Rave Master

Zephray

Rave Master, anyone?

I've been rereading it lately. I owned all of the Tokyopop published volumes, but never actually finished it online when they stopped publishing. I'm in volume 12 now. Hoping I'll be caught up in time for the omnibus release in May.

Its pretty good. I definitely enjoy it. Went out and bought the gba game (wish I could find the first japanese gba game to buy online, because the american version was the second japanese one) and dug the gamecube game out of storage. They're entertaining, but I wish Rave would've blown up a bit more in America. I'm a fan of merchandise.

The final three volumes will be published in May:
http://www.rightstuf.com/1-800-338-6827/catalogmgr/7PFaQP1XwGzxJBxv9C/browse/item/91091/4/0/0

Anyone else waiting for this?

GEPPETTOSMONSTER

the final 3 volumes are awesome.

JERK DISEASE

One of the worst comics ever. So bad this thread should be closed.

Kylor

@JERK:

One of the worst comics ever. So bad this thread should be closed.

Eh, it's better than that nonsense Fairy Tail.

That's hardly a compliment, though.

GEPPETTOSMONSTER

Rave Master isn't that bad, granted it's mediocre as all hell but no where near the levels of BLEACH and SWOT.

Kylor

I admit, I read this back before I knew what good manga was.

I was young back then.

BarrelCrate

Eh Fairy Tail is definitely more entertaining than this..

JERK DISEASE

@GEPPETTOSMONSTER:

Rave Master isn't that bad, granted it's mediocre as all hell but no where near the levels of BLEACH and SWOT.

Bleach is only more boring, its a thousand times better in every other way.

And Rave is more exciting because of how terrible it is mind you.

GEPPETTOSMONSTER

I still find RM superior to FT

THE SEA

@Kylor:

I admit, I read this back before I knew what good manga was.

I was young back then.

Same here.
But then in 7th grade I began to feel embarrassed reading it.

GEPPETTOSMONSTER

@JERK:

Bleach is only more boring, its a thousand times better in every other way.

And Rave is more exciting because of how terrible it is mind you.

The battles in Rave actually felt like they flowed granted once it get's past volume 11 before that the action felt ""robotic"" for lack of better words. Most of the fights in bleach are a bunch of kapow and bang.

Storywise bleach did kinda have it over Rave but if you re-read the Soul Society arc it was terribly obvious that kubo was making it up as he went along. We as readers had no idea he was doing that so at the time it looked like it was well thought out.

Comedy Rave is better

and Drama Rave is better.

Bill

@JERK:

One of the worst comics ever. So bad this thread should be closed.

I think what killed it for me was how mind-numbingly unoriginal, cliched it was. It's not as bad as say _Apocalypse Zero(_Which is a mess of storytelling)

I think it's somewhat a quarter okay, not good; but half okay in the middle part. I wouldn't really put it up with 'one of the worst.'

Storywise bleach did kinda have it over Rave but if you re-read the Soul Society arc it was terribly obvious that kubo was making it up as he went along. We as readers had no idea he was doing that so at the time it looked like it was well thought out.

Soul Society arc was boring. It wasn't well thought out as many like to make it out to be, really.

GEPPETTOSMONSTER

Rave is a poor mans One Piece no doubt

Bill

@GEPPETTOSMONSTER:

Rave is a poor mans One Piece no doubt

Fairy Tail.

Anyway, it's doubtful Mashima was influenced by Oda, if anything both authors were just influenced by the same things and its merely coincidental. I'd say Mashima is more influenced by Dragonball.

Fairy Tail is perhaps what One Piece would have became if Oda wrongly followed Dragon Ball's formula to the T. In contrast to One Piece
Fairy Tail has retarded ends to fights, terrible world-building, no sense of an overarching story and adequately soulless battles. Worst enough, the designs and art are mind-numbingly bland and soulless; he lacks Oda's attention detail to his visual world that I love so much.

Reminds me of current Bleach only with backgrounds.

THE SEA

Who cares about Rave.
Bury the shit.

WarshipArc

A couple monthes back I started reading this on a whim but I stopped about a hundred chapters in because it was so damn boring. I don't regret reading it though, because it finally answered my curiosity of what it would be like if you removed the game aspect of a JRPG.

Kotoro

I remember watching this in middle school. I don't actually remember what it was about. I think I ended up missing a few episodes and giving up.
That was back when the anime I saw was limited to what was on US TV, which made everything seem a little better than it was.

THE SEA

@JERK:

One of the worst comics ever. So bad this thread should be closed.

@JERK:

Bleach is only more boring, its a thousand times better in every other way.

And Rave is more exciting because of how terrible it is mind you.

These manga look like gods compared to Lotte's Toy.

Robby

Reel Big Fish did a catchy theme song for the american broadcast version of the anime.

That's the only redeeming feature of the series.

dirt monkey AL

get to bed, mister

firecrouch · Blog last updated 01/31/2013:

I remember to talking to editors at TokyoPop and asking them what they thought of the dub and they said they all hated it. Stu Levy doesn't know what he's doing.

I remember reading the first volume back in high school, wasn't bad. My best friend loved Rave and GTO back then, I wonder what he'd think of Rave now.

Kylor

@RobbyBevard:

Reel Big Fish did a catchy theme song for the american broadcast version of the anime.

That's the only redeeming feature of the series.

QUEST FOR GLORY! Check out the latest! Powers that we own this is a HERO'S STORY! To be the GREEEEEATEST the world has ever known!

firecrouch · Blog last updated 01/31/2013:

That song was one of the things I remember about that show that made me dislike it.

No Maam

@RobbyBevard:

Reel Big Fish did a catchy theme song for the american broadcast version of the anime.

That's the only redeeming feature of the series.

What ? And what about Reevil ? :sad:

Retro

And now for an un-douchey opinion of the series.

A great series, I'll admit its pretty average but its worth reading if not for the adventure tone of it. It really picks up speed in the middle of the series (if I had to guess I'd say right after Lucia's reveal as the next big bad).

The anime though, way too slow. They really paced it horribly that its not hard to lose interest in it and the last ep ends right in the middle of story, no made up ending or anything WTF?

The dub didn't help matters: script changes, shoddy editing and really really sub-par voice acting if not flat out horrible. (I can see why Tom Kenny doesn't do too many anime roles). Its a miracle they even manged to finish it. Indeed the only thing good that came out of it was the theme and ending song which sounded like the only thing putting an effort into it.

Still now that the manga finished, I wouldn't mind see another attempt at an anime. FT seem to learn from Rave's mistake and kept their story at a decent pace, would work well for Rave.

Tokoro Ataru

Sort of a guilty pleasure series for me. Cliche, yes. Ridiculous, definitely. But somehow I still like Mashima's attempt to create all sorts of weird stuff in characters and powers and such and it does pick up a bit from probably the King arc onwards. Sure I like a lot of similar series more in some of the weirdness (OP, Flame of Recca, Ueki), but I can't hate this series.

Senshi Mizaka

I sorta enjoyed this series, but stopped at around 200 chapters after discovering better ones. It's nothing special, but still entertaining even if it's your run-of-the-mill shonen manga. The random, wackiness of it all seemed like the poor man's Dr. Slump, but still got a few chuckles out of me. The characters were a bit bland, too, but there were a few times when I enjoyed their chemistry and interactions, especially everything with Haru's father.

Still, I think Mashima has really improved, both as an artist and writer. Fairy Tail is actually one of my favorite mangas right now, even if it looks like he's ripping off One Piece.

GEPPETTOSMONSTER

As an artist mashima has improved BIG TIME. Look at the first fights in Rave hell even Haru vs. Let looks very robotic, than look at the fights at the end you can see fluid movement.

As a story writer I believe RAVE was over all written better, sure Haru was a powerfull character but he knew when to backdown from a fight, he knew when to retreat and when it was appropriate to attack. Natsu just knows that he can attack, attack and attack an usually always wins.

Malintex_Terek

I tried watching it but it bored me. My impression was it was shounen for really little kids. Why's it called terrible?

Zephray

Overall storywise, I think he took a step DOWN with FT. His art is better, but I felt more entertained by Rave than FT. I like the characters and each of their pasts. Granted, you can tell he's making up the story as he goes along, but I think the end result actually turned out well. Maybe not as well as if he would've came up with the whole storyline at once though. He would've been able to plan and plot things better. Having only read the first hundred or so chapters of FT, Mashima hadn't made an overall storyline in the slightest. There was no goal or mysteries, only silly story arc after silly story arc. (I stopped reading when Lucy(?) was kidnapped)

I find myself disliking Lucia and King as villains though. They're rather dumb. I love all of the others though. The Oracion Six had great individual story backrounds. Reina's Silver Ray story and Jegan's Julia story. I feel like that's when Mashima finally proved to me that he could continue a story after killing off the main villain and solving most of the sotrylines without losing the manga's gravitas. He proved he had much more to tell by giving the characters emotional motivation and back stories.

I'll agree with those of you who say it is a typical shonen manga though. But isn't One Piece too? Rave has the comedy, the silly, quirky characters with their set personalities, the random side storylines/arcs (the magic doctor, the wallflower city, jiggly butt gang), and a decent overall goal. Though nowhere near as good as One Piece, I wouldn't call it by any means bad. (Except maybe the art for the first few volumes. He really improved as the series went on)

The dub was god aweful. Like One Piece by 4Kids.
And the anime's pacing was terrible. Without any filler at all, it would take them an episode to get through two short chapters. And not much happens in two chapters.

Anyways, I don't see why most of you seem to dislike it so much. You bitter internet people, if only you were real.

Take that as a joke, don't be insulted.

GEPPETTOSMONSTER

@Zephray:

Overall storywise, I think he took a step DOWN with FT. His art is better, but I felt more entertained by Rave than FT. I like the characters and each of their pasts. Granted, you can tell he's making up the story as he goes along, but I think the end result actually turned out well. Maybe not as well as if he would've came up with the whole storyline at once though. He would've been able to plan and plot things better. Having only read the first hundred or so chapters of FT, Mashima hadn't made an overall storyline in the slightest. There was no goal or mysteries, only silly story arc after silly story arc. (I stopped reading when Lucy(?) was kidnapped)

I find myself disliking Lucia and King as villains though. They're rather dumb. I love all of the others though. The Oracion Six had great individual story backrounds. Reina's Silver Ray story and Jegan's Julia story. I feel like that's when Mashima finally proved to me that he could continue a story after killing off the main villain and solving most of the sotrylines without losing the manga's gravitas. He proved he had much more to tell by giving the characters emotional motivation and back stories.

I'll agree with those of you who say it is a typical shonen manga though. But isn't One Piece too? Rave has the comedy, the silly, quirky characters with their set personalities, the random side storylines/arcs (the magic doctor, the wallflower city, jiggly butt gang), and a decent overall goal. Though nowhere near as good as One Piece, I wouldn't call it by any means bad. (Except maybe the art for the first few volumes. He really improved as the series went on)

The dub was god aweful. Like One Piece by 4Kids.
And the anime's pacing was terrible. Without any filler at all, it would take them an episode to get through two short chapters. And not much happens in two chapters.

Anyways, I don't see why most of you seem to dislike it so much. You bitter internet people, if only you were real.

Take that as a joke, don't be insulted.

THANK YOU and people still want to say FT is the superior written product.

No Maam

@Zephray:

Overall storywise, I think he took a step DOWN with FT. His art is better, but I felt more entertained by Rave than FT. I like the characters and each of their pasts. Granted, you can tell he's making up the story as he goes along, but I think the end result actually turned out well. Maybe not as well as if he would've came up with the whole storyline at once though. He would've been able to plan and plot things better. Having only read the first hundred or so chapters of FT, Mashima hadn't made an overall storyline in the slightest. There was no goal or mysteries, only silly story arc after silly story arc. (I stopped reading when Lucy(?) was kidnapped)

You stoped reading in the middle of the best arc ya know.

I mostly agree with you on everything else though.

Tokoro Ataru

@No:

You stoped reading in the middle of the best arc ya know.

I mostly agree with you on everything else though.

Agreed. Somehow by the Blue Guardians arc, Mashima finally found his own style…which he hasn't quite returned to with FT.

No Maam

You mean Phantom Lord right ? Because Lucy's kidnaping is where he said he stoped reading.

Zanzith

But Blue Guardian arc is in Rave :3

Kitsune Inferno

Welcome to a tale of a land conquered by evil…

JERK DISEASE

@Zephray:

Overall storywise, I think he took a step DOWN with FT. His art is better, but I felt more entertained by Rave than FT. I like the characters and each of their pasts. Granted, you can tell he's making up the story as he goes along, but I think the end result actually turned out well. Maybe not as well as if he would've came up with the whole storyline at once though. He would've been able to plan and plot things better. Having only read the first hundred or so chapters of FT, Mashima hadn't made an overall storyline in the slightest. There was no goal or mysteries, only silly story arc after silly story arc. (I stopped reading when Lucy(?) was kidnapped)

I find myself disliking Lucia and King as villains though. They're rather dumb. I love all of the others though. The Oracion Six had great individual story backrounds. Reina's Silver Ray story and Jegan's Julia story. I feel like that's when Mashima finally proved to me that he could continue a story after killing off the main villain and solving most of the sotrylines without losing the manga's gravitas. He proved he had much more to tell by giving the characters emotional motivation and back stories.

I'll agree with those of you who say it is a typical shonen manga though. But isn't One Piece too? Rave has the comedy, the silly, quirky characters with their set personalities, the random side storylines/arcs (the magic doctor, the wallflower city, jiggly butt gang), and a decent overall goal. Though nowhere near as good as One Piece, I wouldn't call it by any means bad. (Except maybe the art for the first few volumes. He really improved as the series went on)

The dub was god aweful. Like One Piece by 4Kids.
And the anime's pacing was terrible. Without any filler at all, it would take them an episode to get through two short chapters. And not much happens in two chapters.

Anyways, I don't see why most of you seem to dislike it so much. You bitter internet people, if only you were real.

Take that as a joke, don't be insulted.

Write an essay on why you love shoving fresh dog turds into your mouth next.

Zephray

@JERK:

Write an essay on why you love shoving fresh dog turds into your mouth next.

I at least ask the respect of a comedic insult. That just won't do.

EDIT: Just noticed how bad Tokyopop is. They introduced someone in volume 10 as Jeid, then started calling him Jade in volume 13, which was his next appearance.

@No Maam, Maybe I'll pick it up again eventually. I like reading physical copies of books, but hate paying for them. Since I already had Rave from long ago when I had the money to spend…

@Ataru, I'll have to remember to respond to you when I get that far. Right now, I'm only at volume 13. I think the story has gotten much better since volume ten though. The Doryu Arc. (Starting with the oracion Six and their pasts, as well as Shiba's past)

@Everyone, Keep in mind that judging Rave by it's dub is the same as judging One Piece by 4Kids' Dub.

Zephray

@GEPPETTOSMONSTER:

As a story writer I believe RAVE was over all written better, sure Haru was a powerfull character but he knew when to backdown from a fight, he knew when to retreat and when it was appropriate to attack. Natsu just knows that he can attack, attack and attack an usually always wins.

Also being a writer, I'd have to agree. Though I will say the individual small story arcs of FT were better than the ones in Rave. Or, at least, the first few volumes of Rave (because it seems to just be all long arcs from there).

And Bleach was another one of those that I read but eventually stopped reading due to tedium. The first arc, Soul Society, saving Rukia(?) was great. Good story, nice betrayal, decent fights and characters. But as I read Arrancar, I grew bored. They, like Naruto, started another storyline where the task at hand was to save another main character from strong bad guys. The fight with Grimmjow only took about thirty chapters of Ichigo falling down and getting back up every five. That arc was so terrible I quit reading. Manga needs more than storyless fights to keep my attention. In fact, considering the story means so much more to me, i'd rather read one with little fighting, if any, in it. (I've read Death Note, don't suggest it.) And what is fighting in manga anyhow? Pictures of characters touching in uncomfortable looking ways, then blood in the next panel?

Kylor

Or we could be reading GOOD manga, instead of bickering about which one was the least terrible.

Zephray

Good manga?
You mean like One Piece and Tsubasa?
I'm caught up in those.

Plus, Rave Master is a good manga, just not a great manga.

AlmostLegendary

Is tsubasa a good manga? from what I've heard it seems to spiral into a ball of nonsense.

IceBorg

Tsubasa first two series are awesome.

Zephray

Tsubasa is great, but it does become very confusing. Even the confusing arcs are still great though. Think of it as a mix of Kingdom Hearts and manga. A story arc on every world. Clamp is great at story arcs too. They're twists are so bizarre that it almost seems like they're trying just to shock you though (Think Nip/Tuck beginning seasons).

Its my second favorite manga. Having read, Death Note, Naruto, Bleach, Fairy Tail, Black Cat, and Rave. That's saying something.

Favorite being One Piece, of course.

Zephray

I'm still a bit shocked at how many people seem to hate RAVE though. Makes me a bit sad.

AlmostLegendary

@Zephray:

I'm still a bit shocked at how many people seem to hate RAVE though. Makes me a bit sad.

That's how it works man not everyone is going to be a fan of something you like. I personally like Rave Master. All though I doubt I can watch it now I did watch it when I was younger though. So it's okay you have at least one companion in your enjoyment of this show.

but tsubassa really did spiral shrugs I think XXXholic spiraled also. Still a clamp fanboy though.

Robby

@Zephray:

Its my second favorite manga. Having read, Death Note, Naruto, Bleach, Fairy Tail, Black Cat, and Rave. That's saying something.

You need to read something actually good next.

THE SEA

@Zephray:

Its my second favorite manga. Having read, Death Note, Naruto, Bleach, Fairy Tail, Black Cat, and Rave. That's saying something.

Man those varies from mediocre to terrible, except for pre-Near Death Note.

Bill

Zephray; Guess your still a virgin when it comes to quality manga don't worry son I'll help break that for ya.

Good manga for you to read: Lone Wolf Cub, Berserk(pretty weak at first though) pretty much anything by Noaki Urasawa(20th Century boys, Monster). Ghost in the Shell.

And for good shonen try: Devilman, Soul Eater and my personal fav Dr. Slump( Toriyama's masterpiece)

Zephray

@THE:

Man those varies from mediocre to terrible, except for pre-Near Death Note.

Hey, hey. Bleach and Naruto are terrible, but the rest of those aren't bad. And yes, Pre-Near DN was much better. FT isn't great either. I like One Piece, Rave, Black Cat, and Tsubasa though. I like the simple art, the fun stories, and the likeable, simple characters.

@Bill:

Zephray; Guess your still a virgin when it comes to quality manga don't worry son I'll help break that for ya.

Good manga for you to read: Lone Wolf Cub, Berserk(pretty weak at first though) pretty much anything by Noaki Urasawa(20th Century boys, Monster). Ghost in the Shell.

And for good shonen try: Devilman, Soul Eater and my personal fav Dr. Slump( Toriyama's masterpiece)

I wouldn't say I'm a manga virgin, just that my tastes are different from yours. I pretty much only like Shonen when it comes to manga. Maybe I'll try Dr. Slump, thanks for the suggestion, but I've always seen it as a little to kooky and strange for my tastes. And I just haven't had a desire to touch Soul Eater. Doesn't look bad though.

@AlmostLegendary:

That's how it works man not everyone is going to be a fan of something you like. I personally like Rave Master. All though I doubt I can watch it now I did watch it when I was younger though. So it's okay you have at least one companion in your enjoyment of this show.

but tsubassa really did spiral shrugs I think XXXholic spiraled also. Still a clamp fanboy though.

I like the direction in which it spiraled, I just wish it would've been a bit less confusing.

And I'm not talking about the anime, didn't like that much. And I know not everyone has the same tastes, I just expected more to like it. Seems like everyone hates it. Hm. Oh well.