Rave Master, Vol. 01

Rave Master #1

by Hiro Mashima

The Continent of Song is in chaos. The sinister secret society known as Demon Card is using the power of Dark Bring to destroy everything in their path. The only things capable of stopping Dark Bring are the Rave stones. Unfortunately, the Rave Stones were scattered around the globe in an explosion 50 years ago, so now they must be collected by the Rave Master in order to stop Dark Bring once and for all.

Genres: Manga, Fantasy, Comics, Graphic Novels, Shonen, Comics Manga, Young Adult

192 pages, Paperback

First published November 15, 1999

About the author

Hiro Mashima (Jap: 真島ヒロ) is a Japanese manga artist.

He gained success with his first serial Rave, published in Kodansha's Weekly Shōnen Magazine from 1999 to 2005. His best-selling work, Fairy Tail, published in the same magazine from 2006 to 2017, became one of the best-selling manga series with over 72 million copies in print. Mashima began the currently ongoing Edens Zero in 2018.

Fairy Tail won the Kodansha Manga Award for shōnen manga in 2009, and Mashima was given the Harvey Awards International Spotlight award in 2017 and the Fauve Special Award at the 2018 Angoulême International Comics Festival.

Reviews

[Travis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is definitely one of the most under the radar manga series out there. But Rave Master was one I adored as a child so reading this manga series is going to be so nostalgic. I actually never finished reading this series as a kid but I did watch the entire 2 seasons of the anime. So exited to go back into this world.

This first volume is pretty much just an introduction to the main character and laying a little foundation to the big story arc.

[Molly™☺ · Rating 2 out of 5]

A harsh two star that mainly stems from the fact that Mashima has a lot more to offer than what's shown here. It's bland, forgettable, and lacks much of the staying power of his most well-known series, Fairy Tail. For the first entry that's supposed to grip and encourage readers to pick up the next volume, it does a rather terrible job.

[Aravena · Rating 2 out of 5]

(vol. 1-15)

Hiro Mashima's earlier shounen series before he struck gold with Fairy Tail.

The world here is pretty interesting, a modern fantasy setting that kind of reminds me of some Japanese RPG titles. What's most memorable is the often surrealistic design of its fantasy creatures: we have Plue (mascot character that looks like a dog+snowman thing), Ruby (talking penguin and successful entrepreneur), and Griff and Nakajima (...I can't really explain what the hell these two are). Other than that, it's a generic archetypal collection of characters and plot devices: boy with missing father leaves hometown->meet cute amnesiac girl->collect magical artifacts to save the world from evil organization.

I enjoyed it the first time I read this, but honestly I don't think it holds up well today. There are some cool abilities and weapons, but both the plotting and fight choreography are unremarkable. Too many battles are resolved by having the protagonist beaten to near death, then have him pull off a new power/have a new ally come to the rescue. A shounen action/fighting series could cover up its cliched plot by having strong visual execution, but Rave doesn't quite have that either.

It's not awful, but it's far from good enugh for me to justify the investment for 35 volumes~

[Kelly Stadel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Warning: Some of the things in this story you may be very confused by but it I am just used to this so don’t judge it. This story is about Haru Glory he is 16 and lives on an Island with his sister Cattleya and there thing on their house called Nakajima he looks like a sunflower and is attached to their house and I don’t even know what it is. Anyways Haru was fishing and he finds this dog-like snowman-like thing that he names Plue and he keeps as a pet for reasons unknown to me. He meets with this old man named Shiba and he tells Haru that he is the next rave master. Haru is like WHAT?!?! He also defeats a Demon Card the opposite of a Rave master and he battles another one as well he doesn’t win or lose. He also gets and awesome sword called Rave. To find out what the heck happens in this story read it!!!!

[Rosa · Rating 4 out of 5]

子供の時この話が大好きだったし、もう一度読んで見ると懐かしいです。

[Eric Mesa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this is the first manga I've read since DeathNote. I'm having a little trouble getting into this, but maybe it's just one of those stories that starts off a little strange and then finally builds up to a plot? It does tell the story over 30-something books.

Of course, there are some gems of dialogue like this (read from right to left):



I got it as part of a Humble Bundle, so I've got the whole series, leaving me without any reason not to go on. So we'll see where this goes.

[Noah · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was an okay read. For a start it didn’t really grab my attention. The concepts that this series has are cool. The characters are relatable but also kinda annoying to me. Can def see how this helped shape the characters of fairy tail.

[Bookworm Erica · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wouldn’t continue on with the series . Glad I found fairy tail first

[Nanang Stiawan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awal Hiro Mashima sensei debut sebagai mangaka. Gambarnya sangat chubby tapi Rave adalah karya beliau yang paling bagus selama ini dari segi storyline.

[libraryofthecrypt · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5*

I’m intrigued. I once again didn’t think I’d enjoy this but I did. And I’m curious to see how this story plays out.

[Cristhian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Puedo ver el potencial de la serie

[Cathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's difficult to find manga that's appropriate for reluctant teenage boy readers, but this one leaves my classroom everytime. It's PG, not G, but it's not as racy as a lot of the other Japanese manga, and it's been a hot seller in my classroom for years. The boys tell me when the new one comes out. We're at volume 32.

[Matthew Kim]

I started a new series called rave master. The book pretty much follows the new Rave Master Haru Glory after the first Rave Master made a grave mistake. I'm still not done with the series so I am unable to give an official review of the whole series.

[Danielle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not quite as good as Fairy Tail (I started reading that first), but interesting and cute, light-hearted adventure story that nevertheless had me turning pages.

[Ariel]

Oh my! The snowman type creature is in Fairy Tail!

[Zach Teachout · Rating 1 out of 5]

Bad

Just bad. Dumb story, unimaginative artwork. Just nothing at all good about this here. What a waste of money. Ignore.

[Andrés · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hace años, cuando empecé a leer manga, me dije que trataría de leerme los mangas que basaron animes que vi cuando era niño/adolescente (Card Captor Sakura, Tokyo Mew Mew, Rozen Maiden, entre otros) y por eso mismo empecé a leer Rave Master, la opera prima de mi mangaka favorito Hiro Mashima. Y la verdad es que tengo mucho que decir de esta historia.
La historia trata acerca de Haru Glory, un chico que vive con su hermana mayor en una pequeña isla en la que rara vez pasa algo. Eso hasta que pesca un extraño ser y se encuentra con un extraño anciano llamado Shiba. Ambos eventos parecen estar conectados, además de una extraña piedra conocida como Rave y una organización oscura llamada Demon Card.
La verdad es que nunca he sido fanático del primer volumen de los mangas, ya que son los encargados de presentar a los personajes y las situaciones, por lo mismo muchas veces carecen de buenas escenas de acción y se sienten más como un montón de información conectada. Pero a la vez siento que son vitales y que deben ser pensados como pequeñas porciones de una historia que deben llamar la atención la atención lo suficiente como para que necesites seguir leyendo. Y eso fue lo que tuve en este tomo.
La historia me gustó, siento que para ser solo cuatro capítulos el autor supo balancearlos bien para darnos un equilibrio entre historia, presentación de personajes y escenas de acción. Eso me hizo considerarlo un muy buen primer volumen. De la clase que te da más ganas de leer.
Rave Master tiene una historia de fondo algo más complicada de lo que parece en la superficie donde parece que es simplemente la lucha de la luz contra la oscuridad, algo que siempre he destacado de Mashima es crear historias muy enrevesadas de fondo con personajes agradables de ver.
Haru hasta ahora me ha parecido el protagonista menos parecido a los demás que ha creado Mashima, siento que tiene cosas muy únicas en él, y aunque representa los valores típicos de los protagonistas de mangas shonen, siento que tienen algo especial que quiero seguir descubriendo.
Los demás personajes no se lucen mucho, su presencia es más para hacer que la historia de mueva, aunque el hecho de que aun este empezando solo significa que tienen espacio para crecer.
El único problema es que sigo encontrando demasiadas similitudes entre este trabajo y las demás obras de Mashima, algo que siempre he criticado. Y aunque esta sea la historia original, ya que es su primer manga, es algo cansino cuando ver un personaje que te trasmite toda el aura de otros personajes ya vistos.
Rave Master recién esta empezando para mí y espero leer mucho más porque parece una historia prometedora, siendo el primer trabajo de uno de mis autores de manga favoritos, quiero ver que tan bien brilla con su luz propia, pero hasta que no lea los siguientes volúmenes, no podré opinar correctamente.

[Brandon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been meaning to get back into Rave for quite a while now, vaguely for a decade or so, but more specifically for about six years (when I got back into reading digital manga). According to Wikipedia, the English dub started airing in 2004, but I could have sworn I was already in middle school. What's most important is that I briefly had the corny English theme song on an .mp3 player in 2007-ish... or maybe I planned on downloading the song, but passed because it was still stuck in my head?

I borrowed a lot of volumes of this manga from my local library a little while after I last saw the anime on TV. I guess I didn't keep too close an eye on Mashima's career afterward, or simply assumed he wouldn't make another long-running manga, or even that I didn't pay much mind to the author's name at all. Fairy Tail would have started its manga when I was in middle school, and the anime when I was in high school, but neither was "pushed" as hard in the States as I recall TokyoPop having done (I think FT started by Kodansha's US branch, after TokyoPop died, and before they came back...), and the series passed me by for some years, until I started university in 2012, and viewed Fairy Tail alongside Soul Eater (the anime adaptation of which I had actually seen half of) as "entry-level babby manga/anime," for the lowest-brow of self-proclaimed otaku... just going with the flow of other people's elitism on the internet, based in part on my own bias (at the time) against the Soul Eater anime (which I watched dubbed, years before), and linking the two series for no other reason than that they weren't from Shueisha, for whose works (in Weekly Shounen Jump) I was more likely to feel nostalgia. It thus took me a long time afterward before I offhandedly looked Fairy Tail up, and discovered it was by the same author as Rave, a fact that eluded me mostly for the evolution of Mashima's art-style.

I come back to Rave today in large part because I'm interested in the science-fiction aesthetic of Mashima's latest manga, Edens Zero (and also, to some great degree, an interest in some of the... healthy-looking female character designs...). I've seen a number of "complaints" about this newer series, calling it "Fairy Tail in space," and I figured it may thus be inappropriate to get too deep into that manga without first... reading Fairy Tail. And then... I start thinking it might be "weird" to read Fairy Tail without having ever actually finished Rave, with which I'm somewhat familiar besides, so... here I am!

Like many fantasy manga from this time, Rave feels overtly influenced by JRPGs in its structure. Reading this volume after so many years, I'm a bit surprised that Ellie has not yet been introduced, but at the same time the limited scope of the story this far, the entire volume not moving beyond Garage Island, reflects that feeling of so many Dragon Quest games: dicking around the starter town, beating up Slimes and Drackies until you hit Level 5 or so, and can more comfortably proceed through the game's world. If the player gets too far from the starting point, the game's story will soon explode into a much broader scope. Haru Glory isn't ready for that yet, and/or doesn't yet have reason to move too far forward, and so it's "fair" for him to dick around for the time being. Many JRPGs end with godlike foes threatening to destroy the entire world, but begin with petty villains capable of little more than... breaking doors and shooting the local shopowner, I guess.

Furthermore, Haru learns that the entire world beyond his humble island hometown is at war with the evil organization Demon Card, and that his father (who he hasn't seen since he was a baby) is/was a major hero for the forces of Rave. Nothing too different from what one expects of a generic Japanese fantasy story....

I don't have a great memory of Rave, now that I think about it... just that the setting's aesthetic has something of a Final Fantasy VIII feel, with modern-looking clothes but overall "fantasy" dressing elsewhere, unlike the more Final Fantasy IV look of Fairy Tail (or I guess Xenosaga for EZ?). I remember Let and stuff, and some of the Rave and Dark Bring powers. It will be a decent journey to see a lot of things anew, as I "remember" in real-time as I continue reading. But for now... I'm not sure I can really say the manga starts too strong. I don't dislike anything in this volume, but I do feel the art is a bit rough, especially compared to what I see of Mashima's style today. With no Ellie, Griff, Musica, &c., it's hard to consider this to truly be Rave yet; this first volume just feels like a too-long first chapter, I'd say.

****

*totally forgot Haru's hometown is called Garage Island
*Plue as fish... or dog...?
*Nakajima
*Plue sharing the lollipop with Haru
*"Shabutaro"
*old man: "My name is Shiba."
**Haru: "Heh... more like 'Shriveled.'"
*Dark Bring vs. Rave
*"Overdrive"
*Demon Card
*Haru using "Explosion" in his fist
*Cattleya stabbing Haru's head with Plue's nose
*"King" as boss of Demon Card
*Gemma: "And that 'Lemon Soda' organization or whatever..."
*Nakajima: "How do I say this... As it stands right now, I cannot determine if the world will enter an era of peace... or if we are all doomed!"
**Garage Island is in the dark about Demon Card, while the rest of the world is at war
*Haru: "You've destroyed my house! (and Nakajima)! I won't let you get away with that!"
*Shiba pretending to sleep to let Haru fight
*"Full Metal" Dark Bring
*"Ten Powers" sword
**"Explosion"
**"Eisenmeteor"
*Haru: "Nakajima, since these two are already gone, let's take the rest of your petals off!!"
**Nakajima: "Th... That's INDECENT! And besides, these are feathers."
*Gemma knowing about Rave already, from Haru's father Gale
*omake saying Haru was originally conceived as an alchemist who can manipulate metal... like the future "Silver-Claimer" Musica, who will show up eventually
*omake saying Plue was conceived when Mashima was in middle school
**omake saying Plue can prevent injuries from progressing... which shows up in the actual manga shortly afterward with Gemma
*Haru throwing Plue
*Shuda's "Valsyar Flame" (or "Waltzer Flame," depending on what you're reading...)
*Haru's accuracy at hitting the Dark Bring stones of his first two opponents
*Shiba's face(s) when Ten Powers breaks
**Musica mentioned as "the legendary blacksmith" (meaning he arrives much sooner than I remember...)
*omake: Shiba's special skill: "will cry anywhere & everywhere"
*Haru: "I just can't let that happen."
*Plue trying to build a raft to the mainland
*Cattleya, to Nakajima: "Do you want to marry me?"
*omake: Gemma's gun is a "99 Magnum"
*omake: Nakajima's bloodtype is "N-Duck"
*the first Levin omake

[Nazish Ahmed (Nazish Reads) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have loved Hiro Mashima's other series, Fairy Tail for years and have known about this series for almost as long. So last year I decided to see if I could find reasonably priced vol. 1 and 2 and shockingly I did. I also found a DVD set of some of the anime episodes at the thrift store in May.

I don't know why it took me so long to finally start reading it.

I liked that it took some time to introduce some of the characters (I know some people might find this boring but I believe that sometimes it's important to get to know the characters before the story really begins). Also, our main character Haru, doesn't immediately decide to save the world because the most important person to him is his big sister, which I really like because so many times we see main characters who will easily jump in to save the world just because it's the right thing to do. Although, Ichigo from Bleach also didn't immediately try to save a stranger in the beginning. It just feels more like it's a big difficult decision than something on a whim.

While I was reading this book, I noticed that one of the enemies' power was called Full Metal and then in the character bio for Haru it said that in the beginning, Mashima wanted to make him an alchemist who could manipulate metal. At first I had thought that maybe it was an easter egg or something for Fullmetal Alchemist but apparently not because this book was first published in 1999, whereas the manga, Fullmetal Alchemist began serialization in 2001. I don't believe in coincidences but this is crazy. Then again, maybe I'm just reaching.

So far, I like the characters and am curious to see where the story goes.


Blog: nazreads.ca
Twitter: Naz_readsanime
Instagram: nazreads01, nazcosplay, nradesigns, charmedanimegirl01

[Yoda Bor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rave fait partie de ces mangas un peu old school, dans lesquels le héros se voit un jour gratifié d’une destinée hors du commun dans le genre sauvetage du monde, et qui y parvient grâce au pouvoir de l’amitié d’un groupe de copains qu’il se construit autour de lui.
Exactement dans le même genre il y a par exemple Fairy Tail, qui est également une œuvre de Hiro Mashima, mais Rave est plus ancien (et publié dans un sens de lecture français ce qui est assez perturbant).

Cette fois, le héros est Haru, un petit bonhomme sans rien de particulier qui vit tranquillement sur l’île Garage avec sa sœur Cattleya jusqu’à ce qu’il fasse la connaissance de Shiba et de son chien Plue.
Pourchassé par l’organisation Demon Card, le vieil homme transmet son pouvoir à Haru en lui expliquant qu’il doit désormais parcourir le monde pour détruire les Dark Bring à l’aide de sa nouvelle épée.

Le dessin n’est pas forcément des plus folichons, mais pour être honnête, quand on lit quelque chose après Bride Stories, rien ne peut atteindre le même niveau.

S’il n’a rien de fabuleusement original avec son héros orphelin qui a pour mission de sauver le monde, ce manga a pour lui d’être bien introduit et d’avoir pour l’instant des personnages attachants.
Haru est sympathique et il y a surtout Plue, cette adorable bestiole au genre indéterminé et au nez pointu qui ne sait dire que POON.

Du coup ça donne un mélange plutôt fun et frais, qui ne révolutionnera sans doute pas le shonen mais qui donne envie de lire la suite.

[Chalinviri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mmm ok vamo a ve si es posible desmenuzar esto.

Este manga es muy divertido, me gusto, lo disfrute, me reí y tiene historia, drama, un toque de romance y parece fuertemente influenciado por Akira Toriyama por las criaturas que viven en este mundo, así como toda la comedia visual es buenisima.

Esta es la historia de aventuras, donde el protagonista Haru, tiene como misión obtener las Rave que están esparcidas por todo el mundo, para convertirse en el Rave Master y proteger este mundo de su destrucción.

A su lado se encuentra Elie, Mujika(mi personaje favorito), Plue primero(porque hay muchos plues en los mangas del autor) y estos por mencionar algunos personajes, ya que poco a poco se van sumando más y más personajes, al punto que de momento se confunde uno con tanta gente alli.

El saber lo que es una Rave, y la conexión entre los protagonistas y las habilidades de cada uno, son de los misterios que conforme avanza la trama, vamos conociendo el trasfondo de esta serie.

Es muy interesante, quizá lo único negativo que puedo decir, es que hay demasiados personajes y muchas veces o no entran en el ruedo, o su participación es mínima y no nos dan la oportunidad de conocerlo.

Es un manga lleno de aventuras un misterio por resolver y la meta que engloba toda la serie y conecta con todos los personajes, vale la pena para un día relajado.

[MaddiE DawsoN · Rating 3 out of 5]

One cup of Dragon Ball and a spoonful of Berserk sword, blend them in and that’s when you get RAVE MASTER. In this world of manga there are powerful magical stones, each for the good and evil sides. The good guys need to destroy the bad guys if not the whole world would be subsumed into darkness. Similar to many mangas, we have yet another teenage protagonist, Haru who lives in a far off island happily with his sister. He catches PLUE, a pointy nose, “Puun” uttering dog-like cute creature when he’s fishing which basically kick starts the plot of good vs. evil. We see the author has derived many inspirations from Dragon Ball Manga and the readers can derive parallels in both plots and characterizations. Neither the story nor the characters are developed strongly, and the combat action doesn’t seem to help either. Although this manga is a smooth read for the genre-lovers, and has all the elements of intriguing storytelling, it doesn’t leave any ever lasting impression, reading in 2024.

[Rick Silva · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was full of charmingly odd translations. So there's a set of magical stones called Rave. And there is a series of evil magical stones called Dark Bring. The Dark Bring stones are controlled by an evil organization called Demon Card.

Enter, our hero, sixteen-year-old Haru Glory, resident of the an isolated community called Garage Island. When Haru catches a strange horned creature in the sea, he is set on a course that leads him to become the new controller of the Rave stone and wielder of the Rave-powered shapeshifting sword.

The story here is straightforward hero's journey, but the characters are pretty strong, there is some good tragic backstory going on, and the odd quirky details like the strange talking flower-being that lives attached to the wall of Haru's house really make the story shine.

This was more fun than I expected it to be, and I'm interested in seeing where it goes.

[Christina · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Stars. Really enjoyed Mashima’s Fairy Tail series, so decided to check out his first series. The drawing style here isn’t as detailed or appealing as his later work, but this was his first book. Good first volume, with a rather classic set up for a hero story, complete with call to action, refusal of call to action, and leaving the ordinary world for the extraordinary world.
Interesting to see a main character here who appears as a minor character in Fairy Tail. Seems like a nod to this series. Like Fairy Tail, this is a good vs. evil adventure story with the hero battling various adversaries along the way. Good imagination, and some foreshadowing. I’m hoping for a larger cast of characters, including some strong female characters, in the volumes to come. That’s one of the things I especially liked in FT.

[Emmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not entirely sure what I think of Rave Master yet. The series shows promise--enough to keep me reading, at least, but it also feels a bit amateurish. I'm guessing this was Mashima's first manga series. A lot of the "thoughts" and dialogue feel like filler. The story would feel tighter if the extra bits weren't included.

However, I'm intrigued by the plot. I'm curious to learn more about Rave and Dark Bring. And did I mention, Plue is pretty much the cutest thing ever?

Looks like there are quite a few volumes, so I should have plenty to read. Glad I finally got around to this one. When I was a kid and manga was just starting to appear on the library shelves, this was always one I had considered reading, but since my friends weren't reading it, I didn't either. Sounds so silly in hindsight.

[May · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remember Rave Master being on the shelves of the library when I was a kid and, for some reason, I never picked it up and would just reread Peach Girl or Ceres: Celestial Legend for some reason.
I more or less forgot about its existence.

Until I was reading Fairy Tail and discovered that the 'snowman' appeared in it, which lead me to recall that it appeared on the cover of a manga I had brushed over.
A quick search found that both RAVE and Fairy Tail are by the same author - and that the first three volumes of RAVE were free on Amazon Japan's Kindle store.

I actually enjoyed this more than Fairy Tail, which was surprising, but that maybe because the level of Japanese is more basic and the story is, so far, less involved.

[Subham · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun read and we pick up with another fantasy land named Garage Island with a boy named Haru Glory when he is suddenly met by this old guy named Shiba who tells him of the "Raves" and hw there is an evil organization called "Demon Card" and how they wanna use the power of Dark Bring to destroy the world but when trouble hits home and it affects his sister Cattleya he has to become the next Rave master and I love the fights he had with two members of DEMON CARD and its spectacular and that sword is awesome haha. And we learn more about their father Gale and how there is a bigger mystery here and so Haru and his pet Plue set out on their journey to find the 4 Rave stones and defeat Demon Card!!

[Ultan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've always been a big fan of the anime and manga Fairy Tail, so when I found out Hiro Mashima wrote another Manga before Fairy Tail I had to check it out for myself. I found the artstyle cool and the way the characters remind me of some characters from Fairy Tail. I think Haru as a character is pretty similar to Natsu in design and slightly similar in terms of his personality. I will definitely be checking out more volumes in the manga series as I bought the entire collection from a Humble Bundle some months ago. The plot so far seems pretty good, so expecting good things from this manga.

[Taylor Burke · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this series back in middle school and never actually completed it. I had no recollection of what the series is actually like, only that I remembered it fondly. With respect to my nostalgia and past-self, I will go no further on reading this.

It wasn't horrible. Just not super easy to read. Honestly it seems like it was translated poorly from the original work. Other than visual gags it just kinda falls flat. I think the faux depth is the hardest part for me to get past. The story is shallow, characters are simply and archetypal, I would rather not keep bashing it but I simply have very little nice to say about it. Fond memories aside, I can't see myself enjoying this series again.

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

The toughest thing about reading this is that it predates Fairy Tail. Having seen what Hiro Mashima will do in the future, it's tough to see his origins as they are much less refined. But that does not mean this is not an interesting story...but just one volume in I am pretty sure I won't love it as much as I loved reading Fairy Tail. Still...Mashima has earned my trust, and I will give this series a try. The story revolves around Haru Glory (a 16-year-old who lives a peaceful life on an island) until his life is turned upside down and revelations like where his dad has been these past 15 years all surface!