Jan 12, 2017
This is just a random review I wrote a little while back. Please note that I wrote this at 4 in the morning and it has been quite a while since I have watched the series. I hope you enjoy this rambling review.
Rokka no Yuusha is an anime that I heavily enjoyed, but I have many problems with the series itself.
The story of Rokka no Yuusha itself is fairly well executed and went at the perfect pace for what the show was going for. The series actually takes its time, and it's quite splendid. We get to delve more into the characters and
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we get to take in the narrative as it slowly unravels.
Though contrary to popular opinion, I believe the first 3-4 episodes actually weren't half bad, and worked for the story. It may have seemingly 'typical fantasy adventure', but there was something a bit uneasy about these episodes. The colour pallet is very dulled, and there's just this sense of uncertainty in the characters and setting. It was off, and a normal fantasy adventure series isn't necessarily like that.
Once the all the braves got together, that's when everything became a bit more exciting. This was where the real juice of the series started. It went from a semi unsettling adventure series to a mystery thriller series.
This is quite different from the typical fantasy anime, and I honestly appreciate that. It's something different.
All the personalities clash and tension and paranoia arise. We see this characters who don't know one another try and figure out who's the imposter. It's an interesting battle of wit, and we, as viewers, don't really know who to believe either. All we know about these characters is what they put forth and how they generally present themselves. We know just as much as the characters know, and that's what makes this part of the narrative work.
When they ultimately blame Adlet, we get to see more excitement and more sides to these characters. The show is still on a high of excitement thrills and interesting conversation.
Is Adlet really the false brave? If not, then who is it? Is it Mora? Is it Nashetania? Is it Goldov? Is it Hans? Is it Chamo? Is it Fremy? Only time would tell.
The reveal of the false brave worked, and I honestly didn't see it coming. Maybe I was possibly too naive to notice, but I will give props to the writers on this one.
Each character was a bit insane, so anyone would have made sense. But it was Nashetania, a princess, but she was actually influenced by this Demon God to commit these acts.
The ending of the series is a piece of rubbish, quite frankly. It ends just exactly how it started: there is another false brave. Why they decided to do this is beyond me. Why is cow girl a bloody brave? Who the hell is second false brave? Since I basically don't ever touch the source material, and the series did terribly in Japan, I will probably never find out. The series would have just been better off with just ending when Nashetania fled, and the six braves head to battle the Demon God. But no, let's make this more of a bloody commercial. Great, just great.
The characters themselves feel more like glimpses at who they are, and the series doesn't explore most of them to great depth. Yes, this makes sense considering it's a mystery series, and it may have given away the false brave more easily. The characters we get to see the most of are Adlet and Fremy.
Adlet claims to be "the strongest man in the world" and is a bit of a cocky individual, but he's actually more than that. The series delves into his backstory, and we get to see a different side of his character. This dude has had kind of a shoddy life, but he tries to stay on the more positive side of things. Adlet is a character with actual depth and personality, unlike many protagonists of his ilk. He was actually pretty likeable, and I was actually rooting for him when he was in danger.
The other character with a decent amount of screen time and depth is Fremy. She, like Adlet, has had a pretty shitty life. Her character is fairly quiet, yet fierce. She is basically an example of a Rei Ayanami clone, but she actually gets some depth, unlike many of the other clones of her type. Fremy was a character that was fun to watch on screen, and it was nice to see her get the spotlight like she did.
Before I move on to the other members of the cast, I'd like to mention the semi romance subplot between Adlet and Fremy. Honestly, this subplot feels very forced and manufactured. I get why Adlet would try to do this so he Fremy on his side, but it didn't really work for me. The two characters don't really have much chemistry as lovers.
The rest of the cast is filled with personality, but we don't get to see much of the individual characters themselves. None of them are really worth mentioning, except for Nashetania.
Nashetania is an interesting character. I feel like we know a lot, yet nothing about her character at the same time. I wish we got to delve deeper into this young woman's mind, and we got to see how it worked with a bit of a clearer eye. This woman is mad, and I wanted to see more of her insanity.
One other thing I'd like to mention is yet again, Nashetania and how she wears armour that resembles that of a rabbit. In many different cultures, the rabbit is often considered to be a 'trickster'. I didn't realise that when I was watching the series, but it makes sense to have her kind of symbolise that since she was the trickster. She tricked everyone.
The rest of the cast is fun, and they all bounce off each other fairly well. Each character feels distinct and rather different from one another. Like with Nashetania, I'd like to see more of these characters, and more of their backstories.
The character designs for this series are honestly a stand out for me. They all make sense for their given character, and can convey their personalities just through the way they look. The designs are also rather well drawn, and have stuck with me for quite sometime. The setting was also quite something. The architecture resembled more of a Mayan or Aztec like society; most fantasy anime have European or Japanese esc architecture. This further differentiated itself from other fantasy anime.
The actual animation for the show is honestly rubbish. It's really horrible. Most of the show kind of is just awkward to watch, and it's very off-putting. There's not much movement, and when there is, it is really bad.
The CG they use in this show looks like it's from a crappy PS2 game. It's ugly, and makes me want to vomit.
Why do you do this to me, Rokka no Yuusha?
The bad animation could have been saved a bit for good cinematography, but sadly that's simply not the case. Most of the shots are fairly flat, static, and boring. It just makes long dialogue scenes harder to watch. Studio Shaft is splendid making long dialogue scenes interesting. You need to make your shots interesting and creative to keep the viewer invested.
The fight choreography is also rubbish. It's very messy and it's honestly impossible to comprehend what's happening on screen.
The music was fairly solid, but there was nothing really stand out. The only piece that was notable was the third ending theme. The song was pretty, and it has some nice shots.
The voice acting was solid too. The voices fit their characters, and the cast seemed to have at least some fun with it.
It's hard to really think of huge themes for Rokka no Yuusha. This adaptation is only a tiny fraction of the narrative, at least from what I've heard from light novel readers. I suppose that some themes/ideas could be 'be careful of who you put your trust in' or 'it's always the one who you least expect'. I quite frankly don't know. It's been over a year since I've watched this shit.
In conclusion, Rokka no Yuusha is a fun, yet highly flawed series. The series works for its unique setting, interesting characters, and engaging mystery, but fails with a horrid ending and garbage animation.
I can't really say I'd recommend this to anyone unless you want a different twist on the fantasy genre.
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On an extra note, this is one of the few series where I'd actually prefer it see be remade. I would want it to be handled by Shaft since they know how to make long dialogue scenes interesting, along with creating an unsettling atmosphere. Somehow, I want maybe Mamoru Oshii as the director, and have Akiyuki Shinbou as the chief director. It's probably impossible, but I'd love to see what those two could create together. I think the music should be handled by Yuki Kajiera (you know who I mean). Her style, I believe, would fit really well with that this series is going for. Akio Watanabe's character design would look nice for this series. I'm not really sure who would be involved with the writing, though possibly Dai Sato, but I'm not really sure.
This staff collection and just the general idea of this getting remade is already impossible, so I'll stop now.
I did this for absolutely nothing.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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