Adventuring on beyond the comfy walls of animated decadence. We explore deeper into the world of Yona and I loved the first serious arc past that point. The anime pretty much ends when we complete the party with Zeno, and I was always sad I didn't get to see more of him. So happy and dreamy but with that wicked insight. Love this archetype, probably because many would describe me as this type of person.
But he really gets to shine delivering this final stamp on the redemption of Tae-Jun, the little shit 2nd son of the Fire General. This was a really important arc to build off of the anime covering the first major one of these in Awa. And it is really just the sensible direction to take things for a story like this. We've gotten the princess out into the real world, now she needs to see the ugly reality outside the gilded cage. Awa was human trafficking, but the Fire Tribe lands are the result of conscription. A very Japanese take on it drawing from the Meiji Restoration's form of it. Remember, the whole point and justification for the samurai caste was that common farm folk wouldn't need to fight. Many farming communities still haven't recovered from a generation of young men being grabbed up by the men in white.
So to see this long-term desolation up close and then Tae-Jun turning the tides by stepping down from his lofty position to help? Awesome.
