Fans have waited more than a decade for Princess Yona's journey to continue on screen, and the sequel now has a studio. The official X account for the Yona of the Dawn TV anime announced two days ago that Pierrot Films will handle animation production on the upcoming anime sequel.
The same news was posted on the official site celebrating the manga's completion, run by Hana to Yume, which told fans to stay tuned for more updates. No director, cast, format or release window has been announced yet.
The Manga's Final Volume Arrives
The studio reveal landed on a big day for the franchise. Mizuho Kusanagi's manga released its 48th and final collected volume in Japan on the same day, bringing the story to a close in print.
Kusanagi celebrated the release on X, writing that she was happy to have been supported by so many people and asking readers to see the end of Yona and her companions' journey and what comes next. She also asked fans to support the anime sequel.
Kusanagi launched Yona of the Dawn in Hakusensha's Hana to Yume magazine in 2009, and the final chapter ran in the magazine's 2026 Issue 2, released in December 2025. That was also when Hakusensha first revealed that an anime sequel was in production. The magazine later published a special side story in its Issue 6 in February, packaged with a memorial fan book that included an interview with Kusanagi, and Volume 47 received a special edition bundled with a YONA MEMORIAL illustration booklet.
Viz Media publishes the manga in English. Its description of the first volume sets up the story: "Princess Yona lives an ideal life as the only princess of her kingdom. Doted on by her father, the king, and protected by her faithful guard Hak, she cherishes the time spent with the man she loves, Su-won. But everything changes on her 16th birthday when tragedy strikes her family!"
Who Is Pierrot Films?
The choice of studio keeps the series in the family. The first Yona of the Dawn TV anime was produced by Studio Pierrot, and Pierrot Films is Pierrot's newer production brand.
Pierrot rebranded its second studio as Pierrot Films in February 2024 with the goal of making high-quality anime more quickly. The brand has since taken over production of Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War, handling the third part, The Conflict, and the final part, The Calamity. It also produced the fourth season of Mr. Osomatsu.
That Bleach connection is a notable one for Yona fans. Thousand-Year Blood War brought a long-running Pierrot manga adaptation back to TV after a decade-long gap, which is a similar situation to the one Yona of the Dawn now finds itself in.
A Sequel Over A Decade In The Making
The original Yona of the Dawn anime premiered in 2014 and ran for 24 episodes. Three original anime DVD episodes followed in 2015 and 2016, and Funimation released the series on home video in North America. The manga kept going for more than a decade after the TV series ended, leaving a huge amount of story that has never been animated.
In the meantime, the franchise found a home on the stage. The manga inspired its first stage play in 2016, followed by more productions in Tokyo in 2018 and 2019 and a musical stage play in Tokyo in 2024.
With the manga now finished, the sequel will have the complete story to draw from. How much of it the new anime will cover, and whether it will be a TV series or another format, has not been revealed yet.
What part of Yona's journey are you most excited to see animated, and do you think Pierrot Films is the right choice for the sequel?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.