Rave Master, Vol. 02

Rave Master #2

by Hiro Mashima

With the help of the legendary sword Ten Powers and his guide, the dog Plue, sixteen-year-old Haru Glory sets out to find the five missing RAVE stones and stop the evil Demon Card society from destroying the world.

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

192 pages, Paperback

First published December 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 was another fun installment. We got to meet two of our new characters, Elie and Musica. Also got to see more of the world starting with Hip Hop Town.

[Nanang Stiawan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Volume awal2 yang sangat nostalgia. Pipi tembem Haru lucu bgt.

[Eric Mesa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nobody does comics storytelling like the Japanese. Some 400 pages in we're still meeting new characters and we haven't really gone anywhere story-wise. Plotwise it's a pretty standard journey plot a la Journey to the West, Dragonball, or even Pokemon. Haru, our main character, is battling foes with nonsensical magic/karate and joining up with other youths who have other insane powers. This volume introduces us to Ellie, a typical tsundere heroine who leaves destruction in her wake. Overall it's fun, but we'll see how it goes since it's looking like the plot itself probably isn't going to matter as much as the journey.

[Armando Hernández · Rating 4 out of 5]

This volume was much better than the last one, I like Ellie a lot is a character out of the common and the Musicas characters are good both of them the blacksmith and the gang leader, also the villans on this volume are awesome the fight with the guy with the smoke hability was short but the second one the one with the beast sword is getting interesting.

[Paul Spence · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Rave Master Volume 2" is when Hiro Mashima starts to form an actual storyline, despite a wealth of the Ordinary Boy Gets Strange Powers/Big Sword And Sets Out To Save The World cliches. He also starts introducing a supporting cast -- including a love interest -- and some slightly more menacing bad guys who promise to make Haru's journey a pretty unpleasant one.

Haru and Plue make it to Hip Hop City (I am not kidding), where Plue's gluttony causes trouble -- he ends up in a vicious dog race full of deadly traps. While trying to rescue him, Haru encounters a young girl named Elie who's bet all her money on Plue's success so she can escape the city. But unfortunately the new Rave Master has gotten the attention of the local Demon Card kingpin Georco -- and his only chance of escaping in one piece may lie with Elie.

Then it's back to the big problem: getting Haru's sword fixed by the great blacksmith Musica. But their search turns up two different Musicas, both claiming to be the only one -- one is an alcoholic old man, and the other is the punky young leader of the Silver Rhythm Gang. Unfortunately, that gets them the attention of ANOTHER Demon Card member, and this one makes Georco look like a featherweight.

It's pretty much a requirement in a manga like this one that there be a love interest -- in this case it's Elie, a very enthusiastic gambler who can't remember anything about her past. Woo, lots of potential in that. And Mashima also introduces the "Han Solo" of this series -- a flirtatious, hard-fighting young man with a special talent with silver. Of the three main characters thus far (not including Plue) he's the most intriguing.

Haru is still rather underfleshed -- he's a manga hero archetype outline that hasn't been colored in yet, but he's slowly growing beyond the "my sister told me" boy from the sticks. As for Plue... well, he'll never make it in dog races.

And after a glacial first volume, Mashima's main plot is picking up steam -- everything is moving faster and more smoothly. It hasn't quite broken free of the overhanging genre cliches (big swords with powers! Little magical talismans! Hero triumphing from sheer guts!), but Mashima is starting to handle them with more confidence and flair -- and the fight scenes are starting to become a lot more interesting, especially since the Dark Bring powers are getting a lot flashier.

And at the same time, he seems to be injecting more successful humor that doesn't center on Plue -- Elie's casually destructive ways, her belief that Plue is a bug, and Musica's unsuccessful attempts at flirting. Some of it does fall flat, though -- Georco is just an embarrassment as a bad guy. Seriously, what's with the ridiculous "hip hop bishop" outfit?

"Rave Master Volume 2" shows a gradual upswing in Hiro Mashima's action manga, especially with the introduction of two promising characters. Makes it worth checking out what happens in number three.

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

This is darker than his future series, Fairy Tail (although I've only seen the anime upto the one year time skip, so I don't know what happens after that). We're only in vol. 2 and already we see a young child murdered and it's not off screen either. I was not expecting that. It's not Bleach TYBW levels of dark, but still dark. It's interesting to see Mashima's writing and art style before his most popular series, Fairy Tail. I wonder if I will end up liking this series more, I don’t think so, but you never know.
For once, I don’t have many guesses on where the story is going, I have a few small guesses, but that's about it.

I don't know if I will buy the remaining 33 volumes in this series (I bought vol. 1 and 2 second hand a few years ago for a very reasonable price, not sure if I'll be as lucky for the other volumes) or just read them online and hope that Kodansha reprints them one day. I know that Tokyo Pop had the North American license but Kodansha owned the Japanese rights and they probably still do. But knowing how much cowards they are when it comes to licensing series in physical in English, I don’t have my hopes up☹️


Blog: nazreads.ca
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[Alessandro Parisi]

Plue viene rapito da un demon card e lo fanno gareggiare ad una gara di cani. Haru conosce Elie, una ragazza ludopatica, che gli racconta degli abusi che i demon card attuano nei confronti della città.

Durante la corsa Haru fronteggia il signor Georco e Elie sfoga la sua collera per i problemi avvenuti durante la gara.
Elie e Haru vanno alla ricerca di black Smith Musica, un fabbro.
Elie racconta di aver perso la memoria e viaggiando potrebbe recuperare qualche ricordo.

Haru lascia la spada a Musica, il quale gliela ruba. Il fabbro Musica infatti ormai si sente solo un ubriacone fallito, ormai succube dei Demon Card.
Haru poi incontra un altro Musica, un ragazzino guerriero, e insieme a lui ed Elie, iniziano una scazzottata con un gruppo di demon card.

Lance dalla spada bestiale, un demon card malfamato, rapisce Elie. L'uomo infatti ambisce a prendere il Rave Master di Haru.

Haru convince il fabbro Musica a riparare la spada mentre Musica, il ragazzino, sconfigge due sottoposti di Lance ma viene poi messo alle strette.
Qui interviene Haru con la nuova spada forgiata, ma lance è un nemico forte e può evocare spiriti facilmente.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

the story line and art work get progressively better, and the style of the story in gripping. it's different to what I have read for manga and it's a shame knowing the story was cancelled. the volumes only go up to 32, but it's still a good read

[Shin Donghae · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hiro Mashima sensei berhasil memperbaiki tutur serta alur berceritanya yang mulai agak stabil tdk seperti volume pertama. Utk artwork belum terlalu banyak perubahan. Jika di jilid I ada Cattelya, maka Mashima sensei memunculkan heroine pengganti pada diri Ellie.

[Elinor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bah c'est toujours très sympa, vieillot mais ça a son charme.

[Kurtis Burkhardt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty great manga:) Pretty similar to fairy tail, It’s by the same author, If you love fairy tail you’ll most likely love this^.^🤔👌❤️

[Kat R · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really like the new crazy characters.

[Edvard · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's still not brilliant, nor as funny as Dragon Ball, but it's entertaining and Plue is adorable..

[Nick galtman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun read

Good book. A little slower than vol. 1 but still fun to read. This edition introduces new characters and interesting plot design.

[Muhammad Rajab Al-mukarrom · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was getting more interesting.

[Jackson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Son 3.5 estrellas, tal vez un poco más. Aparecieron nuevos personajes, por lo que la historia poco a poco se va formando.

[Manmangaboy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Our main crew is mainly introduced ( lol ) we expand the world from Harus Island to a main continent

[Asia Lewis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ok I like this vol much better. It’s starting to pick up. We’ve met two new people musics and Elie. I can’t wait to continue reading the series.

[Josemo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not for me, tho.

[K · Rating 4 out of 5]

Elie we are starting off strong with you being one of my favorite female manga characters. I really hope you don’t fall into a trope! Please please please as Sabrina would say

[M Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a rereading for me. I never finished the series. Loved the series!!

[Brandon · Rating 3 out of 5]

My memory of Rave is slightly fucked up, as I could have sworn Georco was like the first enemy Haru faces, and that Elie was thus introduced a little earlier, instead of both happening in Volume 2. I can remember seeing commercials of the English dub of Rave Master featuring Georco, and/or episodes re-running with some frequency, as I can picture him in full color (as is common for anime...) better than any other villain I can remember. Oddly, I don't remember him being as short as he is in the manga....

Georco isn't too interesting as a minor antagonist, and Lance is kinda generic himself (on top of not being developed too much, with this volume ending just as Haru's fight against him begins), so this volume is mostly carried by Elie and both Musicas, at least as far as new characters go. It'll be quite some time before Elie gets her memory restored, but for now she's an adequate heroine, since she's mostly just along for the adventure, and the "party" isn't large enough that she would feel like "dead weight" or anything. The greatest boon about the manga form is that I don't have to hear her ear-raping yodeling when firing her tonfa blasters, as happens in the anime, or at least in the English dub (which I can only hope was based on something the actress would do in the original Japanese, otherwise it would be even dumber...). I recall the younger Musica's hair being spikier, rather than being a straightforward ripoff of Squall from Final Fantasy VIII (which I feel is a huge aesthetic influence on this manga), so I'm interested in seeing how long it takes for him to get a haircut, as I don't remember the transition at all. I'm also surprised we haven't yet gotten to see "Silver-Claiming," which I guess means Mashima took his time more than I thought, and/or so much of my wilted memory of this series is based deeper into the center of its run.

I was feeling nostalgic earlier this year for shit like the original The Fast and the Furious and the hip-hop scene around that time, so it's fun to see how a similar aesthetic thrives within this manga. But it's a bit less-fun that the English translation keeps using slang from that era, as a lot of it feels more like TokyoPop's translators taking the piss, rather than being true to Mashima's text. I think it's less "nostalgia for Rave" propelling me forward, than it is "nostalgia for the 'bling' era." I like how this volume shows us a bit more of the world by giving us our first big city, but I feel like we're still in the episodic "villain of the week" phase, and the Dark Bring users we've met so far aren't really as fascinating as I might like them to be. I compared the manga to a JRPG in my review for Volume 1, and it holds true here as well, with Georco and Lance being more fodder boss fights to eat time and allow the heroes to level-up while more of the lore is established, before we get deeper into the real story.

[Aimeekay · Rating 3 out of 5]

So in this volume of Rave Master Haru travels in search of the blacksmith Musica to fix his 10 powers blade. He leaves home and his sister behind and sets sail on a raft with Plue. In the first four chapters he arrives at the town of Hip Hop and someone dog-naps blue. Because of the dog-napping he ends up encountering Georco, from the Demon Card, and Elie a girl who has lost her memory. (a side note on Elie, there is a scene near the end of the one chapter that seems to hint at who she really might be...at least I think it does. Can't wait to find out if I am right) The last five chapters are focused on Elie and Haru as they travel to Punk Street, another town, and searching for Musica. However there is more than one Musica in Punk Street, there are also more Demon Card to deal with.

So far I'm still interested in this series. While it is cartoony, it isn't poorly drawn. There are also a lot of over the top parts that are extremely funny. I really like Plue and think he is adorable. (even though the only thing he says is Puun) I also like Elie. She always has some highly amusing lines, and I love her obsession with shooting everything. I like Haru, he's sweet, always wanting to help people, I just happen to like Plue and Elie more.

One of the things that I thought was kinda annoying though in this volume was Georco. He is the boss from Demon Card that is in control of Hip Hop Town. Every sentence he speaks seems to end with Dawg. Plus the author made sure to throw in some extras like Hiz-ouse and G, which I'm assuming they did to make Georco sound more rapper. It just got old really quick. By the end I was quite glad to see Haru defeat him, if only so I wouldn't have to read another one of his ridiculous lines.

The boss in Punk Street didn't seem half as annoying. While his second in command is stylized to be obviously "punk", with his tattoos, and peircings, and semi-shaved head. At least every other word out of his mouth wasn't dawg. Lance himself seems a bit obsessed with killing....but it wasn't to the point of getting on my nerves.

The only other thing that was kind of a drag was the fact that this volume ends on a cliff hanger. Not my favorite ending for any kind of book, be it illustrated or not. It's not just the typical, ok Haru must travel to the next spot to find a Rave or anything either. It actually ends in the middle of a battle. Fortunately for me I have book 3 handy so it's not like I need to wait to find out what happens.

[Andrés · Rating 3 out of 5]

Uno de esos mangas que leo sin tener demasiado en cuenta, una buena forma de pasar el rato pero que de alguna forma no ha terminado de conquistarme, considerando que Hiro Mashima es uno de mis autores de manga favoritos. Este segundo tomo mantiene algo de lo que me gustó de su trabajo, pero aún no tiene esos elementos que terminen de convencerme.
La historia continúa donde quedó el anterior tomo, retomando las aventuras de Haru Glory, esta vez en el continente. El choque cultural de un chico de un lugar pequeño en la gran ciudad es parte de la trama de la historia, que pronto nos lleva a un estadio de carreras de perro. Aquí es donde aparece nuestra co-protagonsta al fin. Elie dista mucho de los personajes de Lucy y Rebecca, aunque puede que sea por ser la primera protagonista de Mashima. Su personalidad es mucho más violenta y volatil, tiene un toque de masculinidad que la hace sentir refrescante, a pesar de que la historia tenga sus años.
La química entre Haru y Elie es palpable, y no me refiero a algo romántico, sino como ambos combinan de una forma extraña, con Haru siendo este chico de buen corazón pero aun algo inocente y Elie tiene todos los vicios posibles, como disparar sin querer a la menor provocación o su gusto pos las apuestas. La historia también presenta a un tercer personaje importante: Musica, pero no se explora demasiado, dejando eso en suspenso para el siguiente tomo.
El arte del manga si es algo débil, se nota que es algo que Mashima pulió con los años. A ratos los fondos carecen de detalle, cosa que Mashima sabe construir muy bien, dándonos lugares interesantes donde los protagonistas se mueven. Las escenas de acción no son tan fluídas y emocionantes como me gustan, sobre todo sabiendo lo bueno que es Mashima con ellas.
Rave Master Vol. 2 es una historia divertida para pasar el rato pero espero que los siguientes tomos consigan hacerme enamorarme de la historia de la forma en que me hizo enamorarme de Fairy Tail.

[Vicenç Sanz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Qué mala es la nostalgia, hace que cojas un manga que tenías olvidado y leíste en su momento y, al empezarlo de nuevo, no puedas evitar leer, y leer, y seguir leyendo… Y eso que es un comic objetivamente bastante normalito, con la única particularidad de tener un poco de esa magia que hace que una obra perdure en el recuerdo.

Éste segundo tomo ya nos deja a Haru y Plue en plena aventura, buscando a un herrero que les arregle la espada rota mientras ven cómo la asociación que usa a las Dark Bring está controlando poco a poco el mundo exterior a su isla.

En ésta ocasión tenemos una primera aventura que nos sirve para presentar al personaje de Ellie (cuyo diseño copiaría el mismo autor en su obra Fairy Tail), una chica con amnesia y dos tonfa que disparan cual metralleta. El personaje está bien, se esboza un poco con su locura y enseguida queda como parte del grupo.

Y luego está la primera historia que apunta a ser medio larga (un tomito o poco más) y no es otra que la de encontrar al herrero Música. Es una trama que presentará a un par de personajes interesantes (con su trasfondo dramático), además de al primer sub villano de entidad, uno de esos malos malísimos que parecen imposibles de derrotar y luego resulta que no son nadie dentro de la organización.

En general sigo pensando que éste manga desprende un aroma a aventura muy agradable, con humor bien insertado y una idea en la cabeza de hacia dónde se dirige todo. Me gusta.

[Robert Beveridge · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hiro Mashima, Rave Master, vol. 2 (Tokyopop, 1999)

Mashima goes over the top with the silly dialogue in book 2, depositing Haru and Plue in Hip-Hop Town on the mainland, with all the horrible dialect one would expect. Thankfully, they escape the town and keep heading for Punk Street, where Haru's first quest will commence, not too far into the volume. Every hero needs a band of sidekicks (at least in the world of manga), and we meet a few likely candidates here; who's just a transient, but fun, minor character and who goes on? (Actually, reading the preview at the end of Vol. 1 will tell you that-- so don't until later.) Series slips a bit in this volume, but still not bad. ***

[Jody · Rating 4 out of 5]

This 2nd volume was much better than the first!

I found that the wit, along with the action, worked perfect in this book compared to the first. I also found that the story seemed much more planned out, and it wasn't near as confusing as the first. It was more structured and more organized, however, the cover art is very misleading.

[Raeesa · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second volume of this series was much better than the first I personally think so at least. We introduced to new characters -Elie- she really likes gambling and well she has good luck and Musica (a blacksmith and there's also a young one who's the leader of a gang).

It's kinda tough to review these stories as you feel like you might give too much away, oh well it's good enjoy

[May Fisher-Guest · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm enjoying this so far, and Musica seems like a super cool character, but I'm pretty annoyed by the fact that Ellie seems to only exist so far to be a damsel in distress.
Otherwise, I'm enjoying it, it's easy to read and all, it's just the lack of strong female character that leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

[Skylar Yarbro · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved it it was soo exciting