The second collection of Rokka has come in, and fortunately, this set of episodes turned out to be far superior to the first. Having the first four episodes of your show be a boring feint in a genre you’re not particularly good at seems like a weird choice, but now that I’ve actually passed the early episode doldrums, it turns out Rokka is actually a perfectly entertaining mystery/action thing. Its character writing may not be great, but that doesn’t matter when all the characters are doing is tossing theories about traitors back and forth. And the cast is diverse enough in their motives and personalities to make this an engaging whodunit adventure. I’ve heard awkward things about the show’s final act, but this middle segment was plenty of fun.
You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my episode notes below!
Episode 5
Alright, so everyone’s trapped in the meeting place
Seven people, six crests
A new OP
Fun action sequences here of the whole group fighting each other
Trying to find a way out of their trap, but it somehow circles in on itself. The barrier, a very neat trick
Hans hides his past, Flamie’s been chained up
The barrier can be disabled if the person who activated it either deactivates it or dies. Very strong setup for this set of accusations
Chamot’s the kid
Another one of these ambitious spinning shots, this one pulling back across the entire party as it turns about the room. It works quite well – the actual shifting character animation is strong, and the room is simple and dark enough that the CG doesn’t look disruptive
A very active camera in general
“Nyow I’m even more interested”
They all explain their backstories
Maura Chester, the Saint of Mountains
She’s from the temple that supervises the Saints
They keep baiting the strength of Chamot
Hans is an assassin
Another big spinning shot as Hans explains negotiating for money. I’m not sure these shots add all that much, but the show is doing its best to liven up a lot of talking
Hans talks like a cat because his combat style is based on cats. And he has a tail, lol
Flamie was born of a fiend and a human. She has a horn
She was created to be a pawn to fight the Braves
She was raised by fiends
“From my perspective, you’re simply another suspect”
Chamot’s the crazy kid character
Hans makes the excellent point that she should have killed Adlet before she arrived if Flamie were the seventh brave, to make this whole situation much less suspicious. Though of course there is the counterpoint that Flamie likely learned other braves knew about Adlet before she had a chance to kill him
This episode’s actually quite entertaining! The case is being examined in a compelling way
More using the CG backgrounds to create dynamic shots
Hans nails Adlet. “Before you opened the door, entering the temple was impossible”
Hans points out it’s a locked room
Episode 6
“A Trap and a Rout”
The seal applies to the entire building, of course. So Adlet must have been the first to enter
Adlet continues to spin out theories to try and clear his name. It just gets worse for him
Nachetanya is trying to defend him, but her help is just “he didn’t do it!”
Flamie says “do what you all like”
Adlet takes Flamie as a hostage and runs
Nice intimate scene of Adlet trying to set up his defenses as he falls to pieces
Apparently the crests show if a Brave has died. One of the petals disappears
Nachetanya’s already the most suspicious from a storytelling perspective
Adlet flashback time
Young Adlet had no interest in fighting
And then we see his meeting with his master, immediately. A nice transition, actually
“Why did I survive? If I can’t fight the fiends, I don’t deserve to be alive.”
“If you want to be strong, smile!”
“Laugh at despair!” And he gets up
Flamie patched him up, because she’s not entirely sure he’s the seventh
Nice setting here
Flamie is cold, which is understandable, because she doesn’t have real clothes
The two discuss possible ways Adlet could have been set up
Adlet thinks there’s another collaborator, the “eighth,” who sealed the temple after it was entered
Adlet’s “strength” is smiling in the face of despair
“Delusion.” “No! Willpower!”
“If you can’t smile anymore, it’s over.”
And Flamie finally asks him why he wanted to be a Brave
Episode 7
Very nice colors here. The glow of the fire, the green light of the fireflies
“You’re just an average man with a lot of unusual weapons.”
She wonders how someone like that could become so strong
Adlet’s training included making weapons and other applications of science
It’s a surprisingly frank and believable conversation between these two
When he was a kid, a single fiend came to his village
God, the CG fiends look pretty awkward
The fiend can speak!
He speaks to the leader of the village, who declares the village will move to the land of the demon king
That fiend was the one who came up with the idea of creating Flamie
“My best friend died protecting me. My brother died so I could escape.”
“My master said it was because of them that I could become strong.”
“A man doesn’t become strong for revenge. He becomes strong because he believes in something”
Flamie’s sad-sack story
Her mother tried to kill her when she failed to kill Chamot
“My mom… she pretended to love me”
So now Flamie must DESTROY THE DEMON KING
“I had a dog. I wonder what it’s doing now.” The ultimate Flamie line
“You don’t suspect me. That’s more than enough reason for me to suspect you.”
“Don’t get the wrong idea. I haven’t fallen in love with you or anything!” Friggin’ Adlet
Flamie gives him a signal to call her by
“I became strong so that I wouldn’t lose anything ever again.”
The group splits into pairs to hunt Adlet
But Chamot just wants to go play
Hans wonders if Flamie could kill her mother
Nachetanya says she’s going to work to prove Adlet isn’t the seventh
Adlet realizes that if they’re in pairs, the seventh could kill whoever they’re with
Lots of interested dramatic shifts based on the varying positions of the characters
Nice fight between Hans and Adlet to end this one
Episode 8
“An average man can’t surpass a genius.” We’re finally getting more of Adlet’s scrappy fighting techniques against a real warrior
And this overall fight is great. Great momentum, very parsable
“I kill, but I don’t lie. Lying is wrong”
He’s intentionally making Hans suspicious
Great trick by Adlet. He sets up a situation where Hans knows he would have won, and deliberately loses, to prove that he’s not the seventh
“If I were the seventh, trying to kill you would be safer than missing you”
“If Hans is the seventh, I’m doomed”
And Hans makes him truly prove it, by claiming to be the seventh himself
Maura and Flamie have a chat
A bunch of scenes dedicated to make one or the other characters seem more suspicious
Good conversations between various pairs here
Chamot’s just gonna kill everyone to find the killer
Chamot has awkward CG monsters