I know when I usually say, “This will be a shorter post,” it’s not, but I actually expect that to be true this time. As enjoyable as this episode was to watch, there wasn’t really that much going on, as most of the stuff with depth involved Ki-ja and simply expanded on the issues he has managing external expectations of his destiny and his internal desires to be useful to Yona. His dragon nature and his status as the hope of the White Dragon village both influence the ways he thinks about Yona and his role by her side. I’ll try and unpack his particular emotions from this episode a little more, but if you really want to see what I believe the core of Ki-ja’s character is built on, I encourage you to read my post from last week.

Continue reading →

What do you know? This is my 200th post on the blog! That’s a whole lot of writing, and it’s thanks to all you readers that I keep finding the inspiration to do what I’m doing. So thank you!

“Anticipation” was really the perfect title for this episode, as it was all about Ki-ja, the White Dragon, and his dissatisfaction at having divine power and not being able to use it. At least for me, the set-up was strong enough that I felt pretty darn relieved for him by the time he finally saw Yona and the blood of the dragon responded. Also nice to see that at least someone is capable of getting under Hak’s skin a little bit. But, overall, it wasn’t a very serious episode—just a lot of pleasant watching. I’m guessing this will be a shorter post because the comedy really did take the lead for most of this episode, which, while amusing to watch, doesn’t really leave me much to write about. LOL.

Continue reading →

I am so fortunate to be watching and writing about this show.  It is truly one of the highlights of the season for me at this point: deftly written, funny in its funny moments, and incredibly effective in its serious ones. I was thinking earlier this week that Akatsuki no Yona was probably my pet show for the season, but no. That’s not right. It’s just one of the best shows I’m watching.

Continue reading →

Well, that was maybe a little more of Yun’s backstory than we needed—but it did a really fine job of setting up a few more contrasts and bringing back the theism-atheism theme that seems like it’s going to be a fundamental part of the show going forward. And man, Yona‘s just so dang good at working the dualisms that we humans live with every day. God or no God? Selflessness or selfishness?

Continue reading →

We traded out sakuga for great character work and one heckuva a fascinating conflict this week, and I’m totally okay with that.

Continue reading →

I like writing about good episodes, and this episode of Akatsuki no Yona was a very good episode indeed. From the beginning of the show, I’ve felt Yona had the potential to take a recognizable story form and mold it into something more compelling than a reverse harem set in a fantasy world, and this episode stood on the shoulders of the episode before to start to make that suspicion a reality. That’s not to say that Yona has shed all its flaws, or that the anime has turned into a deeply impactful piece, but being on that path is about all we can ask from the show at this point.

We ended last episode with Hak poisoned and Yona’s eyes burning with more spirit than she’s had all season—this episode both got them out of that particular bind and allowed Yona to regress a little, a natural and (I think) important decay for her character.

Continue reading →