Rokka: Braves of the Six Flowers

12 Episodes

2015

Alternative Title

Rokka no Yuusha

Genre

Fantasy; Mystery; Drama; Magic; Action; Thriller; Romance

Synopsis

When the Demon God awakens, the Goddess of Fate brands six warriors with the crest of six flowers, tasking them to defeat it. Adlet Myer – the self-proclaimed ‘strongest man in the world’ – is chosen as one of these six blessed braves. He travels to the meeting point of the so-called ‘braves of the six flowers’ with a princess and some others he meets along the way. However, when they arrive, not only is there a fog barrier confining them to a temple and its surrounding forest, but seven crested braves show up. The worst part is that they’re convinced Adlet is the fake siding with their enemy…

Content Advisory

This is not a comprehensive list of every individual use of strong content, merely a guide to show you how extreme it gets and how strong it tends to be. Also, the tags I’ve given each segment (e.g. Very Strong Language) is based on my own system and does not necessarily reflect the tags the BBFC (or other national equivalent) use. According to my system, the ‘Mild’, ‘Moderate’, ‘Strong’ and ‘Very Strong’ adjectives are based on strength, not on volume. Now, obviously, the strength of any type of content is subjective; what I consider strong might just be a relaxing weekend for you. Hence, I have added an explanation for my decision to allow you to make your own informed decision.

Please also note that the ‘colourful’ language I am referring to here is based on Bang Zoom! Entertainment’s English Dub. The Japanese Dub may (and probably does) differ.

Mild Sex References

Some references to breasts, but no nudity is shown. Cleavage is present, but the characters remain fully clothed.

A scene shows one of the male characters getting embarrassed and averting his eyes when a female character asks them to check the crest on their chest.

Strong Bloody Violence

After episode four, there is less of this as it is mostly present when the Fiends show up.

Quite a number of action scenes that are quite bloody when the Fiends are involved. Lots of bloody slashes, etc.

After the aforementioned episode four, the action scenes generally become less bloody. At this point, they mostly feature weapon clashes and some more minor wounds.

Moderate Gore

As with the above, after episode four, most of the gore vanishes as the Fiends show up less.

A fair few Fiend decapitations which sometimes show the vacant neck, although they don’t tend to show a great deal of detail and are quite brief.

In a similar vein (pun not intended) a brief scene shows a human character’s neck being split apart, but again, there isn’t much flesh detail.

The most extreme scene stars one large Fiend getting cut open and a character putting their hands inside to pull something out.

Mild Language

Though the language most definitely never surpasses the strength of these in the dub, due to the mild nature of the language, I do not have a note of the exact terms marked down. Further down the line (i.e. when I finally rewatch the series again) I will update this segment.

Uses of ‘crap’, ‘damn’, ‘ass’ and ‘bastard’.

Reasons to Watch

This is the difficult part. I don’t want you to see this entry as an oversized ‘DON’T WATCH THIS’ post. Equally, I don’t want to influence your opinion with a biased review – there’s a reason this website is called ‘Anime Insights’ and not ‘Anime Reviews’! In this section, I’m going to try to convey to you some of the reasons (in no particular order) that I’ve seen this show’s fans give for enjoying it!

A tough mystery with high production values from a director who has been repeatedly praised for his direction and ability to make shows work.

The mystery is actually one that you solve alongside the characters and is as much about how they did it as it is about who did it.

It’s also a rare fantasy-mystery that doesn’t rely on saying ‘this person has infinite magical power, so of course they could do this’ because it actually limits each magically viable character to only having one type of magic.

Barrier of Entry

It drops its initial plot line of going to defeat the demon god after episode four, opting instead to focus on its mystery. This may drop some of its viewers who were expecting more of the adventure.

Conversely, any viewers exclusively in it for the mystery, the first four adventure episodes may put them off.

Adlet’s catchphrase of being the strongest man in the world may grate on some people’s patience.

The 3D in this is quite obvious and may spoil the immersion of some viewers. I should point out that it’s used mainly for the Fiends, so as has become the catchphrase of this entry, after episode four, it’s less present.

Music

Opening Themes

Cry for the Truth by MICHI (Ep. 1-4, 12)

Black Swallowtail by UROBOROS (Ep. 5-11)

Ending Themes

Secret Sky by MICHI (Ep. 1-3, 8, 12)

Dance in the Fake by Yōko Hikasa (Ep. 4-5, 10)

Nameless Heart by Aoi Yūki (Ep. 6-7, 9, 11)

Hardcopy Notes

At the time of uploading this (29/08/2018), the English dub is only available on Anime Limited’s UK release. Incidentally, the UK version also contains the series with a rare extra language option as it can also be viewed with the French dub or in Japanese with French subtitles. The American version only contains the series in Japanese with English or Spanish subtitles.

Staff List

For some reason, Bang Zoom! Entertainment never revealed who their ADR Director or ADR Scriptwriter was, so I can’t fill it in.

Also, while I’ve seen other sources credit more than one Chief Animation Director, the actual Blu-Ray credits only credit Sayaka Koiso as the General Animation Director. Not to say I don’t trust those other sources, I’m just choosing to rely on the physical release for safety purposes.

Animation Production: Passione

Director: Takeo Takahashi

Series Composition: Tatsuhiko Urahata

Music: Michiru Oshima

Original Creator: Ishio Yamagata

Original Character Design: Miyagi

Animation Character Design & General Animation Director: Sayaka Koiso

Art Director: Hirotsugu Kakoi

Lead Voice Actors:

Sōma Saitō as Adlet Myer

Yōko Hikasa as Nachetanya

Aoi Yūki as Flamie Speeddraw

Lead Voice Actors (Bang Zoom! Entertainment):

Robbie Daymond as Adlet Myer

Abby Trott as Nachetanya

Brianna Knickerbocker as Flamie Speeddraw