Monday, September 3, 2001

Flame of Recca (Rekka no Honou)



Genre: Action
General Audience
1997-1998 Studio Pierrot, Fuji TV




SHOPPING:
Flame of Recca Manga
Flame of Recca DVDs
Everything Flame of Recca

Cover Description:
Recca Hanabishi is a regular high-school kid who dreams of becoming a ninja someday. His ordinary life is disrupted the day he meets a cute and mysterious girl named Yanagi. He soon discovers that he posseses super ninja secret powers! Together with his friends Fuko and Domon, Recca slowly learns how to navigate the anicent and arcane world of ninja warriors. But the winsome teen has an ace up his sleeve - not only does he already have ninja skills; he also knows how to control fire!

(42 episodes)

Pit this against Yuu Yuu Hakusho? >>> by skysenshi
Most stories start out like this. An ordinary boy with the extraordinary gift of flame learns about his history in a not-so-comfortable manner. When this boy meets up with a bunch of people who are after the girl he has sworn to protect, a battle of wills and skills take place.

I noticed that people compare Rekka No Honou (Flame of Recca) with Yuu Yuu Hakusho and make unfair comparisons based on what little the saw of one title (*ahem* AXN boards). If you've read my opinions about YYH, which was written around last year, you'd know what I'm talking about. To summarize: Rekka no Honou the anime has great artwork while YYH, on the other hand, has a beautiful and consistent storyline. So what is there to compare about? Well, they basically have one thing in common: hand-to-hand battle tournaments. Do I like one over the other? Maybe.

To Rekka's credit, it has a really great set of team. From the loud-mouthed Rekka Hanabishi, the powerful and sexy Fuuko Kirisawa, the big lug Domon Ishijima, the handsome self-confident Tokiya Mikagami (who reminds me of the one and only good-looking YYH ghost fighter Kurama), to the mischievous Kaoru Koganei, there almost isn't any room for complaints. All of these characters have great backgrounds as shown in the anime. The only problem was that the animators focused too much on Rekka that there were so many loose ends that left me hanging. Like what happened with Fuuko and that hot guy from the opposing team or what happened to Mikagami's quest for vengeance? Even the ending was like... what the heck??? If you're looking for closure, you'll have to get the manga. So what are we watching the anime for, if you're going to be finding the complete story in the manga anyway?

Some people say that if you've seen YYH you'd probably like Rekka better or vice-versa. It's actually a matter of choice. If you want an anime that has a shallow, inconclusive plot that could've had much potential but has great fighting scenes, you'd love Rekka. On the other hand, if you want an anime that has an honest-to-goddess ugly group of characters with monsters that look better than the protagonist but has great fighting scenes, you'd love YYH. So you just take your pick.

Individual Rating: Art/Animation 9; Story 6; Characters 9; Sounds 9

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