Title: Rokka: Braves of the Six Flowers Vol. 4
Author: Kei Toru (Art), Ishio Yamagata (Story), Miyagi (Character Art)
Publisher: Yen Press
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 164
Genre: Shonen, Mystery, Fantasy
Publication Date: November 14, 2017
The Story
Volume four of Rokka: Braves of the Six Flowers starts out with the braves trying to kill Adlet since they are convinced that he is the seventh brave. Nashetania joins the fight along with Goldof and it causes Adlet to flee; however, after fighting Nashetania with her ice power, he remembers that the barrier was very cold. Adlet leads them all to the place where the fiends attacked them back in volume one. After he can’t run any longer due to his blood loss, Adlet pins all of his hopes on trying to expose the seventh’s true plan.
He talks about Leura, the Saint of Sun and how he theorizes that she was kidnapped by the seventh and forced to make the air surrounding the temple really hot. Then, an ally of the seventh fed them false information about activating the barrier. Once they “activated” the barrier, Leura was killed and the temperature dropped, causing fog. This is when the seventh truly activated the barrier sealing them in. The one who activated the barrier was revealed to be Nashetania herself. After being backed into a corner, Nashetania confesses that she is the fake brave. After a battle with her, it is shown that she is a greater fiend and makes her escape.
Adlet has finally cleared his name and the six braves are fully together. Adlet meets up with Fremy in a bit of a cute scene. After they decided to kill the evil god, an unknown wanderer is seen walking through the woods, stating that they lost their way because of the fog. This wanderer bares the mark of a brave on her chest, meaning that there is another fake brave among the group. Sadly, this is where the series ends with a “To Be Continued?” message on the final page.
So the manga adaptation is simply just an adaptation of the anime. I was truly hoping that the story would go beyond what we saw during the anime, but I suppose that is what the light novels are for. I can’t really judge this as a complete series, but I can judge it as a manga adaptation of the anime which, was pretty accurate save for the rearranging of events back in the first volume. It was fun getting to relive this story, though, even if I knew how it was going to turn out.
Characters
Obviously, the big character development here was with Nashetania being outed as the fake brave. Her reason for doing what she did was rather weak. She wished for true peace and, therefore, wanted to resurrect the evil god so that she could negotiate a co-existence between humans and fiends. She said there would only be a small sacrifice for this to happen to the tune of 500,000 people. Of course, this was not acceptable which lead to the battle between her and the braves in which she barely escaped with her life. Since I haven’t read the light novels, I would assume she will show back up in the future with some sort of plan to stop the braves from accomplishing their mission. I just wish there was a better motive to base this entire series upon It just felt rather weak. Had she just claimed to be an agent of the evil god to try and stop his demise, that would have worked so much better; even if it was really cliché.
The only other development was between Fremy and Adlet. I’m really loving the relationship between the two of them. It was pretty cute for Fremy to state that she hates Adlet because whenever she’s together with him it makes her want to keep living. Oh those tsundere love confessions. They’re so awkward yet totally cute at the same time!
I do have to say that Hans turned out to be a pretty cool cat… horrible pun intended. His whole entire attitude and the loyalty he has shown… despite his eccentric personality… shows that he is going to be a great friend. He reminds me of someone who would always have your back in a pinch and someone that you can count in. In before he ends up being the second fake brave and makes me eat every single word I just typed. But seriously, he was one of my favorite characters from this series!
Final Thoughts
Overall, the mystery of the series was pretty good and the subtle clues they left did kind of point to who the seventh was… especially when Nashetania had her sudden shift in personality. Had they tried to mask it by having her feeling betrayed by the one she trusted rather than just suddenly switching into crazy mode, it would have made it a bit harder for the reader to discern the fact that she was the seventh. Even when watching the anime, that was the moment for me that sealed the deal when it came to figuring out who the fake was.
Rokka, Braves of the Six Flowers has been a fun series. While the mystery isn’t really all too deep, it still makes you try and take some guesses as to who the fake is. Add in the fantasy setting with demons and magic and you have yourself a nice little fantasy mystery that’s not part of the ever-expanding Isekai genre. I have noticed that the Isekai boom is starting to cause the Pure Fantasy genre to make a comeback. I hope so because that is one of my favorite genres in any medium. As a fantasy series, Rokka, Braves of the Six Flowers is a nice addition and I hope it’s part of the spark that brings this genre back into the limelight! Definitely a series worth picking up!
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This item was provided for review by Yen Press
