Rave Master

After reading how Wal-Mart chain was now selling cost-cut manga graphic novels in its superstores' children’s book section, I recently made an effort to check out the pickings during a weekend's shopping. Found a smattering of volume one Tokyopop and Shonen Jump titles on the racks right next to the Captain Underpants books. Not too surprisingly, considering both the books' placement and the conservative chain's preference for selling edited versions of current pop CDs, the age range for the selection was pretty restrictive: all the Tokyopop titles were either labelled "All Ages" or "7+," while the Viz/Shonen Jump graphic novels fit the same early teen category as their feeder magazine.

All the books were selling for a third less than their bookstore counterparts, though, so it was inevitable I'd sample at least one. After carefully dipping into each of the Tokyopop titles on display (been reading the Shonen Jump series in their magazine format, so I decided to pass on 'em), I wound up selecting the premiere volume of Hiro Mashima's Rave Master, which is rated "7+." Perhaps it was the cover presence of a large wooden sun head giving the reader a thumb's up that swayed me. Or maybe it was the snowball-headed creature with a carrot for a nose. . .

Reading the inside cover artist blurb, I learn that Mashima's series has spawned more than eighteen volumes and "a hit anime series." Which only goes to show how far out of the manga/anime loop I am. First time I caught the title, I thought it was gonna be about a party deejay, though why you need a big honkin' sword like our cover hero is strappingly carrying to work a turntable is beyond me.

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Rave Master opens "50 Years Ago," with a bloodied teenaged boy telling us "the war" is over. "Maybe now there can finally be peace," he notes, but before he can take this wishful thought any further, there's a massive atomic-styled explosion, and the story jumps to presentday Garage Island, where a big-eyed teen with "Mischief" emblazoned across his tee-shirt is lazily fishin' for dinner. Instead of a fish, however, the boy (whose name, we're told in a simple identifying box, is "Haru") pulls in a strange four-legged creature with an oversized round head and a large pointed nose. "What the heck kinda fish is this?" he wonders.

Haru takes his catch to his older sister Cattleya, who is sitting contemplatively before her mother's grave (efficiently establishing a lot of background info in four sparsely dialogued pages). They bring the mysterious creature back to their home, which has a large satellite dish attached to one side and a mysterious sun head with two forearms imbedded alongside the front door. This unexplained (at least in this first volume) figure is named Nakajima, and he seems to function as both alarm system and chatty companion to the brother & sister.

Article Author: Bill Sherman

Bill Sherman is the Comics & Graphic Novels review editor for Blogcritics. With his lovely wife Rebecca Fox, he has recently co-authored a sudsy size acceptance novel entitled Measure By Measure.

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