Reviewing an anime as a whole? I'm so excited!
Akatsuki no Yona (Yona of the Dawn)Genre: Fantasy, Romance, Adventure
Seasons: 1
OVA: 3
Watched in Sub or Dub?: Both
Why am I reviewing this anime first?
Simple really... it's my favorite anime
The tutorial (I mean ratings):
Story: 8/10
Animation: 9.5/10
Characters: 9/10
Music: 9/10
Overall: 9/10
As much as I would like to give this anime a 100%, it's be pretty difficult to learn anything if I didn't cover the good and the bad.
First part of the lesson please... The music, it's beautiful to listen to, and while it adds to the story in nice ways, it's not overbearing and instead adds to the emotional appeal that this anime has. The opening is personally better than the ending music, but both are pretty, and comparing to other's from different anime's, they are just right for the tone.
Moving on...
The story itself starts off kind of slow, and I assumed that it would be purely made of cliches and the like, but as the story unfolds and gives hints, I found myself more and more intrigued. The story has a nice blend of humor that breaks up the seriousness of the main situation without totally destroying built-up tension. I won't spoil the story, but since I've read the manga (and the upcoming chapters as well), I am aware that should they make a season 2, it can only make the story that much better.
Next point...
The animation is simply beautiful in this anime. The fight scenes are all superb, and the vibrant colors and dark colors they use to contrast one another is very clever. The animation really has no flaws, and the character design very closely resembles the manga, in a good way.
Now, my favorite section...
The characters: what can I say? I loved them all. Hak and Yona are both amazing characters, who have goals and feelings and shortcomings that make them so human and amazing at the same time. Yona isn't completely helpless, and while she doesn't magically become the toughest person in the group, she utilizes the strengths and skills that she does have, and develops more along the way. She learns, and then uses what she learned to better herself, and others. Anime does have a lot of interesting female characters, but some anime also have female characters that are useless, and never serve a purpose until the last episode, so I found and find Yona to be a refreshing character.
Hak, who is the main male character in this story, is also fairly unique in my opinion. Yes, he is super strong and can seem too strong at times, but it's consistent, and he doesn't magically get stronger than was shown previously. I like that he's not the stoic strong character, who's only purpose is to be Yona's bodyguard. Instead he has emotions, and he's smart, but is also funny. He's a three-dimensional character, just as Yona and the other main cast.
I'm not going to cover all of the characters in depth, but I'll give my general opinion for rest of the group. The dragon element to Yona's other companions is really intriguing and lends some interesting character arcs that are individual to each one, and although Yoon is not one of the warriors, he contributes in his own way, and I like that the other characters don't pressure him to be big and tough, but instead he goes through doubts himself and comes to his own conclusions about how he can contribute. The only negative I'd have for the anime is the underdevelopment of Soo-won, who appears to be the main antagonist, but ends up not really getting much airtime on the why he (spoiler for first episode) killed Yona's Father and wanted to kill her and ascend the throne.
Side tutorial: The harem... doesn't really make that much sense to me as a tag, considering other harem anime I've seen, other than it being a little weird that Yona has a group a males following her around, it doesn't really do much as a "harem" anime.
Overall, this anime can be a bit slow at times, but the action, characters, and animation more than make up for it's shortcomings. If it wasn't obvious, I highly recommend this anime for anybody interested in an amazing anime.
Hope you found this review helpful, but if not, let me know what I can add or take away that would make it helpful. 🙈
I'd also love to hear what you think of this anime (or manga), and if you have any recommendations for other anime.
Question: Who is your favorite character?
Do you prefer sub or dub?
My answers: I love Shin-ah, and the subtitled version
No comments:
Post a Comment