Hiro Mashima’s Rave Master (aka The Groove Adventure Rave) is one of the few lengthy shōnen series that I’ve both read and enjoyed. I have nothing against the general tropes of shōnen works, it’s just there have been few I’ve personally enjoyed enough to buy and they often run very long making them more expensive thus harder for me to justify acquiring. Even Bleach, which I quite enjoy, I have mostly given up buying after 40 volumes and am just hoping the omnibus editions catch up (and are fully released).
Despite it’s 35 volume length, I love Rave Master and would easily call it one of my favorite series. This one has had a bit of an interesting history here, one that I suspect to be part of the reason it never gained the same acclaim here as Mashima’s other series Fairy Tale. Rave Master ran in Japan from 1999 to 2005 and was released by Kodansha Comics. Tokyopop snagged the English license and between 2002 and 2008, it released 31 volumes of the series. But then, they lost all of their licenses with Kodansha and had to halt work on all of those series, including Rave Master. Talk about torturous – 3 volumes left and no more releases!!!
Then, it was announced that Del Rey Comics had been given the Rave Master license and would be releasing the final volumes! Except…they didn’t. And fans were left longing for the ending, including this one. During the years that followed, Kodansha began eschewing licensing titles to US companies and instead set up their own Kodansha USA division to release their own titles. Finally, during their panel at Comic-Con 2011, in addition to making fans scream with news of re-releases of Sailor Moon, they made a quiet subset of fans ecstatic by announcing the last three volumes of Rave Master would be released as a single omnibus edition. And they actually did it!
An action-comedy with a good dose of adventure and romance thrown in, Rave Master begins when 16-year-old Haru Glory leaves his home on Garage Island after he becomes the next Rave Master. Gifted with the ability to command rave and to use the Ten Powers sword, he is charged with collecting all five Rave Stones so he can defeat Demon Card, an organization that collects Dark Bring, powerful magic stones that bestow special powers upon their own. In the wrong hands, like these, Dark Bring can also bring about Overdrive, responsible for destroying 1/10th of the known world 50 years before the story starts.
Haru is accompanied by Plue, a being of unknown species that is generally referred to as a dog, Elie, a girl with no memory of her past, and Musica, a silverclaimer who can manipulate silver. As they search for the stones, Haru begins to learn more about his father, the history of the first Rave Master, and of the famous Resha Valentine, the girl who created Rave through her control of Etherion, a power that is strong enough to stop Overdrive, but also strong enough to destroy the world if used incorrectly.
As it is a comedic series, Rave Master often uses over-the-top character deformities and chibi forms regularly, has some just plain weird side stories, and features some of the most ridiculous characters I’ve ever encountered like the Jiggle Butt Gang. It relies on some well-worn plot elements and fairly typical shōnen-action series tropes, such as the whole challenger is beating one of the heroes but hero powers up to save the day, all the fighters are bad-asses of epic proportions, excessive explanations of powers to the person being fought from both sides, almost no parents to be found, etc. While it does offer some fan service in most of the female characters, they are also a well-designed mix of strength and femininity with clear, distinctive personalities and they are seen as equals with the males versus just being eye candy or decoration. Yeah, some have the usual big boobs, but it isn’t to the level of gravity defying insanity and they are more than capable of keeping anyone in line who might get the idea of getting frisky.
Despite all of that seeming negativity, I still love this series. It has a surprisingly serious and moving plot behind the silly window dressings that wrung more than a few tears out of me. It also has interesting and downright likable characters. Haru is a somewhat typical hero: young, brash, at times reckless, but he also has such a pure heart that he cries for his enemies and would rather talk things out than fight whenever possible. Elie is tough but fair, able to hang on through all the crap that comes down on her while not being afraid to lean on her friends for support when she really needs it. Musica acts like a carefree playboy, but he is ready to stand at Haru’s side no matter what. And many of those who are the Rave gangs “enemies” are far more complex that you might expect and some are so nuanced and in that grey area of right and wrong that you might even find yourself rooting for them.
And while occasionally it does they “okay, not really” when it comes to character deaths, on the whole when someone dies, they stay dead. Death is a viable option on both sides of the field for these characters, and about the only one you are reasonably certain will make it to the end is Haru, and even then it sometimes starts feeling iffy. Despite its length, and the amount of tissues I end up using every single time, I have read Rave Master multiple times and look forward to continuing to revisiting its distinctive world again soon.
Rave Master is out of print except for the omnibus final volume, but copies are very easy to find for cheap online, some as little as a penny due to overprinting by Tokyopop. The omnibus is still in print and is available in paperback.