amaity

The most prominent precursor to the ever popular Naruto, Flame of Recca is essentially, Dragon Ball, Rurouni Kenshin, Naruto, and Kaze no Stigma all rolled into one package. Of course, in terms of originality, it deserves a high commendation, but that's about all the praise I can muster for this series. The story is lethargic. It follows a very formulaic approach. The main protagonist, Recca goes through a sequence of ordeals to realize his true strength and then manages to win over enemies with his never say die attitude. Banal. Seen that a million times. But that doesn't mean it'snot enjoyable. The animation is fair, to be honest, I feel that the studio started pumping more money into Yu Yu Hakusho (which was being released at the same time), and the later episodes suffer from a marked decline in quality. The sound is nothing spectacular, nothing memorable. The characters are moderately well designed, but again follow cliched "five-guy-superhero-team" stereotypes. There are, of course, some deliciously sinister villains, some with more character than our 2-D heroes. But the anime doesn't really explore them. I really can't give this a high grade. In it's time, yes it was a classic, and sparked of future work such as Naruto, but now it's a dated and overused concept and there are many more worthwhile series out there. However, I highly recommend the manga. The anime only follows upto volume 16 of the manga series and by itself leaves many questions unanswered. The manga is complete and reflects the true worth of the series.

jmoriarty84

It only offers a very small fraction of what the manga truly has to offer. It only focuses on 2 or 3 story arcs and I feel that if you’re at all a fan of the original manga, you’re certainly going to be cheated because it only offers a true fraction of what this series truly has to offer. But for this anime as a whole, it covers enough ground to give the viewers an introduction to the characters and offers excellent development. A majority of the main cast starts out as Recca’s rivals such as Domon and Fuuko, but eventually bigger circumstances such assaving the world unites them to become an unstoppable team. The anime itself is decently paced and the characters share equal time and develop sensibly for what this series has to offer and individually have their own use to the overall development of the story. The villains are also unique and have their own personalities that truly stand out and have their own back-story and goals to why they became to be. So you’re getting an excellent cast in which you can relate to or feel out. Well, the character design is faithful to the manga for the most part. When the manga started out, the art was pretty ugly, but Anzai further evolved and improved his art style to the point that when they made this anime, they used the improved art style thank god. The art style is basic, but still excellently detailed with the costume designs and the diversity of the character designs. I also like how the weapon’s are drawn and have really nifty designs. The action is very high octane and breath taking. It’s very technique based and well played out. Characters have fighting styles in which they contrast and I have always believed in an old saying of styles make fights and this anime also proves that. In addition, the fights also have a Yuu Yuu Hakusho like feel to it where it’s based on tactics and strategy, and you get that in this anime as well. In comparison to Naruto, you get a better overall feel of the ninja authenticity to the action and art design. The music is very addicting and very high spirited. A perfect example is the opening theme Nanka Shiawase by Oysters. It has good control with the guitars and the delivery of the lyrics is very true to the atmosphere of the series. I also can’t deny that the ending theme Love is Changing by Nishida Hikaru also exemplifies this, but more on the romantic side of the series. The background music has a fighting game esque feel to it and is very well diverse in that sense in which it portrays all kinds of moods and personalities. I can’t say much about the dub since I’ve never seen it and have no intentions of watching it just because I don’t want to, but the Japanese voice cast I feel is satisfying enough. I was very shocked to learn that Tobita Nobuo, who is most famous amongst Gundam fans such as myself as Camille Vidan from Z Gundam is the voice of Domon. He does a great job of not recognizing it’s the same voice, but still makes the character convincing as a tough guy who has a soft spot, but overall true use is comic relief. And Okiayu Ryotaro as Kurei and Midorikawa Hikaru as Mikagami are probably the reasons why I can never watch this series outside of the Japanese language. These two reputable seiyuus do a great job in bringing their characters to life and make them very believable. Well, if you want to see the rest of Flame of Recca as anime, the closest thing you’re going to get is if you get the PS2 game, Final Burning. The same studio animates the cut scenes and they got the same seiyuus back. Plus, you get to see the manga ending in anime form.