Rave Master

Rave Master (レイヴ), is a manga series written and illustrated by Hiro Mashima. The manga was serialized in Shōnen Magazine from July 1999 through July 2005, and published in thirty-five tankōbon by Kodansha. The manga series was licensed for an English release in North America by Tokyopop until Kodansha allowed their contract to expire. Del Rey Manga announced on September 26, 2009, at their New York Anime Festival panel, that it had acquired the rights to Rave Master with a release date in September 2010.

The series was adapted into a fifty-one episode anime series by Studio Deen. The anime premiered on TBS on October 13, 2001 and ran until September 28, 2002. The anime series is based on the first twelve volumes of the manga series. Tokyopop also licensed the anime adaptation. The English dubbed version premiered on Cartoon Network in the United States on June 5, 2004 as part of the Toonami programming block, and re-broadcasted on Syfy in 2009.

Plot
In 0015, fifty years before the story's start, the world was being corrupted by Dark Bring, evil stones that bestowed incredible powers to their owners. The Dark Bring were used by the Raregroove Kingdom, and the Symphonia Kingdom fought against them with their Holy Bring.

Shiba, the first RAVE Master, attempted to destroy Sinclaire, the "mother" of the Dark Bring, with his Ten Commandments Sword. The aftermath caused the massive explosion known as "Overdrive" that destroyed one-tenth of the known world. Shiba, protected from the disaster by Plue, a special guardian "dog" who shielded him from the blast, held onto the RAVE required to power his sword. Plue and the five remaining fragments of RAVE, however, scattered around the world.

Fifty years later Haru Glory, a teenager living on the peaceful Garage Island, fishes Plue up by accident. Several events soon follow, including Shiba's arrival and his desire to reclaim Plue, as well as the appearance of a mysterious organization known as Demon Card, whose members possess Dark Bring and aim to rule the world. After Haru battles one of its members, Shiba discovers he is the second RAVE Master, and entrusts his RAVE, Plue, and the Ten Commandments Sword to Haru. Haru embarks upon an adventure to find the other fragments of Rave and to save the world.

Development
Hiro Mashima created Rave Master with the idea of travelling around the world. Composed of thirty-five tankōbon volumes, Mashima comments that although it was sometimes difficult to think of how to develop the storyline, he still remembers enjoying the making of Rave Master. Still he regards that the series' end was "a little sentimental, a little sad." In both Rave Master and his other manga Fairy Tail, Mashima wants to make justice prevail but also make readers understand the villains' reasons to fight the main character in order to make them more complex characters.

Manga
Rave Master was serialized in Weekly Shōnen Magazine in 1999 and ran for 296 chapters until its conclusion in 2005. It was published in thirty-five collected volumes by Kodansha, with the first volume released in November 1999 and the final volume released in September 2005. Rave Master was licensed for an English release in North America by Tokyopop, which released 32 volumes of the series. On August 31, 2009, Tokyopop announced that they would not be completing the series as their licenses with Kodansha expired and Kodansha required that they immediately stop publication of all previously licensed series, including Rave Master. The next month, it was announced that Del Rey Manga had acquired the license and would begin publishing the remaining volumes in 2010. The last three volumes will be published in a single omnibus volume. Del Rey has not announced plans to re-release earlier volumes.

The series is licensed for regional language releases in French by Glenat, in Spanish by Norma Editorial, and in Italian by Editions Star Comics. Egmont Manga & Anime licensed Rave Master for a German release, including serializing it in their monthly anthology Manga Power. Rave Master was also one of the first manga series released in Spanish in North America by Public Square Books.

Anime
The series was adapted into a fifty-one episode anime series, entitled Rave: the Groove Adventure, by Studio Deen. The anime premiered on TBS on October 13, 2001 and ran until September 28, 2002. The anime series is based on the first twelve volumes of the manga series. Tokyopop licensed the series for release and broadcast in North America. As with the manga, Tokyopop released the series under the name Rave Master.

Their English dubbed version aired on Cartoon Network in the United States, premiering in June 2004, as part of the Toonami programming block. Syfy had begun airing the dubbed episodes on March 16, 2009 as part of its "Ani-Monday" programming block and finished on September 21, 2009.

Video games
There are six video games based on Rave Master.

Nintendo GameCube
 * Rave Master

Game Boy Advance
 * Groove Adventure Rave
 * Rave Master: Special Attack Force! (Groove Adventure Rave: Hikari to Yami no Daikessen 2)

PlayStation
 * Groove Adventure Rave
 * Groove Adventure Rave: Mikan no Hiseki
 * Groove Adventure Rave: Plue no Daibouken

Reception
In the Manga reviewers guide, published by Del-Rey in 2007, they gave the Rave Master manga a positive review of 3 out of 4 stars. It states that Rave Master had a relatively shaky start, in terms of storyline and art. However, it states that about part way through the first major story arc, the series began to improve and set itself apart from other manga series. Like most reviewers, they stated that Rave Master had a collection of likeable characters.