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Sengoku Musou is a historical fiction of japanese time period, Sengoku Jidai. This anime is based on a fighting game, and those animes have a negative stigma attached to them. This series shows that there is a very good reason.

When I watched this, I got a strange feeling that it was terrible. For some time, I was unable to really point out what was the reason, but then I realized. Remember that war sequence you saw in that action series you watched?
By war sequence, I mean that episode where someone narrates long-panning shots with still people with war sounds, strategic screens that show the army ... views and occassional hero fight. Though they at points are entairning, it is mostly because you have got to know some of the characters and you care about what they are going through, and that makes the war somewhat meaningful.
Now get the characters that you care about and remove them. The war sequence can still be pretty good, since it at least is used for meaningful world building. It is pretty easy to sit through a while of battles if it means you in the end understand more about the world of the series.
Now imagine 12 episodes of war sequence with no time to get to know any of the characters. Sounds fun?

There are some shows that are pretty monothonic, like Dragon Ball with all that saiyan fighting, Bleach with the sword stuff or Death Note with crime/mysery. This means that it is possible for a show to be about a single thing, so why doesn't Sengoku Musou work?
First of all, the characters are extremely flat. There's the gayish pacifist guy, the brutal strong guy, the calm glasses-guy, the elegant girl and the cute ninja girl with a freaking flying squirrel. The only times I got really interested for few moments about the characters were the 11th and last episode.

I haven't played the game this is based on, so I really can't tell if it's better or worse. What I can say is that this is bad.

This is a really obscure anime, at least to me. I was scrolling on the internet for pictures of Kenshin for my next Sword Technique review, and came across a site in where someone had collected Kenshin look-a-likes. One of them was Tokia, a character from Flame of Recca. I was bored anyway, so without having any knowledge of what I was going to get I decided to give it a shot.

After watching the first few episodes, I was getting into it, but the following part was almost too much to comprehend, and not in a good way.

Recca's character was devoid of any development beyond ... three or two episodes. He's a fast, witty guy with ninja skill. And he MUST. ALWAYS. PROTECT. HIS. PRINCESS. NO. MATTER. WHAT.

Almost insulting is the morality the show teaches: If your friend is dying, just let them! Don't interfere because that would damage their ego too much.
Tokia was the "calm, logical"-type of guy, yet he only once called this out and it lasted just few moments. Afterwards, the narrator referred to it as a "debating over something meaningless". Also, the weirdest comic relief scene ever: When Recca takes some flying glass on him, protecting his princess, the removal of the glass and following bloodburst is played for laughs. Which, honestly, shocked me.

Maybe best character is Domon, who at first seems like a school bully, since he's bullying someone at school. Later, that's not adressed. He's just a tough, muscular guy. And his every second of glory is ruined every time.

The main powersource in this series are the madogus, gems that have various superpowers that are all cliche'd. These gems can be used together, apparently, be swallowed to increse effect or destroyed by a punch! These things are more frail than my mind after sitting through this series.

There are some good things in this anime, let's not forget those. To call the best, iintense action scenes and really nice imagination behind the powers.

The finale was... mediocre. There were good things in it, though the improvement of Recca's friends disappointed.
The villain, Kurei's father, was designed the best. He was scary, yet real. The motivation he had was real, but Kurei's one was rushed in and I didn't end up understanding it.

This show could have had:
A better pacing: There's too much things happening all the time.
Better logic: Sometimes the characters do really stupid things that don't feel like them at all, some fights have no meaning or purpose and why are the narrators in DEATH TOURNAMENT all scantily clad furry girls?! Tournament that is the final epic showdown and takes up majority of the show's entire showtime!?
Also, take about half of the fighting off and the series would rejoice, rest of them would be interesting and have a little meaning.

The character development is always left for few moments if there's any and all the moments Recca and Yanagi share together are shattered by some jerk interfering. To be honest, all the moments where anyone is having romantic stuff with someone are.

If the pacing was better, characters more real, superpowers better used and the show'd dare to let in more serious and hard stuff, Flame of Recca would shine brighter than the candle it is right now.