Having introduced the entire main cast in the first volume of “Flame of Recca,” this action anime wastes zero time in tackling the main storyline — exposing the secrets of the mysterious ninja weapons, and the identity of the mysterious villains who have been observing Yanagi. The second volume has more than enough action and plenty of creepy battles, and it only promises to get better.

Mr Tatesako is Recca’s favorite new teacher: he’s as much of a ninjaphile as Recca is. And he invites Recca and Co. to his house to learn about the mysterious Hokage ninja, a clan that has been mostly forgotten about. But suddenly a man and young boy break in and kidnap Yanagi and Mr. Tatesako, leaving Recca, Fuko and Domon all badly beaten (and Mrs. Tatesako severely injured).

To bring back his Princess, Recca enlists Kagehoshi’s help and leads the other two into the vast mansion where Yanagi is being held prisoner. Yanagi herself has some other problems to deal with — she’s at the mercy of a psychotic masked fire-user, who intends to extract her healing powers for his creepy father. And he’s not terribly concerned with how he does it.

Meanwhile Recca, Fuko and Domon find themselves assaulted by henchmen and cornered by a killer statue. But the danger really begins when they encounter Reiran Katashiro, a beautiful woman who uses a madogu to manipulate puppets — and intends to kill Fuko with them.

Every series needs a Big Bad Character, and in “Flame of Recca” we finally get a good look at ours — an evil megamogul, his psychotic masked son, and a bunch of madogu users who work for them. So with so many bad guys using ninja artifacts, you can bet that there are some truly bizarre, fantastical battles — starting with the Puppet lady and the psycho plant dude.

But these episodes also inform viewers of some backstory — about the mystery ninja clan who made the madogus, and about the mysterious Kagehoshi. Turns out she has an interesting connection to Recca (hinted at but only now explicitly explained) and intends to tell Recca “everything” if he manages to get Yanagi back from Kurei.

But that gets temporarily shifted to the side so we can have some solid fight scenes, which range from Fuko outwitting the laser-spitting “Maria” to the three teens fighting squads of killer henchmen in the shadowy woods. And the room full of blank-eyed killer puppets is just creepy — as is Kurei’s smooth voice and crazy eyes.

In fact, Kurei provides a lot of the tension in this volume, even though he never actually fights in it (“This is getting kinda fun,” he chuckles as Recca sets of fireworks, right before knocking Yanagi unconscious). And Fuko gets to show off that she’s not just a tough chick, but has a clever analytical brain and courage to match.

The second volume of “Flame of Recca” has plenty of action, drama and some nasty new madogu bearers — and it only promises to get more action-packed after this.