Episodes: 9

Year: 2006

Status: Complete

Subbed by: Lunar Anime Fansubs

Rec Official Site (japanese)

Rating: Great

Review: Rec traces the ‘accidental’ love between Fumihiko Matsumaru and Aka Onda. Fumihiko Matsumaru is an ordinary salaried employee at a company who, while being stood up by his date at the movies bumped into Aka Onda and ended up going to the movie with her instead. Aka aspires to be a voice-actress and idolises Audrey Hepburn. On returning home, the two find that they are neighbours. That very night, in a stroke of fate – or rather fire, Aka’s apartment burns down and with nowhere to go, Matsumaru takes her in. Fate continues to work as the very next day Matsumaru’s project idea at the company is accepted and Aka is hired to be the new voice actress for the character. In this sudden turn of events which brought them together, will Matsumaru and Aka find something special between them or will their ambitions and differences get in the way?

Rec is a cute anime with a short but interesting storyline. The best of part of Rec lies in the fact that it is not long enough to have an overly convoluted plot and neither is it short to the point of being abrupt and incomplete. It is a short and sweet story about how fate brought two people together and the rest was upto them to figure it out. Aka finds it hard to balance her ambitions while considering a relationship with Matsumaru while Matsumaru faces the same dilemma on his end. The anime has its comical moments brought out in each of the characters and yet retains the depth of the storyline. It’s a good romance anime without the emotional depth of the grand canyon – and boy don’t we all need a break sometimes!

Check out more like Rec! You might like:

Hataraki Man: Tends to be a more slice-of-life anime and deals with Hiroko’s challenge of managing love and work with a boyfriend who works as much as she does!

Kareshi Kanojo no Jijou: Kare Kano follows a similar theme as Rec in being about the realistic side of love where the couple have to deal with obstacles of work, school and careers to maintain their relationship. Kare Kano does have more comedy and romance than Rec though.