4.0 out of 5 stars
Angels and devils, January 12, 2010
This review is from: FLAME OF RECCAVol.3: Angel Of Fire (DVD)
Things come to a shocking pass in the third volume of "Flame of Recca," pitting Recca and his buddies against the deadliest minions in the whole mansion. While the first few episodes are quite good, the storyline blossoms unexpectedly with the finale -- not only do we find out some facts about Kurei and Recca's shared past, but the scrappy young hero's power gets a new twist.
First, Domon is pitted against the vast psychopath Sekiho, who turns out to have a madogu that encases his body in stone armor, and makes him nearly invincible. Domon has his own madogu... but for some reason, it doesn't seem to be working. Then when Koganei traps them under a falling ceiling, someone unexpected turns up to save the day -- Tokiya Mikagami, who pits all his skill with the Ensui against Koganei's transforming blade.
And after a brief encounter with Kurei, the gang gets dumped into a swampy basement, occupied by a plant-manipulating sadist who wants to have his way with Fuko. But Kurei has revealed some facts so shocking that it drives Recca to face him once again -- but when the two flame-users clash, Recca finds that he may not be strong enough to defeat Kurei, especially since Kurei has a deadly flame angel as the manifestation of his powers...
"Flame of Recca Volume 3: Angel of Fire" suffers from some sketchy animation and a few silly moments (Sekiho yelling, "I'm gonna rock your world" -- I mean, seriously!). But fortunately there's not much wrong with it outside that -- we've got freaky elemental duels, some freaky villains, and some useful information about Recca's true history. Turns out there's a reason he's so obsessed with ninjas.
Along the way, Noriyuki Abe produces tense, sometimes harrowing fights -- smashing "earth" fights, flame versus flame, and the elusive fast-moving duel between Koganei and Tokiya (blood, steam, water and a multi-shaped weapon). What's more, there are some intensely creepy moments (the plant-guy raving in a very sexual way about killing women), and some glimpses of how poor Yanagi is being tortured. The only downside are some glaringly cliched obstacles like the drop-down ceiling.
But we finally find out who this masked weirdo is, and why he's so obsessed with Recca -- and Recca turns out to have an even more bizarre history than we thought. Tokiya is the other character who gets to shine -- while he's still chilly and a bit snotty, he shows off some truly awe-inspiring skill with the Ensui, as well as a new willingness to let the "monkey" Recca take his place in Yanagi's life.
"Flame of Recca Volume 3: Angel of Fire" gets cheesy sometimes, but it also has some good fight scenes and a nice array of ninja powers. But of course, it also ends on a cliffhanger.
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