Rave Master

Groove adventure rave is a rather unique manga. The story is quiet simple and usual, but after some point(where the anime series ends) the storyline becomes better and better. The art is wonderfull, both with unsual creatures and great characters. I recomment this manga to all manga lovers and to all who finished the anime.

Today, I am going to write a review on Groove Adventure Rave, otherwise known as Rave Master. I am going to try a different format today. We will dissect this manga in slightly different aspects. ~ Exemplary Shounen-ness ~ First of all, Rave Master is Shounen. There is no dispute about it. It is also a good Shounen, and that means that every once in a while, readers starts to feel blood rushing into their heads. Or, as I would like to put it, it is epic. In this regard, it is on par with Naruto, Bleach, One Piece, etc. As we will soon see, though,Shounen is definitely not the only strength it possesses. ~ Amalgam of Genres ~ Another noteworthy trait about Rave Master is that expands its territories to encompass more elements than what a standard battle Shounen would include. Of course, all topnotch (popular) Shounen has shown this characteristic to some extent, but rave master has done this especially well. Other than action, fantasy, and comedy, RM puts a heavy emphasis on adventure (much like One Piece), drama, and even romance. Granted, the romance aspect is nowhere as explored as it is in romance-oriented manga. It is still a respectable amount of other elements added to this epic Shounen saga without ruining the Shounen aspect of it. Moreover, while RM has more in variety, it cuts down on fan-service. This is a fantastic news to most of the readers who are tired of freakishly common occurrence of boobs on manga pages, but maybe bad news for those of you who find an excessive fan-service enjoyable. Nevertheless, the romance in RM makes up for a lack of fan-service. ~ World Construction ~ It is among some of the best world construction pieces ever found in fantasy manga, probably because the mangaka is a huge fan of Eiichiro Oda, creator of One Piece. Readers who appreciate a frequent change of setting throughout the narration of a story will surely love this. ~ Art ~ Depending on how much the readers like the art in One Piece, or a more direct comparison, Fairy Tail, there will be different opinions on the quality of art. Personally, I found this kind of a style quite different from a majority of other manga, in a refreshing and enjoyable way. ~ Character ~ Instead of talking about the entire character cast, I will only talk about the male lead, Haru Glory, which is, again, what sets this manga apart from all other Shounen. Typically, male lead (in Shounen) is a bold, determined, adventurous, righteous individual in the manliest way. Obviously, there is an underlying flaw to this setup. It requires the male lead to be also a bit slow in the head and sometimes an EQ way below that of an average person. If I have to state one reason that a lot of people hate Shounen, this is why. Fortunately, Haru Glory defies this rule. Sure, he has the typical boldness, an adventurous spirit, and determination, but in moderation. On the other hand, he is thoughtful, sensitive, and knows when to give up. Somehow, he seems like more like a person one can relate to instead of just an icon of justice (like Naruto). ~ Story ~ Where this manga truly shines. I said in previous posts that Psyren is a case of good brain-storming. Then, RM must be an incidence of phenomenal overall planning. Let me remind you of another illness that befall most popular Shounen, the story will slow down between different arcs, and will almost come to a halt before the grand finale. For the most parts, this doesn’t apply to RM. I will give you a succinct flow chart summary of my experience reading this manga: Slow Start –> Gradual intensifying plot –> Epicness –> building up intensity –> Epicness … … (repeats cycle) (A few slowdown in between) … … (repeats cycle) FLASHBACK -> MIND-FUCKED in an amazing way --> Grand Finale Battle --> Epic Ending! Overall, Rave Master is a manga that contain most of the shounen epicness as well as tropes and cliches, but also worked around it so that these cliches are not so annoying anymore. It has a typical yet more likable male lead. Its story does not feel disjointed with the construction of different arcs. It has a good balance of different categories, and a comfortable pacing. Ultimately, perhaps most importantly of all, it is completed, so that readers will not agonize over one chapter per week. Story: 10/10 Art: 8/10 Character: 9/10 Enjoyment: 10/10 Overall: 10/10

Forget about Fairy Tail kids, Rave Master is the real deal when it comes to battle shonen. Having read over both manga several times, I can easily say that Mashima really dropped the ball with Fairy Tail and that Rave is a much better story and it stands above almost every other shonen I've read. Now, as much I as I enjoy hyping Rave Master up, I can't deny that it's another generic and cliche shonen. It has the stereotypical characters and tropes. But what I am saying is that Rave takes these cliches and executes them in a way that is better than justabout any other shonen. I'm sure many of you have seen have watched the watered down anime with it's watered down dub several years ago, but don't let that fool you into thinking that Rave Master isn't very good, the manga is so much better that it's ridiculous, especially considering the anime stopped before the best parts started. And if you guys think characters like the jiggle butt gang are silly, it should be known that they're only in two chapters and are later written off completely. What makes Rave Master so great is that compared to other shonen manga, the characters in Rave Master felt a little bit more human and actually had developed personalities. I'm not saying they're NGE level deep or anything, but compared to people from One Piece or Naruto they felt a lot more realistic and less contrived at times. It often makes for great emotional scenes and the characters do have great tension with each other. Story is pretty good for a shonen as well. At first, it just starts off as "evil empire with super powers are trying to take over the world" but it eventually evolves into something far deeper than that. The pacing for the story is also excellent, seeing as how Rave completed it's run in just under 300 chapters with several story arcs. Fights are also pretty good too. Most characters have abilities that are similar to ones from Fairy Tail. See, in Rave, the characters have things called dark brings, which basically give them magic like abilities. Unlike in Fairy Tail though, these fights actually have a good deal of tension and suspense in them, as the heroes in Rave aren't as invincible as the ones in Fairy Tail. Not to mention Mashima is talented in drawing out fight choreography. So the battles and EVERYONE gets a real chance to shine, unlike other manga where a lot of characters are thrown away so the MC can steal the precious victory. Now, I'm not saying the manga is flawless, the ending was rushed and I didn't particularly like the main villain. But aside from that I can't really say that I could find anything else that I didn't like about it. Rave Master is great when you add all the parts together, it really works well as a manga. I can only feel as though Mashima didn't really take a long enough break between writing Rave and Fairy Tail to get any good ideas for it. Rave Master is actually a quality series. Fairy Tail just feels more like a fanservice one.

As of today i finished Rave Master and it has been a good ride and i loved it. I love the fact that Mashima-sensei evolved with the story the art everything became even better with the time. It ended how it should till the end i had soo much passion i didn't stop reading it was that good. I won't spoil anything i will say only that it was very creative about how Haru fight. The plot twist was amazing even at the end i figured out the foreshadowing and i was like in my room. "Mashima-sensei is just an amazing man how he thought it WHOAAAA". I was happyand sad that it ended in just 35 volumes but i was happy. And for me Rave is better than some old manga i have read so easy for me Top 10!!! I recommend it to everyone give it a go it can be the manga you are looking for.