Rokka: Braves of the Six Flowers Vol. 6 (light novel)

by Ishio Yamagata

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Switching to ebooks a few years ago has made it almost impossible for me to read a physical book with the same speed I used to, sucks when publishing companies only make one format of it as well. That’s aside, I’m happy to be up to date with all current released volumes!!

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This is the definite climax to Tgurneu’s arc in the series and the seventh arc as well, I have managed to guess who it was since book 1 and I’m glad to see that I wasn’t wrong. The thing that I still couldn’t really pinpoint back then was how did Tgurneu device all of this and now I finally know... better yet, we know why as well. One of the things that makes this series really interesting is how we often we get into the heads of those who matter in that specific instance, through that we usually get the background of how that individuals ended up here and what’s in store. At least a hint of their upcoming struggles or plans anyway, it depends on who’s taking center stage.

This was a somewhat weird volume to read though, not because it was bad or anything, but because everyone seemingly knew their enemy’s train of thought at any given moment. In the course of the books, the heavy dialogue and the suspicions made “deduction” the main thing the characters will try to engage in to know who the seventh is and how to defeat Tgurneu.

However, in this volume I feel like that was taken up a notch where in almost every thought up action, there was some form of reaction waiting from the opposite side. This in itself might have been awful if someone other than Yamagata Ishio was writing it, he’s incredible at creating a desperate situation. I mean when everyone knows everything going on in the other person’s mind, it makes the element of surprise extremely difficult to be used, but when you think the encounter is going to be easily tipped in someone’s favour he brings in a piece of history or reveals a plan B that shows it will never be that simple.

If it was just the Braves who were getting these moments, I would definitely think it’s a huge issue, but that wasn’t the case at all. Another strength of this series lies in its characters, some of them and especially the ones who mattered the most in this volume are incredibly interesting to follow, for example Tgurneu is a very well written villain. Not because his motives and such are all that great, no, it’s more so that he’s incredibly smart and cunning while retaining an incredibly cruelty against his enemies that I just loved being able to see it from his point of view.

With this book over, it concludes the two biggest arcs of the series so far, closed and finished. But, it also leaves me waiting anxiously for the next volume given how it ended. It’s been a very long time since an epilogue made my jaw drop, and left me staring in disbelief at the pages. I just wish that the novel had an ebook format to it, it’s not easy to read paperbacks for me when I can’t pull them up whenever I have some downtime at work so it kind of weighed in on my overall enjoyment. Not enough to completely ruin the experience of course, but enough to have me put off reading in some days without much thinking :/

Anyways!!!!! Great conclusion to those arcs and I freakin can’t wait for volume 7! In the meantime I hope they release the side book in English, would definitely love to know more about the world.

Final rating: 4/5