akatsuki no Yona is just perfect and magical. How it synchronises with the story is something that I really appreciated, especially the soundtrack “Jeaha, Elegy of the Moonlight”. My ears feel blessed every time I put that one on, aside of that, I would say that each song fits perfectly with the scenes of the anime.
Final score
I enjoyed every single episode of this anime so I will give it a 9/10. I did not give it full points, because I find it depressing that there is nothing said about a second season. It is a real shame since the story in the manga is getting really interesting. There is a lot of progress, a lot of chapters that bring tears, smiles, exciting and thrilling moments. The relationship between the main protagonists, Yona and Hak, is also developing amazingly and I want to see that part animated, so I will put my fingers crossed for news about it.
