Animation Revelation's Animation Blog

Episode 1: The Princess & the Ninja

Chapters adapted: Volume 1, Chapters 1 and 2

 

As we start our comparison of Flame of Recca you must keep in mind that this is an action show adapted from an action manga. Your mileage might vary with some of these changes, but since quite a bit is changed from the original (sometimes for seemingly no reason) I feel it is important to note the differences even when miniscule. If you can’t stand the little things, this series of articles might not be for you. But little things can add up to a lot, and since there are a lot of little things, part of the point of this series is to record them here.

Now let us get to episode one. Suffice to say, there will be spoilers.

As the show opens we get a glimpse of an event 400 years ago. A woman with a baby is being chased for dear life through a forest warzone. She opens a portal and sends the baby through it. Though she leaves the baby to drift off for reasons unknown, we soon learn the baby’s name. He/she is named “Recca” and that is all we learn in this mysterious prologue before the show begins. Only the baby is seen to go through the portal and no one and nothing else.

And this is where our first deviation from the manga takes place.

This bit about the past was not in the original work until later, specifically in volume 4. There is a very obvious reason as to why though it may not be clear right away. This reveal literally spoils a major secret about our main character before we even meet him. For the first three volumes all we know about Recca is that he has a ninja obsession and an affinity for fire. No other hint is given that he is anything other than a normal teenage boy. In the process of having this reveal so early we lose the slow growth in knowledge of who this mysterious woman is. It also helps us to relate to the main character early on before a major reveal is given that changes everything about said character.

But this isn’t the only difference in just the first episode.

The story then skips back to the modern day where we see two rowdy teenagers fighting. It is a fight between a boy named Recca and a lumbering brute named Domon. Recca is clearly agile and Domon is clearly strong as their differences in approach show. This is where the manga begins.

The very first fight scene in the manga is replicated here, where Domon falls into a trap showing us that Recca is clever and Domon is simple-minded. Recca uses fireworks to scare Domon half to death. It’s a three page fight that goes on a bit too long in the anime, but that’s barely worth bringing up.

There is a one change that I have to point out right now for later.

See this?

Remember it.

Anyway, just like in the manga, Domon falls into a trap and loses the fight. He swears revenge and yada yada yada. Recca returns home for lunch to meet his dad who gets mad at him for wasting gunpowder in his schoolyard fights. His dad makes fireworks for a living, which Recca loves to use to frighten his opponents and just for fun cuz explosives are cool.

A subtle difference with Recca’s dad in the manga and anime is that Recca’s dad is a bit goofier though still a tough man in the manga. In the anime, he’s just really gruff all the time. That’s pretty much the only difference between them in the two versions. One is more eccentric and the other is more forceful. In the grand scheme of the anime adaption, it doesn’t change a whole lot. Recca’s mother is only seen in a photo and has apparently died long ago.

Going back slightly, on the way back home Recca is being spied on, though we probably have an idea why in the anime since a huge aspect of his past has already been revealed to the audience.

Recca is a bit of a ninja freak as we see how overly decorated his room is with ninja gear, pictures, books, and artifacts. Even if everyone else thinks ninjas are relics of the past, Recca still believes in and admires them.

For a main character, Recca is rather active, never shirking away from a challenge. The reason he wants to be a ninja is because of his sense of duty. They don’t get the glory or the spotlight; they only do the right thing because that’s what they are called to do. It is their calling to protect from the shadows. That is pretty much Recca Hanabishi. A kid who does the right thing because he has made it his life to do the right thing. Right off the bat, this is the right main character for this story.

Next the anime adds a filler scene of someone being burned to death with mysterious flames while someone named Koran watches over it. This is foreshadowing for later. But the manga jumps right to introducing the next main character.

Up next is another divergence from the original manga. It is how the next main character is not only introduced, but is also portrayed differently in the anime.

Recca meets Yanagi Sakoshita who, in the manga, is being accosted by a bunch of jerks who are trying to take her by force. He fights them off, but is overwhelmed by their numbers and falls unconscious during the brawl. In the anime, she is escorting some kindergarteners somewhere when a crane breaks loose some pipes and Recca throws her out of the way to take the hit himself. The end result of both is that Recca is knocked out.

The big change is that Recca is clearly taken with her at first sight in the anime. Even if the events surrounding their first meeting is entirely different, the big change is undoubtedly this.

In the manga their relationship starts out much more natural with Recca wanting to protect such a sweet, naïve, girl from the scum of the world that he chooses to become her personal ninja so she can be herself and not have to worry about bad guys. It’s a sweet little bit that is changed somewhat in the anime because he is romantically interested in her from moment one. Not to mention that anime Yanagi doesn’t have a naïve side like she does in the manga which loses a bit of her appeal in the process. Yanagi’s sweetness and innocence is muted as a whole. She just seems like an otherwise nice girl that Recca wants to get closer to, which is fine but was not the original intent and the character loses appeal for it.

 

But in both versions she also displays an ability that becomes crucial to the story. She heals Recca of his wounds (saving his life in the anime) revealing for the first time to someone else that she has healing abilities. Now, in the manga, she does this because no one else is around thereby sharing a secret with Recca as she is otherwise shy and Recca is popular at school. It gives them a relationship to bond over since she didn’t have to heal him at all. In the anime she saves his life in front of a bunch of bystanders as he’s losing blood from internal injuries (I’ll probably be bringing this up again in a later episode, by the way) and then Recca proceeds to run away after waking up before meeting her again in the park.

Let’s pause for a second.

I wouldn’t be bringing this up if Recca and Yanagi’s relationship wasn’t fundamental to Flame of Recca as a whole, but I think the anime version weakens their entire relationship as a whole. In the manga they start as friends who enjoy each other’s company with Recca paying her back for helping him out and being a kind person by becoming her ninja. She ends up being complimentary to him as a rash thinker who never stops swinging by calming him down with her silliness and good attitude. They are sort of opposite and similar at the same time, which is why they work well together. In the anime she isn’t shy or eccentric, losing a lot of her traits in the process which also sort of affects Recca at the same time, though I’ll be getting to that later.

She is not only more boring in the anime, but the fact that she saved him because he would otherwise die doesn’t deepen the relationship since she had no choice to heal him. Instead of a reward she chooses to give him for doing the right thing and the two gaining a friendship in the process, it is now a matter of life or death. For this early in the story, it is a bit of a leap, especially considering what happens later in the episode. That and taking away how her naiveté rubbed up against Recca’s boldness just makes them less fun to be around.

Anyway, that’s just a manga fan’s opinion. Back to the story.

Oh, and the anime changes Yanagi’s eye and hair color for . . . some reason. Okay, now really: back to the story.

Boy meets girl and they get along quite well. They even learn they go to the same school. He invites her to show her his collection of fireworks. They go to an old warehouse where Recca shows her just how much he likes his explosives, since, you know, you can’t really see fireworks when it’s light out. Behind them, a shadowy figure readies to attack.

Signature trick, indeed. This is what I wanted to bring up earlier with Recca’s ninja tricks. In neither the anime nor the manga have they explained yet how Recca has been able to light his fireworks and explosives so easily.

In the manga we get a reveal here that Recca can create flames through his right arm. He’s been able to do it for years, but he’s never told or shown anybody. So he creates a bond with Yanagi over keeping their powers secret. It adds another layer to their relationship so early.

In the anime he apparently uses matches to light his explosives. In the middle of fights. Somehow. The anime doesn’t explain anything here.

The reason for that is because the anime changed how Recca discovered his flame ability. He originally knew he had it, but only wasted it on his silly ninja games and fireworks before the series began. In the anime the first time he uses it is to save Yanagi’s life from an attack here. Why the anime staff thought it wise to make Recca dumber is anyone’s guess, but Recca gets a lot of this sort of thing in the anime.

Anyway, back to the aforementioned attack.

Well, remember that figure that was watching Recca earlier? Here they are disrupting Recca and Yanagi’s fun with explosives.

Kagehoshi, a woman dressed in black with strange powers was apparently the one watching Recca from the shadows. She reveals she has been searching for Recca for 400 years and has ninja abilities. So unless you missed the first two minutes of the episode, you know exactly who this is even if Recca doesn’t. If you’re reading the manga you just think she’s a psychotic lady who has answers she won’t be giving to Recca, and the audience, for a bit longer.

She approaches them wanting Recca to show his flame. Originally, she had seen him use the flame earlier when showing Yanagi which means her appearance at that moment makes sense. In the adaption she has never seen it and has no proof he can, but thinks he can do it regardless.

They try to run, but Kagehoshi cuts them off to try to force Recca into using his flame power. She slices Recca’s leg and they fumble to the exit.

The anime adds a fight scene here. It’s actually quite messed up for several reasons. She basically beats the crap out of Recca, slicing open his stomach, until she decides to attack Yanagi instead and Recca finally uses his flame powers (that he didn’t know that he had or ever trained with before) to fight off Kagehoshi and send her running after trying to burn her to cinders.

In the original version Kagehoshi comes at Recca with the knife and he fights her off refusing to show his flame power in order to keep it a secret between him and Yanagi. Recca shows far more guts here as he tries to fight off an unknown enemy and make sure Yanagi doesn’t get dragged into it. He doesn’t get the crap kicked out of him, and Kagehoshi doesn’t try to gut him or kill Yanagi. He fights her off and shows he is more than a kid, threatening to blow himself and her up with his explosives to stop her from hurting Yanagi therefor cornering Kagehoshi and forcing her to admit defeat. She leaves them with a warning, impressed at his skills, and this potentially dangerous situation is averted. It’s a mysterious encounter, but it’s no bloodbath.

In contrast, the anime has her kicking him around the place like a total amateur until he lucks out and uses his flame to save Yanagi’s life. Considering who Kagehoshi turns out to be later, this act is pretty out of character, especially leaving Recca and Yanagi half-dead in an abandoned warehouse, but we’ll let it slide since they already changed Recca into a total amateur in both fighting and flame power.

So, let’s pause to talk about Recca.

He gets beaten up a lot in episodes to come. Before the series began, being a ninja freak, Recca had already trained in the arts and has some semblance of fighting ability. Using his flames for years, he also has practice to the point that he uses them to light his explosives in fights without anyone seeing the sparks, which gives him the advantage and a reputation. He always felt a bit out of time being so old fashioned and having such strange abilities.

While Recca has a hard time in fights in the manga, he never feels like an amateur or completely over his head at all times. At the adaption, he loses a lot of the fire and spunk he had in the original version, typically reverting to general surprise as his default reaction to everything and lucking out on wins, like this fight, all the time.

Why you would ever change the personality of the protagonist of a highly successful series is absolutely baffling. But that is the case for the Flame of Recca anime.

Once more: back to the story.

The anime overstuffs this encounter making it a lot grander than it really should be. It was originally just a confrontation to show Recca that there is real danger out there threatening him and all he holds dear. For some reason it is turned into a fight where Recca shows no talent whatsoever and saves his life only by dumb luck while his romantic interest is almost murdered and would have been if he didn’t randomly figure out how to cast flames. He’s supposed to be the main character and, unlike the original version, he doesn’t show nearly the amount of resolve or ability he should have. Kagehoshi is making far too many leaps in logic considering she is running off a lot less certainty of who she thinks Recca is in this version and it makes her seem way too over the top and dangerous. As a whole, this fight is also pointlessly long and drags.

Finally, as the smoke clears, Recca escapes with his life and Yanagi’s as he carries her to safety and strengthened in his resolve to be her ninja. How he managed to do this with a split stomach in the anime is anyone’s guess. But who is this mysterious woman, and what danger awaits them next? Surely we’ll find out in the next episode.

And the very cool ending theme plays.

So this is the first episode of the Flame of Recca anime and I can only imagine what fans of the manga thought when it first premiered. Sure it changes some things, but as a whole it does adapt the first two chapters pretty well. And compared to some changes we’ll be seeing later, this is far more accurate than it could have been, even though it really shouldn’t have been changed at all since none of the changes improve the story.

Still, since this is a comparison feature I have to be honest and say which version is the better version of the story and for this first instalment, the winner is the manga for both better characterization and pacing, not to mention having a satisfying confrontation where the anime makes the main character look very weak to ratchet up drama.

I hope you had fun seeing a comparison between the manga and anime versions of Flame of Recca and will be joining me next time for even more. Because in the next episode we get more character introductions as well as more elements aside from fire and quite a few more changes to the story as well.

Things will only get more hectic for Recca and Yanagi from here.