Akatsuki no Yona First Impressions--Long Live the Political Intrigue Reverse Harem

Do not adjust your television screens, it is not the 90's, and you are not watching Fushigi Yuugi.

I can't have been the only one who thought of that comparison watching the OP. Akatsuki no Yona seems to want to double as a reverse harem alongside its fantasy world political intrigue plotline, but you will hear no complaints from me about any of this. In just one episode, I'm in love with both of those ideas and the promise of what's to come.


The anime follows Yona, the only princess of a small kingdom that has found peace with its neighbors in recent years, but is still vulnerable to attack. However, Yona doesn't care much about political concerns. She is too busy obsessing over why her curly red hair that won't lie flat and daydreaming about the person she wishes to marry, her cousin Soo-Won. However, her father refuses to agree to the marriage. After Yona finally gathers her resolve to press her father on the issue, she walks in on Soo-Won murdering him. Soon-Won tries to have the guards kill Yona as well, but at the last second one of the kingdom's generals, her childhood friend Hak, steps in.


There were two things in this episode that would've normally put me off the show if not for the way that they were presented. The first was Yona's personality. She gets a bit whiny and acts very self-centered in this episode, but we're given plenty of context for her behavior; by her father's own admission, he spoiled and sheltered her too much. However, her moments of self-awareness after realizing that her position of power puts herself and the people she cares about in danger seem to speak more to her true nature. There's also the cold opening at the beginning of this episode, where we see a much different Yona. I'm interested in seeing how the naive, lovestruck princess we've started with will grow into that person. You can't make a diamond without pressure, after all.


The second thing was her love for her cousin. Usually any mention of incest is enough to make me close the video player and never come back (although I am aware that marrying your cousin doesn't carry the same taboo within Japan). However, long before Soo-Won murders the king, the series makes it very obvious that couple will never happen. While Yona anguishes over her chances at marrying Soo-Won, she's also puts a checkmark in a lot of trope boxes for the possibility of a relationship with Hak: they're childhood friends, they bicker, Yona fakes being in a relationship with him and it backfires on her, etc. Not to mention that the OP alludes to it as well. The anime might as well put a flashing neon sign over the two of them that says "ENDGAME SHIP."

You can't convince me otherwise

As for the rest of the episode, there was a bit of "as you know" dialogue to set up exposition ("He is your childhood friend," "watch out for the dangerous bandits that killed your mother," etc.), but for the most part it created a world that I can buy into, although it hasn't shown much of it just yet. I've heard some complaints about the quality of the animation, but so far it seems like the show has the usual budget given to shoujo adaptations, and I didn't notice anything particularly out of place or off-model. At the moment, the show seems to be more concerned with maintaining its atmosphere; for example, the instrumental opening does a lot for setting the tone. Overall, I'm very pleased with how Akatsuki no Yona set up its first episode and I'm interested in seeing where it will take its story from here.

Images from Crunchyroll.com. This post is also available on OASG.