Anime review and spoilers
Oh well, since I'm stuck in the office all alone with nothing much to do (ha!), so here is my second anime review.
I'm not into shojo that much (oh well, I'm more towards shounen ai), but hey that doesn't mean that I don't have any favourite when it comes to shojo anime. Infact, I have my own list to that, and it's suprisingly surpass the five (5) marking list. But when it comes to an adventure types of anime I find that there's no need for romance to be in it. Well that was just my two cent. Back to the main topic, the anime that I'm going to review is Akatsuki no yona (The girls who shine at dawn,Yona). Correct me if I'm wrong tho. At first glance this is somehow a mix of Arslan Senki (shounen ai ; hint) where the MC have been thrown off from their throne due to the issues of the previous King. It give off the same kind of similar vibe more or less, just the difference is that the MC is a girl.
The stories start off with Princess Yona preparing for her 16th birthday, and the introduction of her life generally, with her father King II, the current king who detest any weaponry and war. The Kingdom that they had been resides in named Kouka, where it had been rules by the five tribe; earth, wind, water, sky, and fire. Each of the tribe had been rule by a general, which make them as the five (5) general of Kouka, assisting the King. Yona is describe as a spoil princess since she's the only daughter of King II. Her mother had been murder in a kidnapping case and the King had been overprotective towards her eversince. She's a girl with red hair and average height, having a crush for her cousin, Soo-won. The wind tribe general Son-hak had been the childhood friends of Yona and Soo-won. The story progress until Yona witnessing the murderer of her father King II by her own crush Son-Woo. It's then revealed that Son-Woo was just proceeding with his revenge as the late King II had stabbed his own father, six years back. I find this information a bit shocking but netherless the reason hadn't been revealed and the act itself was just too redundant. For once, the late King II (Yona's father) didn't approve of having Soo-Won as his predecessor for some reason unknown although Yona had been firm with her decision of wanting to marry Son-woo. But netherless, the King decision might, or might not relates to him feeling guilty of murdering his own brother, or probably because he didn't want Son-woo just because of how unreliable that he saw Son-woo as.
Well, as for Son-woo he had been potrayed as a good nature boy, who had been besides Yona and hak through their childhood years. He play the innocent facade most of the time, hiding his true nature which I can decribe as his justice to prevent Kouka from falling in despair, his bravery for commiting the murderer and his intellectual in tackling the problem. Having witnesses the crime and the reasoning, Yona that had been thrown out of the castle where she had been protected by Hak. Hak, having sharing the same feeling as Yona, couldn't accept the fact that their bestfriend had killed the kind hearted KIng II. Both of them ran away from the castle to take refugee at Fuuga (the wind tribe village). There, they had made a decision to leave the village in search of the priest who will lead Yona path. The priest (Ik-soo) had live deep in the forest of Wind tribe with his assistant, Yoon. He then told Yona to find the four (4) legendary dragon, which going to help her through the journey. They were the descendant of the dragon god that had been bestowed the dragon blood to assist King Hiryuu (the red dragon who happen to be a human).
Hence, their journey begin with the new addition to their party, Yoon the bishounen boy (well, his look can rival to Yona imo). Their journey to seek the four legendary dragon started of with the finding of the white dragon (Kija), the dragon blood human with a hand of the dragon claw. Well, Kija is suprisingly adorably handsome, shy,well manners with an amazing strenght bestowed upon his right hand. Their next adventure was the pursuing of the Green Dragon (Shin-ha), who is more introvert and having too much conflict within him due to the previous predecessor of the Green Dragon. He had been bestowed with the great eyesight and had been label as a monster within the village due to the super natural power that he had gain. His eyes, for once can freeze upon his opponent, but the act itself can backlash to him as the power itself will reflect of what had been face by his opponent.
The legendary dragon is said will be born naturally by a female human once the predecessor nearing his time limit. The new born human-dragon then will absorb the predecessor power until they became an ordinary human being and died. It's like a harsh cruel fact but yet they were actually born to serve King Hiryuu sucessor. They had been waiting for thousand of years to fullfill their roles, but none were lucky enough to meet the next sucessor. Their next journey to Awa, a small port town near the bordering country of Kai, where they have to solve the human traficking and drugs problem which had lead the town to ruin. Their party then ecounter the green dragon Jae-ha (the dragon with the ability to jump incredibly high in the sky with his right dragon leg). Yona had made her mind to help Awa, and defeated the ruler of the kingdom in order to save the people of Awa. She then joined forces with the pirates crew of Jae-ha and his captain Gi-Gan to defeat the human traficking and to bring down the ruler of Awa. She manged to shot down the leader which had mark their successful mission. During their celebration in Awa, Yona for the first time ecounter Soo-Won who happen to be there to scout the area of Awa. Yona had wanted to escape from Soo-Won, due to her rage, but had been stop short by Soo-Won because of his company arrival, Lord Joo-Doh (the air tribe). Soo-won revealed that he feel happy knowing that Yona is save, although Yona was trying to reach for his sword (to hurt him) when he was hiding beneath Soo-won cloak.
Later, the party continue their journey where Zeno (the yellow dragon with immortality) joined the party. Zeno was the first descendant of the legendary dragon, where he had stop aging and maintain to be a 17 old years boy. His body can regerated and heal fast from any small and severe wounds. If severe wound had been inflicted, his body will change into a dragon scale. Zeno had asked Yona what of her purposed in gathering the four dragon, which she relied was to change how the current Kouka is. She had realized although her father had detest war and weaponary, but his ruling had bring the worst of Kouka (this is from her visit to the fire tribe). The poverty had been worst in most of the village due to the higher tax demand, and the drought that prevent them to harvest any crop. She then begin to change her mind set and estabalish a 'bandit and hungry crew' in order to sustain the village. She manage to obtain a good seed from Kai for the people of the fire tribe village with the help of her party and (Yoon), which later shock the present king (Son-woo) himself.
The next arch which is the current arch was the water tribe, where the country had been inflicted with drug dealer from Sei. There the party met with Lady li-li the daughter of General Anh Joon-Gi. In between the chaos of wanting to hunt for the person in charge of the drug dealer, Yona party had stumble upon Soo-Won, which happen to dusguise himself as li-li bodyguard. Yona and Zeno who happen to be in charge of the offshore have to share intelligence with Soon-Woo as her party defeating the Sei army in the ocean. Yona who had been targeted by the drug dealer had been saved by both zeno and Hak when the enemy tried to struck her with his blade. Hak was there to protect both Zeno and Yona (they haven't had a clue to what Zeno's true power yet) and the blade went through his arm. He then noticed the present of Son-woo and tried to struck him out of rage, but he was stopped by Jae-ha and Ki-ja. The scene was totally heartbreaking with how his childhood friend had eventually became his sworn enemy. Son-woo was seen stunned on his place seeing how easy Hak had struck out his guard including General Joo-Doh. Hak was then sustained by Yona as she tried to calm him down while the King making his exit. This scene revealed for the first time of what Son-woo is towrads Yona and Hak that had surprised the dragons. Ki-ja then swore that he would never intervene again in any of Hak and Son-woo confrotation.
I personally think that Son-woo probably had not expecting Hak to be all rampaging his anger on him, well probably. But he did mention that this new path will make the three of them separated with the both of them hating him in the end. In all honesty I had been hating Son-woo for the crime that he had commited, like seriously do you even need to kill a person? The answer might have been clear which was for the sake of revenge, but the act itself was wrong. Oh man, I couldn't dwell too much in Soo-won thoughts, but later when I learnt on how he had wanted to save Kouka from despaired (since how bad King II ruling had been), I've been having a second thoughts. But for Yona herself to be feeling the same things, it's kinda a bit of a bias. I mean she care far far too much for Soo-won since they are blood related and they had been his first crush (poor Hak), and bestfriend, but that doen't meant that she should accept the crime that had been commited by Soo-won. Well she probably not, but she was trying to understand Soo-won in some of the chapters.
Alright, continuing from the arch (oh man, why this summaries had been this long?), the group went out to the border of Earth tribe and happen to bump into a child of Sei. However, the dragons had develop somekind of a fever due to the fact that they were quite away from Hiryuu castle (which had been revealed by Ouryuu Zeno). The soldiers of Sei who had been defeated by King Soo-won and his generals, making a rampage through out the village, out of frustration and anger, which leaves Hak as the sole person to protect the nearing village. Hak later was assist by Kija, Shin-ha and Jae-ha, but they were outnumbered by the soldiers. Zeno then step forward and revealed his true power in front of the group which freak the hell out of them. This arch then continue with Zeno having a flashback during his time with King hiryuu and the original dragons predecessor. I find that King Hiryuu was a notable king, which might ressemble Yona in some ways. The four dragons assist King Hiryuu as a ruler of Kouka Kingdom, by resolving the conflict and war that had been taken place in Kouka. Hiryuu, after had been revealed by Zeno of the power he had obtained, defended Zeno in battles and always had been protecting him through out the battles that they had gone through. After many episodes of war the King died and the dragons went to their separates way since their power had attracted evils within the Kingdom. Zeno was left alone for thousand of years, while his brother died and had been reborn for countless of times. Well, I haven't disclose this info, but during Yona and Hak escapade from the soldiers, there was an arrow that had been struck to save the princess, and I do think it was from Zeno. This is due to the fact that Zeno knew the whereabout of Yona and his brothers, and I don't think that he will let Yona died in despairs (although Hak was there, but again I don't really know if Soo-won was going to kill her at the time).
The arch then move back to where the party visited the water tribe to purchase Zeno cloth (since it was shredded to pieces), but they accidentally meet with Li-Li attendance at the market. Honestly the encountered wasn't even that coincidentally, since they had wanted to meet them to assist the princess li-li who wanted to resolve the case of Sei and the drug dealer within the water tribe (which haven't yet to be fully resolved). During the investigation to solve the issues of kidnapping in the town, Yona and Li-li had been kidnapped themselve and was forced to built up a forte in order to assist Sei and inflirate the water tribe. The rest of Yona party who had noticed the dissapearance of the two princess then plotting a plan to track them by visiting both of the forte that were on construction. Hak, Shin-ha, Kija and Yoon had became a team where there subconciously stumble into Son-woo party who had been alerted by Lord Joon Ki about the dissapearance of Princess Li-li. Son-woo had asked for the assistance of the person he had stumble on the other side of the wall (which happen to be Hak). Hak knowing who the guy was (well I think Son-woo had pretending that he didn't knew Hak for the sake of the mission) agreed to go with the plan. The next day the team with general mun-deok, geun-teh, and joo-doh as the King assistant work together with Hak's team (with both party being oblivious aside from the King himself) to destroyed the forte. During the encountered Mun-deok (Hak grandfather) stumble upon Hak during the mission and had asked for his and the princess wherebout. Kija and Shin-ha on the other hand stumbled upon the King himself, while searching for Prince li-li assistant. Kija, having realized that it was Soo-Won, prepared for battle with Shin-ha assisting him. He remembered the grieving of Hak and the princess but his own body still rooting on the spot. He can't seem to move his limbs against Soo-won. The King then asked him of his dragon hand, and he revealed to Soo-Won that he and Shin-ha are the Houkuryuu and Seiryuu assisting King Hiryuu alongside with Rokuryuu and Ookuryuu. Soo-Won seems to be shocked upon the revealation which had been encountered by Ki-ja as their existence is to assists the true King Hiryuu to his throne that is no other than Yona. However, Son-woo was fast to deny that he haven't been aftering the throne (as if he realized that himself), and the dragon power isn't needed in this era but the people trust and power is far more greater than that. Oh well, after Ki-ja realized that Son-woo wasn't that of a bad guy, I kinda feel pity for Hak. I mean he was betrayed by Son-woo and he couldn't even kill that guy (well It's not that I'm hoping for Son-woo death or something). But, currently they were enemy, and If what Son-woo said was the truth (during the initial rampage of Hak, he had swear to Kill Hak the next time they encountered each other), I hope that the dragon will lend him a hand, although in all honesty I don't think that he will go that far as to kill Hak (I hope not).
For the romance of it, although Yona can't seems to forget about Son-woo, but she had started to notice hak existence. She said herself that Hak had become someone special to her, but I don't really know to what extent thats sentence could mean. She was a bit dense on that and for once I wanted she to end up with Hak, I mean for all the things that they had been through together, Hak deserved it. Well with that said, I think I end my thoughts here. The story itself still have a long way to go, since they haven't even discuss the problem of the Wind and the air tribe as well as Sei and Kai. I mean there will be a deeper development to that than what we had been feed until now. The mystery that had been circulating inside of Son-woo thoughts had yet to be revealed fully. Till then, ;)
I'm not into shojo that much (oh well, I'm more towards shounen ai), but hey that doesn't mean that I don't have any favourite when it comes to shojo anime. Infact, I have my own list to that, and it's suprisingly surpass the five (5) marking list. But when it comes to an adventure types of anime I find that there's no need for romance to be in it. Well that was just my two cent. Back to the main topic, the anime that I'm going to review is Akatsuki no yona (The girls who shine at dawn,Yona). Correct me if I'm wrong tho. At first glance this is somehow a mix of Arslan Senki (shounen ai ; hint) where the MC have been thrown off from their throne due to the issues of the previous King. It give off the same kind of similar vibe more or less, just the difference is that the MC is a girl.
The stories start off with Princess Yona preparing for her 16th birthday, and the introduction of her life generally, with her father King II, the current king who detest any weaponry and war. The Kingdom that they had been resides in named Kouka, where it had been rules by the five tribe; earth, wind, water, sky, and fire. Each of the tribe had been rule by a general, which make them as the five (5) general of Kouka, assisting the King. Yona is describe as a spoil princess since she's the only daughter of King II. Her mother had been murder in a kidnapping case and the King had been overprotective towards her eversince. She's a girl with red hair and average height, having a crush for her cousin, Soo-won. The wind tribe general Son-hak had been the childhood friends of Yona and Soo-won. The story progress until Yona witnessing the murderer of her father King II by her own crush Son-Woo. It's then revealed that Son-Woo was just proceeding with his revenge as the late King II had stabbed his own father, six years back. I find this information a bit shocking but netherless the reason hadn't been revealed and the act itself was just too redundant. For once, the late King II (Yona's father) didn't approve of having Soo-Won as his predecessor for some reason unknown although Yona had been firm with her decision of wanting to marry Son-woo. But netherless, the King decision might, or might not relates to him feeling guilty of murdering his own brother, or probably because he didn't want Son-woo just because of how unreliable that he saw Son-woo as.
Well, as for Son-woo he had been potrayed as a good nature boy, who had been besides Yona and hak through their childhood years. He play the innocent facade most of the time, hiding his true nature which I can decribe as his justice to prevent Kouka from falling in despair, his bravery for commiting the murderer and his intellectual in tackling the problem. Having witnesses the crime and the reasoning, Yona that had been thrown out of the castle where she had been protected by Hak. Hak, having sharing the same feeling as Yona, couldn't accept the fact that their bestfriend had killed the kind hearted KIng II. Both of them ran away from the castle to take refugee at Fuuga (the wind tribe village). There, they had made a decision to leave the village in search of the priest who will lead Yona path. The priest (Ik-soo) had live deep in the forest of Wind tribe with his assistant, Yoon. He then told Yona to find the four (4) legendary dragon, which going to help her through the journey. They were the descendant of the dragon god that had been bestowed the dragon blood to assist King Hiryuu (the red dragon who happen to be a human).
Hence, their journey begin with the new addition to their party, Yoon the bishounen boy (well, his look can rival to Yona imo). Their journey to seek the four legendary dragon started of with the finding of the white dragon (Kija), the dragon blood human with a hand of the dragon claw. Well, Kija is suprisingly adorably handsome, shy,well manners with an amazing strenght bestowed upon his right hand. Their next adventure was the pursuing of the Green Dragon (Shin-ha), who is more introvert and having too much conflict within him due to the previous predecessor of the Green Dragon. He had been bestowed with the great eyesight and had been label as a monster within the village due to the super natural power that he had gain. His eyes, for once can freeze upon his opponent, but the act itself can backlash to him as the power itself will reflect of what had been face by his opponent.
The legendary dragon is said will be born naturally by a female human once the predecessor nearing his time limit. The new born human-dragon then will absorb the predecessor power until they became an ordinary human being and died. It's like a harsh cruel fact but yet they were actually born to serve King Hiryuu sucessor. They had been waiting for thousand of years to fullfill their roles, but none were lucky enough to meet the next sucessor. Their next journey to Awa, a small port town near the bordering country of Kai, where they have to solve the human traficking and drugs problem which had lead the town to ruin. Their party then ecounter the green dragon Jae-ha (the dragon with the ability to jump incredibly high in the sky with his right dragon leg). Yona had made her mind to help Awa, and defeated the ruler of the kingdom in order to save the people of Awa. She then joined forces with the pirates crew of Jae-ha and his captain Gi-Gan to defeat the human traficking and to bring down the ruler of Awa. She manged to shot down the leader which had mark their successful mission. During their celebration in Awa, Yona for the first time ecounter Soo-Won who happen to be there to scout the area of Awa. Yona had wanted to escape from Soo-Won, due to her rage, but had been stop short by Soo-Won because of his company arrival, Lord Joo-Doh (the air tribe). Soo-won revealed that he feel happy knowing that Yona is save, although Yona was trying to reach for his sword (to hurt him) when he was hiding beneath Soo-won cloak.
Later, the party continue their journey where Zeno (the yellow dragon with immortality) joined the party. Zeno was the first descendant of the legendary dragon, where he had stop aging and maintain to be a 17 old years boy. His body can regerated and heal fast from any small and severe wounds. If severe wound had been inflicted, his body will change into a dragon scale. Zeno had asked Yona what of her purposed in gathering the four dragon, which she relied was to change how the current Kouka is. She had realized although her father had detest war and weaponary, but his ruling had bring the worst of Kouka (this is from her visit to the fire tribe). The poverty had been worst in most of the village due to the higher tax demand, and the drought that prevent them to harvest any crop. She then begin to change her mind set and estabalish a 'bandit and hungry crew' in order to sustain the village. She manage to obtain a good seed from Kai for the people of the fire tribe village with the help of her party and (Yoon), which later shock the present king (Son-woo) himself.
The next arch which is the current arch was the water tribe, where the country had been inflicted with drug dealer from Sei. There the party met with Lady li-li the daughter of General Anh Joon-Gi. In between the chaos of wanting to hunt for the person in charge of the drug dealer, Yona party had stumble upon Soo-Won, which happen to dusguise himself as li-li bodyguard. Yona and Zeno who happen to be in charge of the offshore have to share intelligence with Soon-Woo as her party defeating the Sei army in the ocean. Yona who had been targeted by the drug dealer had been saved by both zeno and Hak when the enemy tried to struck her with his blade. Hak was there to protect both Zeno and Yona (they haven't had a clue to what Zeno's true power yet) and the blade went through his arm. He then noticed the present of Son-woo and tried to struck him out of rage, but he was stopped by Jae-ha and Ki-ja. The scene was totally heartbreaking with how his childhood friend had eventually became his sworn enemy. Son-woo was seen stunned on his place seeing how easy Hak had struck out his guard including General Joo-Doh. Hak was then sustained by Yona as she tried to calm him down while the King making his exit. This scene revealed for the first time of what Son-woo is towrads Yona and Hak that had surprised the dragons. Ki-ja then swore that he would never intervene again in any of Hak and Son-woo confrotation.
I personally think that Son-woo probably had not expecting Hak to be all rampaging his anger on him, well probably. But he did mention that this new path will make the three of them separated with the both of them hating him in the end. In all honesty I had been hating Son-woo for the crime that he had commited, like seriously do you even need to kill a person? The answer might have been clear which was for the sake of revenge, but the act itself was wrong. Oh man, I couldn't dwell too much in Soo-won thoughts, but later when I learnt on how he had wanted to save Kouka from despaired (since how bad King II ruling had been), I've been having a second thoughts. But for Yona herself to be feeling the same things, it's kinda a bit of a bias. I mean she care far far too much for Soo-won since they are blood related and they had been his first crush (poor Hak), and bestfriend, but that doen't meant that she should accept the crime that had been commited by Soo-won. Well she probably not, but she was trying to understand Soo-won in some of the chapters.
Alright, continuing from the arch (oh man, why this summaries had been this long?), the group went out to the border of Earth tribe and happen to bump into a child of Sei. However, the dragons had develop somekind of a fever due to the fact that they were quite away from Hiryuu castle (which had been revealed by Ouryuu Zeno). The soldiers of Sei who had been defeated by King Soo-won and his generals, making a rampage through out the village, out of frustration and anger, which leaves Hak as the sole person to protect the nearing village. Hak later was assist by Kija, Shin-ha and Jae-ha, but they were outnumbered by the soldiers. Zeno then step forward and revealed his true power in front of the group which freak the hell out of them. This arch then continue with Zeno having a flashback during his time with King hiryuu and the original dragons predecessor. I find that King Hiryuu was a notable king, which might ressemble Yona in some ways. The four dragons assist King Hiryuu as a ruler of Kouka Kingdom, by resolving the conflict and war that had been taken place in Kouka. Hiryuu, after had been revealed by Zeno of the power he had obtained, defended Zeno in battles and always had been protecting him through out the battles that they had gone through. After many episodes of war the King died and the dragons went to their separates way since their power had attracted evils within the Kingdom. Zeno was left alone for thousand of years, while his brother died and had been reborn for countless of times. Well, I haven't disclose this info, but during Yona and Hak escapade from the soldiers, there was an arrow that had been struck to save the princess, and I do think it was from Zeno. This is due to the fact that Zeno knew the whereabout of Yona and his brothers, and I don't think that he will let Yona died in despairs (although Hak was there, but again I don't really know if Soo-won was going to kill her at the time).
The arch then move back to where the party visited the water tribe to purchase Zeno cloth (since it was shredded to pieces), but they accidentally meet with Li-Li attendance at the market. Honestly the encountered wasn't even that coincidentally, since they had wanted to meet them to assist the princess li-li who wanted to resolve the case of Sei and the drug dealer within the water tribe (which haven't yet to be fully resolved). During the investigation to solve the issues of kidnapping in the town, Yona and Li-li had been kidnapped themselve and was forced to built up a forte in order to assist Sei and inflirate the water tribe. The rest of Yona party who had noticed the dissapearance of the two princess then plotting a plan to track them by visiting both of the forte that were on construction. Hak, Shin-ha, Kija and Yoon had became a team where there subconciously stumble into Son-woo party who had been alerted by Lord Joon Ki about the dissapearance of Princess Li-li. Son-woo had asked for the assistance of the person he had stumble on the other side of the wall (which happen to be Hak). Hak knowing who the guy was (well I think Son-woo had pretending that he didn't knew Hak for the sake of the mission) agreed to go with the plan. The next day the team with general mun-deok, geun-teh, and joo-doh as the King assistant work together with Hak's team (with both party being oblivious aside from the King himself) to destroyed the forte. During the encountered Mun-deok (Hak grandfather) stumble upon Hak during the mission and had asked for his and the princess wherebout. Kija and Shin-ha on the other hand stumbled upon the King himself, while searching for Prince li-li assistant. Kija, having realized that it was Soo-Won, prepared for battle with Shin-ha assisting him. He remembered the grieving of Hak and the princess but his own body still rooting on the spot. He can't seem to move his limbs against Soo-won. The King then asked him of his dragon hand, and he revealed to Soo-Won that he and Shin-ha are the Houkuryuu and Seiryuu assisting King Hiryuu alongside with Rokuryuu and Ookuryuu. Soo-Won seems to be shocked upon the revealation which had been encountered by Ki-ja as their existence is to assists the true King Hiryuu to his throne that is no other than Yona. However, Son-woo was fast to deny that he haven't been aftering the throne (as if he realized that himself), and the dragon power isn't needed in this era but the people trust and power is far more greater than that. Oh well, after Ki-ja realized that Son-woo wasn't that of a bad guy, I kinda feel pity for Hak. I mean he was betrayed by Son-woo and he couldn't even kill that guy (well It's not that I'm hoping for Son-woo death or something). But, currently they were enemy, and If what Son-woo said was the truth (during the initial rampage of Hak, he had swear to Kill Hak the next time they encountered each other), I hope that the dragon will lend him a hand, although in all honesty I don't think that he will go that far as to kill Hak (I hope not).
For the romance of it, although Yona can't seems to forget about Son-woo, but she had started to notice hak existence. She said herself that Hak had become someone special to her, but I don't really know to what extent thats sentence could mean. She was a bit dense on that and for once I wanted she to end up with Hak, I mean for all the things that they had been through together, Hak deserved it. Well with that said, I think I end my thoughts here. The story itself still have a long way to go, since they haven't even discuss the problem of the Wind and the air tribe as well as Sei and Kai. I mean there will be a deeper development to that than what we had been feed until now. The mystery that had been circulating inside of Son-woo thoughts had yet to be revealed fully. Till then, ;)