Rokka: Braves of the Six Flowers, Vol. 1 (2024)

Final rating: 6/5 stars

Rokka no Yuusha (Braves of the six flowers) is, without a doubt, one of my favorite series ever.

I couldn't help myself, so I will write a review for this, in order for this series to get more fans. Also, another thing that I should mention is that anime adaptation of these novels is currently airing, so you should check it out as well. Anime adapted first book very faithfully.

It is written in third person, with switching POVs as well. And very well written at that.

Illustrations are very beautiful as well!

STORY :

So, what is this book/series about?

One millennium ago, a demon entity appeared. It was named Evil God (Majin/Demon King, whatever) and it wanted to eradicate humans. People despaired, nations were destroyed, royal families lost. Until, one day, a Saint of Single Flower appeared. Saints are the women, and only women - without exception, who possess supernatural powers. Saint of Single flower appeared and sealed Evil God. However, she warned people that the Evil God will awake, and therefore, she will bestow upon 6 heroes her sign and power, no more, no less. Only six heroes will be chosen to battle Evil God and its spawn, fiends, on the west peninsula, where Evil God sleeps. Evil God woke up 2 more times, and both times, he was successfully sealed, even though lives were lost.

In the present day, the time for Evil God to awake is coming close. Heroes of all kinds have to prove themselves in the temple of the Goddess of Fate, in which she will chose the six heroes she desires. Candidates must be brave, powerful, and most of all, they must have a strong desire to defeat the Demon God.

On one of those tournaments, a self proclaimed strongest man on earth, Adlet Mayer, 18 years old, crashed in the tournament. His way of fighting was not allowed for participation, as Adlet uses dirty tricks and ninja-like fighting style. But his strong desire and ambition allowed him to be chosen as one of the heroes of the six flowers.

But, when he goes on the place where the heroes should meet, a new mystery is revealed. Instead of 6 heroes, there are 7, which is impossible. All of them wear the mark of the Saint of single flower, and yet... one of them is a traitor/imposter, and is working with kyoma to awaken Demon god.

This is a well done mystery, with fantastic characters and plot twists. It's one of the unique fantasies where focus of the story is not on love, but on figuring out who the traitor is, while being in danger from fiends. The heroes have only 40 days to seal the demon god before it awakens, but they also have to be careful of the traitor that is within their midst.

CHARACTERS :

♦ Adlet: Adlet is the character that is in the center of the attention in this novel. He is an ordinary human, who uses various tricks (darts, smoke bombs, explosives, traps) that help him survive and win his battles. Despite proclaiming himself as world strongest man, he is very intelligent, cunning and capable person with strong will. He knows how to survive, and people like him are dangerous. In the first book, we follow his POV the most (which is in third person), although we have other POVs of the other characters as well. Also, he is probably the one character you will later be sad about when you learn of the reason he is able to smile, even in difficult situations. How he is able to not lose his cool, despite the danger he will be thrown into. And once you read about his past, you will be able to understand why he acts the way he acts.

♦ Fremy: is a strange girl who is a Saint of Gunpowder. Except, this type of saint is unknown, as there are only 78 Saints known, and under control of Mora (another one of the chosen heroes). Her being saint of gunpowder allows her to create explosives and it allows her to make her bullets much more dangerous, thus allowing her to kill kyoma easily. She is distrustful of others, but at the same time strong and very capable fighter. She doesn't let her emotions take better of her. But, I will avoid talking about her, because her mysteries are far more interesting when read than known.

♦ Nashetania: is a princess of the kindgom Piena, as well as Saint of Blades, which gives her ability to create swords out of thin air. She is the first hero Adlet meets. Despite being a princess, her personality is different depending on the person she is with. She can be cruel and fearless, and humble and easygoing girl. Her moods switch based on her feelings.

♦ Hans: is assassin, whose way of fighting reminds of cats. He has high respect of cats, therefore speaking like them (adding cat like sounds to his sentences or attacks), moves like them, but nevertheless, he is a strong, and most dangerous hero that is present. Because of his intelligence, he is very difficult to cross, and because he loves fighting dangerous opponents, he doesn't hesitate when it comes to attacking the suspicious people.

♦ Chamo: is 14 year old Saint of Swamp,and her ability makes her very dangerous, especially to kyoma. Her twisted and sadistic personality, as well as her strength, make humans and fiends easily scared. She is selfish, not a team worker, easily angered, but the only one who can "control" her is Mora, due to them knowing each other. Chamo also thinks Mora is scary, and that's one of the reasons she is willing to listen to her.

♦ Mora: is a Saint of Mountains, and head of Saints. She is knowledgable of all saints that exist in the world, except for Fremy. Her power allows her to see the terrain they are in, as well as use echoes to convey messages to other heroes, not to mention help with healing and having increased body strength. She is the oldest character (around 36) in this band of seven and is the one who will act as a leader of the heroes. Her calm and composed attitude helps, and she is the only one able to calm Chamo down.

♦ Goldof: is one of the heroes that are chosen. He is a genius fighter, despite being only 16, as well as one of the best fighters among the heroes of the six flowers. Goldof is the head of the Black Horns Knights from the country of Piena. He wears a heavy and extremely resistant black armor and wields a heavy spear in battle. He is extremely loyal to princess of Piena, and harbours feelings for her. (His story will probably make you cry in the third book, he deserves better).

♦ Tgurneu: is first of the kyoma leaders that appear in the story. Currently, there are 3 of them, but Tgurneu is the one who takes measures against heroes. Despite seeming carefree and kind, he is very cruel and horrifying enemy, which lies in order to manipulate others. He enjoys seeing humans suffer, and therefore made many ventures which were not so comfortable for humans.

OVERALL :

If you enjoy fantastic mystery, amazing characters, strong plot and amazing plot twists, you will love this series. Even though it is dark, there is also a bit of a romance between certain characters, but not too much. The focus is on characters and the story. Each book follows at least 2 characters and their background stories, and author does this very well. Integrating the character stories into the main plotline gives much much better experience.

MY ROKKA NO YUUSHA REVIEWS:

◉ 六花の勇者 1(Rokka no Yuusha, #1)
◉ 六花の勇者 2 (Rokka no Yuusha, #2)
◉ 六花の勇者 ３ (Rokka no Yuusha, #3)
◉ 六花の勇者 4 (Rokka no Yuusha, #4)

I'm going to say it....I think Rokka might just be my favourite light novel and manga series. Seriously. I love the mystery element to this, and how it keeps me guessing the entire time! I seriously spent so much time trying to put all the clues together and work out who the fake was, but I genuinely couldn't work it out! I ended up being so surprised, and I hadn't worked out how it all went together either!

The light novel version of Rokka carries on past the manga and it wraps the mystery all up in one volume. I have a feeling the manga might wrap it up in the second volume but I'm not too sure! I was so intrigued to see the more fleshed out version after reading and loving the manga and I wasn't at all disappointed! There was so much additional information in here, plus some completely gorgeous character art at the beginning.

The opening draws you in and sets the scene perfectly, and there's plenty of information on the Braves and the Evil God and the lore to do with it all that I found so fascinating and I wanted to read more and more. We get a tonne more background on Adlet, who I was so intrigued about from the manga, and I loved getting to know him better and find out about his childhood and how he got his training and why he wants to fight the Evil God. We get to see how he met Nashetania and see her power, and how they got separated before he met up with Fremy. The characters are all fleshed out and I'm excited for the next volume to hopefully get to learn some more about the other characters.

There's action from the start, and we skip ahead for the prologue which provides some intrigue and excitement before we go back. The light novel starts way before the manga does, like before Adlet even got his mark and then catches up and goes past it to wrap up the mystery, like I said. I enjoyed the different POVs. We got Adlet's POV and it was a brilliant narrative because he does make me chuckle and roll my eyes a little bit sometimes. But we also get the POV of traitor/fake Brave, which was veeerrry interesting and I tried to use it to help me work out who it was but...epic fail.

I really liked Fremy in this volume, we get to know her and understand her a bit better than in the manga, partially because we see more of her, obviously. She makes me chuckle and I'm still so curious about her! I also totally ship her and Adlet. Just saying. Sorry.

I really loved the bickering and banter between Adlet, Fremy, Hans, Nashetania and Goldof. It made for entertaining reading and I liked the bond they where all forming at one point. Before things happen. I'm not going to lie, Hans irritated me a little at the beginning, mostly because he was making things difficult for an obviously innocent Adlet. BUT. I ended up really loving Hans. I liked the budding friendship he and Adlet had going on and I'm really hoping he's a good guy! Chamo on the other hand just bugs me and I'm lowkey hoping she's the new bad guy. Please. Please writers. I like all of the others...mostly.

This light novel is very well written, it's great at creating an atmosphere and letting you really feel the tension and suspense as you read. And like I said, it keeps you guessing and I kept changing my mind about who I suspected as I tried to put all the pieces together. Then there's the ending....and what an ending. Just when you thought it was all over....oh no. Just please don't let it be Fremy, Adlet or Hans. PLEAAASEE!

In short...this is basically one of the best light novels I've ever read, and I need the second volume like I need life. I'm also really loving the manga as well, and I'm intrigued by the differences between the two!

Rokka no Yuusha: Braves of the Six Flowers is a Light novel by Ishio Yamagata, with visual art by Miyagi. The series is about a group of Braves who are sent out by the Spirit of Fate to defeat the Demon God/Evil God that wakes up every three hundred years, which is a risk to humans everywhere, as fiends/demons roam the world, with the Evil God on the rise the risk is a lot higher, if the Evil God awakens to their full strength, humanity is completely doomed. Hence the six Braves that are send out every three hundred years to stop them, they are given 30 days to go forth, join their group of Braves and then head out to defeat the Evil God where they reside currently.

So where is the drama and thrill to this? Well aside from having three Saints in their party -which is the norm for Braves, Saints are stronger than mortals, and they have extra power to help them combat the Evil God - however they also have three mortals and then a new Saint to their party. The main focus in this novel is that their are Seven Braves rather than Six, something that is certainly out of the ordinary and shouldn't have happened to begin with. Which means instead of this group of Braves bonding and planning, they are looking at each other with uncertainty and weariness. Who do they trust? Whocan they trust? To make matters worse, they are trapped in the area where they are meant to convene, which means they are losing time to travel to battle the Evil God.

Characters in this book are interesting, our main hero is Adlet Mayer, a man who proclaims himself to be 'the strongest man in the world'. He say's this often within the book, although it is annoying to the other characters within the book, he doesn't say it too often. This is the one who brings everything together within the book, who gains comrades and figures everything out because out of all of them, he had the most to lose.

The other characters are interesting in themselves, but we don't really learn too much about them until in later novels. The main one's that are focused upon are Flemy - the new Saint - and the Princess who is the Saint of Swords.

The translations of this novel is very well done - funnily enough I used to read the translations of this novel online back in 2016, and this version seems rather close to it.

This novel has also been made into a manga and an anime back in 2015. Sadly neither appear to have moved further than book one, with the anime having been unpopular in Japan. However the dub version is now out and it's actually really good.

Overall, a great read for people who want something that's a bit tense, thrilling and fairly quick to read.