Manga Review: Akatsuki no Yona

Akatsuki no Yona (The Girl Standing in the Blush of Dawn) 14 volumes-ongoing by Mizuho Kusunagi

Princess Yona is the heiress to the throne but was forced to run for her life when her father was killed. There's a legend that there's the four guardians who have inherited the powers of the dragons. She seeks the guardians to ask them to lend her assistance. 

The story started off in a bang but I find her purpose afterwards poorly developed. It was also bluntly pointed out by one of the guardians. I hope the anime will polish it or give it some finesse. Don't worry that's only thing I didn't liked about because everything else is perfect as it is. It's really funny and it teases you with just tiny doses of sweetness sprinkled all throughout the story in a very calculated manner. This may be too early for me to say and I might change my mind later but my heart is thumping for Soo Woon! Also does anyone get a Li Ren vibe (of Hana Seishou) from Hak?

I like the backstories of the guardians and the circumstances on how she found them. My favorite character design is the younger and older versions of Seiryuu. He looks badass and cute at the same time. Everytime she finds a guardian the ending theme of Fushigi Yuigi starts to play in my head! The 'guardians' is one of the oldest trick in reverse harem but it feels so fresh again. It also makes me excited to think of this as possibly the next Fushigi Yugi.

I also noticed that all the characters have an older figure that they look up to. It may be a mentor, stepgrandfather, guardian etc. In any other mangas, I'll dismiss it as some annoying elements but in this story it makes it more endearing to me.

I've read the manga when I saw the picture above three years ago but it was just nine chapters then. It was too early for me to say if it was a reverse harem. Since then a lot of people have recommended this and I only found the time to pick it up again after the news of the manga getting animated. I was having second thoughts of reading this again because I might prefer the manga over the upcoming anime. But I'm glad I did, now I can hardly contain myself for the anime!

We had a drought of shoujo manga adaptations and for years our main supply has only been otome adaptations. But recently there's a lot of shoujo in the news and that's including the live action Strobe Edge and anime sequel of Kamisama Hajimemashita. I hope there will be more shoujo manga to be animated or be made into TV series or movies. And to think there's a long list of manga materials to choose from!