Flame of Recca

[ParaParaJMo]

YouTube - GrapplerJMo Anime Review Flame of Recca

Story and Characters
During the era of Oda Nobunaga, he did everything to eliminate everyone and everything that he deemed a threat to his rule. This also included the Hokage ninja clan. During the slaughter, a young woman transports her baby through a time portal to our time. And that boy would grow up to be Hanabishi Recca, raised by a fireworks maker and one of the top fighter’s at his school and if anyone manages to defeat him, he will become their personal ninja.

One day, Recca helps some people from falling debris at a construction site and gets himself injured. Then a girl named Yanagi who has special healing powers ends up healing Recca. As a reward, Recca offers himself to become her personal ninja and they start to form a beautiful friendship…and at the same time begin a bizarre journey in which an evil organization wants Yanagi’s powers for their own gree, and will also lead to clues of Recca’s origins.

Well, as for what I think about this anime, it only offers a very small fraction of what the manga truly has to offer. It only focuses on 2 or 3 story arcs and I feel that if you’re at all a fan of the original manga, you’re certainly going to be cheated because it only offers a true fraction of what this series truly has to offer. But for this anime as a whole, it covers enough ground to give the viewers an introduction to the characters and offers excellent development. A majority of the main cast starts out as Recca’s rivals such as Domon and Fuuko, but eventually bigger circumstances such as saving the world unites them to become an unstoppable team. The anime itself is decently paced and the characters share equal time and develop sensibly for what this series has to offer and individually have their own use to the overall development of the story. The villains are also unique and have their own personalities that truly stand out and have their own back-story and goals to why they became to be. So you’re getting an excellent cast in which you can relate to or feel out which is why I’m rating the story and characters, an 8/10.

Art and Animation
Well, the character design is faithful to the manga for the most part. When the manga started out, the art was pretty ugly, but Anzai further evolved and improved his art style to the point that when they made this anime, they used the improved art style thank god. The art style is basic, but still excellently detailed with the costume designs and the diversity of the character designs. I also like how the weapon’s are drawn and have really nifty designs.

The action is very high octane and breath taking. It’s very technique based and well played out. Characters have fighting styles in which they contrast and I have always believed in an old saying of styles make fights and this anime also proves that. In addition, the fights also have a Yuu Yuu Hakusho like feel to it where it’s based on tactics and strategy, and you get that in this anime as well. In comparison to Naruto, you get a better overall feel of the ninja authenticity to the action and art design which is why I give the art and animation, an 8.5/10.

Music and Voice Acting
The music is very addicting and very high spirited. A perfect example is the opening theme Nanka Shiawase by Oysters. It has good control with the guitars and the delivery of the lyrics is very true to the atmosphere of the series. I also can’t deny that the ending theme Love is Changing by Nishida Hikaru also exemplifies this, but more on the romantic side of the series. The background music has a fighting game esque feel to it and is very well diverse in that sense in which it portrays all kinds of moods and personalities.

I can’t say much about the dub since I’ve never seen it and have no intentions of watching it just because I don’t want to, but the Japanese voice cast I feel is satisfying enough. I was very shocked to learn that Tobita Nobuo, who is most famous amongst Gundam fans such as myself as Camille Vidan from Z Gundam is the voice of Domon. He does a great job of not recognizing it’s the same voice, but still makes the character convincing as a tough guy who has a soft spot, but overall true use is comic relief. And Okiayu Ryotaro as Kurei and Midorikawa Hikaru as Mikagami are probably the reasons why I can never watch this series outside of the Japanese language. These two reputable seiyuus do a great job in bringing their characters to life and make them very believable which is why I give the music and voice acting, a 9.5/10.

Overall
Well, if you want to see the rest of Flame of Recca as anime, the closest thing you’re going to get is if you get the PS2 game, Final Burning. The same studio animates the cut scenes and they got the same seiyuus back. Plus, you get to see the manga ending in anime form. Overall, what prevents me from giving this anything higher than an 8.5 is the fact that they ending this anime prematurely because where it ends is where the manga gets really exciting. They did this crap to Hajime no Ippo and Berserk as well. But anyway, if you’re looking for something that’s ninja, but definitely not Naruto, then watch this one because this blows Naruto out of the water in every way possible. So I’ll re-state that this anime gets an overall score of an 8.5/10.

[Bones09]

Great review...since it's a ninja anime...I hope it's more realistic than Naruto

[Migandas]

Flame of Recca was nice but I prefer better graphics... Also, the story wasn't finished in the end so that sucked...

[ParaParaJMo]

Great review...since it's a ninja anime...I hope it's more realistic than Naruto

I wouldn't call shooting fire out of your hand "more realistic," but the ninja concept/approach is more authentic, not really realistic

Flame of Recca was nice but I prefer better graphics... Also, the story wasn't finished in the end so that sucked...

Well, it was the best in terms of what the mid 90s at the time had to offer in terms of graphic quality

[Migandas]

For it being in the 90's is what it makes it for me a proper anime. Back then you could not expect better graphics so you don't really hear me complain... If you browse my list you'd see that I harldy saw any anime older then made in the year 2000.
If they were to continue the story, I'd watch it... Mostly due the reason that I don't like unfinished story's. :)

[ParaParaJMo]

well, you can get the game