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.
 Alternative TitlesJapanese: 烈火の炎 More titlesInformationType: Manga
Volumes: 33
Chapters: 330
Status: Finished
Published: Mar 22, 1995 to Oct 30, 2002
Demographic:
Shounen
Serialization:
Shounen Sunday Authors:
Anzai, Nobuyuki (Story & Art) Statistics Ranked: #14952 2 based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded. Popularity: #1291
Members: 14,956
Favorites: 362 Resources | Reviews
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May 15, 2008
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,
...
Jun 28, 2008
-- [ 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 ... 
Jan 11, 2015
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 ... 
Jan 4, 2010
My first exposure to this series was back in ye olde days when I saw the anime version of it. While I enjoyed the anime considerably it was clear that it only covered a small portion of an otherwise much larger story. At the time I searched for a manga translation but to no avail. Cut to several years later and in my search for complete manga I was drawn to the tempting sight of "31 Volumes - Complete". I must say I was certainly more than satisfied with what I found.
At its heart Flame of Recca is a tournament style story, similar to Yu ... 
May 2, 2021
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 ... 
Apr 16, 2009
I forgot exactly when I finished this...but here goes.
Hmmm, well I am such a fan of Joker now, and am so pissed at the anime for not showing more of him...damn you animators! *shakes fist threateningly* (but eh, let's face it, what anime has translated everything from the manga it was based on into the screen with 100% fidelity?) it's all the differences in manga and anime's medium...staff (often, the author of the manga has little to none to say about the anime...) But enough about me comparing apples with oranges(even if the oranges are genetically modified to resemble the apples :P) haha! Well, what I first ... 
Apr 2, 2023
tl;dr: Very generic but solid old school battle shounen.
Flame of Recca is a manga that ran from 1995 to 2002 that strongly embodies a lot of shounen tropes and structures that came into being during that era. It’s a very typical shounen, but it’s good shounen. The core of it is ancient objects known as Madogu that give their wielders supernatural powers, the vast majority of time these wielders using them to fight each other. There’s an overarching plot that involves ninjas, time travel, reincarnation, and an evil mega organization centered around making its head immortal, but for the most part it just felt like ... |
