Yona of the Dawn Review S1 P1 – More Like Yawner of the Dawn (Anime)

Both Yona of the Dawn and I are confused as to what it wants to be – an action, plot-driven show or a shoujo revolving around a girl who’s betrayed by the man she’s loved since childhood. It tries to balance both but doesn’t do the best job of it, making for a weak lead in a story that requires a strong one.
 
I like a good shoujo, I do, but this was slow-paced and the relationships weren’t compelling. The titular Yona will seemingly fall for anybody who’ll protect her and whilst she certainly gets character development, I didn’t find her character to be appealing and instead she grated on my nerves. She’s left understandably shaken when her love, Soo-won (who is also her cousin, which isn’t something that I find all that wonderful) murders her father and usurps the throne. Having seen the murder happen, Yona is forced to run away with another childhood friend, Son Hak, who vows to always protect her and wants to help her take back the kingdom that is rightfully hers. I can’t say I found it particularly engaging at any point and I’m now left wondering why this show has been show heavily praised – honestly, much of the cast have about as much personality as a paper towel/insert boring object here.
 
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There’s eye-candy, mostly for women, but the show as a whole has lovely art from the efforts of studio Pierrot and this proves to be the highlight of Yona of the Dawn. The show isn’t gory but does have its fair share of blood on-screen so shoujo fans who don’t like violence may not like this show, but those hoping for grand battles will only really find that in Yona’s inner battle with who she truly loves and wants to be with. Yona of the Dawn has some great character design and fantastic use of light, shadows and features some beautiful environments, but overall its more exciting visuals can’t make up for how dull the story and characters are.
 
Yona of the Dawn features some brilliant voice talent including Monica Rial as Yona, Christopher Sabat as Son Hak and Micah Solusod as Soo-Won and they’re joined by a terrific supporting cast. Whilst I’m a big Monica Rial fan and think she’s done some highly praiseworthy and amazing work, I’m not fond of how she was directed to voice Yona and like the character herself, it ended up grating on me – all things considered, there’s an argument to be made that it’s perfect. The opening and ending themes are quite tame and unmemorable and the soundtrack as a whole doesn’t do much to stand out, and instead feels like plain background music rather than something that stands on its own and enhances the show overall.
 
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Sadly, Yona of the Dawn is more like Yawner of the Dawn and not only is Yona an insufferable main lead, the rest of the cast aren’t exactly carrying the show and so everything ends up falling flat. The writing isn’t strong, the characters and their relationships aren’t engaging or interesting, and the shoujo and action elements aren’t well-balanced and Yona of the Dawn never ends up feeling like it knows what it wants to be. It’s clearly a popular show so people are obviously enjoying it and it might be worth giving Yona of the Dawn a go yourself, but I wouldn’t recommend it unless it’s on a deal. This review only covers the first 12 episodes so who knows, maybe the next 12 won’t be quite as dull.

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