The true heir of Hokage ninja clan is decided in The Flame of Recca Vol. 10 The Final Showdown, concluding the series once and for all.

The Flame of Recca, Vol. 10: The Final Showdown
(1997) TV series (five episodes), 1997. Director: Noriyuki Abe. 100 minutes. DVD bilingual $24.98. Distributor: Viz Media.

Here is the 10th and final DVD of the Flame of Recca series. It is the perfect culmination to this series because once and for all the true heir of Hokage ninja clan is decided. For those out there who are not familiar with this series, allow me to bring you up to speed. This is a story about a high school boy named Recca Hanabishi, who is enthralled by all things ninja. In fact he takes the whole idea of being a ninja so seriously that he often gets himself into fights, and afterwards boasts that he will serve as a ninja to whoever can beat him. Of course Recca has plenty of raw talent to back up his boasting. It turns out that Recca is in fact a descendent of the Hokage ninja clan that was destroyed over 400 years ago, and he was sent to the future by his mother in order to save his life. Recca is not alone in his ability to control flame. He has a half brother named Kurei, who has the ability to capture the soul of a dead person in his flame. The entire series is funneled toward a sudden-death martial arts tournament, with the culmination of the series being the clash of these two titans of flame.

Flame of Recca initially started out as a manga, serialized in Shounen Sunday back in the mid-90s, that ran for seven years. Two years into the manga's run, the anime was created and ran for a year. Viz has licensed not only the complete 42-episode anime series, but the manga as well. Volume 10 contains the last five episodes, which are really more like a single episode broken into five parts. In episode 38, we have Recca's team Hokage finally getting the opportunity to do battle with Kurei's team Uruha in the finals. But not before the appearance of a mysterious old man, who seems to have fight advice for team Hokage. Good thing that old man appeared to lend a hand, because Domon is in for the fight of his life and his mind. Episode 39 has a mysterious caped man slated to fight Fuko, but a last-minute fight card change puts Tokiya in the ring. How can this stranger use the same techniques as Tokiya, if Tokiya is the only one who can wield the Ice-Crest Sword? And where has Recca gone off to? The truth behind Tokiya's sister's death is revealed at the startling conclusion of this second bout. Moving on to Episode 40, Fuko finally gets her chance to rumble. This time she is facing an opponent who is as devious as she is brutal. Fuko is forced to make a choice and face her true feelings, but will the strength that she gains from her friends be enough to enable Fuko to survive? Going into the last two episodes, 41 and 42, the climax of the series is reached. Recca will have to learn how to fight without using the power of his fire dragons if he hopes to beat Kurei. The tournanment, Recca's friends, and the life of Yanagi, the woman he swore he would protect, are all on the line with this final bout.

Those out there who are fans of Yu Yu Hakusho, Inuyasha or Naruto would enjoy Flame of Recca. The battles are paced similarly, with brief periods of exposition to keep the story moving or to surprise the audience with some sort of revelation. Special moves are all flashy, with some sort of glow, smoke, or other type of special effect. Each fighter takes an incredible amount of damage during a fight, with blood spraying, body parts twisting, and debris flying. The motion is handled nicely and the fights are a blast to watch. A lot of effort has gone into giving each movement a weight and strength. Sometimes it's kind of tough to watch the fighters beat on each other because the pain combined with the sound effects really seems like it hurts. Probably some of the best animation in this series is the flame battle between Kurei and Recca. When they are powered up and their fires are raging, there is such an impressive sense of ferocity and power. But Flame of Recca is not all fistfights and battles; there's a more fun side to it. Several of the female characters are rather kawaii, with super-deformed versions of themselves popping up randomly. And there is a humorous side, with lecherous jokes and judges for the tournament even acting as a bit of anime satire, dressed in fan service costumes that pay homage to the studio's previous works such as Urusei Yatsura.

This is a bilingual DVD, so Japanese and English languages are available in 2.0 stereo. I would avoid the English dub if possible. The Japanese voice acting sounds so much tougher and the English voices sound pretty cheesy. Viz did a great job on the subtitling for this disk. The subtitles are in white, but they are outlined in black to make things a little easier on the eyes, and the pacing of the subtitles never gets out of hand. Background music is well done, with nice musical punctuation on action and comedy. One issue that I had is that it seems that a lot of the sound effects are taken from other well-known sources. For instance, there is a lift that brings the referees to the ring. It is the same exact sound effect used for the drop ships unloading from Starcraft. First of all, it seems like such a random sound effect to use and, secondly, the drop ship effect sounds nothing like a hydraulic personal lift. There are other goofy sounds like this on this DVD and it just kind of struck me the wrong way. Overall the sound is good, but those few goofy sounds really cheapened it for me.