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Rave Master, titled Rave (レイヴ, Reivu, romanized as RAVE) in Japan and also known there as The Groove Adventure Rave, is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Hiro Mashima. The series follows Haru Glory, a teenager in a quest to find the five pieces of the sacred stone Rave in order to bring peace to the world by defeating the criminal group Demon Card. Mashima created this series with the idea of traveling around the world and was presented with difficulties in its serialization due to its considerable length.

The manga was serialized in Weekly Shōnen Magazine from July 1999 through July 2005, and published in thirty-five tankōbon volumes by Kodansha. The manga series was licensed for an English release in North America by Tokyopop until Kodansha allowed their contract to expire. It was also adapted into a fifty-one episode anime series by Studio Deen. The anime premiered on Tokyo Broadcasting System on October 13, 2001 and ran until September 28, 2002. Tokyopop also licensed the anime adaptation which premiered on Cartoon Network in the United States on June 5, 2004 as part of the Toonami programming block, and re-broadcast on Syfy in 2009.

The manga series has received a generally positive critical response with praise commonly aimed towards the story-line and artwork. On the other hand, the anime adaptation has been panned for the multiple edits Tokyopop made to the original version resulting in uninteresting and confusing dialogues as well as unappealing music.

Plot[]

In a world where light and shadow clash, war broke out between the Symphonia and Raregroove kingdoms using magical stones to turn the tide against each other. In order to counter the Raregroove's evil Dark Bring stones, five magical stones of pure holy power called the Rave Stones were created and to be wielded by one person who is known as the Rave Master. At the year 0015, the chosen Rave Master Shiba Roses delivers a powerful strike on the Mother Dark Bring, Sinclaire, which inadvertently unleashes a massive explosion known as "Overdrive", destroying one-tenth of the world. Shiba was unharmed thanks to his guardian "dog"'s sacrifice Plue, who became scattered along with the other four raves across the world.

Fifty years later, an aged Shiba reunites with Plue, who was fished ashore on Garage Island by a sixteen-year-old teenager named Haru Glory before getting caught by his pursuers from the evil Demon Card organization. Shiba fails to drive them off when he learns he can no longer use the Rave anymore as the stone chooses Haru as its new successor, who manages to fight back. Shiba entrusts Haru his Rave, Plue and Ten Commandments sword who leaves the island to find the other Rave Stones, see the world and find his long-lost father. Upon arriving at Hip Hop Island, Haru befriends an amnesiac girl named Elie who mysteriously possess the omnipotent Etherion magic. During their journey, Haru encounter new friends mostly from befriending enemies and won them over with his honor. His allies list from Hamrio Musica; a master thief and grandson of a known blacksmith, Griffon Kato; Plue's friend and mapper, Ruby; a penguin and casino owner, Let Dahaka and Julia; martial artists of the Dragon Race, Belnika; a volunteer mage of the Etherion Project; former Oración Seis; Shuda, the elemental master Seighart, and his closest apprentice, Niebel.

Our heroes travel the world gathering the Raves, which are guarded by the spirits of the animal-incarnated Azure Sky Warriors. They reach the Tower of Din where Haru reunites with his father, Gale Glory and encounters the Demon Card's king, Gale Raregroove. Haru manages to reconcile with his long-lost father after learning the truth from the two Gales' story, about how their stories were chained by destiny as the royal heirs of Symphonia and Raregroove Gale and Haru managed to defeat King and foiled Demon Card altogether, but Haru cries as he witnessed both King and his dad sacrificed themselves to end their families' circle of fate.

Six months later, the Rave Warriors follows Gale's words to discover the legendary Stellar Memories where all the answers lie. Meanwhile after DC's destruction, three new organizations emerge from the shadows for their rivalry struggle for power with each leader possessing a Mother Dark Bring. The fated battle between light versus darkness resume as the heroes eventually clash with the organizations. Especially for Haru who faces King's lost son, Lucia Raregroove who leads the new Demon Card as the resurrected Raregroove Kingdom congregated with all the remaining dark forces.

Amidst the subsequent chaos, both the Rave Warriors and Demon Card encounter the being called Endless, a perpetual and indestructible monster of time and space and the true origin of all the Dark Brings. Lucia assembles all the Mother D.B.s with Endless, while Haru retrieves the final Rave after clearing its trial through Shiba's sacrifice. As both groups collected all the Rave Stones and Mother Dark Brings, they concurrently learn the truth of their world which interconnects with the Stellar Memories and Endless' purpose to eradicate the false world. The heroes head to Symphonia once more to awaken Elie's memory, where she remembers she is none other than Resha Valentine herself, who gave her very life for the five Rave Stones creation while sacrificing her identity to fight Endless in the predicted future. As Haru and Elie mourn Sieghart's sacrifice for protecting Elie's course through time, Elie recovers her control over her Etherion fusing all the Raves together with a new and even stronger sword forged by Musica. The final battle ensues with Haru's victory but at the heavy price where Elie must destroy Endless with Haru trapped inside and loses her memories altogether.

One year later, Resha and the others visit Haru's grave, where she regains her memories as Elie. Haru appears alive thanks to the Memory of the Stars and reunites with all his best friends. The warriors go their separate ways, and Haru and Elie return to Garage Island to live together and become parents to a son named Levin.

Manga[]

Rave Master was serialized in Weekly Shōnen Magazine in 1999 and ran for 296 chapters until its conclusion in 2005. It was published in thirty-five tankōbon volumes by Kodansha, with the first volume released in November 1999 and the final volume released in September 2005.[1][2] The series was later rereleased in eighteen bunkoban volumes between August 10, 2006 and April 12, 2007.[3][4]

In the West, 32 volumes Rave Master were published by Tokyopop from February 11, 2003 to February 10, 2009. Kodansha published volumes 33 to 35 in an omnibus format to complete the series.

On October 3, 2017, Kodansha re-released all 35 volumes of Rave Master in digital format.

Anime[]

Main article: Episodes

The series was adapted into a fifty-one episode anime series, entitled Groove Adventure Rave, by Studio Deen.[5] It was directed by Takashi Watanabeand the music was composed by Kenji Kawai.[6] The anime premiered on TBS on October 13, 2001 and ran until September 28, 2002. The anime series is based on the first twelve volumes of the manga series. The series was also collected in a total of seventeen DVD volumes between February 6, 2002 and June 4, 2003.[7][8]

Tokyopop licensed the series for release and broadcast in North America.[9] As with the manga, Tokyopop released the series under the name Rave Master. Tokyopop edited the series for content and length, hired Rita Majkut to produce the English language version, which was recorded at Bill & Ted’s Recording Studio in Burbank, California, and contracted Glenn Scott Lacey to compose an alternate musical score. The ADR writer was Bob Buchholz, and Marc Handler was the voice director for all of the episodes. The leading actors for the English language version were Yuri Lowenthal, Doug Erholtz, Michelle Ruff, Tom Kenny, and Mona Marshall. The English dubbed version aired on Cartoon Network in the United States, premiering in June 2004, as part of the Toonami programming block.[10][11] The series' second half premiered on January 22, 2005.[12] Syfy had begun airing the dubbed episodes on March 16, 2009 as part of its "Ani-Monday" programming block and finished on September 21, 2009.[13] Tokyopop released three DVD volumes of the series and in 2010 it collected the entire series.[14]

The one-shot crossover between Rave Master and Fairy Tail was adapted into an original video animation with Mashima being the supervisor as he expanded the original chapter to include more characters from Rave Master. It was released on August 16, 2013 alongside the thirty-ninth volume of Fairy Tail.[15]

Video Games[]

There are six video games based on Rave Master published by Konami. Three games were released for the PlayStation including a role-playing games Groove Adventure Rave: Yūkyū no Kizuna, its sequel Groove Adventure Rave: Mikan no Hiseki (GROOVE ADVENTURE RAVE ~未完の秘石~), and the platforming game Plue no Daibouken from Groove Adventure Rave.[16][17][18]

For Nintendo's consoles Konami released both Groove Adventure Rave: Hikari to Yami no Daikessen and Rave Master: Special Attack Force! (Groove Adventure Rave: Hikari to Yami no Daikessen 2), two fighting games for the Game Boy Advance, and Rave Master: Fighting Live (Groove Adventure Rave: Fighting Life) which was released on the Nintendo GameCube.[19][20]

Reception[]

The Rave Master manga has been well received with its Western release appearing in Diamond Comic Distributors' graphic novels charts.[21][22] Publications for manga and anime also had positive impressions with Jason Thompson's book Manga: The Complete Guide giving it a positive review of 3 out of 4 stars. It states that Rave Master had a relatively shaky start, in terms of storyline and art. However, it states that about partway through the first major story arc, the series began to improve and set itself apart from other manga series. Like most reviewers, they stated that Rave Master had a collection of likable characters.[23] Chris Beverdige from Mania Entertainment also enjoyed the series recommending people to buy multiple volumes rather than one to enjoy the connected story arcs. He praised the series' fight scenes coupled with the emotional content that makes the series worth reading.[24] UK Anime Network writer Rory Carlyle shared similar comments as he viewed the series to be "pretty good" despite having common standards seen in multiple shōnen manga.[25] The artwork was also praised by Anime News Network's Allen Divers who referred to the series as "a try before you buy" based on the simple storyline.[26] Carlyle was surprised by the multiple character designs that included humanoid and superdeformed characters besides common ones like Haru.[25]

In contrast to the printed version, the TV series has garnered some significant criticism mainly for its edits. Critics were mainly concerned about how the script was rewritten for the series' English release which resulted in confusing character interactions and unfunny humor.[27][28] The animation was praised although the fight scenes were not found entertaining.[27] Both Anime News Network and DVDTalk found that the series was better suited towards a young audience and expected TokyoPop to release an uncut version of the series to attract older fans. The exclusive English soundtrack was also heavily criticized for not fitting with the series while the English voice acting was found underwhelming.[27][29]

References[]

<references>

Navigation[]

  1. Rave (1) (Japanese). Kodansha. Archived from the original on November 22, 2005. Retrieved on January 15, 2009.
  2. Rave (35) (Japanese). Kodansha. Archived from the original on November 23, 2005. Retrieved on January 15, 2009.
  3. Rave (1) (Japanese). Kodansha. Retrieved on May 4, 2013.
  4. Rave (18) (Japanese). Kodansha. Retrieved on May 4, 2013.
  5. New Anime coming to Japan. Anime News Network (July 27, 2001). Retrieved on May 4, 2013.
  6. 「RAVE[レイヴ]」. Studio Deen. Archived from the original on June 2, 2002. Retrieved on May 4, 2013.
  7. RAVE (1) DVD (Japanese). Amazon.com. Retrieved on May 4, 2013.
  8. RAVE (17) DVD (Japanese). CDJapan. Retrieved on May 4, 2013.
  9. Rave Master On Toonami In 2004. ICv2 (November 6, 2003). Retrieved on May 4, 2013.
  10. Rave Master Now Set for June Bow. ICv2 (May 15, 2004). Retrieved on May 4, 2013.
  11. http://www.animationmagazine.net/tv/cartoon-network-parties-with-rave-master/
  12. Rave Master Scheduled. ICv2 (January 20, 2005). Retrieved on May 4, 2013.
  13. U.S. Sci-Fi Channel to Run Rave Master Fantasy Anime. Anime News Network (2009-01-19). Retrieved on 2009-01-20.
  14. Tokyopop Starts DVD-on-Demand Service with Rave Master. Anime News Network (March 3, 2010). Retrieved on May 5, 2013.
  15. Fairy Tail x Rave Master Crossover Manga Gets Anime DVD. Anime News Network (April 15, 2013). Retrieved on May 5, 2013.
  16. GROOVE ADVENTURE RAVE 〜悠久の絆〜 (Japanese). Konami. Retrieved on May 5, 2013.
  17. GROOVE ADVENTURE RAVE 〜未完の秘石〜 (Japanese). Konami. Retrieved on May 5, 2013.
  18. プルーのだいぼうけん from GROOVE ADVENTURE RAVE (Japanese). Konami. Retrieved on May 5, 2013.
  19. GROOVE ADVENTURE RAVE 〜光と闇の大決戦〜 (Japanese). Konami. Retrieved on May 5, 2013.
  20. GameSpot (March 9, 2005). Konami Ships Two Titles Based on the Popular Anime Property Rave Master. Press release. Retrieved on May 5, 2013.
  21. Top 100 Graphic Novels Actual--July 2004. ICv2 (August 17, 2004). Retrieved on May 4, 2013.
  22. Top 100 Graphic Novels Actual--December 2004. ICv2 (January 18, 2005). Retrieved on May 4, 2013.
  23. Error on call to Template:cite book: Parameter title must be specifiedThompson, Jason (2007). . Del Rey.
  24. Beveridge, Chris. Rave Master Vol. #09. Mania Entertainment. Archived from the original on January 4, 2014. Retrieved on May 2, 2013.
  25. 25.0 25.1 Carlyle, Rory (January 1, 2004). Manga Review: Rave Master 1. UK Anime Network. Retrieved on May 2, 2013.
  26. Divers, Allen (February 5, 2004). Tankobon Tower Groundhog Day Goodness. Anime News Network. Retrieved on May 2, 2013.
  27. 27.0 27.1 27.2 Santos, Carlo (November 8, 2004). Rave Master DVD 1: Quest Begins. Anime News Network. Retrieved on May 5, 2013.
  28. Sinnott, John (October 12, 2004). Rave Master DVD 1: Quest Begins. DVDTalk. Retrieved on May 5, 2013.
  29. Santos, Carlo (March 17, 2005). Rave Master DVD 2: Release the Beasts. Anime News Network. Retrieved on May 5, 2013.
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