Series Description: Meet Recca Hanabishi, a regular high-school kid who hopes one day to become a ninja, and whose life is unexpectedly thrown for a loop the day he meets a cute and mysterious girl named Yanagi. He discovers he's had super ninja secret powers all along. Together with his friends Fuko and Domon, Recca slowly learns how to navigate the ancient and arcane world of ninja warriors. But the winsome teen has an ace up his sleeve: Not only does he already possess the skills of a ninja, he also harbors the ability to control fire! Famous at school as a ninja geek, Recca always likes a good-natured tussle with his friends and even his father. But he finds himself in an awkward situation -- on the day he pledges undying ninja allegiance to cute classmate Yanagi Sakoshita, a mysterious older woman appears. Is she good or evil? And what's the deal with tomboy Fuko Kirisawa? She's got the power of wind at her command. Does she want to blast him away or just kiss him?

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Warning: VIZ (the publishers) rated this book "T+", or "for Older Teens", and with reason. It contains obscene gestures, some profanity, suggestive dialogue, and one scene of frontal female nudity.

2 of 3 found the following review helpful:

Reccaman to the rescueFeb 17, 2008
By E. A Solinas "ea_solinas"
Every kid has some wild, utterly implausible fantasies about who and what they want to be.

But in "Flame of Recca's" first volume, those little fantasies turn out to have some basis in fact. While it isn't exceptional in artwork or storytelling, Nobuyuki Anzai's little manga series has enough comedy, action, and likable characters to keep you reading -- and it could definitely be excellent in future.

Modern-day teenager Recca Hanabishi is completely obsessed with ninjas, and uses his father's fireworks to further his skills. But when he sees naive Yanagi being manhandled by some guys, he goes to her rescue -- and is shocked when he finds that she can cure his injuries just by touching him. Impressed by her kindness and special power, Recca pledges to be her shinobi -- and reveals that he also has a power, to summon fire.

But then a a creepy woman appears, demands to see Recca's "magic flame," and attacks Yanagi -- because she's trying to provoke Recca into killing her. And when Recca and Yanagi's new relationship becomes public knowledge, his old rival/friend Fuko is enraged that he chose Yanagi to be his master. Then the shadowy woman appears, and offers her Fuujin, a strange bracelet that lets her harness wind.

But when she calls Recca out in the middle of the night, she's acting very oddly -- is Fuujin twisting her mind? And will it drive her to destroy Recca and Yanagi, or will they be able to save her from herself?

The first volume of "Flame of Recca" is really just warming up -- introduce the characters, a villain, and have some preliminary fights amidst some goofy comic relief. It's not bad by any stretch of the imagination, but you get the feeling that Nobuyuki Anzai was still getting used to the story and characters.

What keeps the first volume interesting is Recca himself -- he's a likable kid, who plugs after his weird goals wholeheartedly, but is still self-deprecating enough to be the class clown. Yanagi hasn't got a lot of dimension beyond "sweet-natured love interest," but Fuko and the thickheaded Doman are nice supporting cast -- they're quirky counterpoints to Recca.

But Anzai is still feeling his way out through the plot -- he peppers it with some solid, kinetic fight scenes full of strange magical powers, and entertaining comic relief (Recca and Domon's squabbles in the middle of a battle). And there's a bit of stock romantic tension, with Fuko crushing on Recca, and Recca blithely unaware of this fact -- he thinks of Fuko as one of the guys, not as a girl.

The plot really picks up in the last couple chapters, when the battle with Fuko gets very poignant, tightly-written and wildly tense. And there's a dark side to the story, since the strange woman claims that only Recca can kill her -- and in the last few pages, Anzai throws a curveball that promises to make things much more interesting in future.

The first "Flame of Recca" is only middling on its own, but Nobuyuki Anzai's little action-comedy manga promises to bloom later on in the series. Definitely worth reading.

Amazing Series.Jun 30, 2011
By Dojo Master
Flame of Recca is a spectacular manga and this shows in this particular edition.Not only is the art pretty good but it didn't have all the typical shonen stuff though there are a notable few including constant powerups. The story is quite good especially the latter volumes in which it becomes more seinen like. Thus, whether my review convinced you or not, I urge you to buy it.

Fantastic Shounen mangaAug 22, 2008
By Carol L. Sparks "Book Junkie"
Flame of Recca is my hands down favorite Shounen manga for a few reasons. It is equal parts awesome, hilarious, and wicked. The storyline has good twists and turns, the character development is great for Shounen, and the humor takes you by surprise quite a few times. Obviously, since this is a Shounen title, there is a lot of fighting and violence, but it's done so darn well.

The artwork starts out kind of poor (this was the author's first manga), but gets better and better throughout the series, until the latter third, where it will blow you away (there are 33 volumes total). I highly recommend this series to fans of the Shounen genre, because it delivers on all fronts, and even has some well-done romance!

1 of 2 found the following review helpful:

Flame Of Recca Rocks!May 18, 2004
By Carol
This Manga really rocks! I don't know about the english version as i am reading the chinese version of it! But it is still a very enjoyable and full of action comic book! I really reconmend to people who like reading comics!

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