Set in Medieval Japan, Yona of the Dawn follows the beautiful Princess Yona as she is thrown from her comfortable palace life on her 16th birthday, and is forced to flee the capital. She is lead to a priest, who tells her to find the four who possess the dragon blood, as she is the descendant of the red dragon (hence her hair) to do with as she pleases. It's a party-building anime with strong characters and a solid story. There's really not much to complain about.
This is an incredible show. The animation, colour work and shot composition is beautiful. Initially, my only problem was that the OP was instrumental, so I sounded like an idiot when I sang along with it. I don't think my sister liked sharing a room with me that week, haha! The story is simple but relatively strong, and there are many hilarious moments, accentuated by the transition from manga- to chibi-style art. I did find myself laughing out loud frequently - which I'm glad of. I feel too many shows take themselves too seriously and it's just dramadramadrama all the time with minimal to no relief (looking at you, last quarter of Death Note). It's nice to be able to sit back, have a laugh and enjoy a good show like Yona of the Dawn.
Oh, an added bonus of this show is that all the characters make good cosplay ideas. Seriously, each one stands out with their own style that is recognisable if given context (ie seen with each other). A couple of the costumes are fairly generic, but hey - generic in a good way. FYI I'm looking into cosplaying the Blue Dragon, seen as he is the character that resonated with me the most. Plus I always kinda wanted blue hair, so it's a win-win! :D
My only issue with it was the simplicity of the storyline. It reminded me of when I played WoW for the first time. "Go do this." "K go do this" "Sweet now do this" and you can see them coming from a way away. Especially when she is sent for the four dragons. Each is progressively harder, testing Yona as a character, which I appreciate, but it's predictable. And one issue I had with the show was raised within the show itself, in the last episode, when the Yellow Dragon asks Yona "What exactly do you plan to do with us dragons?" I mean, I assumed she'd be storming the castle, reclaiming what's hers, but then she's like 16, so that's not great. And then she talks about essentially becoming Robin Hood and it's like 'Ok, I get that, but what then? Where's this show GOING?' That's my main issue. The show has no real drive, especially towards the end.
Now, aside from that, as I said before, I love everything about this show. The characters are perfect - they make me laugh, they make me worry, they make me smile, they make me (nearly) cry. To be honest the last time I properly came close to crying at a piece of media was when Dobby died but THAT'S BESIDE THE POINT. The music is beautiful, and I have the full OST on my phone. The acting is excellent, especially from Yona - Her kawaii voice cracks me up every time, and her rousing-speech voice is superb. Hak's reliable (similar to his character funnily enough). The White Dragon was too annoying a character for me to pay attention to him properly, and the rest of the cast is believable and then some.
Oh, and the second opening is BADASS AS HECK I LOVE IT seriously I haven't heard an intro that good since Steins;Gate. It is amazing. And even though it's an electronic club track, it fits the show really well. Don't ask.
I've been watching a lot of modern-set shows recently (well, if we use flip-phones in the modern day, then yeah. A LOT). It was a nice change of scenery with Yona of the Dawn, and the more I watched the more I loved it.
Recommended if you liked: Sword Art Online, Log Horizon, or if you watched Attack on Titan mostly for Sasha or another comic relief character.
Thanks for reading :)
Euan
