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

Ishihara, Shirou Producer

Reviews

Jan 11, 2015

Chizuki

Recommended

This is my first review :D

First of all , Akatsuki no yona where have you been all this time? Where have you been HIDING dammit!

Sound : Im specifically starting with this , because lets face it , the soundtrack is absolutely amazing in this anime. Starting with the opening , Its only instrumental! ( How much time has it been since we got AN INSTRUMENTAL OPENING?)and yet you don't skip it and listen to it every damn time. The second opening isnt as great but is still awesome!
( seriously it gives you chills everytime there's a fight/emotional moment and the traditional music goes in).

Story ... : Princess Yona leads a peaceful life. Her only "worries" is whether or not her hair colour suits her and if she's gonna be able to marry her beloved childhood friend Soo-won. Well lucky for her ! He stops by the castle for a week. However her father forbids their marriage for reasons beyond her understanding. THEN BAM! beloved Soo-Won drives a blade through the chest of the king while she runs into the room to talk to him about her marriage. Heartbroken and stripped of her status as royalty, Yona lives as a fugitive on the run, accompanied only by one of the king's trusted shogun : Haku!.

Art : The animation is freaking good , yona hime face expressions are really well detailed ( I mean look at those fierce gorgeous eyes man) , and the art may seem typical but its beautiful! And hey for once the main dude isnt a 100% bishounen shining armored prince like dude his eyes are more like ''dont mess with me'' type.

Characters: The side characters ( Yona companions) are amazingly well developped ( better than any shojo I watched) , you get to see a very detailed past of some of them. ALSO CAN WE PLEASE TAKE A MOMENT for the first non-cry baby female lead since those 5 last years? Yes Yona hime is a typical princess , fragile , who only cares for nobles things and dont know how to cook her own food. HOWEVER she blooms into a strong female lead , who is aware of her weakness and wants to learn how to protect herself and save her country!.

Enjoyment: You know it's a good anime when you know the release date of the next episode and wait for it the whole week. You know its a good anime when you prepare food for it and set all yourself up. Akatsuki no yona combines Humour , serious-badass-moments , Mother of typical shojo moments ( which means even if its typical they are still better introduced than other animes of the same type).It's the type of anime that will give you chills in every single episode. Honestly if you are the kind of person who was desperate to find an amazing shojo with Strong female lead (like me) or just a passing-by person who never seen a shojo in her/his life , or just a curious person ! THEN DONT MISS AKATSUKI NO YONA.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Mar 26, 2015

TheDeadServ

Mixed Feelings

The seasoned viewer review: Not terribad. But NOT WORTH IT.
The seasoned viewer alternative: Go rewatch Juuni Kokuki (12 Kingdoms).

DISCLAIMER:
This review is aimed STRICTLY at seasoned/mature anime viewers; those of us who have seen it all and are no longer satisfied by the yearly cookie cutter dose of gen pop anime.
If you're new/recent to anime, this isn't the review for you.

Greetings SEASONED ANIME VIEWER!

If you're wondering why it has such a high score... it's because the other animes this season are so sucky they make this look good. This is one of those animes that in a year will be scoring 7.5 at best.
...
The 8+ score is also justified by the first few episodes where real shit happens. It gives that emotional jolt that unseasoned viewers are still susceptible to.

Then it just turns into a reverse-harem cliché altogether.
You've seen it before. Cookie cutter unexperienced heroine searches for cookie cutter bishounen boys with cookie cutter supernatural powers (poorly explored) with cookie cutter supernatural excuse for boys to be unquestionably atracted to heroine, beyond rhyme or reason.

The only saving grace is that the anime itself is decently executed, has a fair ammount of adventure to it and there's the occasional gritty moment and a bit of character development on the heroine. That's it.

If you came here for something new, interesting, unique, non cliché, you're in the wrong hood. This is a mediocre anime at best.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Mar 27, 2015

AceLe

Not Recommended

At some point in the show, Yona mentioned something about escaping from her bubble of a spoiled princess, learning about the difficulties of life and such. Ironically, this show never managed to escape from its bubble of a shoujo-pandering, unbearably sappy, politically shallow, purposeless mess of tropes and forced superficial development.

Beware of spoilers used as discussion points

Featuring a middle ages Korea kingdom apparently in turmoil; Yona stars as a completely clueless princess with already 2 incredibly hot young men who can’t resist to “protect” her. A coup occurred, for reasons still unclear after 24 episodes, killing the king and forcing Yona to take flight ... with her Boyfriend #1 (Hak) after finding out the identity of the perpetrator being Boyfriend #2.Thus ensues a long winded journey as Yona travels and develops as a person and a benevolent, charismatic ruler, reaching for that ultimate goal with also a lot opportunities for romantic development, or so you’d think.


The premise of this series is definitely very promising and allows room for political intrigues, epic battles exploring the qualities of an ideal ruler, discussing the problems with a lenient ruler and how discipline is integral to order. Unfortunately a meager 2 episodes is spent on these issues, making it a huge waste of potential. It’s mentioned many times that the previous reign wasn’t effective, but it’s hardly shown through the show; in fact the blame is all placed onto generic one-dimensional bad guys for doing bad things. The people perspective is nowhere to be found, their “suffering” is hardly discussed, there are no exact problems to be fixed; this makes the show’s whole foundation completely empty and so does Yona’s claim on learning about suffering. In comparison, Rose of Versailles beautifully portrays an oppressed society with plenty of civilian perspectives to display the problems with incompetent governance. On a wider scale, it’s also mentioned that the kingdom is at risk of impending attack in an attempt to give the show some kind of direction; but it’s so diluted and underpresented it’s difficult to appreciate as world building. Furthermore, it doesn’t really help that the show utilizes silly slapstick comedy; much like Shitgatsu Kimi ga Uso, these kills off any tension and make the show somehow even more bubbly than it already is.


On an episode to episode basis, the show doesn’t fare too well either. Most episodes focus on Yona’s journey to find the “4 dragons” based on a prophecy told by a random drunk priest lying half dead on the side of the road. As if that isn’t silly fantasy enough, these dragons are bound to her by DESTINY, meaning the moment she caught their eyesight, they become a harem member. Yep, she doesn’t even need to convince them. Most of the arcs dont have much depth and doesn’t contribute to the big picture. Additionally, they also try to get the audience to sympathise to the autistic, utterly stereotypical and forgettable dragons that become irrelevant the moment they join the harem.Boyfriend #5 (Blue dragon) arc in particular had a lot of issues that should really have been touched on like why are soldiers attacking the villagers? Why do the little kids keep dying? Why do they fear something that saves them? Instead it focused on the superficial “suffering” of the hot boy. And of course, Yona saves the day in the most stupid way possible “because his hands are gentle, so I’ll trust him”, right. The Boyfriend #6 (green dragon) arc got a bit closer to what the show should have been but collapsed when it became yet another generic beat the big fat evil guy who oppress people out of his greedy desires (and really want to put his hands on Yona), joining awkwardly righteous pirates too nonetheless.


It’s funny how the show realizes the complete lack of purpose in trying to gather up these bishounen on the last episode due to Yona still being completely clueless and a failure in story writing discussed earlier. In attempt to correct this she is given a “purpose” but it’s clear the author still have no idea how to advance the plot and neither does the show become any less superficial.


Character wise, the show features a very generic cast of forgettable characters to poorly developed ones. Yona is often said to have developed greatly, which is nothing short of phony. Physical strength is not the equivalent of mental fortitude; and her excessive plot armor only further depreciates any signs of growth she has. There was only one instance in which she actually realizes she did not want to lose anything else, which was real development. All other instances are just the plot forcing her to take action in an attempt to fool the audience of any real substantial development. For example, when she shot said big fat evil guy, there was hardly any real change in her character or way of thinking, in fact she did it just to get patted on the head. The show tries to make it sounds fancy it but in reality it is exactly just that. And with this much “growth” as a human she has gathered in 24 long episodes, her development as a ruler is completely pointless to discuss.
Boyfriends #1-7 suffers heavily from being bogged down to tropes, wish fulfillment and shoujo pandering. They aren’t really allowed to have any thoughts other than about Yona (and protect her because DESTINY). Boyfriend #2 (Su-won) is a potentially interesting character as a young mastermind of a coup but completely butchered by facetious “naïve boy” behavior towards important head figures for reasons I can’t think of besides pandering. His lack of screentime completely denies any chance of development, adding to long list of disappointment in this show.


On the positive side, the production value of the show doesn’t suffer very badly from being animated by Studio Pierrot infamous for low budget and conservative animation. Art is generally acceptable without noticeable problems. The chibi slapstick art hurts my eyes but other than that it’s pretty average. The instrumental first opening sounds like something from a cheap Chinese MMO and the second is an okay jpop.


In conclusion, Akatsuki no Yona is yet another generic shoujo story masked by a deceptive exterior. Potential interesting plot development and political discussion are replaced by a pointless journey to find hot boys. Every character is inexplicably obsessed about Yona because she’s the designated main character and tropes take up more time than character development. It’s not necessarily the worst thing; in fact it’s just overly mediocre rather than outright horrible. However, it is highly disappointing considering what it could possibly have been, making it excruciating to watch. If you had to watch this series it’s best to keep your expectations low.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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	Poll: Akatsuki no Yona Episode 12 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) Stark700 - Dec 23, 2014	139 replies	by MShehryark »» Nov 9, 9:32 AM
	Poll: Akatsuki no Yona Episode 3 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 ) tsubasalover - Oct 21, 2014	151 replies	by taytayontop »» Sep 29, 12:19 AM
	Season 2 kisaragi_eki - Feb 7	9 replies	by Zhiyu48 »» Sep 13, 9:18 AM
	Poll: Akatsuki no Yona Episode 19 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) tsubasalover - Feb 17, 2015	147 replies	by Yabasawa »» Aug 29, 2:16 AM
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