Flame of Recca – Overview

About the Author

Flame of Recca was Anzai Nobuyuki’s second foray into manga, and is probably his most famous. He studied manga drawing under Fujita Kazuhirou (Nope, no idea who he is either :p). To date he has only done three works: Rocket Princes, Flame of Recca and MAR.

About the Viz version of the Manga

Lets get the bad stuff out of the way first. Recca was licensed by VIZ and released, however they managed to butcher it completely. Firstly we have the cover art, while they used the same basic cover art, the colours used are dull and flat. To be honest anyone who hasn’t read the scanlations or japanese tankoubons would more than likely be put off buying the manga because it’s so damned lifeless.

Next we have the paper used, it has a cheap and horrible feel. The colour makes it hard to read the manga at times, and of course we have the close cropped borders cutting off bubbles and words quite frequently.

Secondly, we have the translations and editing, both of witch are so bad at times I wonder if anyone actually proof read before printing. We have entire script rewrites in places, missing letters in words, and even sentences all glued together with no punctuation (justlikethisannoyingisn’tit). Then we have their use of honorifics. They remove all the honorifics and replace them with ‘Mr, Mrs’ etc etc. In theory this isn’t bad (though i don’t understand why they just didn’t leave them in). However how many sixteen year olds go around calling each other Mr and Mrs. Hell i know if i went and called a mate Mr Taylor, he’s probably want to know if I’d been drinking.

Finally we have their half hearted pointless attempts at censoring. Again, nothing wrong with censoring, however in a manga aimed and labeled as being for older teens (16+) censoring seems a bit pointless, especially when its just a nipple here and there.

However, i could of forgiven even this if they censored the manga from the beginning, however they left it uncensored up to volume 20, then they added the half hearted attempt of censoring by simply removing the nipples off the breasts. What the hell was the point of that >.< Then as if to add insult to injury they changed their release schedule. Initially the manga was released on a monthly basis, however when it reached the 25th volume (and almost finished) they switched to quarterly releases. Again, what the hell was that for?

All told i have the opinion to say screw Viz, and don’t waste your money. Go grab the scanlations, and if you like it buy the original Japanese tankoubons to support the mangaka. I had planned to list the good stuff as well of the Viz release, but to be honest i couldn’t find any lol.

About the Story

The two main characters of this story are Hanabishi Recca and Sakoshita Yanagi, both having a unique ability, and both tied to each other by a fate of hundreds of years.

Characters

Hanabishi Recca: Recca is you not so usual 16 year old guy. He’s obsessed with ninja, their way of life, arts everything. To the point where he wants to be one, and lives his life like one. He also has a rather unique ability, when he rubs his fingers together he’s able to make fire.

Sakoshita Yanagi: Yanagi is proverbial damsel in distress. She’s cute, kind, naive, rather simple minded, and totally in love with Recca. They meet for the first time when Recca saves her from a guy trying to force her out on a date. Though he gets trounced by the guys mates, she sits with him till he awakes. Like Recca, Yanagi has a rather unique ability. She can heal wounds.

Kirisawa Fuko: Fuko is the tomboy childhood friend of Recca. She’s frequently fighting with him since he made it known that if anyone could beat him in a fight he’d become their personal ninja. When she finds out that he’s become Yanagi’s ninja just because he felt like it, she flips out, and as a result falls prey to Kage Hoshi’s plans.

Ishijima Domon: Domon initially is out to beat up Recca, he’s in love with Fuko but doesn’t have the courage to tell her. When Fuko falls into Kage Hoshi’s plan he joins forces with Recca to bring her back to her sense. As a result their friendship is cemented. Domon is a huge guy with an insane amount of strength, that comes in handy on a few occasions. However he seems to be more for comic release at other times

Mikagami Tokiya: Initially Tokiya is Recca’s enemy. Kage Hoshi points him to Recca as Yanagi looks like his dead sister. He feels that being around Recca will be dangerous for Yanagi, so keep her safe he targets Recca and initially succeeds in scaring him off, after cutting him to a bloody mess. Later however, he joins forces with Recca, initially to rescue Yanagi, then to find his sisters killer, and finally as a friend. Though he never shows his friendship overly much. He wields a madogu  called Ensui, which turns water into a blade. It has several different uses, and the more water used the better the blade is.

Koganei Kaoru: Koganei was initially Yanagi’s guard after she was kidnapped by Kurei. He wields a madogu called Kogan Anki, which is a large puzzle that changes into different forms. When he finds out that Kurei plans to kill Yanagi, he feels betrayed since he had promised he wouldn’t harm her. So he leave Kurei’s group. He later appears at the Satsujin when Fuko is missing. This time he’s out to protect Yanagi. He’s not trusted at first, however as the match progresses Recca and the others forget their distrust. Though Yanagi trusted him from the start.

Kage Hoshi: When she first appears Kage Hoshi is an enemy, of sorts. Her plans are all revealed in the end to make Recca stronger for when he has to fight against another flame wielder. However there’s a deeper plan as well, Kage Hoshi wants to die, and she believes that only Recca’s flames can do it. She proves she’s immortal to Recca, Fuko and Domon by slashing her throat in front of them.

Later on the truth is revealed, and Recca has a hard time coming to terms with it at first.

Kurei: Little is known about this guy at first, however when he kidnaps Yanagi to explore her healing ability, he meets Recca, and the truth is revealed. He’s Recca’s older brother, and he hates Recca with a vengeance. Like Recca he also has the ability to summon flames.

These are the main characters of the series, which span 33 volumes and two major arcs. The first arc deals with Recca and the others each learning of their abilities, the rescue of Yanagi from Kurei and the Satsujin. The Satsujin is defiantly the highlight of the the series. The fight scenes in this part of the manga are just amazing, as is the bond that builds between Kurei and Recca. By the end of the first arc Recca has lost his hate for Kurei, and gained a bit of respect for him. By the end of the series that respect is returned by Kurei, who also seems to have let go his hate of Recca, and accepts him when he’s forced to make the same choice he had to make. Let the soul of the one he loves be defiled, or turn it into his flame.

Like a lot of long running series, especially by those new to the world, it’s easy to see how the mangaka improves over the series. Anzai-sensei is no different, when he first starts out his style is a bit rough and crude. However by the time we start to get into the second arc he’s improved tremendously, and by the last few volumes his art style is just mind blowing. Here’s some of my favorite examples of his later art style:

As you can see the art is just stunning, and and Yanagi is just so damned cute!!

Usually, manga that start out as rough as this one did wouldn’t of gotten past the first volume for me. However, Recca had all the important elements needed to override the rough art. Plot, Story development, character development, character relationships, and no dull bits. From the outset the plot is pretty obvious, however the way it’s revealed leads to a few twists that you aren’t expecting. Which gives pleasant surprises. The story develops smoothly, which is essential IMO. It doesn’t feel strained as some longer series can become (as if they’re deliberately trying to extend them). It’s also easy to follow along and understand, there’s no confusion on elements of the story, which a few other manga have given me (Eden: It’s an endless world, for example).

Likewise the characters develop smoothly, no sudden personality changes or alliances changes, which i always find annoying. Each of the characters have a clear and defined personality which is obvious from the outset. What was unusual was that this also applied to the guys that were only around for a brief period of time. Rather than being flat and lifeless they were well developed and had interesting personalities.

The relationships between the characters were equally good. Especially between Yanagi and Recca. The development from friends to lovers is smooth, consistent and enjoyable to read. Same with Tokiya’s progression, which changes from enemy, to ally to friend. The development he goes through is amazing to watch, especially as he comes to terms with his internal conflicts.

Kage Hoshi is another that has an awesome and smooth progression, from enemy, to ally and finally to mother.

The individual relationships with all of the characters, including support ones runs smoothly. However the best one after the Yanagi/Recca, has to be the Kurei/Recca relationship. The progression this relationship goes through over the 33 volumes is simply awesome, and is equal to the development of Recca/Yanagi, though for different reasons.

Usually, the ending of long running series like this one are let down by the ending, not so with Flame of Recca. Anzai-sensei has clearly not rushed the ending, but rather took his time and ended it it perfectly. All the last niggly questions are answered, and everything is tied up just right.

I was a bit sad to reach the last volume if I’m honest, didn’t want the story to end hehe.

About the Anime

The anime version of Flame of Recca was already a bad conversion, but it was butchered even more when Viz got there hands on it.

The anime covers the first part of the manga series, the Satsujin. However to many things were changed, including the personality of Yanagi which destroyed the series for me.

Yanagi only works while she has the naive personality that she has in the manga. In the anime she’s a bit more worldly and extroverted, and as a result she just feels completely wrong. Then other elements were taken out of sequence, altered and changed. As a result it managed to mess up badly the feel of the series, as well leaving me scratching my head over questions that were asked but never answered. Finally there was the VA’s for the series, none of them really fit the characters they were playing, they just sounded wrong.

Viz butchered it even more when they got their hands on it. With dull and flat VA’s who were simply reading a script rather than acting the parts. And the script!!! It went through an almost total script rewrite. What’s the point of licensing a program if you’re just going to do a script rewrite, you may as well of just made your own series in the first place.

Where to buy

• Manga – The Book Depository
• Anime – UK Version not available, US version from Amazon

~ by Tiamat's Disciple on October 30, 2007.