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.
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 "Nekoki" (ねこキ, a cat-tree) 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.
This anime voices the examples of:
- Incredibly Lame Pun: Aka makes one in the second episode preview:Matsumaru-kun, your laundry smells fishy. <Beat> Oh there's a fish market on the first floor? Pun, pun.
- Meaningful Name: Onda's given name Aka means red ... just like her hair is.
- Sex for Solace: When Aka's apartment burns down along with all of her belongings, Matsumaru offers her to stay at his place. Then overcome with grief Aka has sex with him.
