hell yeah the manga is amazing, nice review u've done here.
Groove Adventure Rave manga Review
Story & Playability
Story.
Follow Haru Glory, the 2nd generation Rave Master, and the only person in the world who can utilize the power of the Rave stone by attaching it to a special slot on the sword that comes with it, The Ten Commandments, TCM for short. Originally known as the Holy Bring, Shiba called it RAVE, named after it's creator, Resha Valentine using Etherion. Unfortunately, the Rave stone was then splitted into 5 different pieces during Overdrive, a huge explosion occurred 50 years ago resulting in the destruction of about one-tenth of the world and was scattered around the world. Originally being a person who have little interest in adventure, his beliefs in justice and peace then pushed him to embark on a journey to find the missing pieces of the Rave stone when he was told by the previous Rave Master, Shiba, that Demon Card will be a huge threat to the world.
Groove Adventure Rave, or it's alternative title in the US, Rave Master was Mashima Hiro's first manga dated back from 1998 and ended it's long run in 2005 with 35 volumes as it was one of the most popular and well-accepted manga series by the Japanese.
The storyline of Groove Adventure Rave is by far quite original as it features a world unlike ours, with detailed cities and even continents, pretty much just like something you'd see in Final Fantasy games. But the unique thing about Groove Adventure Rave is that the storyline was never planned ahead, and yet Mashima is able to continue drawing just according to his previous chapters. (It's been confirmed as it was revealed when he replied a fan letter stating he'd never knew the upcoming plot of the story until he starts drawing) In addition to this uniqueness, Groove Adventure Rave turned out to be quite an interesting manga with pretty shocking and surprising twists which never cease to amaze me. (And even at some point leaving me with insomnia for that matter of fact)
Characters.
Haru Glory - The 2nd generation Rave Master. He lives in Garage Island, south of Song Continent with his sister, Cattleya Glory. A brave, strong willed 16-year-old teen who strongly believes in justice, peace and hope. No matter what he does, he never gives up and therefore spewing "Don't give up hope!" or "Never give up!" whenever he's caught in a tight spot. He values friendship above all and he holds a very firm belief that one can achieve something without sacrificing anything.
Elie - A girl of Haru's age who has no recollection of her past. Haru first met her during a dog race in Hip Hop Town, where she was betting big money on Plue. Eventually she realized that it was no ordinary dog race and was angry to the point where she kept blasting the whole stadium with her Gun Tonfa (G. Tonfa for short). Elie is an exceptionally lucky girl and therefore loves gambling in whichever casino she can find in town. However if her luck runs out, she'll be a mad horse and blast everything that's in her way. Haru then invites her to join in his quest to unlock her memories. She possess Etherion but has no control over her power and was therefore sealed by Haru using Runesave, the 4th form of the TCM.
Musica - His real name is Hamrio Musica, but he's usually called by his family name, Musica. He's the leader of an infamous bandit called the Silver-Rhythm, and owns a ship called the Advent. Musica comes from a family of weapon forger. His family members was assasinated when he was still a little kid, and leaving him under the care of Rize, a Silver Claimer. From then on, Musica was trained as a Silver Claimer, which is said to has the ability to manipulate silver into anything. Later he became Haru's good and strongest friend, aiding him in his journey to search for the remaining Rave pieces and a ship called Silver Ray.
Plue - A strange creature caught by Haru back when he was fishing in Garage Island. Plue shakes most of the time. (Which Mashima explained that Plue was named after the shaking sfx, puru) Plue has a white body and a yellow drill serving as it's nose. It is later revealed that Plue is actually the Rave Bearer, having the ability to sense and search for the presence of Rave pieces. Plue's drill has the power to destroy Dark Brings, and is usually tossed around like dart by Elie. Plue loves candy, and hates pudding.
Griffon Kato - Named after a comedian in Japan, Griffon, usually addressed as Griff, is an expert map navigator. He addresses everyone with "-san" except for Plue-sama because it was said that Plue has saved his home island from the Puddingheads Army. Another blueish being with lots of tentacles. Quite a pervert and loves spying at Elie, even while she's changing her shirt.
Let - A dragonrace who resides in the Demon World. He first appeared as a bad guy, a guardian serving under King. He then joined Haru in his journey to seek revenge against Jegan, one of the Oracion Seis, whom he believed to have killed his girlfriend Julia. During his first fight with Jegan, he gained his human appearance but still wasn't strong enough to defeat him. Let is a very calm and cool person and is idolized by Haru.
Ruby - A penguin who owns a massive floating casino. He likes wasting money on buying rare items. He was saved by Haru when he was nearly killed by Doryu and joined him. Ruby was just an ordinary penguin at first, but after Sieg Hart pointed that Ruby has high potential in using magic, he began indulge himself in books and help Haru with his magic whenever he's needed. He tag most of his sentence with "-poyo" and talk more than he should, much to everyone's annoyance.
Julia - Let's girlfriend. A total opposite of Let, she's the wild type girl who loves party, loud, rough and kick bad guy's butt whenever she needs to. She's has a very good body figure, but her fighting skill is just as good as her boyfriend's.
Shuda - Shuda was first introduced as a member of Oracion Seis, the first one to be deployed to stop Haru in his search for Rave of Knowledge within the Tremolo Mountains. But after his fight with Haru (losing his left eye and left arm at that), he quit being Oracion Seis and assisted Haru in journey, very much later in the story. He's Haru soon-to-be brother-in-law, much to Haru's dislike.
Rating:
Graphics
Mashima Hiro means serious business when it comes to drawing. His drawing might seems a little chubby and... looks like it was aimed for little kids at the very beginning of his career, but his drawing skills greatly improved overtime and his artwork becomes more and more steady and realistic.
Mashima Hiro means style seriously. The character in Groove Adventure Rave wears flashy and emo fashion clothings. His fashion may not be as fantasy-oriented as Clamp, but Mashima focuses more on real-existing clothings, and there's just no end to his fashion frenzy in this manga.
But what makes his artwork interesting is that he never apply any pattern or texture in his work. He wants to draw a leopard-patterned scarf, then he'll just draw them out just by using his pen. Wanna draw clouds, no problem. The percentage of him using patterns is so low, making him on par with Eichiiro Oda, who also doesn't use patterns in his drawing and is said to have many similarities in their artworks.
What makes his artwork special is that the surprised look of his characters is something we've never seen before. He means dropping jaws when the characters are surprised. Extended chin, flowing liquid from the nose, red lines in the eyeball, he's very detailed when it comes to drawing. The humorous scenes are really very freshing and very original.
And one more thing that makes Mashima Hiro's work so appealing is the action pose widely portrayed in the manga. Unlike some of the shoujo mangas which features pretty faces but seemingly weird body proportions and even weirder poses, Mashima Hiro excellently pictured how an action-packed manga really looks like. From the pose of wielding a sword to the act of punching someone's face, everything was done so perfectly. Body proportions may not be as close to the real thing, but the poses are what you have to watch out.
Looking at Mashima Hiro's work, it's just too sinful to be so stingy in giving high score.
Rating:
Sound
Since I'm reviewing the manga, so I'll talk on the dialogues. Unless the characters are in serious battle, most of the time them they talk crap. All kinds of crap. But they're for comedic purposes so it's really good.
I enjoyed the overall dialogs available in Groove Adventure Rave. But there are some jokes which are considered lame, but everything else is good. Not much to say.
Rating:
Fun
The overall presentation of the manga is just WHOA! Fashion, adventures, action, weirdos, hot guys, sexy girls, Mashima Hiro takes everything from the real society and depicts them in the manga. In addition to humans and dragon, Mashima Hiro also inserts weird creature to enlighten the story.
I enjoy and love Groove Adventure Rave. There are serious moments, sad moments, wacky moments, crazy moments, romantic moments, everything. You have fashion all over the place, awesome fighting weapons, cute and cool characters, very good storyline and some twists and surprises here and there; it's just good.
There are some comments out there stating Groove Adventure Rave as DBZ wannabe, but I just can't see what is there to compared about these 2, and I can't even see the similarity in it. I think Groove Adventure Rave is quite original, enjoyability is pretty high with a pretty good number of humors; it's just a manga with everything in it.
But the disappointing part was that the anime, titled Rave by Studio Deen, only runs for 51 episodes. (Staring from Volume 2 Chapter 5 and ended exactly at Volume 12 Chapter 95). So read the manga to know more, skip the anime.
Rating:
Final Verdict
8.8333 (very good)
Reviewed by Ephemeral-Garden, Mar 05, 2007
Comments
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freezingsaphire Mar 06, 2007
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Chloe Retired Moderator Mar 07, 2007
I love this manga. Great review, it glosses over all the aspects of the manga =D
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Akaiken Mar 07, 2007
Geez... I didn't know that Shuda is Cattleya's fiance! XD
Great review... just watched it on the anime so didn't really got the chance to complete it. *sigh*
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shoujoboy Mar 12, 2007
You and your manga reviews... AHHHH! I always feel so out of place reading these and I'm actually baffled at just how detailed you are when you write. But at the same time detail is good especially when it is as well written as this. I'd hoped you'd slip up when you joined the group so I can rail into you... but I can't when you put up good writing. This round is yours, but there will be more I assure you.
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SukiLovesAnime Dec 23, 2008
I loved this anime when it came out,
all the characters were awesome! -
rukasu04 Mute Member Nov 30, 2009
Nice review, thanks
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SchRita Jan 15, 2010
Thanks for the review!
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