MANGA REVIEW | Yona of the Dawn

I'm a sucker for historical romance. There, I said it.

And In particular, shoujo manga does a really good job of empowering female characters in a historical setting. For some reason, a lot of them has red hair though which I find a little weird... Anyways Yona of the Dawn or, Akatsuki no Yona, is your typical yet not-so-typical shoujo that falls under the historical romance genre.

I say it's typical in that there's the same general setup for these kinds of stories. You can typically choose between Plot A, in which a modern girl is sent back in time as some sort of chosen one in a reverse harem. Or, choose Plot B where a rich/poor girl has her situation reversed against her will so she ends up poor/rich, forcing her to change and grow in a coming-into-her-own. Plot B likes to include poor girls being forced into harems by princes, or princesses being exiled so she has to hide her identity for survival. Akatsuki no Yona falls into the latter. Circumstances occur where her spoiled ways of life are forced to change. Of course in all cases the protagonist finds herself in a reverse harem situation, generally with perhaps one other female figure to keep her company.

How Akatsuki no Yona isn't typical though, is that I think Yona's growth happens a lot sooner than most female leads. She becomes a strong leader and very fierce when provoked. When she get's fired up you can't help but feel so pumped along with her. Like, "Oh wow shit's going down". All of her talents derive from hard work that they spend time showing you trhoughout the story. There's no hidden abilities that she obtains through ease. You see her sweat and work for it, failing sometimes and getting back up. I think it's refreshing! And for the male characters that do have special over-powered abilities it's for a good reason. It's because they're freaking dragons.

So yeah, Yona after being forced to flee her kingdom has to find different dragons in order to have the strength to take back her kingdom. In a way, Akatsuki no Yona also draws from Plot A in that Yona's a kind of chosen one, but nothing is ever stated definitely and it's more of a general feeling that the various characters feel towards her. Another thing I like about this protagonist is that she doesn't expect anything from anyone either. She approaches these dragons with the hopes that they'll join her, but is totally open if they reject her too. It's by earning their friendship and trust that she gains their loyalty, and while they do feel that strong mystical attraction towards her I like that it's not the sole reason. 

This manga (and anime now) is one of the few stories where I enjoy reading about every character involved. They all feel like characters I can relate to and I don't find myself skipping through scenes because I'm bored. Even the antagonist, Yona's childhood friend, I find myself rooting for because he's not evil for the sake of it in the slightest. I wouldn't even use evil to describe his character at all! In fact, I find myself torn between rooting for him and rooting for Yona as I think they both have the potential for being great rulers. It's rare that I feel this way for this kind of story.

As for the romance, yes I ship her with pretty much every man in the show she interacts with. It's a harem, of course. There's the base romance triangle between her, Hak and Soo-Won which is very cute and necessary for this genre to work. While it provides the basis for the romantic sub-plot of the story, I find Akatsuki no Yona really isn't driven that much by romance. Initially Yona's attraction to Soo-Won feels more like an innocent infatuation, while her relationship with Hak doesn't really develop until much later. I actually found they pushed it much more forward in the anime than they did in the manga... I also found it more subtle when reading.

Even the other men in the harem seem more devoted to her out of respect and loyalty than out of romance. I think Yona kind of just takes them by storm and they just get swept up in it all. I think her relationship with the quiet Shin-Ah is very sweet though and Jae-Ha's more explicit interest in her keeps my shoujo spirit in tact while reading.

The artwork is beautifully drawn and the character designs have that Chinese-inspired feeling to it which feels suitable for the characters' environment. The series isn't finished yet as I write this, but I look forward to each update! I highly recommend this series for people who like political, romantic, or historical plots.