Rokka: Braves of the Six Flowers

This review won't contain any spoilers regarding the series other than stuff that have already been written in the synopsis which is, of course, spoiler-free to divulge into. I should also note that this review is solely written from my anime-only watcher perspective, as I did not read the original material. Story: Rokka no Yuusha unfortunately does not give the best first impression regarding it's actual story line and genre for people that are looking for a series to start. It gives off the impression of it being your average demon-fighting fantasy anime, and it's understandable to think of it as such at first glance. But that's notreally the case. Or well, it's not really the case for the part that was adapted in this anime. The series is actually a niche mystery fantasy focused series that focuses into the vast Mesoamerican fantasy world and to find the potential impostor among them. As the synopsis for this anime points out. At first, the anime may give the impression of being stale, or boring. But the suspense in it between the main characters is something that is not easily found in your average anime. The settings of the series may not be the most original out there, but it is without doubt executed phenomenally Art: The anime production is done by Studio Passione. As far as I am aware I consider this to be it's first major production. The anime has gorgeous colours and background visuals, especially at it's first episodes. Some of the background visuals could easily be considered to be put as wallpaper considering its exotic beauty. Unfortunately due to it's lack of success and it being the studio's first true production, the quality of the animation and art drops midway during the series where it's quite evident that the animation feels sketchy or/and has a lot of cutscenes. The facial expressions proportions are sometimes off too. I wouldn't call it completely bad, I find it acceptable and in the important scenes it thankfully delivers great quality. The biggest gripe about the visuals regarding the series is definitely the CGI. It is not very pleasing and they look awkward, thankfully the CGI usage is minimal halfway through the series except for select few moments. All in all the art shines at the beginning, then decreases to being acceptable. I don't think a series should be completely judged upon it's production issues in certain episodes. Please note that art in itself is a subjective matter, whether someone thinks X looks good, Y could see it as negative, so all of this is simply my opinion regarding the matter, it is not an objective fact. the only thing that can be considered as "fact" is that it have gotten inconsistent. Sound: I find the sound in the anime to be fitting to the theme that it presents. The first opening gives you the feeling of it being a fantasy show, not necessarily the best sound out there, but it conveys what the show is about at that time. While the second opening tries to fit into more of the dark atmosphere of the show at that point in the series. I don't have a solid opinion regarding the ending but I did definitely like the two other endings that are character-centric. It's a nice touch musically, especially that the characters themselves sing it. The soundtrack is eerie at times, I never once thought that it wasn't fit. The music is done exactly where it should be done. It compliments the atmosphere that the show is trying to display. It's rare to find such a nigh-perfect placement sound for certain scenes, but Rokka No Yuusha implements that effectively. Even if the sound is not outstanding if it's viewed on it's own, it's done in a fashion like it's an exclusive musical piece for the specific scene that is happening. And that is something that I personally respect from composers that pay respect to the art that they're working on. The voice-acting cast does well for the the type of personality they're working on and there is no monotone voices, and the sound-effects are definitely well fit. Character: This field is definitely where the series shines best at. Despite the fact that the show is only 12 episodes long. The cast has a very distinctive personalities and roles that are easily recognizable. They're also for the most part all incredibly likable to the audience. Their developments in such a short period is amazing, and it's very evident as to how the characters changed from their first appearance. This includes the main character. The main character is not your average lead hero. He tries to reach to the best conclusions in the most logical way, and he's humane. May be naive at times, but he looks past his naivete if the situation asks for it. The same falls for the rest of the cast. It is not surprising that this category is the show's best field. Because the plot revolves around the cast, and how they act depending on the situation that is presented to them. All of the cast have their own motives and desires and are explored thoroughly. The designs are rather attractive as well, but aesthetics are completely subjective as pointed out previously. Enjoyment: Rokka no Yuusha is an incredibly enjoyable anime. It's clever. It never feels repetitive. Every episode has it's own new content for the watcher to explore through and think about the mystery surrounding it. It's very great at displaying suspense between every episode end for the watcher to watch the next. It's definitely a series that is worth watching in one-go. If you like tension (edge of the seat feel) and character-centric fantasy show this is definitely the type of show that I'd recommend to watch. Unfortunately, this series suffers from the point that it will most likely remain incomplete (anime-wise) Thanks for reading my review and any feedback is appreciated on my profile, as this is my very first review.

I’d describe Rokka no Yuusha (Braves of the Six Flowers), a fantasy show that’s more than just about swords fighting or saving the world. Well initially, it sets up it like so with its background story. Apparently, it’s revealed that a Demon God existed a long time ago whom annihilated humanity. And now, its return is imminent. Six heroes (or otherwise, known as braves) are chosen by the Goddess of Fate to apparently fight the Demon God. The catch is that there is a fake hero as the story introduces a “7th brave”. Main male protagonist Adelt learns the hard way of what exactly itmeans when suspicion falls upon himself. Based on the light novels written by Ishio Yamagata, the series takes on an interesting approach at fantasy and adventure. Rather than the group traveling together to fight against enemies and reach the final boss, there’s inner fighting between the heroes themselves. The cause of this is because of the existence of a 7th hero whom the others label as a traitor or double agent. So in essence, the show follows more into a mystery genre as the story progresses. We meet Adelt, the self-proclaimed “strongest man in the world” in the beginning. Perhaps the cleverest of the heroes and we find out about his past based on his background story. His role in the series becomes prominent because others begins to suspect him as the fake hero. As a show with such a colorful cast of characters, we are also introduced to the other heroes. All of them possesses their own unique traits, personalities, and abilities. These include Nashetanya (princess of Piena and Saint of Blades), Fremy Speeddraw (Saint of Gunpowder), Goldolf Auora (Nashetanya’s loyal follower), Chamo Rosso (the Saint of Swamps), Hans Humpty (the mysterious assassin), and Mora Chester (the Saint of Mountains). The show quickly establishes the fact that none of them can be trusted. Unfortunately for Adelt, he becomes a prime target after several implied facts labels him as “the fake hero.” It sets up a good amount of storytelling as the series immediately shifts into a fantasy/adventure/mystery hybrid. What I also find interesting is how we learn more about the characters including their reasons for being there along with the various hypothesis that focuses on the mystery aspects of the show. Initially, some people might misjudge Rokka no Yuusha and think it’s a typical fantasy story with plain swords fighting. But when it comes to the mystery elements, it’s where each episode begins thrilling enough to anticipate what may happen next. The episodes connects each other in clever ways because of the theories and implied facts. The mystery aspect gets more and more complicated as fingers are being pointed at each other among the seven braves. The characters themselves are also fairly interesting by individual standards. Fremy Speedraw is the lone wolf with a cold heart and dark past. Labeled by others as a brave killer, she is also a prime suspect in the beginning until Hans begins tearing Adelt’s story apart. One of the most intriguing part of the series is her relationship development with Adelt. It’s hard to say exactly their nature as Adelt trusts her but she doesn’t in return on most parts. As they spend more time together though, some of this begins to change as Fremy wishes to learn more about him. Hans also becomes a character that will catch the audience’s attention. Not only does he seem to be the most mysterious but he is also very intelligent with his deductive thinking. The way he analyzes Adelt shows his wits as a critical thinker. This seems to contrast with characters such as Chamo and Goldov who seems to be only there for their own personal reasons. Chamo doesn’t even seem to care much about who the fake brave because of her childish and perhaps borderline insane personality. Goldov just seems to be there because of his undying loyalty for Nashetanya. Speaking of which, Nashetanya herself is also shrouded by mystery regarding her true alliances and personality. It seems that her personality actually changes depending on who she interacts with. Throughout the series, it’s hard to not also label her as a suspect of the fake seventh brave. Finally, there’s the level headed thinker, Mora. Becomes of her calm personality and age, she is seen in regards as the leader of the braves. Although as time goes on, she displays more of desperation to kill the fake hero. What to say about all these characters? They all seem so different but their common goal is the same: to get rid of the mole and kill the Demon God. The catch is that the show focuses a lot more on discovering the fake hero rather than their collective journey. As a show that present itself this way, it can be a hit or miss for certain fans. Personally, it’s something that I welcome with its refreshing concepts. It inspires theories from the viewers and let ourselves think who may be the fake hero. Additionally, the show does a fairly well job at establishing its world fiction and background history. What may be disappointing is the pacing as the show only adapts the first volume as a 1-cour series. In other words, certain parts of the original story is omitted while we don’t learn a whole lot about our main characters (example: Chamo, Goldov, Mora). Furthermore, the relationship dynamics seems to focus more on Adelt and Fremy than any other character in terms of depth. The others only seems to be there for their own reasons such as Goldov’s loyalty to Nashetanya or Chamo’s respect for Mora. It’s a bit of letdown for anyone who is more curious about the other heroes as their characterization isn’t as strong as Adelt or Fremy. Passione is a fairly new studio as they’ve only recently worked on Rail Wars, a show that is easily forgettable. Taking that aside, I would say that the artwork aspects of Rokka no Yuusha exceeds expectations. The world fiction is fascinated illustrated with the resourceful mountainous regions. There’s also inspirations that are drawn from the Azetc-like architectures and gorgeous views of the dense forests. Temples are also decorated with high class fantasy characteristics and Kyouma (the monsters that are spawned by the Demon God) heightens the legitimacy of their world’s danger. Furthermore, the character designs of the main characters are all very distinctive with their combat gear, fighting style, and even animal motifs. The action of the show is also very well performed with good amount of cinematic body movements and clever camera angle timings. There’s little fan service although some of the CGI designs of the Kyouma can be distracting at times. But all in all, it’s a fairly well produced show that is hard to forget when its art department is mentioned. Soundtrack is also strong enough to keep up with the rest of the series. The OP theme song has two parts – the first half gives off a general impression of the show while the second half is more symbolic of the main characters. Some of the ED theme songs are also performed by the characters’ VA themselves, something that I found quite unique. Speaking of which, the character voice mannerisms all are noticeable whether it’s Hans’ cat-like dialects, Fremy’s cold voice tone, or Mora’s commanding presence. The show also does well with its OST particularly when the mystery aspects kicks in with its more eerie coordination. Some of the underwhelming performances will probably be Chamo as her childishness can be borderline annoying or Goldov’s single minded role. Adelt is really also a character that people will find to like or hate just by his personality matched by his voice. But despite that, the soundtrack and voice performances still show of what Rokka no Yuusha is capable of. And that’s definitely not something so easily accomplished in a show like this especially with it being so talky and filled with dialogues. What can be said about Rokka no Yuusha in the end? It’s a fantasy series but not one you will expect to be like from the beginning. Yes, there is still action and magic like the most of the typical stuff fans are used to these days. But unlike others, Rokka no Yuusha adapts with its premise that will hook the viewers into getting into the show more and more. Rather than just watching, it’s also anticipating what the audience will think who the fake hero is as the story progresses. With a good degree of high class fantasy setting and colorful characters, it’s also hard to also ignore those aspects of the show. No, it’s not Dangan Ronpa or Btooom that becomes more of a survival game. Instead, Rokka no Yuusha stands out on its own as not just a fictional fantasy/detective story but also a creative engine with all sorts of matching gears.

In the beginning of the anime, I'm impress with the mighty works of the main character. He proclaim himself as the Strongest Man in the World. Well it seems too odd but awesome. In the mid of episode 5-7, the main character is seems to be treated as a traitor or known as the fake seventh. The graphics and the characters personality showed up and so incredible. I put this anime to 10 means OUTSTANDING. Well because it has an originally. Nothing can compare to that thing. I hope that the case who is the seventh will be revealed.

If I told you guys that Rokka no Yuusha was a mystery show and you took a look at this anime at first glance without any background information whatsoever, you’d probably wonder if I was off my pills again. Well maybe I am, but the point is that yes, despite the fact that the setting, characters, and overall driving force are as standard fantasy as they come, Rokka no Yuusha’s plot belongs to the whodunnit side of the genre with plenty of suspects and a lot of circular logic to be had. Which doesn’t exactly change the fact that I’m still watching standard fantasy adaptedby a studio whose last anime was freaking Rail Wars, an anime with so much false advertising attached to it that Burger King advertisements look truthful by comparison. But I do like mysteries, so this standard fantasy was worth taking a look at at the very least. See if this mixing of genres turns out an exciting combination or a generic kitchen sink. Twelve episodes later and all I can summon for this show is a resounding “mrgh”, which is pretty much a combination of “meh” and “urgh” if you didn’t quite get that. A more common word to describe my judgement would be “mediocre”, which isn’t the worst thing to happen when it comes to the “LN adaptation” field, but you’re reading the wrong guy if you think I’m going to excuse a “better than usual” product from a medium whose very form of entertainment runs on poor working conditions and sex crime. Because there was potential for true greatness here with just a little more polish could have made a good mystery anime or even a good character study. Instead, Rokka no Yuusha is pretty much a bad anime made pretentious from its inability to execute its unique ideas properly. So the show takes place in some fantasy land where six chosen heroes called Braves must vanquish a great evil called the Demon God, and said Braves are chosen by crests marked on their body from the Goddess of Fate due to their unique abilities. Our focus character is Adlet Myer, a guy who proclaims to be the strongest man in the world and resolves to prove said boast by invading tournaments and wooing ladies whom are more likely to kill him than they are to listen to his big mouth. After said shonen behavior combined with his skillful fighting gets him marked as a chosen hero, he teams up with a bunny girl princess - and I know some people have been praising the Mesopotamian symbolism that was added in by the anime staff, but it’s hard to take anything knee-deep in religious culture seriously when one your characters looks like she’s wearing an extra costume from a Tales game. It’d be like if Haibane Renmei made Reki wear a jockstrap and a beanie the entire runtime. Anyways, he teams up with said princess and meets up with other Braves along the way before they all gather at a temple, only to realize there are seven of them. Naturally, one of them has to be an imposter working undercover in order to sabotage their mission, and when Adlet is suspected due to some circumstantial evidence against his favor, he must avoid the fighting prowess of his comrades whilst figuring out which one of them is trying to set him up. The fact that it takes four episodes to even get to the mystery plotline is one big point against the show’s favor, but whilst things start getting exciting afterwards, the show peters out of energy fast. Whilst I applaud the team’s decision to just adapt a single volume into twelve episodes because they realized that it can only go downhill from there, by the time the finale rolled around, I had long since stopped caring who the imposter actually was because this team doesn’t seem to understand how to make a mystery interesting. The big elephant in the room is the production. I’m not going to mince words: it is freaking crap, with tons of bad CG and awful cinematography. Even with the studio’s clear lack of money and resources compared to the big wigs, it probably wasn’t in their best interest to hire a director who’s pretty much made a career out of nothing but borderline porn and a LN adaptation that most people consider to be a classic but I consider to be rubbish. There’s this one scene at the end of the fourth episode where the camera tries to build tension by rotating around the room for over a minute Sonic 2006-style to the point that it gave me nausea whilst simultaneously making me want to punch the person who approved that shot in the face. And it also doesn’t help there is quite a bit of fighting in this show, where the few scenes of decent choreography are let down by the lack of in-between animation during moves compounded with horrendously out-of-place CG monsters and magic make them incredibly unexciting to watch. Sometimes, the director shoots the action so close to the camera that I can’t even tell who’s aiming at who or whether someone got hit or not. This is far from the budget issues that plague Ushio and Tora. This is just incompetence that makes Gangsta look like John Wick. But no amount of production issues can make me overlook how padded everything is. Once the mystery actually starts, too much of the runtime is spent on the actual deductions and getting from Point A to Point B rather than making said transitions meaty so I'd care about them. Very few of the characters are actually interesting because aside from Adlet and an eye-patched girl named Flamie, we barely get to know them apart from the fact that they come from some fucked-up places and have their own ideologies on how to kill, namely in how fast and cruel they want to do it. There's a little bit of the "clashing of philosophical conflicts regarding different ways of life" that made the author's last work, The Book of Bantorra, fun to watch, but it is very neutered here because it mostly manifests in lame action and circular logic that is repeated endlessly doesn't go anywhere rather than something actually challenging. I can't even remember what that knight who protects the princess actually does, let alone his name. The development given to the more characterized of the bunch isn't so hot either, because it's mostly just flashbacks regarding racism or idealism that are incredibly hackneyed in execution before resulting in a token romance that is as believable as the scientific study that humans only use 10% of their brain in daily life. And to make it more frustrating, said token romance ends up as nothing more than an "I hate you. Well I love you" affair, which is pretty much the third-world country of romance all on its own. However it wasn't the worst thing in the world, so I gave it a pass. And despite the story having no rewatch value whatsoever because there's not much there beyond the actual deductions along with there being no point in watching a mystery again if you know the mystery, I was willing to give the show a "well it wasn't that bad" recommendation to people who have lower standards than I do. But then those last few minutes occurred and they ruined everything. Going to be mild spoilers here, but I can't exactly conclude the review without mentioning this, so if you haven't watched this show and take offense to learning anything beyond what's written on the synopsis, I'd advise you to stop reading right now. Also, those who can't handle my hate speeches should probably stay way too. If you spend the entire runtime having your characters overcome a challenge, only to rehash that challenge for your sequel-hook ending without so much as a break in-between, all goodwill suddenly disappears when you realize that the authors weren't taking the subject material as seriously as the audience was. It's a cheap method of baiting your audience whilst ensuring that they have nothing to look forward to but the same old shit should they ever make more of it (and I very much doubt they will), and it didn't help that it just put further stakes into the token romance that it quite frankly didn't need. Nothing is more designed to aggravate the mind than substance-less stories with cliffhangers, especially ones that have had absolutely no foreshadowing whatsoever or so little foreshadowing that it doesn't matter either way. And seriously, a freaking cow uniform? You're jealous of a girl in a cow uniform? And cow uniforms are considered suitable fighting clothes in this universe? At least the bunny suit looked mobile, let alone like appealing eye-candy.