Rekka no Honoo

Most people think that ninjas are a thing of the past, but Rekka Hanabishi wishes otherwise. Although he comes from a family that makes fireworks, he likes to think of himself as a self-styled, modern-day ninja. Sounds like fun, right? Maybe not. Rekka ends up in lots of fights because he once made the bold announcement that if someone can defeat him, he will become their servant.

Then one day, Rekka meets Yanagi Sakoshita, a gentle girl with the ability to heal any wound or injury. Their meeting sets off a chain of events, which culminate into a shocking discovery. Rekka is the last surviving member of a legendary ninja clan that was wiped out centuries ago. Even more astonishing than being an actual ninja, he also wields the power to control fire. What does this mean for Rekka? Who are these strange people after him and Yanagi? Find out in Rekka no Honoo!

Hanabishi, Rekka Main

Okano, Kousuke Japanese

Mikagami, Tokiya Main

Midorikawa, Hikaru Japanese

Kurei Main

Okiayu, Ryoutarou Japanese

Kirisawa, Fuuko Main

Hiramatsu, Akiko Japanese

Koganei, Kaoru Main

Kumai, Motoko Japanese

Sakoshita, Yanagi Main

Masuda, Yuki Japanese

Ishijima, Domon Main

Tobita, Nobuo Japanese

Kagerou Main

Mitsuishi, Kotono Japanese

Joker Supporting

Madono, Mitsuaki Japanese

Tsukishiro Supporting

Seki, Tomokazu Japanese

Hagino, Ken Producer

Abe, Noriyuki Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

Date, Hayato Episode Director

Yoshida, Shunji Episode Director, Storyboard

Reviews

Mar 12, 2025

nicolem_animefan

Recommended

8/10
+Contains strong genre ingredients: imaginative lore, a likeable hero, a great supporting cast, and a sweet romance
+Enjoyable action sequences that move plot at good pace
-Simplistic storytelling prevents it from reaching greater heights
-Low production values: poor animation, character designs, and sound

Watching Flame of Recca sparks feelings of a more innocent time. The life of teenage Recca Hanabishi undergoes a transformative change after awakening to a mysterious power following an encounter with an evil witch and his idol, Yanagi Sakoshita. This classic battle shonen greatly captures what’s so enjoyable about the superhero genre. With a fiery but heart-of-gold protagonist, a sweet romance, an evil ... brother, comical sidekicks, impressive action sequences, and enigmatic lore, what could be better? The framework conceived by author Nobuyuki Anzai has served as the foundation for numerous beloved stories today.

Unfortunately the anime’s final presentation favors style over substance, favoring action and filler over themes, coupled with subpar animation and sound. The framework is all there though and by the anime’s end the viewer will crave for more.

As a product of its time, Flame of Recca deserves a special place in the annals of anime history. While its simplicity may not be universally appreciated, it stands as one of the finest flavors of anime storytelling.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Dec 17, 2020

Cyranical

Mixed Feelings

Flame Of Recca is the anime adaptation of the manga with the same name by Nobuyuki Anzai. It is a shounen, martial arts, adventure and superpower anime. It tells the story of Recca Hanabishi a boy that has been sent 400 years into the future after his mother Kagerou used a forbidden technique in order to rescue him from getting wiped along with the Hokage ninja clan. In modern day times Recca has grown up to become a troublemaker promising foes that he will become their loyal ninja if they can beat them at a one on one fight, one day he encounters Sakoshita Yanagi ... a girl with the power of healing in danger at a construction site, he then saves her and then after that Recca's world starts delving into a whole new direction going forward. At it's core Flame Of Recca is a average shounen at best. The story is mediocre and the characters are not well developed and fleshed out enough, but aye that's what you expect from a shounen anyway, since you don't watch Shounen anime or read shounen jump for the story or the characters, you read or watch it for the epic fight scenes, the power-ups and the out of these world supernatural powers that the characters do end up possesing. Flame Of Recca is not all that different despite being made in the 90's it has the generic let's infiltrate the enemies base, and a tournament arc as well for crying out loud, now granted the genre wasn't that big in the 90's except for Yu Yu Hakusho and DBZ, but both of those shows contained those exact same arc concepts that this show follows. These exact same arc formulas have been adapted by Shounen anime to this day, so Flame Of Recca in theory did contribute as one of the OG 90's anime in a sense, so it has that going for it at least. These are some things that I did enjoy from this show tho, the first OP and ED were really good and I listened to them constantly and that is why it sucks that the second ED was ass since the first one was a banger but it is what it is, next up the fight scenes were pretty good tho even tho most of them were won by the classic power of friendship that I must protect my nakama cliche but at least the fight scenes were good enough to entertain me, after that the madogu were actually fairly interesting they each have their own power and drawbacks even tho most of those drawbacks were because of the user plus if you break them they lose their power, but for the most part the madogu felt unique as powers to me since shounen powers tend to be bland and boring or overpowered for no reason whatsoever most times, the madogu are actually fairly weak but are still equally dangerous, to top that off they were interesting as well for me. Finally the characters were decent enough that despite not being relatable or realistic they are still not that bad as characters, if anything I actually fairly enjoyed them on their journey and rooted for them in most cases, that said unfortunately there is no getting around the fact that they are still generic shounen characters made for a generic shounen manga or anime.



Pros:
-Banger OP and ED
-Interesting power known as madogus
-Entertaining
-Fight scenes are decent enough



Cons:
-Mediocre story
-Bland shounen characterization
-Some scenes start up with good animation then get cut or panned out to a different scene in order to not look as bad , but to no avail since it just ends up looking like they ran out of budget for their animation
-Uses generic shounen troupes, cliches and arcs such as power of friendship overcomes everything, and the classic tournament arc
-Is dated in terms of production quality


Overall Flame Of Recca is a generic shounen anime made in the 90's adapted from a shounen jump manga, it utilizes generic characterization, cliches and arcs that the genre has recycled for multiple years now, but it is surprisingly entertaining with its decent fight scenes and it's interesting powers that it introduces. If you're looking for a old school shounen anime to watch then Yu Yu Hakusho or Flame Of Recca might be you're go to watches. I give it a 6/10 for my overall anime rating. With that this has been Cyranical's review of Flame Of Recca, and I'm signing off, btw thanks for reading my review bye everyone Xd.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Jan 13, 2024

MxS7HGS

Not Recommended

This show tells the story of a young ninja who wants to be a Hokage. He relies on elemental attacks and ninjutsu. This is probably the kind of story you already know.

But it doesn’t match the benchmark of Naruto. It is not as diverse or complicated. Plus, it's not even finished. The show fails to generate sufficient tension as it lacks seriousness. For instance, the main character belongs to history and is moved to the present-day. This generates a sense of bewilderment.

The show only lasts for 42 episodes. But that is not enough time to care about the characters or the story. The show was ... stretched too thin by all the characters. They cannot be properly developed within the given time. The show focuses too much on fights or training. This leaves little room for character development. The characters become one-dimensional.

All the characters are alike. They are trained, fight and make enemies into friends and start the whole process over again but with tougher adversaries. Nothing is solved when the show ends. It leaves you feeling disappointed.

The show was not so good in the first place. Now it seems even more horrible due to the antiquated style of animation. Music and character designs are rather bland. It is also interesting to note that Studio Pierrot, the same studio which has made Naruto, developed this show.

At the same time, there were better shows such as Dragon Ball and Hunter X Hunter on TV. The show was later cancelled before it could be wrapped up. It was like Yu Yu Hakusho, which ended up in the same way. Flame of Recca is basic and common. Naruto is a better choice.

The show simply recycles old ideas without bringing anything new to the table. Watch it if you are curious as to how straightforward the genre can be. If you want to find out what happens at the end of this story, then read the manga.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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	Poll: Rekka no Honoo Episode 5 Discussion Saeba_D_Guyver - Dec 3, 2016	4 replies	by AllAlone8 »» Jan 24, 2:02 AM
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