Rokka: Braves of the Six Flowers

Summary: >

In a cycle of many many years, the demon god awakens and his minions spread across the land bringing death and destruction. Six of the strongest warriors are chosen by the Goddess of Fate, and bear her mark. Together they're the only ones who can restore peace to the land.

The warriors meet in a temple, although none know each other. They discover they're trapped. The numbers don't match however. There are seven gathered and only six heroes. One of them is an imposter.

Thoughts: >

Rokka is a tough one to review in it's current state, because it's hardly even started. However it's a darn good start, like a great first chapter of a book that could potentially develop into something very cool. Maybe.

Rokka is more a traditional fantasy. It plays out like a book, which I liked; but seems uneven with many book like issues. There is an awkward flow to this anime. It's full of story telling, with plenty of travel time, occasionally punctuated with action stuff. It's not always the action that's exciting, because sometimes the dialog is interesting and combat is boring.

So the adventurers gather for a long journey to fulfill a quest, but they're together by episode 4, then stuck in a temple.. and that's the rest of the anime. What? Yeah, it's seriously weird. One of them is an imposter, and none of them can leave until the traitor is killed. The rest of the time is spent in a "who-dunnit" mystery. Doubt is cast on various characters, and it does a fair job at keeping the viewer guessing although it feels very long for what it is. This leads to a disappointing resolution through unlikely leaps in deduction, and coincidence - so it doesn't really have the intelligence needed to properly pull it off. Cool idea though.

The group assembled is an interesting bunch. Although only 2-3 are explored in detail, they have exceptional development with a good amount of depth to them. If the rest of the group gets explored to this extent with the background detail to back them up, this series will be in a very good spot.

It's hard to rate a show well when I don't know if it will finish. This is a common fault in anime these days, but relevant since Rokka hasn't even gotten to the core story yet. In what's told thus far, it's too long for what's accomplished, but I'm intrigued with the odd direction and characters. It's a good start, but I'd hold off on watching until more seasons arrive.

Screen Caps: >