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!

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I finally got my hands on one of those wacky Ponycan releases! Their packaging is indeed very strange, and it looks like I’m going to have to store it sideways above my shelf or something, but unfortunately the show itself wasn’t quite as interesting. Rokka has a great first episode, but man does it ever tumble after that. I wouldn’t even be against it shifting from action-adventure to slow-burning getting-to-know-you episodes in the abstract – that annoyed me the first time I watched it, but this time I knew what to expect. The real problem is that the actual dialogue is just so very, very bad. If you’re gonna make a character-focused fantasy piece, you really gotta sell those characters!

Anyway. You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my episode notes below!

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