Yona of the Dawn: Volume 10 manga review

Yona of the Dawn Graphic Novel Volume 10 cover image

Yona is the only princess in the Kingdom of Kohka, and she lives an ideal life.  Her father, King Il, dotes on her, and her faithful guard, Son Hak of the Wind Tribe, protects her.  Yona even cherishes the time spent with the man she loves, her cousin Lord Su-won of the Sky Tribe.  However, everything changes for Princess Yona on her 16th birthday when the king is killed and Hak is blamed.  Soon, Yona is on the run with Hak, but she is determined to reclaim her throne.  To do so, she begins a journey to find the Four Dragon Warriors.

As Yona of the Dawn, Vol. 10 (Chapter 54 to 59) opens, Yona and company continue their activities as the “Dark Dragon and the Happy Hungry Bunch.”  They pretend to be bandits while helping destitute villagers in the poor tribes of the lands of the Fire Tribe, protecting them from the abuse of the Fire Tribe tax collectors and soldiers.

Now, in the village of “Katan,” they have caught the attention of Kang Tae-jun, the second son of the Fire Tribe chief.  He is obsessed with traveling to Katan and discovering if a voice he heard is indeed that of Princess Yona, someone he thought to be dead.

THE LOWDOWN:  The Yona of the Dawn manga is a mixture of Chinese historical romance (or at least a Japanese version of it) and quest-adventure.  I like that quite a bit, especially that the narrative is sweet even when it tries to be tart.  This manga is also a teen romance, and one might mistake it for a high school shojo romance.

Yona of the Dawn Graphic Novel Volume 10 is told mostly from the point of Kang Tae-jun.  It is a story of love, but one that leads to a personal journey of transformation.  This volume has a beautiful story indeed, mostly cute, but we can wish this idealized tale of a selfish and spoiled young man who begins to see life from the point of view of others was a real world norm.

Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarlane's lovely English adaptation goes well with creator Mizuho Kusanagi's beautiful art.  Tae-jun turns out to be an excellent character, and I wish he were a regular, but as ever, we must follow our heroes as they move on.  So let's keep reading, or new readers, start reading.

I READS YOU RECOMMENDS:  Fans of historical romantic adventure will want to try the Shojo Beat title, Yona of the Dawn.

A
9 out of 10