Manga Review: Rave Master

Before Fairy Tail... there was Rave Master. Rave Master is a Japanese manga created by the author Hiro Mashima who went on to create the manga "Fairy Tail". Hiro Mashima not only wrote the story but he also illustrated it as well, it is romanized as RAVE and known as Groove Adventure RAVE in Japan. The manga first began publication in the year 1999 until it ended in the year 2005 with 35 volumes in total. Then the animation studio "Studio Deen" decided to adapt Rave Master into a TV Anime Series which ran from October the 13th 2001 and ended September the 28th 2002 having 51 episodes in total. It should be noted the anime only covered the first 12 volumes of the manga making a pretty poor attempt at an anime adaption.

The world was once being corrupted by Dark Bring, evil stones that bestowed incredible powers to their owners. Shiba, the first RAVE Master, attempted to destroy Sinclaire, the "mother" of the Dark Bring, with his Ten Commandments Sword. The aftermath caused the massive explosion known as "Overdrive" that destroyed one-tenth of the known world. Plue and the five remaining fragments of RAVE, however, scattered around the world. Fifty years later Haru Glory, a teenager living on the peaceful Garage Island, fishes Plue up by accident. Several events soon follow, including Shiba's arrival, as well as the appearance of a mysterious organization known as Demon Card, whose members possess Dark Bring and aim to rule the world. Shiba discovers he is the second RAVE Master, and entrusts his RAVE, Plue, and the Ten Commandments Sword to Haru. Haru embarks upon an adventure to find the other fragments of Rave and to save the world.

Rave Master can only be discribed as one thing, and that is the entire manga is a japnese role playing game adventure. You have the main character with a large sword and spiky hair who sets out on a journey to explore the world and find the long lost pieces of rave. On his adventure he will meet friends and foes and they follow him on his journey and become comrades in arms. You have comrades that fight with magic, swords and even martial arts, you fight together as one like a party against evil. On your journey you will meet enemies who get consistently stronger every time you defeat one while suffering hardships. You upgrade your sword and evolve it to the next level and when you have enough experience you become stronger. In the finale you lead your party to the final battle with the fate of the entire world in your hands. The manga's like over 300 chapters long, thats enough to create a memorable adventure.

Haru Glory: Aka, Natsu Dragneel he is the main protagonist that by chance finds plue which begins his adventure. When Shiba bestows him the 10 commandments sword he becomes the second rave master and he sets out on a journey to save the world essentially. With a sword that can transform into 9 other swords he has great flexibility in his battles and can evolve each of the swords to even greater lengths. He doesn't give up and when the going gets touch he overcomes and comes out of the battle a greater fighter then before. He is your generic male lead protagonist and the character you would spend most of your time leveling up if you were playing an RPG.

Elie: Aka, Lucy Heartfilia, is a carbon copy of lucy from Fairy Tail so I dont have much to say about her. She first appears to be your innocent young girl that Haru finds very early in the manga. But fate has a funny way of dealing with chance encounters because inside her lies a power so powerfull it could destroy the world. It isnt long until Demon Card the evil organisation decides to seize this power for themselves but it's okey because Elie has her friends to guard her. Plus towards the end of the manga she learns how to control this massize power to destroy beings the size of mountains and the most powerfull of sorcerers.

Hamrio Musica: Aka, Gray Fullbuster is Haru's right hand man, his first mate his brother almost. He wields the power to be able to manipulate silver into any shape or form making him a silver alchemist essentially. With this ability he can form silver into almost any hand held weapon but he almost always turns it into spears or pole arms to give him greater reach. This gives him even greater flexibility then Haru when it comes to fighting but he is still way weaker then Haru as his attacks are never as strong as his. Though being able to manipulate silver into any form is usefull for example like keys in locks.

Let: Aka, Gajeel Redfox, originally an enemy he joins Haru's band of friends and fighters because he seeks honor and pride and nothing else. He is not human but a Dragonrace, a race of humanoid dragons duh. He is a fighter who uses no weapons but his punches and kicks to inflict maximum punishment on his enemys. Of course when the time calls for it he can utilise some of his dragon powers like dragon roar, dragon breath and dragon claws. But if he goes into full berserk mode and transforms himself fully into a dragon he will lose his humanity forever, but in return be given godly power for a short amount of time.

Hiro Mashima's art way back in 1999 is how you would expect the quality of a manga which began pre 2000 there is alot of white. There is a great lack of overall shading in the manga and it looks more like line art. However of course since the manga is about 300 chapters long it improves greatly over the course of the story. It evolved from chapters with little to no background and detail too glorious landscapes and fight scenes to make you sit on the edge of your seat. Though of course his art quality never did have a bolded quality so it looked very generic and bland, but that doesnt mean it's bad, you can read everything clearly so it's okey. If you compared Rave Master to his current work Fairy Tail you will be able to notice a clear indication that the art quality has gotten alot better which is good for him.

For a long manga like this you have to read this all in one go. It's like your playing any old JRPG where you start the game, watch the story, play about with the main character, recruit some friends to your ever growing party, train them up through countless battles, upgrade their weapons and abilities, meet hundreds of NPC's along the way, travel to the deepest dungoens and the highest mountain, and finnally prepare your party for the final battle to defeat the end game boss and just hope the story doesn't end in a game over. Trust me for those who have read Rave Master they will agree that the overall movement and flow of the manga is like one big adventure game. However instead of actually "playing" the game how about just reading about an adventure unfold just like Rave Master, because in the end it was a great journey, and a great manga to read.