From the opening scene, where Recca playfully spars with a friendly adversary named Domon, you can tell that the series is going to have highs and lows, comedy and tragedy, reality and mysticism, and way more than its share of action.
What separates Flame of Recca from other anime fight fests is character, mui mui character. Starting with Recca himself, he and all his friends are fairly complex people that are easy to understand and to care for. Because the story spans vastly divergent time periods -- though the majority of it takes place more or less in contemporary time -- it?s essential that we buy into the characters right away. Luckily, with this anime release, we do.
Recca is a young man that is living with a destiny that he?s only too eager to deny. While he wants to be a ninja, that?s as far as it goes. Because he works in his father?s fireworks factory, he is adept at making and dispensing tiny explosive balls. He keeps a seemingly inexhaustible supply of them in the various pockets of his jeans. The jaunty cap he wears (usually backwards) is in defiant contrast to the ninja training he cultivates; whether for substance or style, he always has a Band-Aid on his left cheek. He constantly warns his dad to stop smoking around the gunpowder. Considering what happens to him later in the first episode, this is delicious irony.
Life takes a detour when Recca saves the life of Yanagi, an attractive girl who, coincidentally, had once been a schoolmate of his. Seriously injured, Recca is healed by Yanagi, making him aware of magical powers that she has hidden from everyone else. Afterward, Recca calls her Princess and vows to be her ?personal ninja,? which, of course, leads to lots of awkward moments around town. Recca?s social status takes a turn for the worse because he?s made it quite public that he would only become a personal ninja for someone who had bested him in battle.
So far, you can easily discern the lighthearted touch that Flame of Recca invokes while crafting the interaction between the fearsome foursome of Recca, Yanagi, Domon, and Fuko. Fuko is another classmate of Recca?s who is also bent out of shape that he has pledged himself to be Yanagi?s personal ninja. Fuko a real piece of work; she wanted to defeat Recca herself and earn that honor. If bitter was a college major, Fuko would be taking advanced placement courses.
Enter Kagehoshi, a dark woman who appears, quite literally, from the shadows. She knows more than she should about Recca and she is quite adept at manipulating his young, impetuous friends. It is through Kagehoshi that Recca?s amazing past and possible futures are revealed. She places challenge after challenge in front of Recca, forcing him to reveal and refine his latent ability to manifest flames from his hands (giving the show its well deserved name).
Flame of Recca: A Ninja?s Test hints at a larger world that will be explored in future DVD episodes. Other people with powers begin to watch the confrontations from the sidelines, suggesting that new alliances and splinter groups will form. Rest assured that Kagehoshi will be there, pulling strings and grinning like some sort of mad harlequin.
Without going into too much detail, and without making the reading public dodge unnecessary spoilers, Flame of Recca is well worth the price of admission and the time it takes to shred the shrink wrap and peel away the sticky-backed plastic security label. All aspects of this release are better than average, and some -- including the show?s dialog, musical score, and special effects -- are actually quite noteworthy.
A final, and quite personal, comment: Baseball fans like home runs to come back to back to back (especially if the home team hits ?em). Potato chips are eaten in gangs, not by themselves (allowing Lays potato chips to coin the slogan, ?Bet you can?t eat just one?). While one rock rolls down the hill quite often, it?s the avalanche that draws attention. In contrast, and perhaps it?s just me, but I felt that I needed to take a short break between watching episodes of Flame of Recca on the DVD. Maybe I just needed to simulate the experience of seeing them on TV. Each show is quite linear in that it has a slow build up, some preliminary action, and a final confrontation. To me, such a show is more enjoyable if the palate is cleansed between viewings.
But if you like your anime like dingers and Pringles, pretend I never said anything, okay?
