Rec (stylized as REC) is a Japanese manga series by Q-Tarō Hanamizawa. It was serialized by Shogakukan's seinen manga magazine Monthly Sunday Gene-X from November 2002 to March 2013, with its chapters collected in sixteen tankōbon volumes. The story follows the relationship between Fumihiko Matsumaru, a salaryman, and Aka Onda, an aspiring voice actress. A nine-episode anime adaptation by Shaft aired between February and March 2006; an original video animation episode was also produced.
Plot
At the beginning of the story, Fumihiko Matsumaru is outside a movie theater waiting for his date to arrive. When it becomes obvious that he has been "stood up", he crumples his tickets in frustration. As he is about to toss the tickets into a trash can, a girl approaches, and in the "voice" of the tickets, implores him to not waste them. Dumbfounded, he sees the movie with her, which is Roman Holiday.
During the movie, he notices that the girl is reading the subtitles out loud. When he asks her about this after the movie, she says that she was practicing the lines, and that she wants to be Audrey Hepburn. At dinner, she explains that she is a 20-year-old novice voice actress. Going home, they find that they live in the same neighborhood before they part ways. (In the anime, she recites appropriate lines from Roman Holiday.) Matsumaru goes to bed, but he cannot sleep. In the darkness, he hears the sounds of sirens; there is a fire in the neighborhood. When he goes to investigate, he discovers that the girl's apartment has burned down. Since she has nowhere to stay, Matsumaru asks her to stay at his apartment; she dazedly accepts.
The next day, Matsumaru learns at work that his marketing concept has been approved as the mascot of a snack product called "Ha" ("leaf"). Furthermore, Aka is chosen to voice Nekoki. They decide to keep their live-in relationship a secret from their employers due to Aka's worries about an appearance of impropriety. She also insists they are not a couple just from having slept together once in a moment of weakness, and that she will merely be lodging with him. The series is heavily concerned with the developing dynamic of their relationship.
Characters
An average, 26-year-old salaryman who works in the marketing department of a snack company. He always tries hard to get his advertisement projects chosen, but almost always fails at this. His latest project, Nekoki, was chosen for the mascot of a snack food called and is his first accepted project. In chapter seven of the manga Matsumaru finally asks Aka to be his girlfriend after they share a passionate kiss for the second time, to which she agrees. Although Matsumaru is in love with Aka he is not above admiring the "assets" of other females, which often puts him in compromising situations; such as when he decides not to erase the doctored photo of him and Ao because her breasts were exposed and Aka accidentally sees it. Also, Matsumaru will at times barge in on Aka without her clothes on or grope some part of her body which earns him a harsh reprimand.
A 20-year-old aspiring voice actress who idolizes Audrey Hepburn. She voiced the snack food Ha'''s image character, Nekoki. She is a little eccentric in her actions as she often quotes movie lines from films Audrey Hepburn starred in. She lives with Matsumaru in his apartment, and usually asserts that she is only friends with him, despite the fact she and Matsumaru slept together the first night they met. This provides the crux of the remainder of the series. Kanako Sakai, the voice actress who voiced Aka Onda, also sang the opening theme: . In chapter seven of the manga, Aka agrees to be Matsumaru's girlfriend, but they must keep it a secret at all costs. Even though Aka is in love with Matsumaru, she is very shy and does not like him to see her naked. When Matsumaru does something lecherous Aka will strike him as hard as possible. Even though she is embarrassed, Aka is always waiting for the time where she and Matsumaru can have sex for the second time. Usually when they finally get the chance it's interrupted by anything from Sekigahara suddenly appearing to Matsumaru being unable to perform because he thought he had cheated on Aka.
Aka's manager-in-charge. She is sleeping with the company's president. She accidentally gets into two compromising situations with Matsumaru, and he has to spend some time calming Aka down when she sees them.
She is a colleague Matsumaru had a crush on before he made Aka his girlfriend. It is later revealed that she likes to destroy men, and attempts to make Matsumaru think he slept with her, and tell Aka. Her plan fails when Aka keeps her faith in him.
Matsumaru's colleague, who is a fan of Aka.