The Ballad of Goldof.
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Ishio Yamagata and Miyagi
Translation/Adaptation:
What They Say
A loyal hero…but to whom?
After escaping from Tgurneu’s clutches, the Braves of the Six Flowers set off through the Howling Vilelands once again…until one of the seven leads them straight into a trap! A desperate struggle begins as the fractured group must contend with not only the former impostor but two powerful fiend commanders as well or risk losing one of their most valuable Saints. Have the heroes finally found their traitor? Or is the rogue Brave just another victim? Can they solve the mystery before it’s too late…?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Rokka: Braves of the Six Flowers continues its trend in volume three of focusing mostly on one of the main heroes, telling their backstory, motivations, and so on. While the last book gave us a glimpse into the mind of Mora, this one tells us the tragic story of the criminally misunderstood Goldof.
Goldof hasn’t exactly had the easiest storyline thus far, discovering the love of his life whom he serves with everything that’s in him is and perhaps always has been a traitor. Teased in volume two, we finally see the impact of Nashetania’s betrayal in this volume with her surprising return. I certainly didn’t expect her to come back so quickly, and it was a welcome comeback that gave the story the push it needed.
However, that isn’t to say that this volume didn’t have its issues. Without spoiling too much, Goldof running off on his own and his subsequent plot points with Nashetania were some of the strongest in the entire series but it’s surrounded by a ton of pandering that watered down what could’ve been much, much better on its own.
For one, this story suffers from taking place entirely within the span of basically a single battle; a long one at that. Volume two kept us on its toes with at least a couple of different battles and some necessary downtime in between, but the pacing is pretty non-stop here in volume three.
This is worsened by the fact that we essentially have to read through most of the same battle twice, once with Adlet and the gang and the other from Goldof’s perspective. There are some notable differences and revelations given by seeing everything once more through the eyes of someone else, but it really didn’t have to take so many pages to do so.
Re-reading everything all over again became more of a slog than it should’ve been. The payoff was nice but hardly worth it. Rokka: Braves of the Six Flowers would have benefited from a significant shortening of the latter act that focuses on Goldof, as the double dipping, unfortunately, lessens the strong material contained within this battle.
We see the return of the always enjoyable Tgurneu and the introduction of Dozzu, one of the other two Fiend leaders. Dozzu fascinated me throughout the entire volume due to his ability to have his hand in just about everything that has happened thus far.
The interactions the Braves have with Tgurneu and Dozzu at different times have me very intrigued and curious about where the story is going from here, especially that surprise temporary partnership at the end. The theme of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” is sprinkled just enough throughout the novel to truly raise questions about what could be in store. Unfortunately, it won’t be until the next novel that we find out what exactly is happening.
The real stars of this novel were Goldof and Nashetania. The little tidbits of Goldof’s story that are given to us just a little bit at a time are truly wonderful. How it intersects with Nashetania is interesting as well, making me feel actually sympathetic and understanding towards her character and why she did what she did. Hopefully, this is a dynamic that is expanded upon in the next volume as I feel it wasn’t given enough room to shine – particularly with Nashetania – in volume three.
In Summary:
In so many ways Rokka: Braves of the Six Flowers Volume #3 would have been better off almost half the length as it ended up being. The repeat of the same already too long battle for far too many pages bog down the great developments that occur within. Once again, backstories win out in Rokka with the story of Goldof and Nashetania proving that there’s more to this story than meets the eye. With such a shocking partnership at the end, I am very excited to see what comes next in Rokka.
Content Grade: C
Art Grade: B-
Packaging Grade: B
Text/Translation Grade: B-
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Yen Press
Release Date: December 19th, 2017
MSRP: $14.00
