Flame of Recca

Title: Flame of Recca
Alternate Title: Recca No Honoo
Genre: Action, adventure
Run time: 23 minutes
Episode count: 42
Vintage: 1997
Review:

Flame of Recca at first glance is just a copycat anime. It copies animes like Yu Yu Hakusho with the story line. The characters are rather ordinary. You have the usual I will win no matter what you throw at me main character, the usual dumb beast character who over powers opponents by brute force and luck, and for good measure you have the character on the leads side even though he hates his guts. With that being said this anime does have a bit of flair. It takes its story line from a baby ninja of the hokage clan being sent forward in time with his arch enemy and brother. Add in some fantastic weapons based on spirit and controling natural elements and you have something decent and fun to watch without being overly long like its predecessor.

The animation was rather good with nothing flashy. Its typical of the same style animation as was used in Yu Yu Hakusho. However, they did do a good job with the use of blood. A lot of animes go over the top with mass amounts of blood spewed in every direction or the total of absence of blood. This anime is right in the middle not to much and not to little.

Now for the rating. The fight scenes were top notch and it had the typical I have to talk thing that ticks me off, however, the monologues where of minimal length and it always had to do with that inner battle so I wont take points off for that. However, this anime is not original in the least it steals all of its elements from other animes so I will dock it a couple points for that. Over all I give it a 7.

Next up: Ai Yori Aoshi

No E In

Title: No E In
Alternate Title: To your other self
Genre: Sci-fi, drama, adventure
Run time: 30 minutes
Episode count: 24
Vintage: 2005
Review:

First off, this anime was visually stunning. I had countless different animation styles used. Not only that but it used them in the best ways possible. They even used sketch styles which normally means skimping on production costs. However, they used it in a stylized manner to emphasize emotion and battles. This anime did a great job of delving into theoretical physics. It made physics interesting even to the casual watcher. The battle scenes were amazing even though they were few between. This anime was more about psychological development and physics than action. So when they spiced in action it was a real treat and masterfully done. Even the recap episode placed in the show was done with finesse and style. I give this anime a 9. It loses one point for the slow moving plot in places. I don't think they could really help that with the story line and themes and they combated that as much as possible with a few action sequences.

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