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When I watch the anime and hear the names of the characters (Soo-won, Son
Hak), I thought that the manga is written by a Korean and published in Japan -
like in the case of _Freezing_.

I couldn't have been more wrong to assume that. When I check [Akatsuki no
Yona](https://www.mangaupdates.com/series.html?id=46331) on mangaupdates, it
was written by [Kusanagi
Mizuho](https://www.mangaupdates.com/authors.html?id=2181), whose profile
suggests that he is a native Japanese.

Foreign names are common in Japanese manga. It's very common to introduce a
foreigner (main character or not) to join the rest of the Japanese cast. Apart
from those cases, we have stories where the setting is in a land foreign to
Japan, or in an alternate universe where the names of the character are made
foreign like in the case of _Akatsuki no Yona_. However, in most of the manga
I have read that falls into this category, the names are dominantly Western
and I have never seen any other shows with all the characters having Korean
names.

Why does the author go to the trouble to use Korean names for the characters?
Why not Japanese?


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yona-of-the-dawn
Why do the characters in Akatsuki no Yona have Korean names?


The setting for Akatsuki no Yona is loosely based on the [Three Kingdoms of
Korea](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Kingdoms_of_Korea) period. The
[Kouka Kingdom](http://akatsukinoyona.wikia.com/wiki/Kouka_Kingdom) is
inspired by the Goguryeo Kingdom. Its neighbor Sei and Xing are based on
Baekje and Silla respectively. You can also see that the three kingdoms are
located in a peninsula in the manga and that they almost have the same layout
as their real-life counterparts.


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_Yona of the Dawn_ is based on Chinese culture, Chinese hanfu, Chinese Manchu
clothing, Chinese architecture, and Chinese landscapes. The background is a
fictional Chinese-style country. _Yona of the Dawn_ uses a large number of
Chinese elements, the ED song even uses Chinese instruments and Chinese
lyrics.


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