Anime: Rekka no Honoo

This is a show about a ninja boy who wants to become Hokage and uses special attacks based on elements and ninjutsu. Ring a bell?

Of course if you keep comparing them, this anime is by no means equal to Naruto. It lacks its variety and complexity, plus it was left incomplete. It never takes itself seriously in a way to create some actual tension. For example, the lead hero is from the past, thrown in modern times. This makes everything to feel like one big time paradox.

Furthermore, the duration of the anime is not helping you to like the cast or the story. Although it is 42 episodes long, the big number of characters would require at least double as many episodes to get to like them. If you take out the duration where they fight or train, you are left with very little time spent on each, to the point you see them as nothing but caricatures.

Plus, they were all stereotypes to begin with, following the usual fighting shonen formula of training, fighting, making allies of your opponents and repeating the process with stronger opponents.

Leaving the story incomplete is also a big minus, as you are left in the middle of the whole deal, feeling disappointed of not knowing what happens next.

The production values are also average for its time and rather bad after all these years, with too much use of still frames and cheesy visual effects. The OST is also completely forgettable and the characters look too generic to care remembering them. The irony is that it was made by Studio Pierrot, which also animated Naruto.

Meta-series, the anime aired back in a time when far more exciting fighting shonen like Dragonball and Hunter X Hunter were airing. They overshadowed it and that is why the project was dropped half-way. Not only that, but its form of plot development was very similar to Yu Yu Hakusho, which also aired at the same time and got owned by those other two series. Well Flame of Recca is by far the most simple and generic of all of them, to the point it is very easy to get over it and look for something else. And that else ended up being Naruto some years later.

Watching this series is a way to figure out the recycling of ideas used in a genre, when there is no attempt at experimentation and innovation. I don’t recommend it to anyone except perhaps out of curiosity to witness how blunt the genre can get. Oh, and check out the manga since it finishes the story in quite an epic way I hear.

With anime like this, I can verify my little theories regarding state of mind of common Japanese anime industry worker, say - a scenario writer.

In case of Recca no Honou (Flame of Recca) it's quite simple how did his brain work:

Take interesting initial concept, make first fights really interesting and well animated. Then pick up OK characters, with few twists and decent backgrounds, but nothing unusual or outstanding and later throw in villains that may be interesting, if You will later develop them.

(on this stage we should have viewers interested in the anime)

Make the rule of first confrontation present, that way up to 13th. ep. main villain is met and his goals are explained. Thus everyone thinks pacing is fast and story doesn't drag with unnecessary fillers.

(on this stage viewers should start hoping for good character development, and few things should already be hinted, like couples and enemies and rivals)

Later add in some sentimental and grievous matter, like terrible past of one's mother/sister/other and reveal terrible truth regarding inner beast in main hero and/or main villain. Mix it all with possible relation between main hero and main villain and some gruesome death being possible for one or both, hanging over whole thing like Damocles's sword. AND...

(now viewers should be caring for the characters, and we can begin the most important stage)

DESTROY IT ALL WITH MEANINGLESS, UTTERLY REPETITIVE, FORMULAIC AND HACKNEYED PLOT-PUSHING.

Hey average Japanese anime maker! DIE.

I think FoR is definitely made by recipe described above.



Animation[/b]
Very nicely drawn fights were main reason for my mark here and in enjoyment. Even when story where at its worst, fights managed some level of decency. Unfortunately, they never reached such greatness as for example fights in RK OVA, because here I simply didn't care that much for characters.

Other than this, characters designs were nice, yet suffered from inconsistencies (sometimes Yanagi looked childlike, sometimes girlish, same with Recca, and I don't mean here chibi or usual form).

Still, half of the anime took place in one huge room so, how hard You think it was for them constantly to use the same background for 21 episodes?

I read on AnimeNfo, that FoR bears the signs of changes in animation, because nipples are shown either in dreams, or in hallucinations. That's true. There are some fan-catering scenes, when clothes are torn (or burned) and girl gets naked, but nothing really more, and even then You don't get much to see.



Sound[/b]
DATED is the best word in here. SFX, BGM, music it all stinks with age. I had to 'got used' to it, and it never was pleasant, I always heard the synthesizer in it.

Besides, for 42 episodes they used the same soundtrack, which even in the beginning wasn't original, fresh or melodic. Not to mention that it had minimal range in compositions! I got bored of it around episode 15, and there were almost 30 more to go!

On the bright side, voice acting, wasn't bad.

Story[/b]
GREAT!! MAGNIFICENT!! EXCELLENT!!

First of all, I quickly learned character names, and I won't forget them! That's thanks to other character who screamed the name of character X EVERY SINGLE TIME when character X got wounded. What a wonderful idea, to do that in action anime! Let's say, we have fight and character X get's hurt. His friend shouts: X! Rival whispers "come on X!", lover (in spe) worries 'X...' and we have also buddies, viewers, passerby and occasionally enemies also will make a comment or two.
Now this repeats every time he gets hurt in this fight, which occurs no less than three times at the very least. Works wonders for memorizing character names, I tell You.

We also can see this amazingly detailed and fabulously drawn arena from episodes 17 to 40. They had to work on this background for ages, You know? Otherwise, they wouldn't have guts to show You ONE BACKGROUND for 23 episodes on 42 episode total, now would they? And hell, what a plot they have, to confine it in one place for so long. The best drama can't compare!

And it also works wonders for Your concentration! After few episodes, I could clearly tell in what part of the arena they were fighting! In fact, I could almost tell which rock they are now on! And thanks to such familiar feeling it gave me I could concentrate more on what was going on actually, and that's sooooo useful, because in FoR the plot is lightning fast, man, I tell You, changes are sure hard to spot, so quick they are! Unnoticeable almost. Invisible.

And that tournament! Never since Mortal Combat had any movie played this theme! So imagine my surprise, when I saw it played in FoR! So original! So fresh! And here it's played till last five minutes of anime! Works wonders on the quality of the plot and of course, for the ending as well! After all, if last episode still is in tournament mode, then the ending must be one in it's kind, full of closure, without any loose threads or themes, every past gets resolved, everything is well knitted together... yessss, precisely how it's pulled out here.

Especially the little trick they did just before the ending credits rolled, that just made my jaw drop! Hell, I never would suspect they would so neatly summarize their achievements! "We haven't concluded this, there's no resolution in that, this has no closure, and what about that?!" Suddenly reminded by one character, this sure neatly tied up ALLLLLLL the loose knots I could otherwise worry about. Neat ending! Nowadays they don't end stuff like that, gotta respect old school!

List of positives is very short.
Madougu were great idea, same with developing ninja with abilities, vs madougu ones, it's shame later it gets wasted.
First 16 episodes and the bunny-like commentator (is there female form for that? like actress?) who liked Recca and became his fan (SHE was fun) also were adorable.

Unfortunately, it all was murdered by tournament story arc.

Character
You probably often heard that "this is NOT Your typical romance" or "that is NOT Your average ecchi/comedy". Well, here it should be reversed.

It IS Your typical fighting anime character set.

Cool avenger? Check.
Energetic girl? Check.
Tough brute with muscles compensating for lack of brain? Check.
Little kid, who's annoying, but kind Onee-san will tame him just by snapping her fingers? Check.
Kind Onee... sorry, damsel in distress? Check, oh how many times check.
Mysterious mentor with tragic past and personal connection to main hero? Check.
Omniscient mentor? Check.
Seemingly cool villain with twisted childhood? Check.
Evil mastermind being wicked politician? Check.

I could go on... There is CHECK on every possible stereotype used in fighting movie/anime/tale You ever heard of.


More in depth description:

Hanabishi Recca is our main hero of the story. We get to know a lot about him... wait, do we?
Oh! How could I forget, his past actually is still full of holes, even after the end of anime.
Nice, kind-hearted, well spirited, with great skills and later also with his Flame he fights his way through later part of anime, totally being discarded as a character, because of focusing everything into his fighting).

Yanagi-chan, Yanagi-hime. While initially she was kind girl, later she became flat. After all, a cute and kind girl with no fighting ability cannot survive as anything but damsel in distress in FoR.

After all, FoR is non-bullshit fighting anime, I kid You not.

Thus this girl, who at first was even slightly interesting as a character (her similarity to Tokiya's sister could have been nicely played later on) later became flatter than flat-line.

Fuuko and Domon. The usual to the bone. Brute guy with nothing but strength and golden heart (here is the time to list all the similar characters... STOP! JUST KIDDING, what do You want years spent on this listing?!). And loud-mouthed girl with loads of energy, who wants to be praised for being cute, but rarely acts it.
Separately they are twice the bore, together they add some spice, thanks to love-love feeling around.

Unfortunately, their stories (if they ever had some) are only MENTIONED. You can get some HINTS about Fuuko's madougu and what is destined for her, and Domon gets even less.

Mikagami Tokiya is Your cool avenger, who also get his twist in the story happening, well, around 20 episodes too late for anyone sane to care for it. By the time the truth behind his tragedy is revealed I was no longer interested, and STILL it is not revealed completely.

From all the main heroes none has his past explained, villains are treated even worse.

Ending is rushed and even without it, it cuts many things in half (what do I say, in the BEGINNING!), like I said in the story section.

Still, some characters had potential, after all, and nice ideas to them, so it's just bad in the end.



Value[/b]
No value.

Unless You want to see every cliche that's possible to use in action anime.

For the first part of the anime it was actually fun, because it carried my hopes for development. When I realized I'm sentenced to watch this damn tournament match after match I quickly understood what awaits me. Death out of boredom.

Ending got me laughing my ass off at my stupidity (I had hopes for THIS?) and for their (creators) insolence in telling straight in my face how much they didn't conclude.

If I had completed my work in 20% I wouldn't be bragging about it, but hey, that's just me.

Still, fights carried this show pretty far, what reflects my enjoyment score.

Flame of Recca's your traditional no apologies fighter anime, where the action is fast and heavy and the battles are the main appeal. The story follows a Recca, a modern day ninja fanatic, and his circle of friends on their training and adventures. It had a lot to live up to, and did so very well.

Recca takes the familiar route of it's very successful predecessor, Yu Yu Hakusho, also by Studio Pierrot. I must admit, at times Recca feels almost too much like Hakusho. The casts have many similar traits, but thankfully remain unique. Themes such as the tournament and the half-human half-creature bishoujo announcers are strikingly similar, but not unwelcomed.

If you liked Hakusho then you'll probably like Recca, and vice versa. The characters are well rounded and have plenty of personality, while the story is a bit darker than most fighter animes and very interesting. Recca's struggles and triumphs carry real weight and consequences. The characters have real depth to them, especially Recca and Fuuko who appealed to me the most. They are all serious fighters who enjoy the battle.

The timing of the duels are just about right, never feeling overly drawn out or corny. A lot of thought and logic was put into the brawls and the outcomes. Since the techniques are all very logic based, this means the outcome is also a little predictable sometimes. But it's nice to actually see battles decided by logical, reasonable techniques rather than over the top tricks that seem to be made up on a whim.

The art is extremely well drawn and animated, with great style. Recca flips and runs with a real ninja like style, while Fuuko's wind dancing early in the show borders on beautiful. Perhaps the best art comes toward the later half of the show when flame techniques become a real sight to behold. There's even one extremely impressive battle where the art takes on a very loose, flowing, sketchy feel I've never seen in anime before or since.

I really liked the smooth, somewhat laid back opening song and animation... It's a nice twist. With a lot of violence, a dark story, cute girls, tough guys, and some nice brief nudity scattered throughout for good measure, Recca ensures a great time. If you like shounen fighting animes and ninjas, I highly recommend this one.