Flame of Recca

Plot

Flame of Recca follows the story of a teenage boy named Recca Hanabishi, who is interested in ninja and claims to be one himself. He often gets into fights because he made it publicly known that the person who manages to defeat him will earn his services as a loyal ninja. Despite this, he eventually pledges his loyalty and services as a ninja to Yanagi Sakoshita, a girl with the innate ability to heal any wound/injury, because of her kindness and compassion. Recca soon discovers that he possesses the innate ability to control/manipulate flames, and eventually learns that he is actually the son of the sixth generation leader of the Hokage, a ninja clan that was wiped out by Oda Nobunaga in 1576, roughly 400 years before the series' present day.

The Hokage ninjas wielded mystical objects called madōgu (魔導具), which are referred to as "psychic devices" or "elemental weapons" in the English versions of the series. Madōgu grant their users special abilities, such as allowing their users to manipulate certain elements (as in the case of the Fūjin, which allows its wielder to manipulate the element of wind) and enhancing their user's strength/skills (as in the case of the Dosei no Wa, which increases its user's physical strength and the Idaten, which increases its user's running speed). Oda Nobunaga had invaded the Hokage in 1576 for the purpose of acquiring these weapons, and the series' main antagonist, Kōran Mori, is searching for a madōgu that will grant him eternal life. Recca and his friends become entangled in Mori's quest for eternal life as he attempts to kidnap Yanagi, believing that her healing powers will help him achieve immortality. This leads them to join the Ura Butō Satsujin, a tournament wherein the warriors that wield madōgu gather to battle each other. After winning the tournament, Recca and his teammates discover that Mori was on his way to acquire the Tendō Jigoku (天堂地獄, Heaven and Hell), a madōgu said to grant its user eternal life, and once again attempt to stop him.

Though it begins by following the same basic storyline, the Flame of Recca anime series ends right after the Ura Butō Satsujin ends, while the manga goes on to include the subplot involving the Tendō Jigoku. The anime also omits certain characters from the story, and several of the characters' physical appearances are slightly different from the manga.

Manga

The Flame of Recca manga was serialized in Weekly Shōnen Sunday from 1995 to 2002, with a total of 329 chapters. The series was compiled into 33 tankōbon (collected volumes) and was published by Shogakukan from September 18, 1995 to April 18, 2002. Shōnen Sunday also released the manga in 17 wideban volumes and, beginning in 2010, as part of its Comic Bunko label. The manga was licensed for North American distribution in English by Viz Media and United Kingdom distribution in English by Gollancz Manga. Viz released all 33 volumes from July 30, 2003 to November 10, 2009, while Gollancz released ten volumes between March 6 and November 28, 2006. Viz did not censor nudity in their publications of the manga, but starting from volume 20, the female characters' nipples have been removed.

Anime

Flame of Recca was adapted into a 42-episode anime series produced by Studio Pierrot, and aired in Japan from July 19, 1997 to July 10, 1998 on Fuji Television. Flame of Recca was also aired on the satellite network Animax in Japan and Asia. Pony Canyon has released the entire series on DVD and laserdisc, while Geneon released it in two DVD boxsets on April 22 and June 24, 2005 in Japan. In North America, Viz Media released the series in ten separate DVD volumes between October 26, 2004 and January 9, 2007.

There are several notable differences between the anime and manga, such as the character designs (e.g. Fūko has purple-violet hair in the anime, but has brown hair in the manga) and in the storyline itself (e.g. In the anime, Yanagi's healing powers are first revealed when she heals Recca after he gets injured while protecting her and a child from being crushed under metal pipes, but in the manga, Yanagi heals Recca when he gets injured while protecting her from a group of male students who were forcing her to go with them). The anime became even more popular when it was aired in the Philippines by GMA Network way back in 1999.

CDs

The Flame of Recca anime series featured background music composed by Yusuke Honma. The series featured "Nanka Shiawase" (なんか幸せ, lit. "Something Happy") by The OYSTARS as its opening theme, and used "Love is Changing" (西田ひかる) by Hikaru Nishida and "Zutto Kimi no Soba de" (ずっと君の傍で, lit. "By Your Side Forever") by Yuki Masuda as its ending themes for episodes 1-32 and episodes 33-42 respectively. All the songs were released in singles, and all except "Zutto Kimi no Soba de" were included in the original soundtracks. Flame of Recca Original Soundtrack Vol. 1 was released by Pony Canyon on December 6, 1997, and features background music used in the series, as well as the series' opening song and first closing song. Flame of Recca Original Soundtrack Vol. 2 was released by Pony Canyon on May 4, 1998. It includes more background music used in the series along with a special CD drama entitled Recca no Honō SPECIAL CD DRAMA: Daitōron Kai Tsuyoi No Wa Dareda?! (｢烈火の炎｣ スペシャルCDドラマ: 火影大討論会 強いのは誰だ?!, lit. "Flame of Recca Special CD Drama: The Great Debate, 'Who is the Strongest?!'").

Video games

Flame of Recca has been adapted into two games to date.

Flame of Recca: The Game (烈火の炎 -THE GAME-, Rekka no Honō: The Game) is a fighting game released by Konami on December 20, 2001 for the Game Boy Advance. In this game, the player selects a character and presses certain button in order to make them move, attack, dodge, and perform special moves. Apart from having an HP bar, the selected character a power bar which increases when the character deals damage and decreases when the character performs a special move. Each character has his/her own set of special moves that do greater damage than normal attacks, and one super move that deals a significant amount of damage. There are nine playable characters for this game.

Flame of Recca: Final Burning (烈火の炎 -FINAL BURNING-, Rekka no Honō: Final Burning) is an adventure/fighting game released by Konami on June 10, 2004 for the PlayStation 2. A limited number of soundtrack CDs and sets of four bookmarks with character illustrations by Nobuyuki Anzai were given out along with the game CD. The game's graphics and full motion videos are done in 2D animation. The game utilizes a split-screen format wherein players must press different button combinations to make their selected character perform specific moves. Certain cutscenes require the player to determine what the selected character will do next through choosing from a given set of options. An example of this would be when the player is required to choose if Koganei will dodge or stay put when the building he is staying in starts to collapse. Flame of Recca: Final Burning features 24 playable characters.

The series' protagonist has also appeareded in the 2009 Konami fighting game Sunday VS Magazine: Shuuketsu! Choujou Daikessen! for the PlayStation Portable.

Reception

Jason Thompson, author of Manga: The Complete Guide, described the manga version of Flame of Recca as "polished and quick-paced", and that it "reads like a more carefully plotted, more extreme version of YuYu Hakusho." Patricia Duffield, a columnist for Animerica Extra, felt the story and artwork continuously evolved with characters and their unique weapons. "Although the series seems to have a tendency toward male fan service, Flame of Recca can be as enjoyable for gals as it is for guys." Duffield concluded, "If lots of ninja action with supernatural flair interests you, give Flame of Recca a try."