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.
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.
We are reaching the beginning of the first huge arc of Rave Master and it all centers around Elie. If anyone seen the anime this is also the last 7 episodes of season 1. It is such an amazing arc!
The story has kicked into manga overdrive. Lots of mysteries all over the place. Hints that Haru Glory's dad is maybe in Demon Card. Finally some clues about who Elie might be. The former is more likely to be a red herring, the latter seems to pretty strongly be true. This volume is dominated by a fight scene that's been coming since the first volume. But Mashima also gave the side characters (both protagonist and antagonist) their own battle while the main one was raging on. All of the Demon Card enemies have special powers and one of the goons can shoot glue out of an eyeball-looking thing on his head. Which led to this...
Yeah.....
Now, lots of manga-ka start off by doing Hentai Fan Fiction and often end up doing fan service-y poses from those days in their more respectable work, so maybe that explains that.
Of course, like any good manga/anime, there's the beach chapter/episode. Rave Master is no exception.
The Japanese have way more onomatopoeia than we do. While American comics have the stereo-typical "wham", "bam" and "kapow!" - manga is littered with onomatopoeia all over the place. Sometimes it's translated (like when Tokyo Pop was translating Sailor Moon and translated the sound of typing as "katcha katcha"), but most of the time it's left in Japanese. Here's an example:
The main panel on the right has the onomatopoeia for his sword being slammed down (or maybe it's the whooshing sound of a fast-moving sword?) and the top panel has what I'm guessing is a "gasp", but it might be some other surprise onomatopoeia.
I don't often get many comments on my reviews, but if anyone out there knows Japanese, maybe they can solve this absurd riddle. What the eff is the onomatopoeia for breasts?
This one picks up where volume 4 left off. Haru has just received the Rave of Knowledge. This volume follows Haru through his battle against Shuda all the way to Experiment, the largest city on Sonic Continent. We also get to meet General Reina finally, as well as finding out who the mystery man is that attacked Elie way back before she met Haru. The volume ends with Elie having flashbacks, and a creepy fortune teller giving some REALLY bad news to Haru.
This story is really starting to pick up. While I'm still not crazy about the art style, I do like some of the new work. Especially in the Kings stronghold. Plus I am really getting intrigued by Elie's back story, and I can't wait to find out more.
The story is starting to take on a more serious tone as well. (especially when it comes to Elie) but the characters are still fun and have their utterly random moments. Who would have thought Griff was the leader of a biker gang? (He drives a horse cart for goodness sake! And he's sooo jelloey!)
Plus there's another Rave 0077 episode at the end. Still trying to figure out who Levin's parents are. Think I know, but then again, the author has fooled me with his plot twists before. Otherwise there's not too many extras at the end, but I'm really intrigued by where the story is going and can't wait to find out more about Elie.
Hiro Mashima really knows how to cook! It has taken 5 volumes, but I feel the story is truly ramping up and each volume there are more revelations wrapped in even more mysteries. It is fun, and unpredictable (at least for me) which is the perfect way to keep me steadily reading and at an alarmingly high rate. My daughter (12) continues to read at three times my speed, consuming so much quicker than me, but it makes for good discussions. This volume has a few theories batting around our household. Solid volume as the art continues to slowly improve. (Not that it never didn't look good but the polished look of Fairy Tail hasn't been reached yet.)
Arc Raphsodia berakhir. Sekarang mulai mengalir ke masa lalu Elie. Mashima sensei mulai berhasil menjaga alur cerita dengan baik memadumadankan drama dan komedi khas shounen manga.
There’s just something about sieg. Rip Shuda, kind of hardcore to cut your own arm off to fall to your death. I think we all could tell that Elie was somehow connected to Resha.
With the introduction of Reina, Mashima gets a bit closer to what he may be most notable for in his later works: hips and tits. And pretty lewd armpits, too, if you're into that sort of thing.
Anyway, Haru gains the power of the Rave of Wisdom and the ability to use Silfarion, the Sonic Sword, which allows Haru to move very fast. The sword itself is apparently somewhat weak, but makes up in its speed, but I'm not sure what exactly this is supposed to mean when Explosion is incapable of actually cutting and instead focuses on its magic explosions, so there isn't exactly a standard set for normal sword attacks for the Ten Commandments (or "Ten Powers," as TokyoPop has been calling it).
Much of this volume focuses on the battle with Shuda, who apparently knew Gale Glory in the past. Shuda's Dark Bring, Ballettänzer Zeffrea, allows him to generate explosions in any space to which he knows the coordinates (it's assumed he can easily calculate the coordinates of any location, but I don't think it's necessarily stated that the DB gives him the ability in addition to its explosive power). What's somewhat odd is... you'd think Shuda's explosion power would be pit against Haru's Explosion sword for an explode-off, but instead he just keeps sniping Haru as the Rave Master tries to rush toward Shuda to hit him directly. It actually takes quite some time before Haru decides to use Silfarion again, by the way. Not sure what's up with that.
After Shuda's defeat, he has a change of heart, and develops a respect for Haru not unlike his respect for Gale. But his defeat also angers King, leader of Demon Card, who tries to send another member of "Oracion Six" after Haru. After some arguing, it is decided Sieg Hart must take the job (whom we've seen previously as the Elemental Master who struck Elie with lightning in the recent past), so he sets out to the city of Experiment in pursuit of the heroes... but really just in pursuit of "Woman 3173" ("ELIE" upside-down!). Reina, with her tits and pits and hips, is sent alongside Sieg to make sure he does the job. Haru, Elie, and Musica visit the Symphonia Museum to kill time in their peaceful respite between battles, during which time Elie wanders off and sees a painting that appears to be of her but is named "Resha Valentine," meanwhile a random fortuneteller gives Haru foreboding news of the woman he travels with being endangered by his association, and Sieg tells Reina about Elie's magic power, Etherion, capable of disrupting Time.
One of Shuda's goons is revealed to be a cyborg, and I just noticed he has a Cloud Strife spike in his hair. Shuda operates an airship. More Final Fantasy vibes. Smaller aircraft resemble jets, which is a bit different, and helps to expand the manga's lore toward a more "unique" direction.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
So this one picks up where volume 4 left off. Haru has just received the Rave of Knowledge. This volume follows Haru through his battle against Shuda all the way to Experiment, the largest city on Sonic Continent. We also get to meet General Reina finally, as well as finding out who the mystery man is that attacked Elie way back before she met Haru. The volume ends with Elie having flashbacks, and a creepy fortune teller giving some REALLY bad news to Haru.
This story is really starting to pick up. While I’m still not crazy about the art style, I do like some of the new work. Especially in the Kings stronghold. Plus I am really getting intrigued by Elie’s back story, and I can’t wait to find out more. The story is starting to take on a more serious tone as well. (especially when it comes to Elie) but the characters are still fun and have their utterly random moments. Who would have thought Griff was the leader of a biker gang? (He drives a horse cart for goodness sake! And he’s sooo jelloey!) Plus there’s another Rave 0077 episode at the end. Still trying to figure out who Levin’s parents are. Think I know, but then again, the author has fooled me with his plot twists before. Otherwise there’s not too many extras at the end, but I’m really intrigued by where the story is going and can’t wait to find out more about Elie.
Quinto tomo de éste repaso de Rave, y tengo que confesar que empieza a perder parte del empuje de sus estupendos primeros tres tomos. Supongo que el autor no esperaba tener una obra de cierta duración, así que hasta el momento no tenía que dilatar para nada las tramas. Ahora ya lo hace.
La muestra de ésta dilatación es el medio tomo que nos pegamos en el combate entre el protagonista y su mayor antagonista hasta el momento. Un Shuda que parece tener relación con el padre de Haru (el prota) y que presenta una batalla más que interesante.
Y luego medio tomo más para que veamos que hay unos cuantos personajes del nivel de Shuda dentro de la organización de las Drak Bring, y que su líder, en un alarde de originalidad se hace llamar King. Personajes molones y poco más. Bueno, tenemos a Siegheart, el mago que está relacionado con Ellie y que parece querer acabar con ella a toda costa; el motivo? Una magia que aparentemente posee la chica y que puede poner en peligro el mundo entero.
Sigue siendo un manga divertido, con una trama interesante y perfecto exponente de lo que debe ser un shonen, pero empieza a caer (poco) en los errores comunes de éste género: estirar las tramas y presentar combates largos (que medio tomo tampoco es tanto).
A mí me gusta, y pese a un dibujo menos pulido (aunque va mejorando) me sigue pareciendo mejor que Fairy Tail.
Ah, so it isn't just Demon Card that's after our intrepid band. Haru, Plue, and the crowd are on the verge of finding the second rave, but an they do it before Demon Card do so? And are we ever going to find out anything about Elie's past? Read on! ****
Raina and Seighart. 2 characters introduced this volume and powerhouses with complicated backstories. Not to mention there motivations. Lets not forget that Lady Reisha mention.
Well balanced, appropriately paced, good translation and all in all action paced comedic fun which furthered the story significantly.
Its quite enjoyable to see the Author take the time to even draw Organisational Charts showing the rankings of some of the higher Demon Card members (or Leaders) and some good glimpses of two of the Oration Six members as well.
I'm particularly glad that Elie or 3173 (which is quite genius!!! I must add) has a kickoff to her backstory and of course has a darn interesting capability in her past - making her an equally fascinating target and character in the storyline.
SO MUCH WIN in this Volume. Thank you Hiro Mashima !!!