The biggest struggle yet… for the reader and the Braves.
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Ishio Yamagata and Miyagi
Translation/Adaptation: Jennifer Ward
What They Say:
The Braves of the Six Flowers forge ahead, struggling desperately to escape Tgurneu’s latest scheme and discover the imposter among them before it’s too late. But this time, the Braves have agreed to work with one of the fiend commanders…!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
It’s unfortunate that Rokka: Braves of the Six Flowers has hit its biggest drag in the series yet. Thankfully, the book doesn’t ignore the cliffhanger of the third book and immediately picks up from right there. That part is the best part of the fourth entry as we get to see the first Brave traitor Nashetania and her puppy pal Dozzu interacting with the rest of our heroes, including whoever the second traitor is.
The conversations and interactions between these unlikely collaborators create some memorable moments and continue to showcase the strong writing that the series is known for. It’s also through these characters that we get to understand more of the history of the world and the fiends themselves. All of the revelations that we find out add to the depth of the world and rich lore that creator Ishio Yamagata has lovingly crafted.
The beginning is a little slow but in the right way. The story takes its time building up the world even more as the team begins to find out about the mysterious Black Barrenbloom, a bizarre fiend weapon of some sort that seems to be the thing that the Braves should fear the most. It’s when the team sets out to find out what this thing or person is that the story struggles.
The majority of the book focuses on the group attempting to get through a particular area that is swarmed by zombies controlled by one of villain Tgurneu’s trusted officers. The actual action is great here but what hinders this fourth book so much is the pacing and way the story is presented.
The book itself would have been great but it overexplains when not necessary and, once again, entire sequences are replayed all over again from a different perspective. The problem this time around is that we barely get any interesting info from the other perspectives. There isn’t anything wrong with the viewpoint change but it takes up way too much of the reader’s time and lost me quickly.
What isn’t lost in this entry is the emotional weight of the plot. One new character, in particular, has some tragic parts that definitely left me feeling sad by the end of the book. Those moments were watered down by the constant back-and-forth between the Braves. A couple of our heroes keep bogging down the plot in this book by their indecisions throughout volume four. It certainly felt like this story would have been better off if it was about half the length of what it really was.
In Summary:
Rokka: Braves of the Six Flowers Volume 4 slows the plot down to a crawl and would have benefited from not having what feels like filler. Some of the character’s indecisions, the repetitive nature of the plot, the odd pacing, and the switch between perspectives water down much of the rich lore and revelations that we do get. Thankfully, the cliffhanger at the end is game-changing and it bodes some dark days ahead for the group in the next volume.
Content Grade: C-
Art Grade: B-
Packaging Grade: B
Text/Translation Grade: B-
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Yen Press
Release Date: April 24, 2018
MSRP: $14.00
