Rekka no Honoo

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Alternative Titles

English: Flame of Recca

Japanese: 烈火の炎

Information

Type: Manga

Volumes: 33

Chapters: 330

Status: Finished

Published: Mar 22, 1995 to Oct 30, 2002

Genres: Action, Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy, Romance

Demographic: Shounen

Serialization: Shounen Sunday

Authors: Anzai, Nobuyuki (Story & Art)

Statistics

Score: 7.73¹ (scored by 6,282 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #1394²

² based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #1035

Members: 13,259

Favorites: 326

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7.73

Ranked #1394Popularity #1035Members 13,259

MangaShounen SundayAnzai, Nobuyuki (Story & Art)

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Volumes: /33

Chapters: /330

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Synopsis

Often considered untrustworthy, Japanese ninja were in fact unwaveringly loyal to their masters. But in modern-day Japan, high school student and self-proclaimed ninja Rekka Hanabishi finds it difficult to carry on their legacy, that is, until he saves a cute girl named Yanagi Sakoshita from a group of delinquents.

In the aftermath of the event, Rekka deems Yanagi worthy of being his master, swearing to protect her. As a sign of their trust, the two reveal their most valuable secrets to each other: Yanagi can quickly heal wounds, while Rekka can create fire with just a snap of his fingers. However, their dazzling exchange does not go unnoticed as a mysterious woman called Kage Houshi appears. She somehow knows about their powers and threatens them, claiming Rekka must be returned, for he is the only one who can kill her.

The pair hold their ground, but before things can escalate any further, Kage Houshi calmly leaves. Thinking the crisis is over, Rekka and Yanagi continue their daily lives, unaware that they are about to be dragged into a centuries-long ninja conspiracy with the lives of their friends and their own on the line.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

Rekka no Honoo was published in English as Flame of Recca by VIZ Media from July 30, 2003 to November 10, 2009.

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Related Manga

Adaptation:

Rekka no Honoo, Rekka no Honoo: Final Burning

More characters
Characters

Hanabishi, Rekka

Main

Kirisawa, Fuuko

Main

Kurei

Main

Mikagami, Tokiya

Main

Koganei, Kaoru

Main

Sakoshita, Yanagi

Main

Kagerou

Main

Ishijima, Domon

Main

Joker

Supporting

Morikawa, Ganko

Supporting

More reviewsReviews

May 15, 2008

329 of 330 chapters read

Overall Rating: 7

VK11 (All reviews)

55 people found this review helpful

The 1990's saw the rise of many of the kind of anime that people classify as your "tournament" shounen anime. Where you have your ragtag group of fighters - usually kids still in their mid-teens - that acquire supernatural powers and must enter a tournament to essentially save a precious friend, destory a certain evil, or just simply to save humanity. This style of anime, if you would choose to call it that, was prominently owned by the Dragon Ball series, and to a lesser extent, Yu Yu Hakusho. There were several "under the radar" animes that followed this style of presentation, but fizzled out in the popularity department. Enter Flame of Recca. Although not as popular as the aforementioned series, one could arguably categorize it into a second tier as far as what people will instantly think of when they hear the tournament-style anime in the '90s. Although Flame of Recca did have its own few wrinkles to add to the mix, ultimately, what is seen in the final product is your standard shounen anime where your high school kids gain the powers to defeat the evil, but is still highly enjoyable to read.

The story of Recca actually had a lot of originality for the time (first published in 1995). However, it was lacking complexity. The storyline could simply be broken up into two separate arcs. The first arc with your tournament and the second arc containing your save the world theme. Backtracking a bit, Flame of Recca is a story about a kid named Recca, whose dream is to become a ninja. He quickly saves Sakoshita Yanagi, who he ends up swearing his allegiance to and throughout the story, refers to as hime, meaning princess.

However, little did Recca know that he is actually from a ninja clan that existed some 400 years ago and because of his ties to this clan, it starts a chain of events that will test his mettle against many kinds of enemies - most prominently Kurei (main enemy of the first arc) and Kurei's adoptive father (the main enemy of the second arc). Generally, the plot can be summed into the following: Kurei's adoptive father wants to attain immortality and Yanagi - our princess who happens to have healing powers - is the object of his insane dream and he will stop at nothing to kidnap her and assimilate her powers.

The art in Flame of Recca is good. There is a good amount of detail given to all of the fights, environments, characters, etc. For the most part, it is easy to follow, with the exception being some of the later fights in the second arc, which get a little crazy. Otherwise, I personally didn't have too much problem with it.

This story's characters are a prime example of a manga-ka choosing quantity over quality. He introduces a plethora of different characters that he spends approximately a half a chapter to at the most two, explaining their past. And what's even worse is that the manga-ka ends up using the a bunch of the same characters over and over again in the fights throughout the entire story. Though it is still offset with the introduction of new characters within each mini-arc as well, so it prevents it from becoming too repetitive. The main "good" characters are your typical ones that you encounter - a silent, cold-hearted swordsman, a bully rival of Recca's who has more brawn than brains, a female childhood friend and a 13-year old genius kid. However, each of these characters are developed extremely well over the course of the manga and they complement Recca and Yanagi nicely and really help bring alive the story.

As I alluded to earlier, the manga-ka does recycle a lot of the old villains and uses them for later battles, which ends up getting repetitive. They get beaten the same way both times, but just by different people or slightly different circumstances. Otherwise, the manga is really enjoyable as the author was able to throw in enough comedy to balance out the seriousness of the story. You can't help but to absolutely fall in love with Yanagi's cuteness and admire Recca's bravery. A lot of the powers unveiled are really interesting and unique, although a bit on the freaky side. The freakiness is especially apparent in the second arc, where you'll be encountering more of the supernatural aspect of the story, as the villain uses genetic altering to create insane looking monsters.

In the end, Flame of Recca is more of an old-school manga, but completed in 2002. Given that it is 300+ chapters long, you would hope to see the plot have some kind of complexity - or thinking situations, but they are sorely lacking, as the story is pretty straightforward from start to finish. Despite the fact that this story doesn't involves many complex situations and plot lines, and doesn't delve too deep in many of the character's pasts, the plethora of characters and character developments help offsets those weaknesses. If you're looking for that tournament style shounen, superpower anime that is coupled with a "saving the world theme," and in addition, are looking for some good quality comedy and romance, Flame of Recca is something you should consider on undertaking.

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Jun 28, 2008

329 of 330 chapters read

Overall Rating: 9

infinity (All reviews)

36 people found this review helpful

-- [ Flame of Recca Manga - 33 volumes / 329 chapters ] --

One line: "Good art. Good story. Ok characters. What more to ask?"

Flame of Recca (FoR) is one manga where you will see the evolution of a mangaka's style clearly. It has a good plot, interesting characters, and a good bit of ecchiness. It definitely makes a good read.

- [ Art - 9/10 ] -

In the first volumes, the art was no good. The eyes were exaggerated, as well as the various body parts. It was plain old-style manga drawings. However, as the volumes move on, you see the style of the mangaka read more

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Jan 11, 2015

329 of 330 chapters read

Overall Rating: 7

Beobachter (All reviews)

11 people found this review helpful

Flame of Recca is what I'd call a comfort food of shonen combat manga, with the closest comparison I can think of to be Yoshihiro Togashi's Yuuyu Hakusho. There's nothing particularly original in it, but it's still well-executed enough to potentially be really enjoyable.

Every shonen combat manga needs a cool conceit, and for Recca it's ninja. The titular main character Recca Hanabishi is a ninja superfan to the extent that he's trying to live the ninja lifestyle in modern era, which in his mind necessitates looking for a master to serve. Said master ends up being Yanagi Sakoshita, a timid girl he bonded over their mutual secret power; Recca can conjure flame from his hand, and Yanagi can heal wounds. There's also an extinct ninja clan who played an important role in the backstory, but as a whole, don't really expect anything resembling authentic ninja experience from FoR. Instead of kunai, shuriken, and stealthing around, you'd be seeing a lot more of superpowered people, superpowered weapons (made by the aforementioned ninja clan), underground assassin group, underground tournament, genetic abominations, time travel shenanigan, etc. You know, the good ol' tropes that I and (presumably) you love.

FoR pretty much nailed the characters. I like Nobuyuki Anzai's design, as he is equally capable in drawing appealing characters who are easy on the eyes, cute chibi-fied effect, AND things that literally looked like they just crawled out from Hell itself (the latter would be increasingly prominent toward the end of series, as Anzai's art gets darker and more detailed). Personality-wise, the main cast is based on types that you've probably seen before; Recca is the hot-blooded leader, Yanagi is the pure-hearted girl and designated damsel in distress, Tokiya is the icy rival, Fuuko is the tomboyish action girl, and Domon is the boneheaded brawler. Thing is, this group has a genuinely strong dynamics and even if their character arcs might be very predictable, they're well-fleshed enough to invoke some emotional investment whether they're struggling against an opponent, trying to master their weapon/skill, or simply bantering with each other. The same thing also applies to the antagonists and supporting characters, to the extent that even a high number of one-and-done mooks has decent amount of personality and backstory. Impressively, while the cast of allies, enemies, and enemies turned allies (if you enjoy this particular trope, you're definitely in for a treat) steadily grows, it never gets out of control and neither does the main spotlight stray too much from the core group of characters; something that other combat series with bloated cast often don't get to say (*coughbleachcough*).

The plot structure is very straightforward: more or less, it consisted of an obligatory introduction arc, a tournament arc, and three dungeon arcs (one before the tournament, two afterward). By 'dungeon arc', I mostly refer to a particular set-up where our heroes have to advance through a series of one-on-one and occasional tag fights before they reached the big bad guy waiting at the end of a certain labyrinthine structure. Again, there's nothing imaginative or realistic about those (*you have to think the bad guys would've had way more success by just ganging up on our heroes from the start instead of going through all the trouble of setting up a video game-y set of challenges), but they're ultimately just an excuse to showcase the individual battles. It's a good thing then that Anzai's battle scenes are arguably where the series shined the most, as they're well-paced, easy to follow, and feature cool & varied abilities, weapons, and resolutions. The tournament arc (*an aspect most similar to Yuuyu Hakusho, due to the team-based nature), which takes up slightly more than one-third of the entire story, deserves particular mention for being one of the most exciting tournament arcs I've ever read.

I may have nostalgic bias considering it is one of my favorites during my formative years, but I strongly recommend Flame of Recca to those looking for a fun, balanced combat series that doesn't take an eternity to finish. Consider the final grade to be more like an 8 if you're a genre fan who doesn't mind familiar character archetypes and plotting, or a 6 if you're not.

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May 2, 2021

330 of 330 chapters read

Overall Rating: 5

WKJoro (All reviews)

3 people found this review helpful

I just wrote a comment on the last chapter, but I think it's more suitable for a review. Also this is my first time writing a review.
I talk more about the things I didn't like because:
1. I want you to read the manga and find about why I like the good things I mentioned.
2. I don't want you to read the manga because of the annoyance of "the bad" ones.

IMO it was a good manga for it's time.
For the present it's 5/10.
Won't rate it on MAL because I don't really want to lower the score for the future readers who are looking for a good read more

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Rekka no Honoo
Flame of Recca
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