Manga Review: Yona of the Dawn

 Summary:Yona is the sole princess of the kingdom, living the luxurious and carefree life as a princess should. She has it all: the finest clothes and cosmetics, the most divine sweets, a loving emperor as a father, and the hottest cousin crush, Soo-won, anyone could ever hope to have. Now, if only her bodyguard, Son Hak, wasn't so annoying to her and her hair wasn't so red.
 But her nearly perfect world quickly shatters as the man she loves, Soo-won, murders her father and the path to his ascension to the throne is assured. Son Hak escapes with Yona, and they lead a life on the run from that point on.

Thoughts: First off, the above six volumes have been translated into English and, at this point in time, the seventh is about the be distributed in English speaking countries as well. I just couldn't find a picture of all the translated covers.
 

 Anyways, so about the series... I watched the anime first. It got me interested in the series and sticks to the mangas perfectly. These first seven or eight volumes are the same story as the anime and can be read or watched without missing anything. I chose to read them again and support their translations because I adore this series. It's basically everything I love in fiction! 
 The story revolves around a young girl who lived a perfect life until it was shattered by the person she loved. She then goes on a journey to discover herself and rescue her kingdom. Along the way she gathers around her an oddball group of strange misfits that make up a family. And, even though she's the only girl in the group, their is only one actual love interest, so no love triangles! Just...a lot of confusion. 
(Note: read manga panels right to left.)
 
 Yona is a strong girl. She wears skirts ad likes pretty things but she also knows how to be capable. She learns how to take care of herself but never turns down a helping hand. This leaves her as one of the most lovable female heroines I've ever seen. 
 The rest of the cast is great too. They tend to leave me with tears streaming down my face because I was laughing so hard over their antics. 
 The story is breathtakingly wonderful. Yona learns about her kingdom and becomes embroiled in politics, war, and famine. From stopping drug dealers to making peace with kingdoms (pardon, I'm moving ahead of the six volumes in this review but I'll try not to include too many spoilers) the story keeps you riveted and actually has you caring for the well-being of an entire country. 
 The art is really good and the writing is great. Rarely do I see such great dynamics between such a mixed cast of characters. Despite being the only girl in the group, Yona is treated with respect and I don't worry about inappropriate scenes popping up. The humor is mostly clean and absolutely hilarious and the action scenes manage to be interesting without having to repeat dramatic scenes (which happens a lot in mangas targeted at girls). So, really, one of my all time favorite manga series!
 

Content: Ok, yes, despite my previous advocation of how clean this manga is there are a few things I need to mention. In volume 1 Yona is seen coming out of a lake where she had been bathing, naked. This is to show that she has leeches on her but that, in turn, causes her to scream and her only companion, her male bodyguard, is required to come and get them off of her. The bodyguard did his best to remain composed and respectful in this scene and nothing more happened than the removal of the leeches but it was still inappropriate. There is a character who enters in volume six who flirts often and is often scene in the company of harlots or poorly dressed women (these peters out after the seventh or eighth volume). A male character is often seen sleeping with a female character but these are non-sexual and are often either for protection or due to lack of room.Yona is also shown to be in love with her cousin which, in the ancient setting that this is placed in, was actually considered a proper choice of marriage for a princess (this happened in England and China and...just about anywhere there was a monarchy for a long time. They liked to keep the crown in the family) so it was meant more a historical reference rather than something inappropriate. There are mentions of woman being kidnapped and sold into slavery and a few other mature topics. There is fighting, violence, and blood with some rather excessive gore later on in the series. There are certain characters that are given 'special abilities' and these could be seen as a magical addition to the story, otherwise there is no magic. The language contains a few mentions of D***, C***, H***, and B*****d (these are the common translations for the Japanese words used here and are not meant to be as offensive as they come off as in the English language). 
 A long list, I know, but it's a pretty long series and everything falls pretty far away from each other. All in all, this is actually a fairly clean series that I would say is appropriate for young teens and anyone who can handle the mature topics discussed (these being the most frequent content). But trust me, its a really good read!