Flame of Recca Volume One: - The Burning Flames of Mediocrity

When choosing manga, I almost always go completely off of what I've heard, or from what I know when it comes to selecting books. This does limit my selection a bit though, but lately I've been purchasing volumes from series that I know nothing about. For the most part, I've ended up with nothing but gold, but there are a few that I really wish I had not judged from the cover alone. One of these such times has come after purchasing Flame of Recca Volume One. Now I had actually heard a brief amount about the anime series which was unlicensed until just recently, but I never read any of the facts about it, just short opinionated blurbs. So after blowing about eight or nine dollars on this graphic novel, I was more than a little disappointed with the end results. Let's just say the Flame of Recca really doesn't have any special personality characteristics, and it uses no new tactics in it's approach to shonen manga.

Okay so let's take the typical formula for a shonen series, and see how Flame of Recca fits into this. First, you gotta have a main character, hero type with lots of determination who has big goals for himself. Second, you gotta have a rival for this hero type to continually clash against. Now comes the romantic interest, and the evil enemy. Usually though, most series seem to add a little new to this formula, but judging from Flame of Recca Volume One it seems that Nobuyuki Anzai didn't put much heart in it, which is evident in the uninspired character design. Even when compared to other main characters in the first volume of a manga series, the main character, Recca doesn't seem nearly as fleshed out as he should be because it seems that the author was trying for the mysterious charm approach but it falls short of charming in my opinion. I just couldn't find myself liking or caring about any of these characters, and it feels like I've seen this all before.

Flame of Recca Volume One does manage to fit itself nicely into the action category, with this being the main focus of the series. In a rather typical fashion, romance also seems to be an offshoot focus, along with mystery being one of the bigger elements to Flame of Recca. Right from the beginning it seems as though too many aspects of the plot are thrown your way a little too quickly, this makes for odd pacing. Since the series takes place in modern Japan, I was expecting a more realistic character approach. This is not the case though, as Recca is obsessed with ninjas of all things, and thus his surroundings really don't fit in too well with his surroundings. I will give this volume props on the only major fight that occurs. One problem I found was that the one character I did like seems to be given a backseat role throughout all the chapters except for one, while this volume stresses the two main characters who I find myself not enjoying.

Story
Recca Hanabishi is known at his school for being obsessed with anything and everything that has to do with ninjas. This leads to him getting quite a bit of negative attention, because he was sworn that he will become the personal ninja of anyone who can beat him in a fight. One day in the park he witnesses a group of guys messing with a lone and helpless girl, so he fights these bullies off to rescue her. The only problem is that there are too many of them for him to handle, so ends up losing consciousness after losing the fight. Surprisingly enough to him, upon waking up he finds that his wounds have been mysteriously healed. It turns out that the girl Yanagi has the ability to heal living creatures. From here, Recca decides to become her personal ninja, though this is disappointing news to some of his classmates who thought for sure that they could beat Recca.

From here, Recca decides to show Yanagi his own personal special power. He has the ability to create flames. As he creates them, a mysterious woman appears named Kage Hoshi, and she forces Recca to use his fire powers against her. After that, she disappears claiming that the two will meet again in the future. At school, everyone is surprised to hear the Recca was defeated by weak Yanagi, and one of his long time rivals, Fuuko decides that she will defeat her in order for Recca to become her own personal ninja. Recca defeates Fuuko, which leads to much frustration on her part. With frustration comes temptation though, as she gains the power of the wind from an all too familiar character. Little does Fuuko know that she is now under complete control, and the puppeteer just happens to be someone with evil intentions. It's now up to Recca to save her from the clutches of evil.

In this first volume there is only one major fight. You can probably guess who it is between based off of the plot summary. I actually have no clue about anything Flame of Recca related further down the storyline, and so I can only base my expectations off of this first volume. If this is any indication, than it looks like Flame of Recca will end up being totally cookie cutter as far as shonen anime/manga goes. The best element of this series so far it seems is the action, though it's just about average when compared to others and it is weighed down by the uninteresting characters and plot. Though this series gives off a lot of mysterious elements, I care not how they resolve, or even seeing them resolve. The entertaining values of this volume of manga are a little disappointing, because I was expecting a lot given how many positive opinions I've heard about this series. Sadly enough I can't see myself picking up volume two.

Becuase Flame of Recca Volume One doesn't deal with very mature themes, and I don't particularly remember any particular instances of bad language you shouldn't be too paranoid about picking this volume up for a young fan. I've seen many age recommendations that say 16 and up, but personally I don't think you need to go that far as I would personally recommend 12 and up instead because the plot isn't even that hard to understand. The action doesn't seem to serious or violent, especially with no character deaths and a very little amount of blood. If you are a fan of manga though, and have interest in this series than you might want to read a chapter or two before ultimately deciding your purchase because it isn't as flashy or interesting as it at first sounds. If you are however, looking for a very typical shonen series and don't care for something that is new, than I'd recommend this one to you.

Final Recommendation
Flame of Recca Volume One would probably be best for a casual fan of anime/manga, especially if you don't have much else to compare it to. Fans like myself though, will be sorely disappointed in the uncharming simplicity this series has to offer.