Forum - View topicREVIEW: Rokka: Braves of the Six Flowers [Collector's Edition] Sub.Blu-Ray 1+DVD
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chito895
 Posts: 512 Location: Lima, Peru |
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I suppose the character dialogues at the beginning could've been better or more natural, but I really think these dialogues (at least the ones between Adlet and Nachetanya) are supposed to be forced. But I didn't have problems with them overall.
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yuna49
 Posts: 3804 |
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spoiler[Nachetanya's attempts to ingratiate herself to Adlet make perfect sense in the context of the story's conclusion. I presume the reviewer has seen the entire series and should know why she acts the way she does at the beginning.]
Flamie's outfit is clearly silly, but I found her character rather charming. Being voiced by Aoi Yuuki helps a lot. |
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ThatGuyWhoLikesThings
Posts: 1008 |
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As someone who's nearly caught up on the LNs, I liked the Rokka anime. Most of the cast is enjoyable, except for Goldof who does so little he fails to make any impression. The mystery had enough to it so that it wasn't easy to solve, but still very much possible.
On the other hand, the production is horribly inconsistent (with Chamot's powers in particular looking like a disappointment compared to how I imagined them), and the first book, which the anime covers, almost entirely serves as set-up for later developments, character-wise and narrative-wise. So quite a few things feel incomplete or, dare I say, half-assed. Even characters like Chamot, who already didn't end up feeling like the generic crazy loli I thought she was initially as her arrogance and her penchant for strong violence comes from an understandable source, and Goldof, who starts out unbearably boring and initially felt like just a jealous, brooding whiner, get solid character focus in later novels. Adlet and Fremy's relationship gets futher clarification and development. Even that ending, which feels like a complete asspull, makes a lot of sense in hindsight. So it was enjoyable to a degree, but it ultimately feels like a huge disappointment due to aspects the production studio didn't have much control over. At least Hans is perfect. |
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Usagi-kun
 Posts: 877 Location: Nashville, TN |
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I entered Crunchy's contest to have a question chosen and answered by the series' director for a chance to win all three Collector's Sets. That is the only way I would have this series on my shelves, emphasis on the 'no purchase necessary' part.
Unfortunately, I feel the same about PonyCan's catalog thus far, but Rokka is actually the only series that motivated me to do even that. I wish I could think of something positive to say, but that is it. 
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meiam
Posts: 3442 |
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I don't think it's that bad, the mystery is pretty interesting and I've enjoyed the constant banter that there was in the forum thread about it and people various theories. Dunno how well it would hold up without people to discuss it week to week.
I'd say by far the weakest point is that its essentially unfinished and its seems very unlikely that it'll get more season, even with its cliff-hanger ending. Also I don't get why the review would say Adlet is the weakest hero, in one on one to the death fight he'd probably be number 2, small point that doesn't really matters I guess. |
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bibotot
Posts: 79 |
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Rokka has some ups and downs. The production value in first episodes is quite nice, but it gets crappy towards the middle, and then somewhat improves at the end. Not a fan of CGI usage. Look, Gakkou Gurashi has CGI zombies, but when a zombie and a human interact, they are clearly hand-drawn. Aldnoah.Zero has a lot of CGI, but those are mechs and the human characters don't actually fight against them, only fighting inside them.
The mystery element is engaging overall but the lack of resolution at the end kills it for me. The ending lessens the importance of solving the mystery by a lot. Pacing is not really great and I would rather they had tried to give more mysteries to explore or delve deeper into the mystery to find more interesting evidence and facts rather than what we have. The main character is pretty cool. I like him being a badass with a great background that is more explored than anyone else. All secondary characters feel flat, especially Goldov who I want to step in and bitch-slap. I also really don't like how some dialogues last much longer than they should. Death Note does this, but it was many years ago and the standards have gone up. Besides, it has way better characters and voice acting to back it up. It's not like every anime that tries to be similar to Death Note ends up being a good one. Overall, I am not a huge fan of Rokka, even though I watched it till the end hoping for a good conclusion that never came. Verdict is probably 5/10. |
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Vanadise
 Posts: 493 |
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Well, the reviewer says he's the most traditionally weak. Compared to your other typical shounen heroes, that's true; he doesn't yell until he's powered up and then throw fireballs, he doesn't punch holes through walls, he's not a master swordsman, and so on. When he does win, it's through trickery and subterfuge rather than because he had the most stamina or because he believed in his friends the most. I'd really like the show to get another season, but it's disappointing to see that it almost certainly won't. As a self-contained story, it's enjoyable until the end, but the ending really drops the ball. As the first part of a much larger story, though, it does a great job at setting up for what's about to come -- which is not at all what the ending makes you expect. Hopefully the novels will get licensed. |
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Ali07
 Posts: 3333 Location: Victoria, Australia |
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Rokka was a series I did enjoy, and was the only PonyCanUSA series I even considered buying. And, I was then excited when it was announced to have a SE.
But, that was then taken off the board, along with my motivation to buy the series. I have to agree with what others have said, the series really is a good start to what seems like an interesting journey. Personally, I actually liked how it ended too...which is rare for me, as I usually hate open ended series.
Fingers crossed. Even though, I see no reason as to why it would be picked up. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11348 |
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I just wish everyone who isn't buying this because of the price would write to Ponycan and tell them that. When the main feedback they get is no sales and silence, it's easy for them to equate that with no interest. It wouldn't surprise me if they cancelled one or more of the BR sets to follow.
For me, the price/episode is a big drawback, but since low ratings make a sequel extremely unlikely, I wouldn't have bought it anyway. I'm pretty fed up with read-the-manga anime endings. |
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Tuor_of_Gondolin
 Posts: 3524 Location: Bellevue, WA |
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I agree completely with the read-the-manga anime endings. I hate them. However, I think you're being a bit naive if you believe that Ponycan isn't well-aware that their price-point is way above the industry standard in America. I really don't think that any amount of complaining on our part will change their approach -- same with Aniplex of America, as well. And yes, if the price were more reasonable *and* the anime promised to continue to the end of the story, I would happily buy the whole series (well, Ponycan would also have to drop this stupid one disk-per-package deal as well). Honestly, I don't see how Ponycan can stay in business in the long haul if they continue to follow these business practices. They aren't AoA. |
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Shaterri
Posts: 173 |
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This seems like an incredibly fair review to me. This series set itself up with reasonably interesting characters and a legitimately fascinating looking world design - then locked itself in a room for a good half its runtime. There was the glimmer of something legitimately great here, but it definitely felt like a show that was trying to be a lot better than it was and simply didn't have enough skill/talent involved to reach the heights it set for itself.
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11348 |
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I'm sure they are aware, but I'm not sure they're aware that they're not offering enough of the right kinds of bells and whistles to justify that price point here. I know it's partly interview-ese, but they sound like they honestly believe their "superior mastering" of the disks and fabulous extras are going to sell their product at that price. And if they couldn't sell it for that in Japan, what makes them think it's going to fly off the shelves here? 
I just think that it's always a good idea to tell a marketer why you're not buying something you'd actually like to buy, instead of leaving them guessing. They might not pay attention, but it can't hurt. Like I'm not sure Viz ever really understood that the reason it couldn't sell Monster was because no one believed they'd ever release all of it, and their own past business practices trapped it in a Catch-22 of we won't buy unless you release it all, we won't release it all unless you buy it. |
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yuna49
Posts: 3804 |
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Waiting nearly a decade to release it didn't help either. By then the market had pretty much dried up except for fogies like me. From hanging out on anime forums it's pretty clear the average "lifespan" of an anime viewer is just a few years. By the time Viz got around to releasing Monster most of its original viewers were long gone. |
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TarsTarkas
 Posts: 5823 Location: Virginia, United States |
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I don't know how they couldn't know. People have been up in arms over AoA and Pony Canyon's actions for quite awhile now. |
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Greed1914
 Posts: 4426 |
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As much as PonyCan would clearly prefer customers to compare this to other collector's editions, rather than to more normal releases, there isn't much choice from from a customer standpoint. If I choose to buy it, I have to take it at the premium price, which basically means that I have to want it badly enough that I'll take all the other stuff with it and pay extra for it.
I had hoped that PonyCan was taking a step in a positive direction when it was initially announced that this show would at least receive a disc-only release, even if it was pricey. However, it looks like that was cancelled. I don' t know if that is a sign that the company opted to stick to its assertion that the product they offer is superior enough to justify only doing premium releases, or if perhaps sales of previous releases were low enough that they took it as a lack of interest as a whole. |
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