Rec - The Animation

Even though the blog has been fairly dead lately due to a lack of interest from the original writers, I was watching this show for the first time in a while, and i felt a need to tell someone about it. so here is my review for the 2007 animated short series, Rec.

Rec is an under appreciated short series that came out in 2007 which tells the cute tale of a blossoming voice actress and a typical Japanese salary man and how they are brought together through all kinds of circumstances.

The anime was created in 2006 as an adaptation of the ongoing manga by the same title. It was produced by shaft animation studio (insert lines about production studio, history, voice actors, tidbits, about length)

The series starts with our male lead being stood up for a date by a woman from his work, who turns out to be out of his league anyways, and instead he is met by an eccentric red headed woman who speaks in lines from old Audrey Hepburn movies. Through much finagling, they end up in the movie together, where the girl, Aka Onda, reads every line of the subtitles, much to the mans chagrin. Even after they go their separate ways, they continue to be drawn together by almost every happenstance possible.

As the series is short, I'll try not to go into too much detail, but Rec tells not so much a beautiful, but rather a cute and easy to relate to, story of the mixture between love and life that makes both more than a sticky situation. The characters develop fairly believably, myself being able to relate to the characters feelings more than once.

Another note to make about this show is the interesting peek into the world of Japanese voice actors, as Aka goes through the process of becoming a popular voice actress from nothing. It was also interesting to see the scenes with the voice actors working in the studios, as it is a surreal way to look at the cartoons that we watch everyday. going back to the topic of manga, the entire series, 9 - 12 minute episodes, only covers the first volume of the manga, of which there are currently 6, and it has not ended yet, though the 7th is speculated to be the last if the 6th isn't already.

Regardless, the age of this show suggests that there wont be any subsequent seasons as well as giving the suggestion that the anime was little more than a late night plug in to support the manga, which is serialized in a magazine. It is worth mentioning that if you do like the show, you will definitely want to read the manga from the beginning, as there are some key changes with characters and design that tell a slightly different, and most of the time more humorous, story than the anime.

As you might figure, the manga is very quickly paced, considering the entire series is fir into approx 190 pages. This fact and the addition of significant fan-service make the manga a much easier to stomach than the show which can drag briefly at times. Between the two, i would definitely suggest watching the anime before you start reading the manga (and you should do both) so when you read it, you can get involved in THAT universe, not the altered one presented in the anime.

Regardless of how you do it, Rec is definitely a great quick watch if you're in the mood for some light romantic comedy.

Until the next time,

~XBlackMacgyver