Relationships
As corny as it sounds, I believe that one of the themes presented in Flame of Recca is the power of love and friendship. Tokiya, despite being the cold creature that he is, undergoes a lot of changes in his personality as he slowly realizes how important it is to have friends and to not focus on his goal of revenge to the point that he pushes other people away. This section is devoted to those relationships that helped him realize that he would never be able to progress in life all by himself and that he needed friends to support him and stand by his side.Hanabishi Recca
Recca and Tokiya were opponents in the beginning of the series. Tokiya shows up and defeats Recca in a fight, showing him that he is not worthy of becoming Yanagi's ninja. After some more complications involving Yanagi, Recca defeats Tokiya, and their rivalry for Yanagi's affections and the title of the leader of the Hokage ensues. From name-calling (sea monkey, anyone?) down to fistfighting in the middle of the night (seen in Volume 8 of the manga, but was was omitted in the anime), the two were constantly putting each other down and belittling each other's abilities. However, during their two-on-two battle with Uruha Oto's Neon and Miki, this rivalry proved to be a great disadvantage on their part. A few smacks on their heads and a little pep talk from Domon and Fūko snapped them out of it, and they somehow started to cooperate and show more concern for each other. Towards the end of the series, the bond between Recca and Tokiya can easily be seen by their teamwork and how they start joking around with one another (which I think is a way by which male friends show their affections to one another).
Sakoshita Yanagi
Tokiya's relationship with Yanagi has always been a subject of "interest" to many Flame of Recca fans, causing people to make statements such as "Me? I think he's a dork. Especially with that highly unhealthy interest in Yanagi." (from The Saucepan)
So is Tokiya a sick, inscestous bastard who is in love with Yanagi, or is he just concerned about her well being? Being a Tokiya fan, you'd think I'd just say that he was concerned, but after reading through the entire manga over and over again, I'd have to say that Tokiya DID have romantic feelings for Yanagi.
Before any Tokiya-haters cry out in triumph (then again why would a Tokiya-hater be wasting his/her time on this shrine) and before Tokiya-lovers curse me to the ends of the earth and back, let me just clear this up. I said, he DID have romantic feelings for her. It's in past tense. He DID, but eventually, he rid himself of the feelings.
In the beginning of the series, Tokiya did a very boyfriend-sy thing for Yanagi, which is going to an amusement park with her. It's a very typical anime/manga boyfriend-girlfriend thing to do, really. Anyway, that in itself should have been a hint as to how he felt about Yanagi. BUT the part that probably got most people confused was the fact that he cut Yanagi's hair and said that "Now you look more like 'Neesan". What the heck's going on?
For starters, I noticed that a lot of real-life guys actually find qualities in their girlfriends/romantic interests that are similar to their mothers', and a lot of girls (myself included) find qualities in their boyfriends/romantic interests that are similar to their fathers'. Why is that? It's because most of us have standards with regard to the people we want to get romantically involved with, and those standards are based on members of the opposite sex that surround us for most of our lives. It's all a matter of familiarity. Even though Tokiya may seem like a sick, incestous bastard, he isn't, because what happened was he craved the sort of love and caring that his older sister gave him, and this manifested in the qualities he looked for in a possible romantic interest. Besides, he couldn't very well say "Hey, Yanagi, can you be my sister," could he?
Anyway, Tokiya eventually showed that he was letting go of his feelings for her in Volume 8 of the manga, where he said (well, thought, actually...he didn't say it aloud) "I don't care about how you feel for Recca. All I want to do is protect you. In my mind, you're just as important to me as my sister."
Ishijima Domon
Domon loves calling Tokiya "Mī-bō", which means something along the lines of "brat". Although Tokiya obviously looked down on Domon and his lack of intellect in the beginning, he slowly starts to get used to his antics and to eventually respect him. Tokiya and Domon got along very well in the latter part of the manga. When Tokiya visited the Ishijima Flower Shop (yes, Domon's family runs a flower shop) to buy flowers for his family's grave, he stayed to have tea and chat with Domon for a while. In the last volume of the manga, he and Domon even give each other a high-five, and Domon plays along with Tokiya's calling him a gorilla.
Kirisawa Fūko
Fūko's relationship with Tokiya is...well...a painful one. Tokiya calls her a monkey in the beginning of the series, and Fūko eventually begins to beat Tokiya up whenever she can. There was a time wherein Fūko burst into Tokiya's classroom with a large paper fan just to give him a nice hard smack on the head with it. She also often punches him in the face, whether it's to say good luck or good job, or just for the heck of it. I think this is a sign of his warming up to her, as he obviously wouldn't let anyone else smack him around like that. And no, he doesn't let Fūko get away with doing all these things just because she's a girl...I mean, he beat up Mikoto without taking her gender into consideration, so I doubt that he's that much of a gentleman. XD
Koganei Kaoru
Tokiya seems to have a protective nature when it comes to Koganei. Even though he knows that Koganei is skilled, Tokiya often saves Koganei from danger, like when Mokuren was sucking the life energy out of him in the Ura Butō Satsujin, and the time that Kamui suddenly appeared to try to kill Koganei while he was with his fangirls. This especially shows during and after Koganei's battle with Tsukishiro. Tokiya was in the announcer's table as a "special guest" due to Nemi's (the announcer with the mouse-ear headband) request, but he couldn't stop himself from giving Koganei advice. Koganei fainted after he beat up Tsukishiro, and Tokiya was the one who carried him to the infirmary.
Kagerō
Although his relationship with Kagerō is not actually discussed in-depth throughout the duration of the series, Tokiya obviously respects Kagerō, and she in turn actually understands him more than the other members of the Hokage team do. She knows his internal struggle and his "being chained" by his desire for revenge, but she never actually discusses it with him, probably because she knows that he won't discuss his feelings so openly and that she has no right to intrude. Both of them are highly observant and intellectual, often giving explanations regarding opponents and their fighting techniques when the other members are confused and clueless.
