Rokka no Yuusha is a summer 2015 anime produced by Passione. It was originally a light novel series that started in 2011 and is written by Ishio Yamagata. It has just ended with 12 episodes and a cliffhanger, implying a second season. 

Rokka no Yuusha is a fantasy set in an Aztec-inspired world. Every hundred years the sealed Demon King starts to awaken and it is up to six chosen individuals, called the Braves of the Flowers, to stop the Demon King and his fiends from taking over. We follow the adventures of Adlet Myer, self-proclaimed ‘the strongest man in the world’, and his journey as he becomes one of the Six Braves. However, when all the Braves supposedly meet, there are seven of them who bear the seal of the flowers…

This review was originally written by tumour baby

I adore the cast of Rokka no Yuusha. Now even though I do, I don’t think they’re quite the best. Our main character Adlet, is a charming and determined character. He is by no conventional means, the strongest, but he uses a balance of wit and hard work to defeat his enemies. His motivations are also quite clear once revealed and you just find it hard to doubt him. He really does raise the appeal of the show. Fremmy, another of our leads, is a mysterious girl who we shortly find out to be a brave-killer. Her past and background make her one of the most interesting characters on the show. She is also quite consistent from the start, making her character growth quite tremendous. While I personally did like the resulting growth Fremmy had, I feel like the reason behind it came too fast and not as well developed as I would have liked. 

The other characters or Braves are also quite interesting. Their mesh of personalities all bring something that diverges from the stereotype they are usually associated with. However, very little background is given to these characters, resulting in little understanding of why they do what they do.  Hopefully in the second season, assuming there is one, this will be remedied.

The plot starts off with a bang. We are introduced to the main premise of defeating the demon king immediately and the importance of the six braves. The plot then takes its time to slowly reveal the extra obstacles that the characters face such as those who want to try to kill the braves. 

When the characters realize that one of them definitely must be a traitor, the story becomes full of mystery. You can’t really trust anyone because you know nothing of them. You pretty much know as much as Adlet knows. This series really knows how to use cliffhangers because just as the important information is revealed, it gets cut off.

There is a minor romance storyline that comes into play. While the characters have a good dynamic in general, the actual romance felt too fast and it seems like a cheap trick to induce plot development. The development, however, was much better executed than I expected and I’m hoping for a good slow burn for season 2.

The music fits just right with the animation of the opening. As it introduces each of the secen braves, it starts to build tension. However when we see the fighting sequences, the music is not in beat with the animation and tends to slow down, and not really living up to the hype it intended. The last part of the opening is done pretty well, implying the mystery that the story is trying to solve.

Rokka no Yuusha has two ending songs. The first ED is slow and gives a sense of both dread and adventure. The word ‘secret’ is also in the lyrics, going along with the theme of the story. The second ED sounds a bit more gentle and soothing at the start and becomes more dramatic as it goes on. I feel like the song was trying to grasp Fremmy’s character and while, music-wise, sounds very nice, is a bit off with the theme going in the story that is filled with mystery and distrust.

Overall, while the EDs and OP were well thought of, it did not feel too remarkable in their execution or in adding any sentiment to the show.

The voice acting was very well done. Certain characters had trademark speech that made them pretty endearing. I think the voices just really matched with the character design and personality.

The animation for this could be better. There were some parts that seemed to blur all the background characters and such were eye-roll worthy. However, there were a lot of good moments such as the close-up on characters during important events and the background scenery were very visually appealing. The fighting sequences were all very smooth and had good transitions! Overall, the animation was better than average with the occasionally lazy work in the background.

I really enjoyed this show and it was probably what I anticipated the most every week. The mystery really caught me. I was just excited for new developments and each cliffhanger I got killed me. I wasn’t super pleased by a certain development between certain characters even though I am quite entranced by that ship. I personally felt that it came on much faster than I would have liked. Still, the current pace it now has is something I can work with (lol). I loved guessing who the 7th was and ultimately, I should have gone with my first guess because I turned out to be right! I want more background on that character though!

Overall, I really liked watching this and I’m very excited for a second season!