This week for Manga Monday I’m covering a series that is often overlooked in favor of another ninja Manga. It’s Recca no Honoo, or Flame of Recca in English, by Nobuyuki Anzai!

Plot Synopsis: Recca no Honoo follows the story of a teenage boy named Recca Hanabishi, who is interested in ninja 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.

Plot: The plot starts off fairly cheesy, but gets incredibly serious pretty quickly and I enjoyed it quite a bit. That isn’t to say there aren’t comedic moments in the series, but it’s often overshadowed by the serious nature of the plot. I won’t go any further into it, as it’s quite an interesting plot.

Characters: Of all the characters, I enjoy Fuu the most out of pretty much all of them. It may be that it’s because she’s affiliated with the element of Wind, but I just enjoy her as a character quite a bit. Recca himself is very annoying for the first twenty or so chapters, but he does get better. The rest of the cast is very interesting as well, but again I won’t go into it as it would be very spoilerific.

Art: The art is interesting, and while it looks dated now it was fairly in line with most other series of it’s time.

Overall: This a great series that everyone should read.

For those who like: Romance, Action, Drama, Amazing Plot, Fantastic Characters, Good Art.

Not for those who don’t like: Any of the above.