Yona of the Dawn

Hello internet!  I have returned! I stayed away from my social media accounts as well as this blog for a little while due to some personal reasons.

SPOILER ALERT:

Who saw Game of Thrones on sunday?? That was INSANE! Fucking white walker zombies! I was freaking out so hard. Like full out flailing, clapping, bouncing in my seat and various "holy shits". It was just glorious. Like The Walking Dead on ice. Ironically, 10 minutes before that huge battle I was telling my mom (who watches GOT with me) how I hoped they would show the white walkers this season and have them interact with people. I totally did NOT see that coming!

END SPOILER ALERT

I thought of saving this post for one of my "recently watched anime" features but this show deserves its own post! In my absence I have been binge watching SO much anime. My anime list has also been a big motivator in me finishing up shows. If you would like to keep up with what shows I'm watching, send me a friend request at:

http://myanimelist.net/profile/Lipstickzombie

A few weekends ago, I decided to start watching a new show (well, new to me) called Yona of The Dawn (or Akatsuki No Yona). I was browsing my Crunchyroll queue trying to decide what to watch and I thought that I would give this show a try. I normally am not a fan of feudal era shows (except for Inuyasha. I LOVE Inuyasha!) So I wasn't sure how much I would be into this show.

However, I'm so happy that I took the plunge! I binge watched the entire show all weekend, enduring WAY too many Six Flags El Diablo ads. Have I mentioned how much I HATE the ads on Crunchyroll?? I finally caved and got a free trial for premium after seeing the same ad 15 times in a row made me want to bash my head into the wall. I can be very picky with the shows I watch (especially anime) and I was hooked within 2 episodes. I haven't seen a show that made me want to binge watch and never stop watching since Golden Time.

So, Yona is about a young princess in feudal era Japan named Yona. She is initially a happy, carefree and sometimes bratty girl. Her father a very kind and gentle ruler dotes on her. She is beautiful and in a way, self absorbed. She hates her unruly yet gorgeous bright red hair (I am seriously jealous of her hair!). Yona lives in her father's palace, Hiryuu castle in the kingdom of Kouka and has a bodyguard (who is her childhood friend) named Hak, since her mother was murdered.

Sexy men make everything  anime better *^*.

Hak is sexy as fuck *^*. Hak also has feelings for Yona.

For the celebration of her 16th birthday, her beloved cousin who she looks up to and is actually in love with (hey, cousin loving wasn't all that uncommon back in the day!) Su-Won (can also be spelled Soo-Won) visits.  He was always very kind to Yona, comforting her whenever she was sad. He treated her like a little sister and a child though Yona wanted him to see her as a woman. For her birthday he gives Yona a beautiful hair pin and tells her that he loves her hair.

I wouldn't mind a man giving me that hair pin, just saying!! Haha, seriously though I LOVE her hair pin. I tried to find it online but sadly couldn't find a replica anywhere :(. And seriously....I LOVE Yona's hair! It's a gorgeous pink toned red. I'm pretty sure that Manic Panic's Cleo Rose matches it pretty spot on. Haha I've spent so much time looking at hair dye in my life that I didn't need to look the color up. Yona makes me want to dye my hair that color.

Of course Yona's carefree lifestyle comes to an end when on Yona's birthday, Su-Won murders her father and she witnesses it when she was going to tell her father King Il that she can't get over her love for Su-Won( Her father was previously talking about marrying her off).  Su-Won then orders all of the guards (traiterous assholes) to kill her. Yona thanks to Hak saving her gets away and the pair must remain on the run to avoid Su-Won's minions.

They eventually make it to the wind village where Hak is head of the Wind tribe and is from there. Hak intends to leave Yona there where she will be safe and go off on his own, but the Fire tribe, knowing she is there begins to do things to endanger the villagers. She refused to allow the kind, welcoming villagers to suffer so she insists on leaving with Hak. Hak's grandfather Mun- Deok (can be spelled Mundok..I guess spelling depends on which source you watch it from) tells them to search for a priest named Ik-Su. On their journey they run into some of Su-Won's minions and ultimately fall off of a cliff. They assume that the pair fell to their death. I had to laugh at the fact that the lord of the fire tribe was evil. Gee...where have we seen an evil fire lord before? (*cough* AvatarTheLastAirbender *cough*)

Ik-Su is a clumsy but very generous priest who lives out in the middle of nowhere. Any time he has gold and tries to help people they take advantage of him.

He lives with a boy named Yun who takes care of him. Yun finds Yona and Hak after they had fallen and treats their wounds. Yun acts coldly towards them but grows to like them. Ik-Su tells Yona of a prophecy, claiming to be speaking the word of god. The prophecy goes:

"When darkness falls upon the land, the dragon's blood will restore life once more. In accordance with the ancient pact, when the four dragons gathered, the sword and shield that protect the king awaken. The red dragon will return at dawn."

The prophecy is based upon the legend of the creation of the Kouka kingdom which goes like this:

The red dragon god took a human form, descending from heaven to rule the Kouka kingdom on Earth. He became the first king of Kouka, king Hiryuu. Hiryuu eventually had to fight humans. The humans' hearts turned evil, they forgot their god and their country fell to ruin. Hiryuu was captured by humans who desired power. When he was about to be killed by them, four dragons descended from heaven to save him. They proclaimed a desire to destroy the humans who had forgotten their faith and then return to heaven. But Hiryuu rejected their wish. Though the humans hated and betrayed him he still loved them. The dragons loved Hiryuu and did not want to lose him so in order to protect him they gave their blood to human warriors, granting them strength. One of them gained sharp claws that could tear through anything, another eyes that could see across great distances. The third gained legs that could jump high into the sky and the final warrior gained a strong body that could never be injured. The warriors became the dragons' other halves. Their destiny, to serve Hiryuu as their master and protect him with their lives. With those powers, the warriors were able to protect Hiryuu and bring order to the kingdom. The red dragon eventually grew tired of fighting and fell asleep, which ended the mission of the dragon warriors. In their grief, the dragon warriors left their tribes and dissapeared. Their tribes still remained and became the Kouka kingdom tribes.
Ik-Su tells Yona that she must search for the four dragons of the legend, that they will lend her their strength. He believes that god is leading her on this path.

So along with Hak and Yun (who Ik-Su asks to go with them) she goes to look for them. First they meet the white dragon, Kija. He lives in a village that pretty much worships him.

 His entire village celebrates the fact that he is the white dragon, he spent his entire life waiting for his master to come so that he could use his skills. When he meets Yona, the dragon's blood within him awakens and he knows that Yona is his true master (or I should say king). He had never left his village before, so he is very naive. But he is very loyal to Yona and feels a very strong sense of duty to protect her. He has the power of the dragon's arm.

I truly believe that Yona is Hiryuu reincarnated.

Next we meet the blue dragon. He was shunned and treated badly because of his power of the dragon's eyes. He possesses eyes that could paralyze a person if they look into them. So he wears a mask all the time. He is quiet and shy. He's a tough, muscular man but he's very gentle. He didn't even have a real name until Yona named him ShinHa. ShinHa is so freaking adorable!

                                           I think he may be my favorite of the dragons. Just look at that face!!!!

The third dragon we meet is JaeHa the green dragon. He's a pirate that is very flirtatious with the ladies. He didn't want to go with Yona because he loved his free life as a pirate. He has the dragon's leg.

The last dragon, the yellow dragon is Zeno. Hilariously enough he was randomly wandering in a forest. Yona and Yun find him and he was starving. While eating, he nonchalantly divulges that he is the yellow dragon. We don't know all that much about him yet. But he is clumsy. So far he doesn't seem to show any sort of special power and he didn't feel the awakening that the other three dragons felt.

As the anime progresses, Yona becomes stronger. She starts as a weak, sheltered girl and becomes a warrior. She was tired of being useless and not only wanted to be able to defend herself, but Hak as well. Night after night she would practice with a bow and arrow, shooting 200 arrows a night. Though not physically strong, mentally she becomes determined. She fights for what is right and acts like a true and good ruler. Watching her growth made me so proud. She turned out to be pretty badass! I grew to love her so much. She could have remained a sheltered princess and hidden for the rest of her life but she didn't! She kept going and she learned to fight. She rose from tragedy and became a stronger, better person. Sure she does cry and get upset throughout it but that's what makes me admire her even more. She picks herself up through the tears and keeps going despite that. I love that they made her slowly begin to be able to help out and defend herself, rather than keep her a defenseless princess that needs protecting.

I also loved the progression of her going from caring so much about her appearance to not caring. In the  beginning of the show, Yona was shown as being very into her appearance. She would request various jewels and high quality makeup from her father. She was very worried/conscious about her hair because it would never do what she wanted and she hated the color. But during a battle, she allows her hair to get cut and from there she stopped worrying about it and worried more about surviving. I thought that this was some great character development. And don't worry Yona you're still gorgeous <3.

I found myself relating a lot to Yona and I really admire her. When I lost my father, I had to become strong and grow up quickly. I had to be there for others so I needed to pick of the pieces and continue on.

Because of this show, I definitely learned the Japanese word for princess, Hime as the characters call Yona Hime-sama quite a bit. Seriously...we could make it a drinking game. I love it when I pick up random words in other languages when I watched shows subbed. -Sama is a more formal honorific used in the Japanese language and it's shown as a sign of respect. I love the way Sama sounds. Though I prefer the title of Khaleesi I like how Hime-Sama sounds.

I loved the opening songs. The first one is basically Yona's theme which you do hear throughout the course of the show, it is instrumental. It's very fitting. The second is a song by Cyntia called Akatsuki no Hana.  I thought it a bit odd for this show at first but I grew to love it.  As for the closings, I usually skip past the EDs on anime.

There is an English dub available for this show. I'm unsure if I'll watch it or not. I do prefer dubs to subs...but I heard that Monica Rial voices Yona. Nothing against her, I do enjoy her work but I can't see her voice fitting Yona. I personally saw Cherami Leigh voicing her. This was disappointing for me...I love Cherami Leigh (AKA Asuna and Sailor Venus) so much. She is my favorite female voice actress.

Overall, I loved the shit out of this show. Seriously, I'm hooked. There had better be a 2nd season and a 3rd season after that. I need more!! I am so tempted to pick up reading the manga not only because I loved the anime so much, but I love Yona. This is a show I feel even my non anime watching friends would enjoy. I wish someone would cosplay as Yona in an Akatsuki (Naruto) uniform. That would be pretty funny punny! Get it? Akatsuki no Yona!

XOXO
Moon prism power, makeup!