is a Japanese

manga Manga ( Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is ...

series written and illustrated by

Nobuyuki Anzai is a Japanese manga artist Best known for creating ''Flame of Recca'' and ''MÄR''. He was an assistant of Kazuhiro Fujita. He made his debut as a manga artist after he received an honorable mention in Shinjin Comic Taisho (Shogakukan Beginners ...

. It was serialized in

Shogakukan is a Japanese publisher of dictionaries, literature, comics ( manga), non-fiction, DVDs, and other media in Japan. Shogakukan founded Shueisha, which also founded Hakusensha. These are three separate companies, but are together called the ...

's ''

Weekly Shōnen Sunday is a weekly ''shōnen'' manga magazine published in Japan by Shogakukan since March 1959. Contrary to its title, ''Weekly Shōnen Sunday'' issues are released on Wednesdays. ''Weekly Shōnen Sunday'' has sold over 1.8billion copies since 1986, ...

'' from April 1995 to February 2002, with its chapters collected in 33 ''

tankōbon is the Japanese term for a book that is not part of an anthology or corpus. In modern Japanese, the term is most often used in reference to individual volumes of a manga series: most series first appear as individual chapters in a weekly or ...

'' volumes. The series was adapted into a 42-episode

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

television series by

Pierrot Pierrot ( , , ) is a stock character of pantomime and '' commedia dell'arte'', whose origins are in the late seventeenth-century Italian troupe of players performing in Paris and known as the Comédie-Italienne. The name is a diminutive of ''Pi ...

, broadcast on

Fuji TV JOCX-DTV (channel 8), branded as and colloquially known as CX, is a Japanese television station based in Odaiba, Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Owned and operated by the it is the key station of the Fuji News Network (FNN) and the Fuji Network S ...

from July 1997 to July 1998. The series has also spawned two video games and other merchandise. Both the anime and manga were licensed for North American distribution in English by

Viz Media VIZ Media LLC is an American manga publisher, anime distributor and entertainment company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 1986 as VIZ LLC. In 2005, VIZ LLC and ShoPro Entertainment merged to form the current VIZ M ...

. The anime has since been picked up by

Discotek Media Discotek Media is an American entertainment company based in Altamonte Springs, Florida, focused on distribution and licensing Japanese anime, films, and television series. Formed in 2005, Discotek primarily focuses on licensing retro titles fr ...

who re-released the series on DVD in 2015. As of June 2013, ''Flame of Recca'' had over 25 million copies in circulation, making it one of the

best-selling manga series The following is a list of the best-selling Japanese manga series to date in terms of the number of collected ''tankōbon'' volumes sold. All series in this list have at least 20 million copies in circulation. This list is limited to Japanese m ...

Plot

''Flame of Recca'' follows the story of a teenage boy named Recca Hanabishi, who is interested in

ninja A or was a covert agent or mercenary in feudal Japan. The functions of a ninja included reconnaissance, espionage, infiltration, deception, ambush, bodyguarding and their fighting skills in martial arts, including ninjutsu.Kawakami, pp. 2 ...

and claims to be one himself. He often gets into fights because he made it publicly known that the person who manages to defeat him will earn his services as a loyal ninja. Despite this, he eventually pledges his loyalty and services as a ninja to Yanagi Sakoshita, a girl with the innate ability to heal any wound/injury, because of her kindness and compassion. Recca soon discovers that he possesses the innate ability to control/manipulate flames, and eventually learns that he is actually the son of the sixth generation leader of the

Hokage The manga and anime series features an extensive cast of characters created by Masashi Kishimoto. The series takes place in a Ninja World, fictional universe where countries vie for power by employing ninja who can use Jutsu (Naruto), superhum ...

, a ninja clan that was wiped out in 1576, roughly 400 years before the series' present day. The Hokage ninjas wielded mystical objects called , which are referred to as "psychic devices" or "mystical weapons" in the English versions of the series. Madōgu grant their users special abilities, such as allowing their users to manipulate certain elements (as in the case of the ''Fūjin'', which allows its wielder to manipulate the element of wind) and enhancing their user's strength/skills (as in the case of the ''Dosei no Wa'', which increases its user's physical strength and the ''Idaten'', which increases its user's running speed). Oda Nobunaga had invaded the Hokage in 1576 for the purpose of acquiring these weapons, and the series' main antagonist, Kōran Mori, is searching for a madōgu that will grant him eternal life. Recca and his friends become entangled in Mori's quest for eternal life as he attempts to kidnap Yanagi, believing that her healing powers will help him achieve immortality. This leads them to join the ''Ura Butō Satsujin'', a tournament wherein the warriors that wield madōgu gather to battle each other. After winning the tournament, Recca and his teammates discover that Mori was on his way to acquire the , a madōgu said to grant its user eternal life, and once again attempt to stop him. Though it begins by following the same basic storyline, the ''Flame of Recca'' anime series ends right after the Ura Butō Satsujin ends, while the manga goes on to include the subplot involving the Tendō Jigoku. The anime also omits certain characters from the story, and several of the characters' physical appearances are slightly different from the manga.

Media

Manga

''Flame of Recca'', written and illustrated by

, was serialized in

's ''shōnen'' manga magazine ''

'' from April 5, 1995 to February 13, 2002, with a total of 329 chapters. The series was compiled into 33 ''

'' volumes published by Shogakukan from September 18, 1995 to April 18, 2002. Shogakukan also released the manga in 17 '' wideban'' volumes from January 18, 2006 to March 16, 2007, and a '' bunkoban'' edition from July 15, 2010 to October 15, 2011. The manga was licensed for North American distribution in English by

and United Kingdom distribution in English by

Gollancz Manga Victor Gollancz Ltd () was a major British book publishing house of the twentieth century and continues to publish science fiction and fantasy titles as an imprint of Orion Publishing Group. Gollancz was founded in 1927 by Victor Gollancz, an ...

. Viz released all 33 volumes from July 30, 2003 to November 10, 2009, while Gollancz released ten volumes between March 6 and November 28, 2006.

Anime

''Flame of Recca'' was adapted into a 42-episode

series produced by Studio Pierrot, and aired in Japan from July 19, 1997 to July 10, 1998 on

Fuji Television JOCX-DTV (channel 8), branded as and colloquially known as CX, is a Japanese television station based in Odaiba, Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Owned and operated by the it is the key station of the Fuji News Network (FNN) and the Fuji Network ...

. ''Flame of Recca'' was also aired on the satellite network

Animax , stylized as ANIMAX, is a Japanese animation satellite television network, dedicated to broadcasting anime programming. The channel also dubbed other cartoons in Japanese language. A subsidiary of Sony Pictures Entertainment Japan, it is headq ...

in Japan and Asia.

Pony Canyon , also known by the shorthand form , is a Japanese mass media publishing company founded on October 1, 1966. The company publishes mainly physical home media on compact discs, including music, films and TV shows and video games. It is affi ...

has released the entire series on DVD and

laserdisc The LaserDisc (LD) is a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium, initially licensed, sold and marketed as MCA DiscoVision (also known simply as "DiscoVision") in the United States in 1978. Its diameter typical ...

, while

Geneon (abbreviated as NBCUEJ) is a Japanese music, anime, and home entertainment production and distribution enterprise headquartered in Akasaka, Tokyo, Akasaka, Minato, Tokyo, Minato, Tokyo. It is primarily involved in the production and distributi ...

released it in two DVD boxsets on April 22 and June 24, 2005 in Japan. In North America, Viz Media released the series in ten separate DVD volumes between October 26, 2004 and January 9, 2007.

re-licensed the series in 2014 and released it on DVD in February 2015. There are several notable differences between the anime and manga, such as the character designs (e.g. Fūko has purple-violet hair in the anime, but has brown hair in the manga) and in the storyline itself (e.g. In the anime, Yanagi's healing powers are first revealed when she heals Recca after he gets injured while protecting her and a child from being crushed under metal pipes, but in the manga, Yanagi heals Recca when he gets injured while protecting her from a group of male students who were forcing her to go with them). The anime was aired in the Philippines by

GMA Network GMA Network (Global Media Arts or simply GMA) is a Philippine free-to-air television and radio network. It is the flagship property of publicly traded GMA Network, Inc. Its first broadcast on television was on October 29, 1961. GMA Network (f ...

in 1999.

Soundtrack

The ''Flame of Recca'' anime series featured

background music Background music (British English: piped music) is a mode of musical performance in which the music is not intended to be a primary focus of potential listeners, but its content, character, and volume level are deliberately chosen to affect behav ...

composed by Yusuke Honma. The series featured by The OYSTARS as its opening theme, and used by

Hikaru Nishida is a Japanese pop singer and actress. She was born in Fujisawa, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, and made her singing debut on April 6, 1988 with the release of the single "Fifteen", named after her age at the time. Nishida is affiliated with Manase ...

and by

Yuki Masuda is a Seiyu, Japanese voice actress affiliated with Mausu Promotion. Her major roles include List of Sakura Wars characters#Yuri Sakakibara, Yuri Sakakibara in the ''Sakura Wars'', List of La Corda d'Oro characters#Nami Amou, Nami Amou and List o ...

as its ending themes for episodes 1-32 and episodes 33-42 respectively. All the songs were released in singles, and all except "Zutto Kimi no Soba de" were included in the original soundtracks. ''Flame of Recca Original Soundtrack Vol. 1'' was released by

on December 6, 1997, and features background music used in the series, as well as the series' opening song and first closing song. ''Flame of Recca Original Soundtrack Vol. 2'' was released by Pony Canyon on May 4, 1998. It includes more background music used in the series along with a special CD drama entitled .

Video games

''Flame of Recca'' has been adapted into two games to date. is a

fighting game A fighting game, also known as a versus fighting game, is a genre of video game that involves combat between two or more players. Fighting game combat often features mechanics such as blocking, grappling, counter-attacking, and chaining atta ...

released by

Konami , is a Japanese multinational video game and entertainment company headquartered in Chūō, Tokyo, it also produces and distributes trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, pachinko machines, slot machines, and arcade cabinets. Konami has ca ...

on December 20, 2001 for the

Game Boy Advance The (GBA) is a 32-bit handheld game console developed, manufactured and marketed by Nintendo as the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001, in North America on June 11, 2001, in the PAL region on June 22, ...

. In this game, the player selects a character and presses certain button in order to make them move, attack, dodge, and perform special moves. Apart from having an HP bar, the selected character a power bar which increases when the character deals damage and decreases when the character performs a special move. Each character has his/her own set of special moves that do greater damage than normal attacks, and one super move that deals a significant amount of damage. There are nine playable characters for this game. is an

action Action may refer to: * Action (narrative), a literary mode * Action fiction, a type of genre fiction * Action game, a genre of video game Film * Action film, a genre of film * ''Action'' (1921 film), a film by John Ford * ''Action'' (1980 fil ...

released by Konami on June 10, 2004 for the

PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October 2000, in Europe on 24 November 2000, and in Australia on ...

. A limited number of soundtrack CDs and sets of four bookmarks with character illustrations by

were given out along with the game CD. The game's graphics and full motion videos are done in 2D animation. The game utilizes a split-screen format wherein players must press different button combinations to make their selected character perform specific moves. Certain

cutscene A cutscene or event scene (sometimes in-game cinematic or in-game movie) is a sequence in a video game that is not interactive, interrupting the gameplay. Such scenes are used to show conversations between characters, set the mood, reward th ...

s require the player to determine what the selected character will do next through choosing from a given set of options. An example of this would be when the player is required to choose if Koganei will dodge or stay put when the building he is staying in starts to collapse. ''Flame of Recca: Final Burning'' features 24 playable characters. The series' protagonist has also appeareded in the 2009 Konami fighting game '' Sunday vs Magazine: Shūketsu! Chōjō Daikessen'' for the

PlayStation Portable The PlayStation Portable (PSP) is a handheld game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on December 12, 2004, in North America on March 24, 2005, and in PAL regions on September 1, 200 ...

Reception

As of June 2013, ''Flame of Recca'' had over 25 million copies in circulation. Jason Thompson, author of '' Manga: The Complete Guide'', described the ''Flame of Recca'' manga as "polished and quick-paced", and that it "reads like a more carefully plotted, more extreme version of ''

Yu Yu Hakusho is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Yoshihiro Togashi. The series tells the story of Yusuke Urameshi, a teenage delinquent who is struck and killed by a car while attempting to save a child's life. After a number of te ...

''." Patricia Duffield, a columnist for ''

Animerica Extra ''Animerica Extra'' was a monthly List of manga magazines, manga magazine published in by Viz Media. Established as a companion to the anime news and review magazine ''Animerica'', ''Animerica Extra'' primarily published English-language translat ...

'', felt the story and artwork continuously evolved with characters and their unique weapons. "Although the series seems to have a tendency toward male fan service, ''Flame of Recca'' can be as enjoyable for gals as it is for guys." Duffield concluded, "If lots of ninja action with supernatural flair interests you, give ''Flame of Recca'' a try." In 2010, Mania.com's Briana Lawrence listed ''Flame of Recca'' at number four of the website's "10 Anime Series That Need a Reboot".

References

External links

''Flame of Recca''
at Shonen Sunday
''Flame of Recca''
at

''Flame of Recca''
at Studio Pierrot * {{Pierrot (company) 1995 manga 1997 anime television series debuts Adventure anime and manga Cultural depictions of Oda Nobunaga Discotek Media Fuji TV original programming Game Boy Advance games Game Boy Advance-only games Konami games Martial arts anime and manga Ninja in anime and manga Pierrot (company) Japan-exclusive video games PlayStation 2 games PlayStation 2-only games Shogakukan franchises Shogakukan manga Shōnen manga Supernatural anime and manga Viz Media anime Viz Media manga Video games developed in Japan