Akatsuki no Yona

The kingdom of Kouka is blessed with a beautiful princess whose childlike innocence charms all who come across her. Named Yona, she has grown up sheltered in the royal palace, shielded from any danger that may befall her. However, all good things must come to an end.

Yona's perfect world comes crashing down when a heinous act of treason threatens to erase all that she holds dear, including her birthright as the princess of Kouka. Left with no one to trust but her childhood friend and loyal bodyguard Son Hak, she is forced to flee the palace. Faced with the perils of surviving in the wild with a target on her back, Yona realizes that her kingdom is no longer the safe haven it once was.

Free from the shackles of naivety, Yona vows to do everything in her power to become strong enough to crush her enemies. With Hak by her side, she must piece together the remains of an ancient legend that might be the key to reclaiming her kingdom from those who conspired to steal it from her.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Son, Hak Main

Maeno, Tomoaki Japanese

Yona Main

Saitou, Chiwa Japanese

Shin-ah Main

Okamoto, Nobuhiko Japanese

Jae-ha Main

Suwabe, Junichi Japanese

Ki-ja Main

Morita, Masakazu Japanese

Yun Main

Minagawa, Junko Japanese

Zeno Supporting

Shimono, Hiro Japanese

Su-won Supporting

Kobayashi, Yuusuke Japanese

Ao Supporting

Yamamoto, Nozomi Japanese

Ao Supporting

Miyamoto, Mitsuru Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Yamazaki, Asuka Producer

Tominaga, Yoshihiko Producer

Danno, Yoshito Producer

Reviews

Dec 30, 2024

joemaamah

Recommended

This anime does lots of things very well, but comes up short and hard in other ways. While I like and would recommend it, it dawns on me a lot of people are going to see the holes in it, and despise it for them.

I found the art work pleasing, and it was above average quality throughout the series. Nice background work. I found the animation was a very mixed bag. The first cour was acceptible enough, but the quality really started to slide toward the end. The last 4 episodes were a little grating with too many stills and panning during the big ... battle scene. Apparently someone slashed the budget before the title ended.

The character designs ran the gamut from very well done to pukey. Way too much chibi shit, and it wasn't funny, just irritating. Where there was some saving grace, was in the characters' personalities and backstories. Well put together and in many instances they carry things when the plot got a bit sloggy.

The narrative mostly is enjoyable, especially in the first cour. It's at its best when it's focusing on Yona and Hak's adventure. Where it falls short is when it tries to be romantic or comedic. Those scenes struck me as pure schlock and they wouldn't have been missed if they hit the cutting room floor. The second cour also dragged out much too long, and ended in a very contrived manner. It was very unsatisfying and hit a sour note for me.

The VA work was pretty good through the whole series. Better than average with no complaints there. The direction appears to have been a big part of that. But considering some iffy animation and the shoddy attempts at romance, the direction was a mixed bag at best.

I ate this up at first and binged down the first 14 or so eps in a few days. I'd have graded those episodes on their own in the A- range. But while the wheels didn't fall totally off, the 2nd cour could have been so much better. It was no better than a low end C. If you throw it all in the blender and whip it together, it turns out at 81/100 for a B-. It might have been better if the ending wasn't such a cluster, or if there had been another season that would have made that ending make more sense. But it's been 10 years now. Highly doubtful this will ever get the continuation it deserved.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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May 1, 2023

KKAJ

Mixed Feelings

Admittedly, I am not a big fan of romance since there is often a lot of cliché involved in it such as a female protagonist who is clumsy and a damsel in distress and surrounded by hot men fawning over her. Unfortunately Akatsuki no Yona fulfills for a big part of the series such stereotypes. Our main girl, Yona, is a beautiful girl who is a spoiled princess and already surrounded by two attractive men fawning over her. She's in fact in love with one of them already, her older cousin, who commits within the first two episodes murder on her father though which forces ... her and her guardian, who is also in love with her, to flee from the kingdom.

The entire point of the series is her being the chosen girl and ancestor (?) of the first king of the kingdom who had four dragon warriors with special powers on his side. By now you've guessed it probably but all those warriors happen to be handsome men as well and they feel a special connection to her the moment they see her due to the dragon blood of their ancestors. Their entire point of being born is to serve her and this makes all possible romance forced in a way, something I'm not a big fan of.

Yona herself stays for a large part of the series helpless too and even if that is explained by the fact that she was a spoiled princess who never left the palace, this is still annoying since it makes her come over as clumsy, naive and incapable of her own. She has undergone some character development by the end of the series which did impress me and I did wish for her to go further too. Unfortunately the series didn't continue and I do know the manga which is sad because by the end of it, this became actually a more decent show to watch.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Sep 27, 2024

WAndrei

Not Recommended

This series is so fucking bad.

So the first episodes are actually intersting but then Yona's first lover who is supposedly human proceeds to beat up tens of people by himself, then they fall from a CLIFF and escape without a single major injury :). After that they meet the only character in the world that can guide them immediately so they begin their search for dragon boys. The formula is: Find dragon boy, dragon boy initially doesn't like Yona, something happens, dragon boy falls for Yona and joins the party. Author repeats this for 3 times and at the end when 4th dragon boy comes ... around the author gets so lazy he doesn't even bother with the formula and 4th dragon boy joins them instantly XD.

The male characters (except Yona's cousin Su won) are at the level of dating sim love interests. Absolutely trash with the archetypes being socially awkward, first appears as an airhead but actually has a complex and sad backstory xd and so on.
The main character Yona isn't absolute trash like the others but she is SEVERELY blown out of proportion. So after everything that happens she decides to actually do something which is commendable. I have no problem with that but what she does is the most basic human thing that a human could do: Improvise, adapt, overcome. I can agree that her will power and effort are above average but that's it. Even the title of the series is "Yona of the Dawn" XD. She is treated like some sort of saint savior that brings the methaphorical dawn just for being above average at best... She also is the most special unique dragon saint or something and randomly becomes Deadshot xd.
The character I personally like is Su-won. He sacrificed himself, his family, his love, all for the sake of that tiny god forsaken kingdom. The previous king was so garbage that entire villages are starving becasue of him. After Su won sacrifices everything to become king and actually do something for his people, he is treated like the main antagonist even though he is actually the hero of this trash story.

In conclusion, this series has trash story with bad to mediocre characters and the only redeeming quality being Su won.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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	Poll: Akatsuki no Yona Episode 14 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) tsubasalover - Jan 13, 2015	116 replies	by yahlulu »» 6 hours ago
	Poll: Akatsuki no Yona Episode 19 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) tsubasalover - Feb 17, 2015	148 replies	by wildhood »» Dec 29, 2024 3:32 PM
	Poll: 10 years, and then… tsubagakure - Nov 28, 2024	14 replies	by wildhood »» Dec 29, 2024 3:28 PM
	Poll: Akatsuki no Yona Episode 2 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 ) Stark700 - Oct 14, 2014	191 replies	by joemaamah »» Dec 22, 2024 4:43 PM
	Poll: Akatsuki no Yona Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) Stark700 - Oct 7, 2014	271 replies	by joemaamah »» Dec 22, 2024 4:10 PM

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