Yona of the Dawn is an adventure and fantasy anime series that first aired in the fall of 2014. The Japanese-made work, which also includes Romance elements, is based on the beloved manga series written and illustrated by Mizuho Kusanagi. In charge of the production of popular anime such as Black Clover and Akudama Drive, Pierrot studio is also the studio of Yona of the Dawn. Licensed by Funimation and watched worldwide, Yona of the Dawn was originally broadcast on many leading local channels such as AT-X, Tokyo MX, Sun TV, TV Aichi, RKK, and BS11 between October 7, 2014 – March 24, 2015. The last episode of the series was the 3rd OVA episode that aired in December 2016. Since then, although the manga is still running, fans have not been able to get a new season. So why hasn’t the anime been renewed until now? Will the decision committee get the green light for a second season?
What is the plotline of the anime?
Yona is the pampered princess of the Kouka Kingdom, and her father loves her very much. However, the Kouka King has a bad trait; he doesn’t like war or weapons at all, so he swallows whatever his border neighbors do. However, one day, the King of Kouka is killed by Yona’s fiancee, Soo-won, and Soo-won takes the throne. No one knows it was Soo-won, but Yona saw him that night. So Soo-won orders the soldiers to kill her, but Yona and Soo-won’s childhood friend Hak, who is also Yona’s bodyguard, flees with Yona. Later, they learn of the existence of 4 dragon warriors serving King Hiryuu and start looking for them.
Will there be a second season of Yona of the Dawn?
The anime’s first season aired in 24 episodes from October 7, 2014, to March 24, 2015. Following, 3 OVA episodes delighted the fans. However, as of May 30, 2022, almost 7 years have passed since the last episode of the series aired, but no anime-related company has not yet renewed the anime for a second season. Manga publisher Hakusensha and Studio Pierrot are keeping their silence on the matter. Animes usually get new season approvals under some major factors. As one of these factors, popularity is important for anime as a for-profit product. On the other hand, the series’ manga should contain enough stock material to adapt to a new anime season. Let’s go through together these main factors.
Manga status and compared to anime
The Yona of the Dawn manga series of the same name, which is the original of the series, is written and illustrated by Mizuho Kusanagi. Originally published by Hakusensha in Japan, the series is also available in English, thanks to Viz Media. The manga series has been on air since August 4, 2009, and has 38 volumes at the time of writing. The last volume was released on May 20, 2022, and the series is still ongoing hopefully. If we consider that the anime is a good manga advertising product and the manga series is still going on, this may be a good hope for a second season.
On the other hand, the anime’s first season covered up to the middle of the 8th volume of the manga. Considering the source material adapted in the first season of Yona of the Dawn, it is clear that there is enough stock material for a second season and also for more. On the other hand, manga has more than 13 million copies in circulation and we can say that it is a good sales volume in terms of both financial and popularity of the series.
Disc sales of the anime’s first season
Discs are a good sales product for an anime to make a profit. Although video viewing habits have changed in recent years and the discs are not as popular as before, it is still good to see the popularity in Japan and compare with the other animes that went on sale in the same period. From a different point of view, we know that the disc sales of the anime were made in the fall of 2015, and the discs were very popular at that time. (Haikyuu had been sold 25,514 units in volume average in the same period.) Eight-volume discs were sold for Yona of the Dawn, with an average of 2,777 units sold. Generally, an anime is expected to sell at least 4,000 copies to be renewed for a new season. Considering the number of sales realized, a second season seems risky for the producers.
Popularity and the other factors
When we look at the popularity ranking of Yona of the Dawn on Myanimelist, we see that the anime is ranked 195th, which is a really good ranking, but it may not reflect the current situation exactly. The anime still has an updated Twitter page and we see that it is followed by 48k people. Still, that doesn’t count as a strong follower count. On the other hand, we do not see a strong search volume in Google searches. The current search volume is almost 1 in 5 of anime like Noragami or Classroom of the Elite.
The result of our popularity assessment falls below the threshold. On the other hand, the anime does not have a live-action movie or a game. These types of products usually strengthen the new season possibilities and the brand. But Yona of the Dawn doesn’t have one of these so far.
When is the second season of Yona of the Dawn?
We speculated above about the second season of the anime. There hasn’t been a renewal so far, and the main reason may be that a second season of the anime wouldn’t be a sensible decision given the current profits. Although the manga is still in progress, the anime series has failed to meet expectations in disc sales and is currently not very popular. The lapse of time has also caused this popularity to decline; the search volume of anime has decreased on google over the years. There is always the possibility of a new season of the anime while the manga continues and the source material is available, but this probability is around 30%, in our opinion. The anime world is full of surprises, and if there is a renewal, we can see a new season like 2023 – 2024, taking into account the production time. But instead, we recommend reading the manga from Volume 8 onwards to learn the rest of the story. Or if you’re not a good manga reader, you can check out similar anime, our recommendations: Black Clover & Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon