A review by kthedestroyer
Yona of the Dawn, Vol. 8 by Mizuho Kusanagi

adventurous emotional funny lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

There will be SPOILERS ahead! 

This volume was not quite as enjoyable as some of the previous ones. With that said, I still really enjoyed a lot of things, especially those regarding Yona’s group. However, this volume has one plot-line which I just don’t care about at all and that’s the Su-won mock battle arc. 

I just don’t like Su-won. I don’t understand him, his motivations and this guy just looks like he wants to be allied with everyone while still doing bad things to them (that’s just how I feel about him). You can imagine that an arc centered around him didn’t appeal to me. I do like Geun-tae since he seems like an interesting character and a good guy who cares a lot for his tribe and wants to go to battle with the enemies at the same time but for some reason he starts to look like a puppet at the end of this mini arc and I don’t like that. Su-won should just rot in hell if you ask me. The one thing I like about this arc is how no one takes general Ju-do seriously because yeah, he’s just a gloomy dude who kinda hates everyone and everything. 

But let’s get back to our group of weird characters aka Yona, Hak, the dragons and pretty boy genius. 

So Zeno shows up. You know, just randomly, out of nowhere… because of food. This man literally says “yeah, I’ll help you out” just because they gave him food. He literally joined Yona even faster than Ki-ja (and Hak literally teases the white dragon because of it). Also it’s so funny when everyone finds out that Zeno kinda doesn’t have a power (yet if you ask me) and didn’t feel anything when he saw Yona and everyone is so worked up about that but then Hak’s over there like “first time I ever heard about this”. And then Hak punches Zeno and the yellow dragon is like “oh, he’s much stronger than me” and then there’s an idea that Hak might be the dragon but Ki-ja instantly dismisses it, saying that if Hak were a dragon, he would be a dark evil one and Hak actually CONSIDERS that idea. I just can’t man. Oh, I also love how we’re introducing everyone to Zeno and Hak casually mentions that Yun is a pretty boy genius and how he should never forget that if he wants to eat his food. 

We also have to talk about Hak and Yona here because they are so freaking cute I LOVE IT. Hak is for some reason still annoyingly close to her (I mean, we know the reason but Yona is just kinda oblivious to it). And then she asks him to teach her how to use a sword and Hak gets out of the situation by saying “yeah no, actually you should practice how to be a lady or you’ll never find a husband, gotta go, bye”. And then my girl steals one of Jae-ha’s knives because she’s a queen and she doesn’t just give up so easily and then Hak finds her practicing in the rain so he takes her to the cave. I love how he puts his coat around her when she is cold (it’s so cuuuute) and he’s so worried for her and that’s also cute and then when she falls asleep he kisses her on the forehead and I can’t anymore. I’m gonna explode if I keep talking about these two. 

Overall, there were some great things in this volume but it was not quite as compelling as some others before it. I’m giving it 3 stars but remember that that doesn’t mean it’s bad but just not that great. Still, it was the last volume that the anime adapted so I’m very excited for new content.