Yona of the Dawn or ‘Akatsuki No Yona’ is a Japanese Animation and Manga Series that is a story based on epic fantasy, romance, and adventure.
The manga series was written by Mizuho Kusanagi and published by Hakusensha in Hana to Yume Magazine. Its original run is from august of 2009 up to this present time with a total of 35 volumes as of this time.
It was later adapted to an Anime Television Series written by Shinichi Inotsume, directed by KazuhiroYoneda, studio released by Pierrot, and licensed by Funimation. The original animation series ran from October 2014 to March 2015, with a total of 24 episodes and 3 Original Video Animations.
The setting of the series happened 2000 years ago in a fictional place called ‘Kouka’. It portrays the ancient Asian cultures where humans lived in an era that is full of malice, hungry for power, and have forgotten about the Gods.
It tells the story 2000 years after the battle of the Gods, where the princess of the Kouka Kingdom named Yona and her journey in search of the warriors in the hope to survive and save her country, from destruction and political upheaval.
Table of Contents
Early Season Recap
Before we dive into everything in the second season. It is best to understand what happened in the first season. Here is a short recap of the first season.
The plot started a week before Princess Yona’s sixteenth birthday as Su-Won paid tribute and visited her. It was then that she shared his intention with her father King II of the Sky Tribe, that she wants to marry Su-Won. Upon hearing this, her father was surprised and dismayed, he does not approve of her decision to marry Su-Won.
During her birthday, she is determined to change his father’s thoughts about the marriage and went to his chambers. What met her in the chamber was Su-Won penetrating a sword through his father’s chest. It revealed that Su-won had long planned to take over the throne through a coup d’etat.
Yona along with Hak became the kingdom’s wanted people and now started a journey to find the four Dragon Warriors to unify the nation and save the country.
YOTD Season 2: Plot
What makes it difficult for a successful anime is the risk of having a little amount of source material for a future continuation. However, it was not for YOTD. The story plot for an upcoming season is already secured. The original manga series now has a total of 33 volumes and it is still set to run without the possibility of ending anytime soon.
The first season of the series was based on the 24 volumes of the original manga, the second season will continue and cover the 8 volumes.
The story continues as the group meets up and is joined by Zeno, the Yellow Dragon. The Four Dragons have now united. They will be continuing their journey to Yun’s hometown, in the land of the Fire Tribe. Yona and her team will try to protect the people and the town from famine, poverty, heavy taxes, and oppressive government officials.
Even as the plot of the volumes has been set already, we can somewhat expect a little filler in the series where it would explain further the nature of the incident and the backstory of other main characters.
YOTD Season 2: Cast
If there would be a second season of the series YOTD, they would retain their main characters. Here are some of the main characters in the series and their respective voice actors.
Yona is voiced by Chiwa Saito, Son Hak voiced by Ayahi Takagaki, Yun voiced by Junko Minagawa, Kija voiced by Masakazu Morita, Sinha voiced by Nobuhiko Okamoto, Jaeha voiced by Junichi Suwabe, Zeno voiced by Hiro Shimono, and Su-won voiced by Nozomi Yamamoto.
We can also expect that there will be characters in the first season that we can not meet again in the second season, and again, we can anticipate a new set of characters that will help guide the story.
YOTD Season 2: Release Date
Yona of the Dawn is one of the most intriguing and exciting anime series, and just like other series have gained many fans, viewers, and critics. It has been more than 5 years now since its anime adaptation and people have been waiting for the great news of having a Yona of the Dawn renewal, or season 2.
Studio Pierrot or the production team has not yet released any information with regards to the anime series’ future.
One of the factors that contributed to the sudden halt, is the Kumamoto earthquakes that happened in 2016, just a year after the anime adaptation was completed. It was an unfortunate event that injured 3,000 people and took the lives of 50 people.
The manga series creator and illustrator, Mizuho Kusanagi, was one of the injured victims and it took him quite a while to recover. During that time, he posted a message on Twitter that the incident has become one of her major setbacks, thus she will be having difficulty continuing her work.
Fortunately, Kusanagi was able to recover and has released several manga volumes on time. Most of her major work today has received several good notes from both fans and critics. As this will continue, we can now expect that season 2 of YOTD will come anytime soon.
YOTD Season 2: Movie Trailer
Since there has been no official statement from the YOTD producers, there are no trailers available for the second season of the series.
You can find the season 1 trailer on any entertainment, multimedia, and social media platforms. There are several fan made videos about their own opinion should there be an upcoming second season.
If you still have not seen Yona of the Dawn, now would be the best time to start.
