Yona of the Dawn (Limited Edition Blu-ray) Unboxing

Yona of the Dawn (Akatsuki no Yona) is a 2014 television anime series based on Mizuho Kusanagi’s manga series of the same name. The series was produced by studio Pierrot with director Kazuhiro Yoneda, writer Shinichi Inotsume and music composer Kunihiko Ryo. It aired in Japan during the Autumn season in October 2014.

Background:

“From the studio behind Tokyo Ghoul and Fushigi Yugi comes the story of Yona – a typical teen despite being the sitting princess of the Kohka Kingdom. On her sixteenth birthday, she stumbles upon her father being brutally murdered by the man she loves. After the tragic discovery, Yona and her bodyguard, Son Hak, must flee the kingdom on a quest to find the four legendary dragons who can save her kingdom.”

Plot Synopsis via Funimation, March 2022.

Studio Pierrot’s reputation has somewhat gone downhill over the years ever since their adaptation of Tokyo Ghoul. The main cause is primarily non-canon content and not doing the source material justice, but saying that there were a few here and there that managed to get a solid reputation from the community – one of those was Yona of the Dawn.

Yona of the Dawn was picked up by Funimation for streaming and received a simuldub. The manga was also quite popular as Viz Media licensed it for their Shojo Beat label and I recall the series was up against Snow White with the Red Hair at one point when it comes to anime comparisons.

Yona of the Dawn was first released in the UK by Funimation with Anime Limited supporting the distribution. The approach was decent but pricing was pretty steep and there’s no slipcase for cost reasons. In addition, for design consistency, there wasn’t any for the spines on Parts 1 & 2. Eventually when Manga was purchased by Funimation, the distributor took all of the titles immediately from Anime Limited which included Yona of the Dawn, so the series was out of print for a few years since.

With Manga rebranded as Funimation, they re-released a few of the old Funimation UK titles which includes Yona of the Dawn, and is one of the few to also receive a UK exclusive limited edition release which is surprising but welcoming considering the overall reception of the anime and manga from fans (in other words, it makes sense to give it a nice package).

Limited Edition Contents:

Yona of the Dawn is another Funimation title that did not receive the limited edition treatment in North America and manages to get one from the UK branch, like HINAMATSURI and Nichijou.

This package offers a rigid box that houses the series inside an Amaray case and slipcase. Also included inside the rigid box is a 32-page booklet and 6 art cards. The booklet contains episode summaries, character designs and some illustration artwork.

The artwork is free of any information or BBFC content and the info sheet covers the information and specification like previous Funimation releases. The limited edition Blu-ray has an unspecified amount of units but is expected to be at least 1000. The SRP is £64.99, and there is a standard edition Blu-ray option available on the same day as this release.

I pre-ordered the series through United Publications for £38.49 + £3.50 postage.

Physical Contents:

• Rigid Box with clean artwork and Amaray packaging
• Info sheet for specification and BBFC description
• 32-page Booklet
• 6 Art Cards

On-Disc Contents:

Distributor: Funimation UK
Released: 7th March 2022

The limited edition release for Yona of the Dawn contains all 24 episodes across four Blu-ray discs authored by Funimation. The audio options available are Japanese with English subtitles and the Funimation English dub.

The white subtitles are locked during playback, and the regions are accessible to Blu-ray players set to A & B.

Blu-ray Specs:

Languages	English, Japanese
Audio	English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 Japanese Dolby TrueHD 2.0
Video	1080p High Definition Native format 1.78:1 aspect ratio
Region	A B
Subtitles	English
Locked Subtitles	Yes
Discs	4 (2 BD-25s, 2 BD-50s)

Blu-ray On-Disc Extra Features:

Disc 1:

• English Audio Commentaries (Episodes 4 & 8)

Disc 2:

• Promo Videos
• TV Spot
• BD/DVD Promos
• Textless Opening “Akatsukino Yona”
• Textless Closing “Yoru”
• U.S. Trailer
• Funimation Trailers

Disc 3:

• English Audio Commentary (Episodes 16)

Disc 4:

• English Audio Commentary (Episodes 24)
• Promotional Videos
• TV Spot
• Textless Opening “Akatsukino Yona”
• Textless Opening “Akatsukino Hana”
• Textless Closing “Yoru”
• Textless Closing “Akatsuki”
• U.S. Trailer
• Funimation Trailers

Unboxing Photos:

Final Notes:

Yona of the Dawn is available to order through multiple retailers across the United Kingdom. The limited edition Blu-ray can be ordered on Amazon UK.

(Disclaimer: Amazon links are also included when available. They are affiliated so if you decide to order them, I’ll earn a small percentage if they ship which will help me with any hauls or small bills.)