Rokka no Yuusha- 05
Put on your thinking caps!
Drum roll please. I have heard your thoughts, weighed the options, and talked with my spiritual adviser of non-determinant faith. We are going with: Flamie! I’ve added it to my dictionary and everything. Now lets go deep into the mystery!
I’m gonna find who did it even if I have too…
I’d say don’t try this at home, but I bet she could take it
Things are looking pretty bad for Adelt aren’t they? We are one scene away from him being killed by his fellow Flowers because he seems to be the traitor. And if I was in their shoes I’d totally believe Adelt to be a traitor too. So far all the facts brought up make Adelt look guilty, its gonna take a lot to get him out of this. I’m approaching this from the perspective that Adelt is innocent and I’m trying to figure out the real Seventh Flower. So what do we have to work with
- Adelt was the first person to arrive at the temple
- Adelt was the person who opened the doors to the temple
- Once opened, the doors to the temple cannot be shut
- Adelt is the strongest man in the world
- There is only one entrance to the temple, that being the aforementioned doors. Otherwise it is impossible to get in
- Once Adelt entered the temple, the barrier was raised
- Nashetania, Goldof, and Adelt did some stuff to deactivate the barrier, but nothing seemed to work
- Mora was given a key to open the door to the temple, but had not used it
- Adelt is the strongest man in the world
- The barrier can only be deactivated by the will of the person who activated it… or by killing that person
- The barrier can only be activated from inside the temple
- Seriously, Adelt is the strongest man in the world
- Hans and Chamo learned about the barrier from Mora who learned it from the army guy Lauren, Adelt, Nashetania, Goldof, and Flamie learned it from Lauren too
But really, why’d you do it?
So going off this information, what is most likely the solution to this puzzle? Now the doors opening does not mean the barrier was activated. So how was it possible for someone to get past Adelt? Did someone slip by him and activate the barrier while Adelt fought the guards, then snuck away in the same moment. We aren’t operating under video game logic where hiding in the shadows means you don’t exist.
If I was Adelt the first person I’d suspect would be Hans, simply because he is the person working hardest to prove Adelt’s guilt. The fact he claims to have just ignored the Kings explanation of the barrier is also suspicious. But on the other hand he did make convincing argument for Flamie’s innocence, so he seems like a decent guy in that aspect. Personally, I think Mora is also suspicious, not only was she in the area for 2 days before everyone else, she has the key that could do some other magic stuff. Not to mention she is the one who informed Hans and Chamo if the barriers functions, which leaves her time to do some trickery.
To solve a mystery like this the “who” doesn’t matter as much as the “how.” If the method is found out it would be so simple to figure out the guilty party. The fact that the method has been hidden so well is what makes the mystery aspect of Rokka so engaging.
Seeing Eye to Eye
For cosplayers, this is an amazing contact
This episode also focused heavily on introducing the trio of Hans, Mora and Chamo as well as giving us some much needed info about Flamie. Hans is the free spirited assassin/cat boy who appears detached and uninterested but is paying quite close attention to everything. Chamo is the little kid with far more power than everyone else. She knows this, which is why she essentially has no idea of limits or responsibilities. Though as for what makes her as powerful as she is is still a mystery, but I assume it has to do with her fox-tail grass she always carries. Mora is the strict elder figure, the one who takes the mission seriously and looks out for the younger folk. Especially her and Chamo have an almost mother-daughter relationship. I expect this to come into focus a lot as the series goes on.
Flamie is in a very tough situation whether or not she is the seventh. Part Kyouma and part human, neither side would ever except her. Obviously her stint as the Hero Killer isn’t gonna win her any favors with the rest of the Flowers. The fact that she barely survived an encounter with Chamo means those two will probably have a rough relationship. The fact that her birth and sainthood were all part of a Kyouma plan means that the enemies aren’t mindless monsters by any stretch. Even if Flamie isn’t the seventh, she clearly isn’t interested in being companions or friends with her fellow braves. While we don’t know why she has betrayed the Kyouma who raised her, I don’t think it will be for a reason like “I suddenly realized I was evil the whole time” or something to that effect. Either way, her true identity will most definitely come to play later on as the mystery unfolds.
Move over Adelt, I’ll take it from here
All information is a hint on some level. Things that seem like throwaway statements might be the key to solving the hardest of puzzles, things that are only shown through movement and expression might mean the world. Like how Nashetania is the only one who even seems slightly convinced that Adelt isn’t guilty. Or how Chamo and Hans like to bounce around the room while everyone else more or less stays in their own corners. Going over and over the clues and hints left behind in the past episodes will lead you to the answer. In fact, I’d say 80% of the necessary clues already have been told. Obviously I won’t say what they are, if I tried to leave hints to them I might spoil whats going to happen. All I can say definitively is that whether you already know what is going to happen or are scratching your head, Rokka is an engaging series both in the mystery sense and in the character sense. I can’t wait for more developments to occur.
About Samsura
As someone of questionable tastes and even more questionable ethics; if we laugh at the same things you are one of two things: A person of discerning taste or a weirdo. Guess where I fall.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
Oh,you can go ahead and spoil me, cause if they continue this charade for most of next episode, not only will I not care, I probably won’t watch.
Locked room mysteries are insipid to begin with (see the first episode of Hyouka to see it justifiably skewered), and this one was so aggressively presented that it hardly matters. The back and forth was just so uninspired. They even stuck character exposition into the middle of it; which was actually the only reason to watch it as Flamie’s background had the only interesting wrinkle worth thinking about.
I mean they just dropped the bomb that the demons are more than just a brutish invasive force, and that she’s part demon! That’s the story right there, trapped in a room with a bunch of dull junk.
So, yeah. I hope they wrap this one up quick and move away from it fast…
POWUH: Meta Team and Meta-Analyst with 3844 comments
*Pulls the hidden lever*
POWUH: Metanorn Regular with 105 comments
It was actually the dog with the shifty eyes…
POWUH: 600-699 and Romance Expert with 652 comments
if you are watching this show expecting just your typical adventure heroes killing demons, then you might as well drop it.
the main attraction of this series is mysteries and the characters struggling to figure it out, with conflicts between them more than the main enemy.
even once this one is solved, you’re gonna mostly see characters find some obstacle/problem and them contemplating their actions on how to solve them.
this is a series that focuses on thinking and figuring out the crisis. if you want just mindless action you can find dozens of others.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
I never said I wanted mindless action. Just that I don’t want forced Poirot-bait, poorly constructed with no benefit.
I’ll gladly wait for tactical battles, and well thought out obstacles, the world they’ve built has that. But this locked room “mystery” isn’t that…
POWUH: 600-699 and Romance Expert with 652 comments
*sigh*
Show ▼
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
Well, it’s nice you brought your boredom to the conversation. It really makes your point interesting…
POWUH: Meta Team and Meta-Analyst with 3844 comments
Seriously, as the omniscient, omnipotent, many om-s viewer, it cannot be Adelt this early. 😛 Because we all know it cannot finish this ridiculously early. Watching all those CSI variants and NCIS variants, you always attempt to lead the viewers around a MacGuffin, otherwise you’d have no show.
Unless they’re really going to cut it down to cut purposely and go off on another storyline. Then you can kill the extra appendage with extreme prejudice. Or in reality it’s supposed to be Seven not Six and somebody screwed up the Prophecy. 😛
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
…yeah, I’ve been holding this prophecy to high suspicion…
POWUH: Meta Team and Meta-Analyst with 3844 comments
What better way to screw things up than right at the start…
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
I can’t see them resolving the issue of who’s the seventh by next episode. I think this’ll go on until the penultimate episode when the seventh will betray the saints at a critical moment. That’s just the way shows with a traitor hidden amongst the good guys seem to go.
Here’s a thought that’s probably wrong, although I think it’d be interesting. What if the seventh person doesn’t know they’re the seventh? That they have some deep programing in their subconscious or a submerged real personality that triggered the barrier when the all the saints got close enough to the temple in order to trap them?
We’ve seen that the demons aren’t all mindless muscle. Someone amongst them is capable of subtle, long range planning. It’s entirely possible such a one would have more than one plan in motion in case the one with Flamie didn’t work. So then at a critical moment the programming kicks in again or the real, submerged personality takes over the seventh to betray the saints.
No doubt there are problems with this theory, but I’m just throwing it out there even though I don’t think that’s what the show is going to do.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
It’s probably going to be more banal than that. The seventh will stay undercover, but at the moment they are supposed to betray the others, they’ll have been convinced by the goodness of the other 6 and won’t betray them.
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
I hope the show doesn’t take that route. It’d be boring and as you say banal.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Some shows do ‘everyone sits in a room and talks’ and make it enrapturing. Zetsuen no Tempest had a whole episode where nobody even moved and it was totally captivating. This was… not one of those. It was alright, but the ‘played for effect’ stuff just seemed cheesy, like everyone going up to the top of the pyramid thingy (and why is there the stupid pyramid thingy anyway) and, yes, that 360 movement shot while… a guy was talking. That was your typical Shaft-esque “Don’t bother paying attention to what the guy is saying, cause it’s dull, watch this cool stuff instead” move. Going around the room to do character introductions is pretty dull. You do it because you have to, but not because it’s good television.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Correction: That happened in the middle of a forest and lasted for an entire 4 episodes. Much respect to pulling that off without making it dull.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
The scenes in the woods were four episodes, but there was only one where nobody moved, as far as I remember. In the other ones, people switched places, or new people were introduced, or new items were brought in.
POWUH: Metanorn Lover with 154 comments
I concur, Zetsuen was great for that in the first 12 episodes.
POWUH: Meta Resident and LN Informant with 1529 comments
A recent poll from Japan showed that Rokka is one of the least-anticipated anime that fans look forward to seeing weekly. Maybe its unpopularity is due to the reasons you describe (or because it doesn’t pander to the home fans).
Surprisingly, Charlotte is the most-anticipated anime for male fans. Probably beacuse it contains what they want (moe and slice of life, among others).
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I have determined that those polls are uniformly participated in by complete morons and fools who wouldn’t know a good show if it sat on their face like Vice-President Meiko.
My anticipation for Charlotte episodes has pretty much run out, because they’re making it painfully clear they’re not going to do interesting things. The shows that I anticipate this season are Shimoneta (which is truly deserving of anticipation) and Jitsu wa Watashi wa (which is more just cause I think it’s adorable).
POWUH: Meta Team and Meta-Analyst with 3844 comments
*whispers Prillya then goes to watch this week’s*
I believe this excessive moeblobness of shows arises from the mid-late 2000s when there was a particular set of moeblob show(s) from a particular studio(s) that started this infestation. Studio Moeblob.
*goes back to Fate/Yaoi Suzuka*
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
The second OP is alright for a first listen. Maybe I’ll get used to it but I fail to see the necessity for it when this is only a single cour series.
A great deal of talking but not laborious to watch as the interest came from everyone laying their facts and backgrounds on the table that would either clear or condemn them on their spot. The one I’d keep my eyes out for Hans since he’s making the tension rise by putting the details under the microscope, resulting in most of the suspicion getting thrown off him. Then there are the facts of him saying he knows the Saint of Seals but not the pyramid’s barrier and that pretty much cancels each statement out. If you know someone, the least you should know are their tendencies.
The aspect standing out the most is the reveal of Flamie’s lineage. It was a given she’d have a troubled past thanks her introduction and demeanor but her being a human/fiend hybrid caught me completely off guard.
I mentioned issuing a warning on Hans but another is on Chamot. For a girl who’s only 14 years old and knowing her background, she has too much bloodlust and looks like it wouldn’t take much for her to go out of control.
POWUH: and Athenaeum Châtelaine with 2212 comments
From what I’ve been gathering, it was to show the shift in tone for the series from being an adventure/action series, to being more of a mystery, and the new OP kind of gives that feel.
I think he was saying that he knows the seals of the Saint of Seals, but he didn’t know really about the pyramid or the barrier prior to coming.
And yes, Chamot is a bit of psycho. It’s gotten so that what used to be a unique character juxtaposition with having a cute little girl being a bloodlusted psycho is now pretty cliche.
POWUH: Meta Resident and LN Informant with 1529 comments
Put on your thinking caps!
Times like this, I’d prefer to have Hercule Poirot, Jane Marple or Edogawa Conan on the team. Given their extensive experience in locked room mysteries, they’d flush out the culprit in no time. 🙂
IIRC, the remainder of Volume 1 focuses on the locked room mystery. They should be out and about in Demon lands by the next volumes.
POWUH: Meta Team and Meta-Analyst with 3844 comments
I choose…
Gus Grissom! 😛
POWUH: and Athenaeum Châtelaine with 2212 comments
That was an interesting episode, with a new opening to match its change in tone. We seem to have shifted from an adventure series to a mystery drama in one episode. It has now become a whodunit with everyone stuck in one area as they try to figure out who among them is a murderer fake.
We get a nice intro to all the characters. Flamie and Adlet are still my favorites. And I’m sorry, Nashe, but I think that Adlet is leaning more towards the new woman in his life. I like that his first thought recently has been of Flamie. Of protecting, sticking up for, and diverting suspicion from her, even if he has now aimed it towards himself.
It was a very interesting reveal that Flamie is half fiend and that she was raised to be exactly what they have now, a mole among their midst. It explains why she was killing braves. However, that seems to clear her even more than before. If she really was the current fake, she wouldn’t have said all of the that. And she could have really have killed the others at any time. Though Goldov dragging her around all the time was kind of funny.
So, as of right now, I’m crossing off Hans and Flamie. Both are so suspicious from the get go that no one would believe them and thus they are useless as moles. I can’t see it as Adlet either since they are already accusing him. Chamot is possible, but she’s not gaining any points on the likability meter and and thus would be hard to fit in with and do the job of a fake. Goldov, Maura, and Nashe are my chief suspects. I’m still not liking how long Goldov was away without word to anyone. Maura is in a major position of trust and authority, which would be a good point where a fake would want to be. And Nashe just isn’t gelling with me. Also, she would be one of the few that the group wouldn’t suspect much, and she tries to be nice mostly with everybody. Also, that exhaustion scene was a little obvious and suspicious.
So, basically, they can’t leave the area until the fake is killed or decides to lift the barrier. So, will they be stuck in this area for some time? or will the fake decide it’s not working out and secretly lift it?
This suspicion will put a major trust issue among the team. We’ll have to see how they deal with that.
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
One more thing that might indicate Nashe is the mole is that she was nearly killed during the dynastic struggle. That could certainly sour you on your society. Or she was nearly killed because suspicions were raised about where her loyalties lay–with humans or with demons?
POWUH: and Athenaeum Châtelaine with 2212 comments
Now these are the type of mysteries I love! I’ve heard that basically this series was going to shift gears and change what kind of show it was halfway, and so it has. I think people who don’t like the whodunit mystery might be a little disappointed in where the series is going to go in the present, but I love it, and I’m pretty excited.
POWUH: Meta Resident and LN Informant with 1529 comments
“Poirot’s little grey cells, they are now being stimulated!”
POWUH: and Athenaeum Châtelaine with 2212 comments
It’s weird, but I’m not really a Poirot fan. I like Agatha Christie but mostly the stuff that doesn’t feature her ongoing characters, like my favorite is “And Then There Were None”.
POWUH: Meta Resident and LN Informant with 1529 comments
I could change your mind on that. There’s a series of Poirot TV movies, “Agatha Christie’s Poirot” from Britain that’s been running since the 90s on ITV.
Poirot’s actor, David Suchet, does an excellent job of being the lead character, right down to the Belgian accent.
POWUH: 400-499 with 462 comments
The weirdest thing to me is that I’ve read TVTropes for this series, so I know who the mole is, and yet I still don’t know who activated the barrier or how, because I don’t have an explanation for how that person could have completed all the steps we were told were required for doing so.
POWUH: Metanorn Regular with 105 comments
Your first mistake was going to TVTropes.
POWUH: 400-499 with 462 comments
I do it for everything. Everything.
POWUH: and Athenaeum Châtelaine with 2212 comments
I go on TVtropes at times when I need to. Just so long as you give NOTHING away. Not even by accident. Or I’ll have Flamie go after you with her all-seeing eye. 😛
POWUH: Meta Team and Meta-Analyst with 3844 comments
Oooooh. Not so all seeing eye Flammie. 😛
POWUH: Meta Team and Meta-Analyst with 3844 comments
Bleh. tvtropes got degraded the day they decided to expunge sections just because it was… “questionable”.
POWUH: 400-499 with 462 comments
I admit to having been (and still being) extremely displeased about that. They eliminated entirely valid tropes and and completely legitimate series with complex plots and characters and tons of stuff that was not questionable in any way.
However I still enjoy going there, because the reason I enjoyed going there in the first place (reading the ropes for a work and people’s descriptions of how they apply for that work) haven’t gone away.
POWUH: Meta Team and Meta-Analyst with 3844 comments
We miss our Boku no Pico. 🙁 I will still be displeased until the day the current administration is kicked out and all the expunged stuff returns.
I rather visit the alternative forks, but their database isn’t as fresh. 🙁
POWUH: 600-699 and Romance Expert with 652 comments
my comments keep getting eaten….