Let’s not speak ill of the dead…

Happy Friday! I’m still going on my series of the Yona of the Dawn/ Akatsuki No Yona characters. I’m going to take a quick break from the dragons since the last dragons story is mostly in the manga and talk about Yona’s Father and save the last dragon for later :).

One thing I love about this anime is that things are not always as they seem. Yona’s father is seen (through Yona’s eyes) as an emperor who brought peace to the land. Most of the time you would think that is a good thing. The further you delve into what happened the more secrets are revealed.

Yona knows nothing of what is going on in the kingdom and her father even refuses for her to ever hold a weapon. He hates violence and we aren’t really given a reason why at the beginning of the anime. He is someone who can come across as somewhat silly, but he impressed the immovable Hak by stopping a sword with his bare hand. So in Hak’s mind there is more to the emperor than meets the eye. With that action he wins Hak’s loyalty which isn’t a small matter and that turns things in the end for Yona.

The Emperor gives into Yona in most situations. But when it comes to anything dangerous and her marrying Soo-Won that is when he puts his foot down and says no. This is shocking to a girl who is used to getting what she wants.

After his death and Yona is forced outside the palace she starts to see the state of the country. The peace wasn’t all that the emperor said it was. The tribes were in turmoil. Land was given away as bribes. People were going hungry. The fire tribe was out of control (this rings a bit like avatar, no?).

This forces Yona to see that maybe her father wasn’t a good ruler. She struggles to hold the good memories of him when seeing what a disaster the kingdom is in. One thing I really like about this is that we always want peace but you still need to be a strong ruler to uphold it.

Even though her father had his weak points, this in turn helps Yona see what makes a good ruler and it gives more sides to the character, Soo-Won… But more on him later ;).

If you are curious about my earlier entries about Yona please give them a look:

Yona

Blue Dragon

White Dragon

Green Dragon

 

Happy watching!

 

 

 

I will take my freedom

Happy Friday and welcome to another blog post going through characters from one of my favorite anime/manga Yona of the Dawn aka Akatsuki No Yona. I guess I’m going through all the dragons first haha! They are great characters and so unique which can be very rare for reverse harem anime.

So the honor this week goes to the green dragon Jae-Ha the self claimed heartthrob…

I’ve mentioned this before but all the dragons have different feelings about the powers they are born with and Jae-Ha is no different. He looks at his ability (which is in his leg) as a jail sentence. Something that he didn’t choice but was force upon him. It also could have something to do with the fact that his village kept him chained up since he kept trying to run away. So it is no wonder that when he senses the dragons and Yona that he doesn’t want anything to do with them.

His power gives him great jumping abilities and strength in his leg, but it is also ugly to him so he keeps it covered. He is very obsesses with beauty and loves women. One of the best parts is that he tries to get Hak to join in on womanizing.

He and Hak also have an interesting relationship. Jae-Ha sees how Hak and Yona are around each other and loves to give them no end of grief and teasing about how they feel. Sometimes he can push Hak too far with his flirtations with Yona and his teasing.

One thing that keeps him around is that he wants Hak to join his crew on the ship since he admires Hak’s fighting skills.

He also wants to protect his found family that he made and the more fighters that he can get to join the safer they all will be. Not only does he have strength in his leg he also has great skills with throwing knives. Something that he picked up with his time on the ship.

I admire his desire for freedom. He does spend his childhood chained down and just sees Yona as another chain. Jae-Ha wants to make his own choices with his life. Once he sees what Yona stands for he decides to join for a “little bit” to see what happens. I think part of the reason is so he can tease Hak about liking Yona…

An odd member for sure, but I think he fits in well with this motley assortment of characters. One thing is that I don’t think he would have joined if he would have meet Yona in her early stages.

One thing that this anime does well is that Yona slowly learns how to fight and become braver. This is towards the end of the anime where she can show off her skills and her bravery. I think Jae-Ha seeing her willing to risk herself for others was a great factor in him deciding to travel with them. She isn’t weak, and he needs to follow a strong leader that won’t enslave him.

He cares and protects others and now he finds two families to be with. Another great character.

Thank you for reading another post about Yona of the Dawn, if you are curious about my other character posts please check them out!

White Dragon

Blue Dragon

Yona

As always Happy Watching!

Responsibility – Duty – Honor

Happy Friday! I’m excited to make my third entry in my series about the characters in Yona of the Dawn/Akatsuki No Yona.

Yona

Blue Dragon

This post will be about the first dragon who joined Yona:  The White Dragon- Kija.

I have to confess I thought that his story and character would be the easiest to tell, but looking deeper into the character I found myself in awe once again at the intricate details of these dragons.

I want to mention that they all feel the burden of their responsibility to be loyal and fight for the Red Dragon (which is Yona, not really a spoiler, but you kind of figure it out from the intro and Yona having red hair). They were born into this role. The dragons never got to chose to have these powers and were chosen at random. In the Blue Dragons case the village tried to not let the former blue dragon -for lack of a better term- breed, but they blue dragon was still born to a random family. The white dragons village was a bit more… Well… Cult like…

They revered the white dragon and made sure that the line continued. I wanted to say that Kija’s childhood was a bit happier than the Blue Dragons, but in the beginning you get the shot of his back…

This was explained further in the manga…

I again already mentioned in the last entry that the old dragon loses their life and power, but where as Ao the former blue dragon saw his death as freedom in the white dragons case it was a sense of not fulfilling your purpose in life. In the white dragons village they were born to do only one thing and one thing only so they lived their whole life waiting for the Red Dragon who never appeared. Talk about a recipe for severe depression.

Kija is very dedicated to fulfill his duty and seems to have no regrets on the outside. This is all he knows. He was sheltered in the same way that Yona was sheltered from the outside world. Raised to give his life for someone he never met, he rises to the challenge and really does give up himself.

I also see his joining with Yona as a sense of freedom to see the world and feel like he has a purpose in his life. It is saddening to think of all the other white dragons who felt like failures and useless. Can you imagine questioning your very existence?

With his powerful arm he protects Yona, and she in turn protects him too. The fun thing about the white dragon is that he has a very funny personality. It is a mixture of a fanatic with someone who has never gotten down and dirty in nature. He tends to fight too hard when they have their first confrontations and his stamina isn’t great and he passes out after many battles. He doesn’t know how to hold back.

The repertoire between him and Hak is pure gold. Kija is consistently jealous of Hak’s relationship with Yona and Hak loves to tease Kija. His favorite nic name is White Snake. Hak doesn’t understand why Yona wants to gather these dragons, but she is doing it to protect him… More on that later ;).

Since Kija was raised with people who showed him respect he actually knows a bit more about the other dragons and helps Yona find them. Apparently all the dragons can sense each other and that is what first leads them to find the Blue Dragon.

Kija says goodbye to the woman who raised him. Another tear worthy moment in this anime.

The dragons never have an easy past, but they all find a family together with Yona. She doesn’t force them to join, and wants them to find their own happiness. The burden like I said is great, but in the end the White Dragon finds meaning in his life and doesn’t get stuck in the endless cycle of waiting.

If my former entries haven’t convinced you yet to watch this anime I hope you give it a chance. Until then Happy Watching!

The warmth in silence

Last week I wrote a post about one of my favorite women characters in anime, Yona. After writing that post I decided to do a series (hopefully every Friday) and look at each of the characters in the anime Akatsuki No Yona aka Yona of the Dawn. One reason that I believe that this anime is so good is that all the characters are unique and you love them for different reasons. I’m going to start off with my favorite dragon, Shin-ah.

In Yona’s journey for protection she is traveling across her country to find the legendary humans who were given certain strengths by dragons. It is their duty to protect her, but she doesn’t want to force this on anyone. She merely wants to ask.

Later in the series they are searching for the Blue Dragon and come across a strange village that has moved into the mountains. They seem to be afraid and they claim to not know anything about the Blue Dragon. So they stay the night and Yona gets separated and lost in the caves and is saved by the Blue Dragon.

She feels a connection to him and notices that his hands are warm. While everyone fears him she trusts him call it a 6th sense I guess :).

Now, this is the backstory that will make me cry every single time I watch. From a young age The Blue Dragon must wear a mask to protect others from his power. He can not only see far, but kill people with his gaze. So he lives isolation with the former Blue Dragon until he grows up and his powers get stronger. Here is the kicker, the stronger he gets the weaker the Former Blue Dragon, Ao, gets.

Ao is already bitter about being an outcast and takes his anger out on the new Blue Dragon. He teaches him to fight and tells him to never take of the mask and never talk to anyone or go near anyone. At first watching you tend to hate this man who is treating this young child so harshly. In the end you see that he is preparing him for the world of loneliness, it isn’t the best way mind you, but Ao cares for him in his own way.

Gradually Ao loses his eye sight and there is a moment where the new blue dragon puts on bells so Ao can find him. It is a sweet moment of a young child finally getting some affirmation from the man he admires, then Ao loses the last of his powers and dies. Leaving the new blue dragon complete alone. Not well versed in the sword yet the Blue Dragon stops a group of invaders using his powers.

He saves his village, but now the village fears retaliation and they move to the mountains.

The Blue Dragon child lives alone, in the dark, protecting those who hate him.

Yona finds him and in my mind it is a rescue from the people he is protecting. The moment he goes with her and leaves the bells behind that he found with Ao behind is a sweet moment of him getting a chance to live and be loved.

He always stays a quiet member of the group, but he finds his own place and way. There are some very cute and fun moments with him and his pet squirrel (he named Ao after his mentor).

 

However, the most touching moment is when he finally gets to sit in the moonlight and Yona gives him a name (since no one ever bothered to) and calls him Shin-ah which means moonlight.

This portion of the anime and story are some of the best moments in my opinion. It is a well crafted backstory and the character is strong and unique. It is filled with tragedy and hope.

That is what makes the Blue Dragon one of my favorite characters in the story and I hope you come to love him too!

 

I hope you all have a good weekend and Happy watching!

Growing up – Fighting Back- A Badass Woman

This is a post that I’ve been thinking about all month. A post in honor of National Women’s month. I wanted to focus on a character that was not only a strong woman but had an amazing story. The character Yona from one of my favorite anime kept coming back into my mind and I’ve been wanting to write about this anime for awhile, but I think I will need to give each character their own post and since it is National Women’s Month I will do my best to honor a great character.

Yona is very much the typical spoiled princess who needs others to look after her. She is sheltered and has no idea what is going on in her own country that she will someday help rule. All that is on her mind is clothes and her friend Soo-Won who she is in love with and wants to marry someday.

In her small world she is happy and can throw spoiled fits when her father tells her she can’t marry Soo-Won. Although later that night after her birthday she walks in and see the body of her father he has been murdered.

In the start she is very much helpless if it wasn’t for her bodyguard Hak she would have died that night along with her father. She couldn’t move she couldn’t function she was only raised to be pretty.

Time to cut the hair.

In the first part of the story she sees herself as a burden to her protector Hak and he is constantly having to save her getting arrows in his back and nearly die it was at the point where those who were trying to capture her grabbed ahold of her beautiful long hair- the hair that her love Soo-Won said was the color of the sunset.

This is were we see the first signs of the fierce women within Yona. The one that is ready to battle to save the ones she loves. So in a swift motion she cuts her hair to free herself not only from those who are trying to capture her, but from her own childish ways of being a princess.

This is her turning point.

Now she is on a quest to find the four dragons to not save herself but to protect her dear friend (in her eyes) Hak. She doesn’t want Hak to die from always saving her so she figures if she has these dragons they will be able to stay alive.

 

I will save the awesome backstories of each dragon for another post. They are so good and well done. This is not your typical reverse harem. Yes, she is surrounded by hot guys, but she is learning to fight and learning to be come a leader in her own right. As much as they try to protect her she learns to fight and protect herself so in my mind that makes her one badass woman.

She goes and sees her country and helps those in need. Standing for the downtrodden becoming a true leader.

My favorite moment in the anime… Gives me chills every time

Yona is a great example of someone who steps out of the path they were given and sees that she has to make a change. It happens slowly over the course of the anime, but it is worth it seeing her journey.

 

In this month I hope you have had a chance to see some of the amazing tributes to women. If you haven’t check out some post by Ignitedmoth there are some drawings an tributes to women in history.

Have a great weekend and go thank a strong powerful woman that is in your life.

Happy watching!