Fantasy at its BEST! | Yona of the Dawn Review | Volume One 217

This episode was so fun it felt super short

Before reading Yona of the dawn, I used to have misconceptions about what the story was; but then I actually started reading it and realized how amazing the world of Yona of the dawn was. It was also my first time reading a manga with a strong female lead which was cool to see as a young girl who grew up with the majority of main characters being boys. So glad you guys read this and are bringing more attention to amazing stories :) 💛💛

Started this series 4 days ago with zero expectations. I'm now up to vol 11 and I have been floored. Would recommend Yona to any fans of fantasy, but also specifically for fans of battle shonen who have wanted to check out shojo this is an incredible gateway story for you.

Only talking about volume 1 doesn't do this series justice The first 3 volumes are just okay. It's a period piece drama loosely based on the Three Kingdoms era in Korea. By v4 the scope of the world and what is possible opens up significantly. By v7 the stakes and my expectations for what the rest of the story can be have been elevated to a completely different level. Yona really will mess you the F up if you're tryna fight. And if you are fans of Berserk and One Piece there are heavy nods to themes and elements of both which was a delight. So thankful the pod introduced this to me and believe imma finish 🙏

I’ll be back

Algorithm gang gang

I'll go do my homework. See you next Monday morning <3

Thanks

AAAAAAAAAAAA I lOVE AKATSUKI NO YONA!!!!!!😍😍😍😍😍😍 It revolves around an ancient tale and there's war, treason, murders, sad/beautiful backgrounds, friendship, alliances and everything as we follow Princess Yona and of course HaK (OMG Hak is🔥🔥) and one of the most exciting romances I have ever read but that's not even the main thing here. If you ever do a "Yona of the Done" and i'll be here for it.. It is still ongoing though, one-two chapters per month, currently 230 chapters...

Loved the discussion about the different attention Shojo and Shonen receive in English speaking countries.

In Japan, when it comes to Shonen magazines like Shonen Jump and Shonen Sunday, the decision makers are trying to make their magazines most appealing to teenage boy (Shonen means Teenage boy). When it comes to Shojo magazines their decision makers try to make their magazines most appealing to teenage girls (Shojo means teenage girl).

For both Shojo and Shonen you tend to see a lot of assumptions. Assumptions like boys only want to read about other boys their age getting in power battles. Assumptions like girls only want to read stories about girls around their age who are pursuing a romantic interest. That’s not to say these stories can’t have an appeal outside of their targeted demographics or that those are the only types of stories being told in those demographics. Shonen can have romance like Kaguya-sama, and shojo can have action series like sailor moon.

I think some manga fans miss that Shonen and Shojo can have a lot of appeal outside of their targeted demographic.

it’s unfortunate that English manga publications are not as willing to take a chance on shojo having a wider appeal and assume the market for these stories will always be significantly smaller than the market for Shonen. If you look at the past few years the manga market has exploded in popularity and it seems some English publisher are not convinced that increase in interest will extend to Shojo series.

I think Josh has great point when he said that people read outside their own demographic and gave an example about himself mentioning he reads YA (young adult) when we all know that the Y in YA doesn’t apply to him.

pouring one out for the algo

I'm really glad that you're branching out to other manga genres, also Yona of the dawn manga is so good. Season 2 anime when? Bit off topic, if you want to try a really good underrated slice of life manga try Yugami-kun ni wa Tomodachi ga Inai.

this is basically my favorite manga ever, so the fact that you're covering it made my week. The last couple of weeks haven't been very good for me so this srsly lifted my attitude

Everyone should balance their manga/anime intake with shoujo/romance/etc genres/subgenres.

An excellent romance/slice-of-life/seinen manga series you should check out is Kimi wa Houkago Insomnia (Insomniacs After School).

I agree that Josh should read Sanderson. And though I know it's never going to happen because it's too off brand I would love a podcast going over The stormlight archives or mistborn.

One of the first anime I watched when I started getting into it just cus I saw people recommending it. I remember liking it but can't remember mtch of the plot. Definitely remember being bummed it didn't have more, excited to check it out. Card Captor Sakura was also just a solid show that I watched cus people rec'd it. Good stuff is good. Berserk got that Shojo art fr.

Will for sure comeback to this one, after reading it!!!

Great to see some love directed to akatsuki no Yona, I like it a lot, shojo outside Japan has a following but nothing close to it's home country , there was such a healthy period of time when the industry in Japan was being dominated by 3 mangas of different demography with a shonen (One Piece), a shoujo (Nana) and a seinen (Vagabond), speaking of Nana, I'd love to see you guys tackling Ai Aizawa's works, she's amazing.

YESS!! PLEASEE DO MOREEE SHOUJOO

..

If i were to ever ask you guys to give a shoujo manga and a josei manga a shot, it would be lovely complex by aya nakahara for shoujo and happy marriage by enjouji maki for josei.

Shoujo itself is such a deep genre. It has it's own set of tropes and cliches and formulae. And as a story focused completely on Romance, there is a completely different goal the author has to achieve while still maintaining entertainment and investment value.

Glad you guys are covering a Shojo on here feels like it's been awhile plus never read Yona so this is good for me

I feel the judgemental shoujo connoisseur look from Meghan in the thumbnail lol

Yona of the dawn feels like a reverse harem from time to time.
I followed the series for a very long time, but don't anymore because imo it is a bit too long and I sadly stopped caring:(
Its still very good tho

I actually have watched a couple of Colleen's videos. Like what I see, very informative on a genre i don't consume as much. Well, to my knowledge anyway. I'm confident a lot of anime i grew up on ARE shoujo, i just haven't checked cause that was before i knew about the genre terms. Talking like, before i even learned how to pronounce "anime" properly lol.

Shoujo is lit

Mmmmmm

Hopping over from audio gang to show some support!

Btws josh with the stash 👀👀

Pls try Edens zero manga.It's very good shonen manga.also i don’t care genre.I love story and that's it.

I was always Frustureted with the shojo anime that adapted just a couple of volumes back when i didn't knew manga existed and was the source material and after many years iwas over the moon when i Discovered yona of the dawn has a manga hhhhh

One of my favorite manga, without a doubt. I hope people give this a chance, after watching this video.

I am so so happy you guys did yona!! When I first watched yona I had been watching a lot of shounen or male targeted animes so this series was a nice breath of fresh air, especially as a woman. I am a huge fan of the series now and am caught up to the manga, yona is one of my favorite female characters ever (and she only gets more development as the story goes on) and I have the biggest crush on hak and always will. If time allows, I really hope you guys end up reading the rest of the series because it truly is something special and only getes better and better.
I also really appreciated your discussion in the beginning about shounen vs shoujo, it's a good way to let people know about the situation. I would love to see Colleen on the pod sometime to talk more about this!
love you guys <3

One of the most discouraging things is what you guys touched upon at the beginning. The whole "make a season 1 to sell the manga." Things like that are why we probably won't ever get more seasons of things like Hinamatsuri, which is a shame and goes along with the whole availability thing. These stories would have much more of a chance (especially crossing over) if they could be more easily accessed. There is a reason everyone knows Sailor Moon, because the anime was always on tv! Awesome discussion, as always!

How can I be addicted to a series that a never read?

I love everything you guys stand for!!!!

Found the begging conversation very interesting,

Great vid! Great discussion! I love both Shojo and Shonen series, but it has always been about how good the story is. I am always willing to give a series a chance to hook me, and if it can't then that is fine, I move to the next series!!

I really enjoyed this Yona of the Dawn! You guys mirrored my own opinion of it already but all of the typical hallmarks of shoujo manga that keep me away from them were practically non-existent. Thanks for making me read yet another series I wouldn't have otherwise.

Fantastic video, with a really great, insightful discussion! Yona is one of my favourite manga of all time and I'm so excited whenever I see it get some attention. I hope that you'll both be able to continue it because I think you'll really enjoy it; it really DOES just get better from here.

I would like to offer a warning as well. If you want to watch the anime but are also interested in reading the manga, I STRONGLY recommend not watching the OVAs immediately after the first season. The first season covers up until chapter 47 but the OVAs contain a reveal that doesn't take place until chapter 101, and in my opinion having that reveal ahead of time really affects how you will experience many events in the story.

That being said, the one season of anime that we did get (I'm still clinging to the hope of it being completed some day) is an excellent adaptation, and I definitely recommend it. In the overall storyline it kind of feels like it stops at the end of the prologue, though. I would compare it to if the One Piece anime ended after the events of East Blue. So long as you keep that in mind, I think the anime is a great way to experience those first legs of the story and if you're anything like me it'll leave you wanting more!

I hope you end up continuing this series. This is the first manga I've attempted to read along with you. So far, it seems pretty decent.

I hope you do more streams for Yona specifically as well as other shoujo manga

I went from watching shoujo anime only to shonen anime only then to reading shonen manga. After reading One Piece, final arc of Bleach, and other, I've decided to go back to read where the anime left off in Kimi Ni Todoke, Skip Beat! and Yona of the Dawn. I gave up on shoujo when I found out they rarely finish the series. My guess is that if it doesn't sell merch, they aren't going to invest too much into animation. I used to refuse to get into shonen because I thought it was all like Dragon Ball where there's no real good story and its all about fighting. Giving up on incomplete shoujo anime forced me to watch shounen like Naruto and I fell in love with it. People have no right to criticize someone else's taste in a particular genre or series if they haven't even watched much of it themselves. I'm caught up in Yona and Skip Beat! (I hope you try Skip Beat!). Yona's story and world building was way more than I thought it was and it keeps getting better as more back stories are revealed.

I think this would make for a really cool volume one plus. I've watched the anime anf remember it quite fondly. This could be a good way of adding diversity to the volume one roster.

I won’t deny that I judge series based a lot of front covers or even genre. I’ve been watching anime back in the 90s and from an early childhood I have seen countless Shounen and Seinen was the only types I’ve seen with one exception of Sailor Moon and CardCaptor Sakura and that was because it came on basic tv. I grew up with toonami and that was where I got most of my anime knowledge with DBZ and Gundam then Midnight Run where I was introduced to Cowboy Bebop, Trigun, Outlaw Star, etc. When I got old enough to live on my own and discovered that video rentals had anime along with other stores like Babbages - the older version of GameStop - sold anime’s that was where I would hunt for animes. I eventually gotten tired of seeing the typical show of five actual minutes of new content where the rest is powering up along with monologues. And my biggest annoyance after years of watching was the exorbitant amount of fan service, I don’t mind tasteful fan service as long as it serves an actual purpose but majority of the shows the girls are introduced as powerful characters then turn as weak as wet tissue paper once they meet the male protagonist. They have literally pieces of strings on while in battle or their clothes rip off from a sneeze! It was becoming less humorous because it was becoming annoying! I’m a person that prefers story/character development not how many of the same cookie cutter types of girls trying to get into the clueless male protagonist’s pants. So I have now stayed away from harems because it’s nothing new. I prefer female protagonists more because the story seems more focused on storylines than boop bounce counters and how many times you see panties flashing on screen. From an older man speaking, even I get annoyed by that type of stuff. Not to say that all shoujo /Josei anime’s can’t also be ridiculous with its content but a lot of it is pretty good.

is there another manga simiar to yona of the dawn

Yona of the Dawn seems like an interesting story. I like the comparisons to House of Dragons and I kinda like the vibes from their description of the scope of this fantasy series. It does remind me a bit of A Bride's Story, on a much larger scale than Bride's. I think A Bride's Story is considered Seinen but feels like a Josie, but ultimately is just a great narrative.

really? sexism?! not sure that is accurate I am saying it as a female shoujo fan that watched quite a bit of shounen back in the days

I'm loving Yona.
Great video!!!!

❤ love Yona of the dawn. The manga is very good and gets even better as it progresses. It is such a waste that Studio Pierrot stopped it before showing how great this story is.