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Yona of the Dawn
Episode 10

by Rebecca Silverman,

Last week, Yona, Hak, and Yun arrived in the village of the White Dragon, where they were greeted with something less than courtesy until the villagers noticed Yona's red hair. This time they actually meet the White Dragon in what is both one of the funniest episodes and the one with almost as much implied sadness as Yun's back story. It is also the episode that feels the most like a reverse harem, but whether or not that's an issue for you will pretty strictly depend on how you feel about the genre; it doesn't do much, if anything, to decrease enjoyment of the show.

Ki-ja, the White Dragon, isn't there to greet Yona and Co when they arrive in his village: he lives fairly isolated from the rest of the villagers in his special tower/house. Whether he's done this to himself or it is the result of his crazy granny isn't clear, but it's almost immediately obvious that he is not a happy guy. Raised strictly as a White Dragon (he mentions at the end of the episode that no one has called him by name since his parents died), he is being held ready for the appearance of a Master who might never come. He can't leave the village, he's not really part of the village since everyone looks up to him, and now that he's hit twenty Granny expects him to marry to produce more little White Dragons for when his Master never shows up. If anyone ever felt trapped, it's Ki-ja. So when he realizes that the intruders in the village (who will at least give him something to do besides sit in the tower) include a woman with red hair, his world opens up incredibly fast. Now if only that pesky Hak guy wasn't there to rain on his parade...

To be fair, Hak also clearly sees Ki-ja as competition, so when the White Dragon tries to pay him to leave, he pretty much has the excuse he needed (and was angling for?) to be a jerk right back. It looks like there will never be a dull moment with those two around, and the competition brings out some great vocal performances from both Tomoaki Maeno (Hak) and Masakazu Morita (Ki-ja), particularly the solid minute of Hak laughing creepily. (It's probably not that long. But it felt like it.) As I said above, this is one of the funnier episodes, with jokes coming pretty quickly, especially at the beginning, and at everyone's expense equally. Yun's line about knowing he's gorgeous but that being no excuse to lock him in a cage is particularly good, and those of you with over-eager ethnic grandmas will absolutely recognize the Song of the Older Relative that Granny gives Ki-ja over and over. (“When are you going to get married? I know this nice [insert ethnicity here] girl/boy.”) Jokes for Yona unfortunately tend to revolve around her not being all that pretty, which is a particular shame in this episode because when the villagers are impressed by her coloring it is one of the first times she feels good about her red hair. Yes, Su-won praised it in early episodes and made her feel pleased with her looks, but now that's a bad association for her, so it would have been nice to let her have a moment. Given that there are three more dragons to track down, though, there is still time for that particular joke to go away or at least be shoved into the background. And in all fairness, Hak and Ki-ja also get taken down a peg when Yona asks Ki-ja to protect Hak and refers to Ki-ja's innate ability to sense where the other dragons are as “useful” instead of “awesome” or some similar superlative, which he was clearly hoping for. (Yun's ego appears untouchable.)

There isn't much space for fancy animation in this episode, with a lot of scenes taking place with people standing or sitting around talking, but the dancing doesn't look as stilted as it often does in anime. More interesting is that the background characters in the opening theme have changed drastically, with Ik-su no longer present and presumably a preview of who Yona's going to meet next. We're definitely getting to a turning point in the story, and I for one have never been happier that this show will keep going into next season.

Rating: A-

Yona of the Dawn is currently streaming on Crunchyroll and Funimation.com.

Rebecca Silverman is ANN's senior manga reviewer.


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