This isn't your typical shoujo, regardless of what other commentators would have you believe. There are going to be differing tastes when it comes to mixing genre's, in fact it's rarely done well. In the case of Akatsuki no Yona (AnY), it's succeeded in almost every way.

Let's start with the characters since they have been accused of being shoujo cut-outs. I couldn't disagree more, the characters are unique and very strong in their personalities. I consider bad character writing to be where a personality breaks its mold or tries to be everything to everyone. You see this in alot of shounen manga/anime, but in AnY, the characters are all very much different and fill their roles very well. What makes the characters especially good here, is that they all have solid and personal motivations that are believable. Almost every character wants something different even if they're paths align. The characters are also written almost morally ambiguous; in other words, there are no black and white, good and evil characters. This is far closer to reality. What one person considers evil, is often justified through subtle writing, whether you agree with their justifications or not. This is obvious with Su-won and Yona, I personally hate Su-Won but the dynamic between those two characters is refreshing. Su-won isn't a caricature written as a place holder of the evil bad guy. He has is own beliefs and ideals, even if they clash with the main character. That builds enormous tension and plays off the strength of the differing personalities. It creates so many dynamics between Hak, Su-Won and Yona and gives the story even more depth.

I would say, without a doubt, the character writing is this manga's strongest point and what makes it interesting. Even if this had a weak story / plot, the characters could pull it through. Fortunately, the story and setting are very interesting even if its been done before. If you were to criticize anything, it would have to be story. It's simplistic and relatively straight forward on one hand, and yet it's propped up by the interesting political schemes and world building the author juggles. It never really jumps in too deep, but it also doesn't resort to deus-ex-machina machinations either. This keeps it light and allows the reader to grasp the deep subtleties that are around every corner.

The reason this works is down to the pacing. So far the story hasn't stagnated at all, but moved briskly through the story while retaining alot of the mystery and intrigue that hooked you at volume 1. The best writers know how to keep you engaged through mystery by giving you what you want at the right moments, and AnY is no exception. What i dislike, probably the most, out of stories is seeing the end of a goalpost and being hand-fed clues to how it all ends. I have no idea how the author will resolve the most interesting bits of this story, and that is a good thing. The only draw back to this approach is that when building it up so much the resolution can often times not meet your expectations. So far though it has blown away my expectations and so i have high hopes for all the story weaving that this tapestry offers.

I don't want to pretend that AnY is a masterpiece of literature, but for me the most important element of manga is enjoyment. I've seen and read hundreds of anime/manga and its rare to come across something like AnY that keeps alot of the good elements of manga genre's and twists / plays with them in different and exciting ways. Not everyone is going to like a certain manga, and some people will absolutely not like the large combination of genre's that this offers, but when it's done right I think it transcends even manga that are masterpieces in their respective genres. Shoujo is definitely not my style, but it's appeal is reaches far beyond that. This is simply a good, fun read. And I hope you give it a chance because it has something for everyone.

I honestly don't like him. Throughout the story there are implications that the old king was a good person, but a bad ruler and that he's somewhat justified, but there is no evidence of him trying to end corruption or any of the problems yona & crew face. He's just a tyrant, which isn't bad in and of itself, but he's presented without flaws and I feel like things just go his way because they do. After the chapters he's in Yona reflects on what happened before and grows a little as a character, so just skip ahead and you wont miss much. Otherwise I like the manga.

I read over 40 chapters and ended up skimming to the latest scanlation (ch 72). I hoped to like this one, but the characters are all predictable after a couple chapters of knowing them. I know many shoujo fans love this, however, as someone who has read a lot of shoujo in the past and was looking for something refreshing from the cliches, seeing all the typical shoujo/harem scenes so often in this series is just disappointing imo (ex: the guys all attracted to Yona somehow, and it's lightly implied romantically at some point; while the bantering is funny, there's very little serious relationship building between the main male protags that doesn't involve Yona. Only Yona's relationship with each guy is focused; etc). I had hoped that by 'harem' it only meant 'one girl surrounded by males' without the 'everyone falling for that girl' implication and sticking with primarily friendship, seeing how the story started off surprisingly dark and ratings are high, but I had apparently expected too much.

... Last updated on March 12th, 2015, 10:25am

Now that the anime has proceeded into the storyline enough let me just say as avid reader of shoujo manga this is a must read. I was literally praying that Jae-ha's voice be Junichi Suwabe and it is and it's freakin amazing, anime/manga both are great and any true shoujo lover this is a must read/see!

This one is so worth the read. Some may be put off initially by the spoiled naive princess from the beginning and her silly crush on her cousin Soo-Won (I was), but really, that's just the start of it. She won't be your weak, helpless damsel in distress heroine for long, which is probably why the anime showed a good size glimpse of the stronger future Yona with all her kick-butt traveling companions.

Which brings me to why I REALLY love this manga. It's fantasy elements, fights, and political intrigue are great, yes, but it's really the characters and character development that make this manga. There's not one static, boring character. Yona herself, who I thought would be annoying, is genuinely determined to be stronger after the tragedy of what her bishie cousin did to her father and tried to do to her and her close friend bodyguard Hak. Instead of being flung about and pulled along by the story as a victim she is the one that purposely progresses it once she finds her determination and purpose. Hak, who easily could have been just a suave clone of every hero bodyguard in every other manga out there, is hilarious, and while he does present a romantic interest, that isn't the only reason he's there. He's a beast of a fighter, a sarcastic troll when he wants to be, and has every bit as much complexity as any other character, as well as his own motivations for fighting and mixed feelings toward his former friend Soo-Won.

And actually, Soo-won himself is not as simple to figure out as one would initially think. Yes, he wants to be king and that's why he killed Yona's kind father but his motivations and plans for the kingdom or even Yona herself are even now not so entirely simple or clear. I won't spoil too much regarding him, but he's definitely an interesting enigma even to his own generals who don't all know what he did.

And then there's Yoon and the dragons. Again, I won't spoil too much for those who haven't read it yet, but they are all such fun, varied personalities (and some with heart-wrenching backstories) that when you put them together one by one and have them play off each other (and especially Hak) it's fun beyond measure. I also like that although it is a bit of a reverse harem, they're not all falling over each other to flirt with Yona. Their feelings toward her are all different and while some attempt to flirt (jokingly or otherwise) it's not the main focus of the story or only intended for fanservice to the girls. Again, the characters are what really make this good.

And the anime? One of my favorite anime adaptations. The animation and music is good, the plot stays true and all the hilarity is intact. Even after reading all the manga up to date, it's still one that I look forward to watching every week. And next week, the chubby obligatory cute animal squirrel makes an appearance. Horray!

The story may seem uninteresting (the characters might even seem typical or cliche), but it gets more interesting as the story develops. There's a lot of character development, and interesting characters are also added as the story goes on.
The story does have its bad/boring moments, of course.
The MC may seem like a weak female lead (at first), but give the story time.

... Last updated on November 29th, 2014, 6:32pm

Dramatic, funny, action packed, heartbreaking, etc etc etc. This manga packs feels like crazy, and it also has one of my favorite female heroes in manga. She starts out pretty soft, yeah, but of course she does given that she's a coddled princess. She catches up super fast, though, and does so impressively. She recognizes her faults physically and intellectually, and works hard to fix them ("I need to become strong" ... "I don't want to continue being an idiot") and DOES fix them.

Reverse harems can be difficult in that even strong women might become more damsel than hero, but Yona isn't really falling into that category. She is continually becoming closer to being an equal member in their team, which is made up of (basically) dragons and people-more-awesome-than-dragons. Is she perfect? No. But she isn't sold as perfect and she doesn't insist that she is. She just wants to be (and works hard to be) a good person and do good in her country, a desire that's even allowing her to heal from her initial grief.

(Also: This manga isn't harmed by having some extremely appealing males. Yona's got an A+ harem. Shin-ah and Ao are the cutest pair in the whole of manga. Barring some future work of perfection, I will standby that statement for forever.)

i'm now in chapter 41 and thing starting to become exited <3
i love yona she treys her best to move on in her life and become stronger she's not some weak cry baby heroin like other shoujo !! and HAK <3 i love him , so far my favorite :3 and i want yona to love him ^^ ohh and i also hope she doesnt forgive her cousin (crush) for killing her father -_- and hope she ends up with Hak too <3

... Last updated on October 8th, 2014, 2:34am

It was really boring at first with the first few chapters but it gets a lot better after Yona's hair cut. The pace picks up considerably around that time. I like the characters but I'm not a big fan of the plot, which I'm still not entirely sure what it is. It seems as if the direction to this is messy and undetermined. The romance isn't advancing much atm but I'm only basing this off scanlations. I'm not a big fan of trying to portray Soo-Won as a sympathetic villain, I think his character overall is confusing :/

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I haven’t read this in years, and I recently picked it back up, original statement stays in that the first few chapters is kinda slow the romance being even slower was kicker but once it got to the water tribe arc the plot felt a lot more faster and more developed. Maybe it’s cuz this is after years of not reading it and me being younger back then but I’m enjoying this a lot more now

... Last updated on March 2nd, 2021, 2:59pm

Not much of good political, war, "intelligent plot". However, it's a nice a adventurey-fantasy story. Art is simple and not really my cup of tea, but it's pretty. My only peeve about the story is that Yona's 'amazing' courage seems to be highly exaggerated. She does change but her being 'useful' is still something of an overstatement. Her 'fiery glares' do indeed show impressive courage but they don't actually do anything.

I think everyone deems her change too highly.

... Last updated on February 24th, 2014, 5:00pm