Reviews

Rokka: Braves of the Six Flowers focuses on a group of six chosen warriors called the Six Braves tasked to slay the leader of the demon race known as the Demon King. However in an unusual series of events, there are seven Braves gathered together and one among the group is an impostor suspected of working on behalf of the demon race. This mystery serves as the major storyline for much of the show's run as the Braves try to determine who among them is the fake. Many of the characters within the series fulfill certain archetypes typical of this storytelling style with our major leads of focus, Adlet and Fremy, getting major focus as the series focuses on their developing bond and how their current situation tests their trust in one another. While I didn't mind Adlet as our hero of focus as he struggles to clear any suspicion of being the fake chosen warrior, I wasn't too convinced of his budding relationship with Fremy since there's limited development in the relationship due to the greater focus on the mystery of the fake Brave. The rest of the group don't get as much fleshing out since Adlet and Fremy are the main focus of the series.

As for the mystery surrounding the fake Brave, much of its focus revolves around Adlet being immediately accused of being the suspect as he tries to clear his name and try assessing events that led to the gathering of the seven Braves, along with any actions from the other Braves that could prove they are really the fake. The series takes its time with Adlet getting in confrontations with each of the Braves to assess their characters and determine if they would have any ulterior motives to being the fake Brave. However, these moments often cause progression in the plot to drag since it felt like there were points where the show's creators were trying to pad out time to fill the anime's twelve episode length. Who is ultimately revealed to be the fake Brave felt too convenient since there were hardly any hints dropped of the mentioned character having their motives. Outside of the series being incomplete after its 12-episode run due to its light novel source material still ongoing as of this review, the series tosses in a plot twist in its final episode that may anger fans due to the issues that came up from the mystery played out with uncovering who the fake Brave was.

Visually, Rokka is rather pleasing on the eyes offering nicely drawn scenic shots and detailed character designs, with muscle tone being depicted with a number of the Braves' character designs. While not seen too often due to the show being more focused on its mystery plot, the designs of demons are varied and have a good amount of detail to them in spite of the CG animation used for their rendering sticking out like a sore thumb. Animation is fluid for the most part in the series, with characters moving about at a fluid pace and showing off some intense looking action scenes coming off the varying magical and combative abilities of the characters. Much like the demons, some of these magical abilities are rendered in CG animation such as Nashetania's blades and the swamp animals spewed out of Chamo's stomach.

Overall, I'm mostly indifferent to Rokka. While the series attempts to go for something different for its fantasy-adventure genre with its mystery plot, the pacing for it felt dragged out, the majority of the characters don't get much in the way of fleshing out and the revelation of who the fake Brave is was rather lackluster due to the lack of foreshadowing to it. It's a decent time killer for what it offers up, but I'd be hard pressed to recommend rewatching it.