Akatsuki no Yona OVA

If you care about this anime, watch the OVA. You wont regret it.

OVA's are normally an excuse to add fun useless filler to a story. This is not one of those cases. The first episode may seem like that, but the second and third are NOT.

The last 2 eps are fairly critical to understanding a specific characters backstory and existence. It is not to be looked over if you are invested in the story. They could/SHOULD have started the second season with those 2 eps.

::SPOILERS BELOW:: (nothing big is given away, just story bullet points)
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The first episode is classic OVA - the hot spring episode. Its cute and fun, but we learn a little into the familial background of the White Dragon. So I would watch it. Other than that its pretty light.

The second and third eps. It beings fairly light and playful and dives into the history of the Yellow Dragon. In the series we get 2 full episodes with him in it. This OVA ep is crucial to understanding more about the original dragons, their relationship with each other and the king, the yellow dragon, and the beginnings of the current political system. They should have used this as the introduction to the second season it would have been brilliant.

Fanservice? People should really read the description well...

The first episode is an animation for a bonus chapter. And if we've ever read/watched a bonus chapter it's only natural to expect there to be fancervice.
Isn't that what a 'bonus' chapter is about anyway? So I don't think it's really fair to rate episode 1 badly solely for this reason. Actually, there isn't as much fanservice as people claim there to be in the first case. Most of the episode actually focusses on more on Ki-ja's past.

And even if you don't like the first episode, the next two have much more of the seriousness from ... the original. Somebody else claims that the art isn't as good but I don't pay attention to that as much so I can't tell. But I can GUARANTEE you that the second and third are much better than the first and definitely worth watching! You might aswell consider them to be 2 episodes from the original :p

The main purpose of this review will be to prevent future viewers from dismissing the ova after the first episode.

Despite being fully aware that the first episode is a bonus without any significant meaning to the original series, it disappointed me and lowered my expectation for the other two episodes.

I'm glad I didn't drop it.

The original 24 episode TV series did not fully appeal to me as it lacked to follow the dramatic scenario set in the first couple of episodes during the rest of the anime. What made me continue watching the anime was not the story, but the character development. The 2nd ... episode extends that appeal by providing a backstory of the origins of the four dragons.

The weakest point in the original TV series was the abrupt ending it imposed after meeting the yellow dragon. Unlike the other dragons, the yellow dragon seemingly came out of nowhere, with the anime ending without any sort of development in his character.

The 3rd episode of the OVA appeased my disappointment, providing a level of story and character development greater than the entirety of the 24 episode series within the span of only one.