Episodes: 42

Year: 1997

Status: Complete

Alternative Title: Recca no Honou

Subbed by: Anime Forever Fansubs

Flame of Recca Official Site (Japanese)

Rating: Alright

Review: Hanabishi Recca is just another ordinary high school student obsessed with the history of ninjas – in particular, the Hokage Ninja clan. However, a chance encounter with Sakoshita Yanagi changes everything. Recca saves Yanagi from a falling beam in a construction area and takes the hit himself. Yanagi, however, has the special power of healing and saves Recca’s life. From then on, Recca views Yanagi as his “hime” or princess and vows to protect her as her ninja. To add to the interesting turn of events, Recca is tracked down by mysterious woman of the shadows who unearths his past and his true identity. Recca brings out the flame from his hand and realises that he is a flame-user. Soon, Yanagi is targetted by a greedy businessman for her healing ability. It is up to Recca to save her from their clutches, to understand his past, and to find out his true purpose. Recca and his friends fight off evil and enemies from the past and present to protect Yanagi!

Flame of Recca is an exciting action-packed anime with good storyline and lots of good fights… or at least it mostly started out that way. The storyline is pretty decent with the ancient twist and the use of elemental weapons but while it was off to a great start, there’s a point where the story began to get repetitive. Without giving away much of the plot, the repetition comes in with the never-ending dark tournament Recca and his gang of friends fight. To be fair, the fights partly make up for the weaknesses in the story and the lack of substantive character development.On the hand, almost all of the fights seem a fight to death with a miracle in the end.

On a different note, the series often seems a little strange with the whole “princess” business Recca is obsessed about – each to his own obsession I suppose. I have a soft corner for Flame of Recca since it was one of the first few anime I watched way back. If you like ninjas, martial arts and are more interested in fights than a story – then Recca is right down your alley. However, if martial arts are only appealing to you in a good storyline like Kenshin or Kenichi, you probably want to skip out on Recca.

If you like ninjas and action, check out:

Naruto

Bleach

Ninku