Alexandra Elend Wolf's Reviews > Yona of the Dawn, Vol. 39

4.80 stars.

“No matter how unbearable the pain, I thought I could claim victory, but Hak risked his life to protect Kin Province, and the tide of battle was turned by the power of the four dragons and Yona. I was saved by the things I discarded.”

The way this tugged on my heartstrings and destroyed my soul is not even funny, but it is expected at this point.

I will never grow tired of saying that I appreciate, tremendously so, the way that Kusanagi takes time to show the natural reactions of the characters after traumatic, important, impactful events. It might hurt my soul to incredible degrees but those moments are so raw and realistic that I can never help it but be mesmerized by their sheer beauty and humanity.

While the trio of Hak, Yona, and Soo-won are mostly chief, as always, in bringing me the most bittersweet, heartbreaking interactions the ones we got between Val and Mei-nyan were quite the contestants.

Yes, both Mei-nyan and Val might seem like extra characters with little context to the story but in a story built upon the relationship and dynamics of its characters, with so much weight and importance trust upon each interaction, theirs becomes more significant and quite beautiful. Even if it is more straightforward than some of the other bonds that we've seen through the story, I can say with certainty that I ended up quite liking them.

Now, because this is Yona of the Dawn and we cannot have quiet, simple happy moments anymore there was quite a bit of strife and heart-stopping suspense going on too.

“We fought and got hurt together. These days are so far away now.”