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So overall, I really enjoy this manga. It has a lot of themes and tropes that work for me: (slightly immature and predictable) humour, adventure, found family and brotherhood, romance that’s cute but not the main focus, handsome men, self sacrifice etc etc. However as a fan of high fantasy, I can see some loose threads and holes in the world building.

The mangaka is pretty good at developing and portraying social/ political and interpersonal dynamics which are already established. However to get to this point of establishment, she uses some fairly contrived or not well fleshed out hand-wavy explanations just to so we can ... get to that point. An example in the context of social/ political dynamics is the history of the tribes. Given that they were founded two thousand years ago by the original dragon warriors, I would have expected them to have developed more unique cultures along the way. What makes a tribe a tribe? There’s no difference in language or ethnicity, and very little noticeable differences in attire, food or traditions. Also what was the point if them being named after the elements, and the dragons each having a corresponding colour, if the mangaka wasn’t going to somehow link them together? Personally I would have enjoyed the world building a lot more if each tribe worshipped a different dragon/ dragon warrior, hence creating more friction between the tribes. I find it slightly incredulous that the people of each tribe demonstrate loyalty towards their own tribe and chief and are indifferent to the others, yet there is no mention of any conflict between the tribes. If you make the distinction of separating the nation into tribes, surely there should be stakes and reasons as to why they’re separated like that?

Another example of poor build-up but this time in the context of character relationships is how quickly everyone became friends. Like I said, the friendships are very cute and endearing. You can see how different character pairs have different dynamics, and how they all fit together into one happy hungry bunch. However, I do think it would’ve been better if some mutual distrust or awkwardness was shown in the earlier stages. You’re putting a bunch of strangers together - I don’t think it’s realistic for them all to hit it off immediately. I know Hak and Kija argue when they first meet, but to be honest it was mostly friendly banter and nothing too serious. Given how deeply Hak was affected by Suwon’s betrayal, you’d think he’d be slightly more distrusting and wary of strangers going forward. One of my favourite scenes is when Hak hugs the other dragon warriors after the fort battle - this really solidified his friendship with the others in the group, without Yona being the one to bring them all together. I think it would’ve hit harder if the friendship grew more from a slightly rockier place to where it is now, instead of already starting out quite well if that makes sense.

There’re a few other examples I can think of but I won’t ramble any more. Despite all my frustrations, I still rate it pretty high just because when the story works for me, it really does work. I can still see all the glaring issues, but I’m willing to overlook them just because.