Excellent Character Development in Yona of the Dawn

A show about epic adventure and sexy dragon boys also happens to be one of anime's most human coming-of-age tales.
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[@hilarylutz693]

“One man army/boyfriend” Oh I wish...

[@vullture2]

Yep, my biggest gripe with Yona is that it's not finished. Which is why I started reading the manga, but still, I love this show and wish it would continue.

[@sarinouloup]

Vullture the manga is really really good, you should try !

[@TehAnimeHQ]

Yup this needs a second season so bad.

[@eff-fume]

I remember that when Yona aired i actually watched 2 episodes of it and were even surprised how well that went, but for whatever reason stooped watching further. Now i hear everyone discussing that Yona is a very good show. Need to start it again.

[@dan1a_636]

whats frustrating is that it just gets better and better, the manga is insane and if you thought the character development in the anime was great, the manga amplifies it by ten fold, yona is such a well written protag that def has one of the best character arcs, su won is a fantastic villain he's almost like a second protag in the story, also extremely fleshed out and the emotional stakes between su won, yona and hak are on a whole other level, there so much depth to the story and it doesn't stop at those three but every character, even side ones that you really didn't think were gonna be all that important end up having a great arc and much more importance, no character is ever introduced for the sake of a single arc, they will reappear again and again and it will always be thrilling, I honestly can't really point at any character and say theyre bad, I mean yes I hate some of them but thats the point of them, and even if I hate them I still find myself sometimes being on their side! Kusanagi really went insane with her writting, akayona has some of the best morally grey characters I've ever seen I absolutely love this manga and it better get a continuation/reboot cause it is criminal how underrated it is

[@jodiseymour8709]

The ending of this video was perfectly stated......Where is my season 2!!

[@TheLemuroid]

Su-won is one of the best villains but doesn't get enough screen time. I thought the way they built him up as their childhood friend AFTER the betrayal was brilliant. Later we see that he isn't the typical tyrant and that his rule benefits the kingdom. Through Yona's journey we learn enough about the poor state of the kingdom that we can understand why he wanted to be king. What really makes him evil is that he could have earned the position legitimately had he been more patient and romanced Yona. Instead he chose to gain it through bloodshed and alienating his closest friends.

[@Sparkys_World-0]

+TheLemuroid - Totally, but its hard to really comment on him or his true motivations since they're yet to really be explored in the anime. Maybe he'll get his own OVA or something.

[@j.enna.a]

Apparently he wanted to take revenge on King Il for killing his father in cold blood...

[@brunoss.3273]

Personally I believe there is more to it than that. Knowing king Il's personality I don't think he would kill anyone specially his own brother without any motive. This is just my opinion but I believe he tried to kill Yona and Il and her mother. We know her mother his dead so he might have been the one to blame. Of course Soo-won respected him but Yona always feared him. Remember that he Il's brother persecuted all the priests, well in the manga King Il revealed he knew Yona was the reincarnation of Hiryuu (how he knew I dont know but he did know). Maybe Il's brother wanted the throne for himself and in order to suppress the knowledge that the red dragon god and founder of Kouka had reincarnated he tried to kill him. In the end making so that king Il had him executed.....That is just my opinion though I hope that the manga explores what really happened more in the future.

[@pinkcuteval]

Do you think he is a anti-hero? instead of a villain?

[@jakelewis8805]

Akatsuki no Yona was amazing!! I think a lot of people got scared away by the Shoujo genre tag, as Shoujos aren't generally good, in fact I'm a guy myself and have only ever found 2 good Shoujo anime so far, which are Juuni Kokuki (which I have not yet finished) and Akatsuki no Yona, which was so awesome that it became my 2nd most favourite anime currently!!! also just found your account, you upload pretty good reviews, so have a new subscriber! xD

[@alexanderjackson7815]

I agree with you strongly about them not finishing the show. Man, I seriously was going "What? did it end? It didn't even finish."

[@alexaaoyuki9746]

Yona of the dawn is one of my all time fav anime's and manga .

[@SaberStash]

Awesome video! I really love Akatsuki no Yona and I hope it gets a season 2. Glad I found your channel through digibro's twitter!

[@CyanideBlizzard]

I hadn't actually seen your channel before, and I'm shocked that I didn't because I really enjoyed the work you did on this video. There's just one thing, and I hope you don't mind. The problem is between the lack of dynamics in the vocals (during the first half and middle section), the fast delivery of the lines and the way their edited together. It feels like one constant paragraph and I found myself starting to glaze over several minutes into the video. It just becomes an audio bombardment, and I don't mean to be cruel about it but I find that it does a disservice to the great work that you do. I'd definitely recommend trying to breaking things up a bit to let the audience breath and take in the points. Slowing them down and giving a bit more space in the editing I personally feel would help avoid that. However, that's merely my two cents and I'm far from an expert. I hope you don't mind!

[@Giovanna-rv3gx]

I miss this anime so much

[@AnthemOfDying]

Berserk has the qualities you described. The big and epic setting ,while great takes in my opinion a backseat to the characters we journey with and their emotional, personal stories.

[@alterateawful6709]

AnthemOfDying they fucked up with the new 3d anime

[@MonicaYoder]

The characters are the best I’ve seen in any anime so far. Although from what I’ve read from the manga it has a bit much of the shoujo feel. But I still hope it will be continued.

[@ashleypenn7845]

It's 2023... and still no Season 2.

[@darbychai]

The day the show gets a second season is the day I die happy (after watching the second season of course)

[@Paper1802]

Been following you on twitter for awhile now and completely forgot to subscribe to your KZbin channel somehow. Damn good content by the way - some of the best I can think of in recent memory. Gonna promote you too everyone that will listen to me!

[@stalkerzhs1864]

I hear that Yuffie theme in that background

[@faithprice8141]

why did you cut out the homicidal rage

[@Sparkys_World-0]

+Faith Price - I don't wanna be held responsible for the darkness you'd see. Also make a discord and join the bunker, your friends are waiting for you.

[@faithprice8141]

Subsonic Sparkle lol kk

[@farah-vx4wp]

4:42 lmao

[@alexaaoyuki9746]

I enjoyed your review and agree with everything you've said .

[@MeeraRustshieldSystem]

You should watch The Twelve Kingdoms. Another great anime with a very similar setting played in a quite different way

[@sinthiya2093]

can anyone tell me pls... why Su-won killed yona's father? he said "there is something important things must to do when he got throne."...... i understand that he took revenge for his father's( yu-hong) dead but....there is another some reason which i couldn't understand..

[@Chipster321]

Manga reader here so slight spoilers. Basically King Il was a great guy and father but a terrible and weak king. The country was dying and in near collapse and constantly at risk of invasion because of his weakness as king. Also lots of misunderstandings abound. It was a necessary evil that even Il himself knew was coming, who would do it and accepted it, deciding that when it came (his murder), he wouldn’t fight it. There is no true evil (except one asshole “priest” from a rival country) in this story so far. Only morally grey. Some darker grey than others, but no one is EVIL.

[@silicabraille]

@@Chipster321 also basically Il killed his dad.

[@Chipster321]

@@silicabraille but that wasn’t the only reason. In the manga’s recent chapters, Soo-won had known for 10+ years but made it clear even as a child that he would only kill the king and get revenge if he couldn’t live up to his expectations when ruling the country. (In other words, if Il had been an effective and great king, he wouldn’t have taken revenge.) Also apparently Il knew the whole time what was coming and knew he was a bad king too, which is why he purposefully held no weapon that day and made no attempt to fight back.

[@sheamcc2]

it's funny I was just descussing my idea of a strong female character with a friend yesterdy.

[@trashtrash5751]

You can always read the manga...

[@adebayox4031]

Hell yeah

[@MeeraRustshieldSystem]

You should watch The Twelve Kingdoms!

[@plasmabat718]

You're right about strength being able to stand up again after being knocked down, or keep going even when you feel like breaking down, but does the show go into detail about how someone attains these abilities? I'm really sick of shows that show their characters as being determined or emotionally/psychologically strong, and make that a big plot point, but don't go into detail about HOW they even became like that. Worse yet, when it's completely unrealistic. You can have magic and fantasy bullshit all you want, but when your characters are unbelievable and it's not a comedy, then you've made a shit show.

[@DrBlick]

Ayyy

[@aninjathtpwndu]

ey make more videos bb

[@kristijancavic]

I'm not sure whether you are saying it's good or making fun of it

[@Jhonjackdiab]

isn't this show like the "dumb" version of twelve kingdoms?

[@Sparkys_World-0]

What's dumb about it?

[@Jhonjackdiab]

+Subsonic Sparkle I was Just trying to be a little snarky. I know that the shows are fairly similar but i haven't seen Yona. So i'm in no position to judge it. i was just playing around with what i have heard from yona. (wasn't expecting a response from you, and know i don't want to sound like an Ass) I wanted to kickstart a comparison conversation (from someone who has seen both shows). Since i'm currently making my way through 12 kingdoms and i want to see Yona later dow the line. Edit: fixed a couple of sentences.

[@Sparkys_World-0]

+jhon jack - Isn't Twelve Kingdoms that show that Gakuto from Prison School was obsessed with? That's actually a real thing??

[@Jhonjackdiab]

+Subsonic Sparkle the "show" from Prison School is actually a book series called "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" it's an old chinese(maybe japanese) book from 1300's i think. Twelve Kingdoms is an anime about a girl that gets teleported into a fantasy. (I know very cliche). But the execution is really good. it really nails the character developpment, of the main cast. but it's also not finished... Edit: dammm (me:i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/facebook/000/992/401/e37.png)

[@9nidow756]

+jhon jack Definitely Chinese, historical fiction written by a Chinese man in China about real events from 2nd-3rd century Chinese history.

[@yoobisnose7669]

Good news , in 2018 the second season is coming out 😁 edit: there is finallh coming a season 2, just years later, my bad nextalerts.com/2020/07/17/yona-of-the-dawn-season-2-relesae-date-cast-plot-and-more-details-click-to-know/

[@seasalt3756]

Lana Gijselinck omg are you sure?

[@yoobisnose7669]

dumb noodle Yes, but I don't know the details

[@deliciousdelight7847]

Guess what? 2 yrs later and still no season2

[@dreamingblue3939]

:(

[@yoobisnose7669]

@@dreamingblue3939 don't be down, now it's really a reality. nextalerts.com/2020/07/17/yona-of-the-dawn-season-2-relesae-date-cast-plot-and-more-details-click-to-know/ there is comibg a ss2

[@ThisAlbino]

Is this guy being forced to speak at gunpoint? His voice is already difficult to understand, so why is he speaking so fast?

[@alterateawful6709]

I watched the anime just cuz of hak

[@FierceCast]

Where the HELL is your "analytical Clannad review"? ;_;

[@Sparkys_World-0]

FierceCast - In my head, fully written and edited.

[@FierceCast]

Dx

[@outforbeer]

I've been reading the manga and while I enjoyed it at the start. I'm beginning to see a major flaw in this series. Lack of an overall evil bad guy! Soo-won is constantly presented as a good guy and it bothered me alot. So what's the point of her entire journey? To defeat their childhood friend who's really a good guy, who killed her father for unclear reason

[@malihaahmed9291]

Actually yonas journey is NOT about killing soo won and settling personal grudges. It is to help the her homeland which have suffered during her father's reign and create her own identity. And I love how soo won is portrayed as no person is completely good or evil. This anime and story is not a typical one.