Yona of the Dawn

This anime has become my new love affair.

The first two episodes blew me away with all the drama. I was sucked into the story right away. Yona is the princess of her kingdom who has her entire life drastically changed in one night. Her father is murdered by the one person she has always held a candle for. With the help of Hak, her friend and protector, she manages to escape the castle.

Yona's story operates on several levels. There is the part about her being the reincarnation of a dragon king and needing to find the four humans who possess dragon powers to help her fight. There is also Yona's journey of growth as a person. As she travels her kingdom, she has to keep her identity a secret. While doing so, she learns that her kingdom is full of suffering people and that many citizens thought her father was an incompetent and uncaring ruler.

She also becomes determined to learn to defend herself so that she doesn't need to rely on the power of others to survive. She's a noble character with a kind heart. She can be naive, but that is to be expected from a young teenage girl who previously lived a sheltered life. There is also the super sexy Hak. While he is a normal human, his strength and talent as a warrior are slightly super human. He is also desperately in love with Yona but she seems blind to how he feels.

By now, you are probably aware that I have a bias toward stories with more serious storylines and realistic artwork. The voice acting is quality as is the story development, thus far. Therefore, Yona gets 5 stars out of a possible 5 stars. Hulu and Crunchyroll both carry the series.