Rave Master

Rave Master is a Japanese anime series based on the first twelve volumes of the thirty-five volume manga Rave Fantasy written by Hiro Mashima. The fifty-one episode anime series was produced by Studio Deen. The anime premiered on Japan's TBS on October 13, 2001 and ran until September 28, 2002. Tokyopop licensed the anime adaptation in North America.

The English dubbed version premiered on Cartoon Network in the United States on June 5, 2004 as part of Cartoon Network's Toonami programming block.

Plot
In 0015, the world is corrupted by The Dark Bring, dark stones that bestowed powerful magic to their owners. The Dark Bring are used by the Leagroove Kingdom, and the Symphonia Kingdom fight against them with their tremendously powerful five Rave Stones. Shiba Roses, the first Rave Master, attempts to destroy Sinclaire, the "mother" of all of the Shadow Stones, with the Ten Commandments Sword. However, the aftermath causes a massive explosion known as "Overdrive", destroying one-tenth of the known world. Shiba, protected from the disaster by Plue, a special guardian "dog" who shielded him from the blast, holds onto the Rave required to power his sword. Plue and the five remaining fragments of Rave, however, get scattered around the world.

Fifty years later, sixteen-year-old Haru Glory lives on the peaceful Garage Island with his older sister Cattleya. Haru accidentally fishes Plue up. Shiba arrives and his desire to reclaim Plue, but a group of terrorists from the Demon Card organization appear and destroy Haru's house. Shiba tells Haru that he is the second Rave Master, entrusting the Ten Commandments sword, Plue and his Rave to him. Seeking revenge on Demon Card, Haru and Plue set off on a journey to find the missing Rave stones. Upon arriving at Hip Hop Island, Haru befriends a girl named Elie, who has no recollection of her past. During their journey, Haru encounter enemies from Demon Card who eventually becomes his allies, including Shuda and Sieg Hart. Haru later meets a diverse group of allies, including Hamrio Musica, grandson of a local blacksmith; Let Dahaka and Julia, two who appear human but are in fact of the Dragon Race; Griffon Kato, a strange blue creature and Plue's friend; Ruby, a penguin and a casino owner; Belnika, a mage who can control the substance Etherion; and Niebel, Sieg's close friend. He also encounters Gale "King" Raregroove, the king of the Raregroove Kingdom. After a battle on the Tower of Din, Haru's father Gale Glory sacrifices himself to save his son by defeating King.

Some time later, King's son Lucia Raregroove appears and captures Elie, but Haru saves her. To surpass Shiba as the next Rave Master, Haru is forced to kill him in battle. After being sent back in time to 0016, Haru and the others learn of Elie's past: originally named Resha Valentine, she creates the Rave Stones from Etherion to help end the war. She fakes her death by cutting her hair and gaining a new identity as Elie. After she offers Haru to return to Garage Island with her, Haru accepts. Haru kills Lucia and confronts Endless, a magical form of the Dark Brings. Haru and Elie eventually destroy Endless. However, Haru ends up getting sucked into Overdrive and disappears, and Elie's memories are erased once again. One year later, Elie and the others visit Haru's grave, where she regains her memories. Haru returns to life and reunites with the Rave Warriors. The warriors go their separate ways, and Haru and Elie return to Garage Island to live together.

Characters
Haru Symphonia Glory — The main protagonist of the series and a teenage boy who grew up on a small island called Garage Island. His father left him with his mother and sister to find Rave when he was young, soon after, his mother died and he was left alone with his sister, Cattleya. His destiny takes a turn when he fished Plue the Rave bearer out of the ocean, and soon met Shiba, the Rave Master where Haru is chosen as the second Rave Master by Rave. When he realizes the true threat that the Demon Card are to the world, he then promised Shiba that he will complete the collection of Rave and end all of Demon Card's evil. He then sets off to find the pieces of Rave to restore peace to the world. His weapon is a shape shifting sword called the Ten Commandments or TCM, in the English dub it was called the Ten Powers which he received from Shiba. The sword could change into ten different swords with Eisenmeteor as its default form. At the finale, it was found that Haru could not use the last sword because the sword was originally forged for Shiba which encourage Musica to forge Haru his own sword, where it becomes the tenth sword, called Raveltand later it becomes the default form. His old sword was destroyed by Galein Musica to test the new sword.

Haru, like his father, Gale Glory, never gives up in a battle, no matter the circumstances. He is not afraid to die for the protection of his loved ones or the planet itself. Along the way, he found good friends and allies, each having their own goals, yet were bound together thanks to him and helping each other along the way. He is very friendly and has a lot of energy. He is very protective of Elie, and does anything he can to ensure her safety. Haru also develops a romantic interest in Elie throughout the series, as it also becomes apparent in later chapters that among Haru's greatest motivations to keep fighting onward is in fact for Elie.

Plue — The strange creature that Haru discovered, Plue is the Rave Bearer, and is able to sense the presence of the other Rave Stones. Plue's nose also has the ability to destroy Dark Bring. Plue is quite fond of sweets - especially lollipops, wine (episode 3), spiders (when Plue was shown with Shiba, Plue ate spiders). Plue hates pudding. He has the ability to utilise the Rave of Combat, which powers himself and Haru up. It is a running gag in the manga that no one is entirely sure what Plue is, or even his gender. Most people think of him as a dinosaur, while Elie refers to him as a bug.

Elie — A mysterious girl who has amnesia, but is very lively, bubbly, and optimistic. Her usual outfit is a tight fitting midriff top and a mini skirt, she uses tonfa-blasters as her weapon of choice. She has a hot temper and an undying love for casinos and always drags the group to the casino when there is one. Elie got her name from the tattoo that she had on her left arm. She ends up joining them after Haru saves her from Georco. She bears a marked resemblance to Resha Valentine, a girl with the power of Etherion, who supposedly gave her life to create the Rave. Elie has the ability to use Etherion as well. Later on in the story she finds out she is Resha Valentine. Resha Valentine did not die 50 years ago but changed her identity to Elie. Later in the manga, Elie starts to develop romantic feelings for Haru, just as Haru does for her which ended up in a marriage at the end of the series.

Hedara Musica — The leader of a band of thieves named Silver-Rhythm. Being a "Silver-Claimer", he can manipulate silver into any form and weapon he wants it to be making him a weapon master. He uses the silver skull around his neck to manipulate silver to a weapon of his choice. The silver skull is fused with Reina's bracelet after she dies and there he gains the weapon "Silver Ray". He is Haru's good and strongest friend. He later forges Haru the holy sword "Ravelt" which is derived from "Rave" and "Welt", the German word for world.

When he was young, Musica's family was wiped out by Lance the "Beast Sword" of Demon Card, with a sword forged by his grandfather, Galein Musica. He was then taken in by Rize, a silver-claimer, who raised him and taught him the ways of silver-claiming. On Rize's deathbed, he asked Musica to find Silver Ray and destroy it, to which Musica agreed. Musica later discovered that the Oni Fortress River Saly was in fact the Silver Ray in disguise. After a battle with the oni leader Ogre, he managed to destroy the Silver Ray with the help of Reina. The weapon was then reborn as an artifact, which Reina called "The Ocean-Rending spear, Silver Ray". Musica now carries both the Silver Ray and Reina's silver, as they have fused with his own.

Griffon (Griff) Kato — A strange small blue creature who mostly praises Plue and calls him 'Master Plue'. Griff has limited shape-shifting abilities, such as inflating portions of his body and elongating his limbs. He is also a voyeuristic character, and can be often seen spying on Elie. He is the cartographer of the group. He has a strange horse-like creature named Tachimo which he rides and is always seen constantly moving its head side to side.

Let Dahaka — A DragonRace, a race of dragon people who reside in the Mystic Realm. When Let was first introduced, he was an evil warrior who worked for Demon Card as a guardian for King. He only wanted to fight until Haru defeated him and showed him the path of justice. His initial appearance in the story is of a human with a lizard like face. In the fight against Jegan, he performs Dragon trial and takes the appearance of a human. Soon after, he joined Haru in hope of bringing peace to the world. He uses Dragon roar of the gods to defeat Jegan, which consumes one's life in return for the power. He manages to defeat Jegan and turn Julia back to normal using a potion given by Alice. He is saved by Julia using the same potion. In chapter 281 of the manga, he is revealed to be the king of the dragon race, King Javaa.

Ruby — A pink penguin sentinoid who owns a massive floating casino. Ruby likes to use his wealth to buy rare treasures. When he learns Doryu is using his cash for evil ends, he is almost killed by Doryu, but Haru saves him, and he decides to join his side. He is the only person to know who would be the third Rave Master if Haru dies. Ruby also has a tendency to blab out plans that the Rave Warriors have decided on during battle, making them entirely useless. He learned how to use "Wind" magic from the bell given to him by his father, Pearl. The bell was actually named "the Holy Bell" and it was a weapon used by Dalmatian of the Knights of the Blue Sky. It can turn into a magic sword.

Julia — Let's girlfriend, is somewhat of a feisty one who's loud, rowdy, and not above beating people up to get her way, which is the polar opposite to the cool and calm Let. Initially in the story Julia is shown to have become a dragon as she failed to pass the dragon trial. Julia is saved by Let and turned back to normal using a potion given by Alice. She can usually be found at a bar. A sisterly figure to Haru's party. She was first thought to be a kind and shy girl in Let's flashbacks. In the anime her hair is green.

Belnika — A kind girl who has a personality very similar to Elie only much more shy. She was experimented on so that she could have magical powers. They tried to give her the power of Etherion, so that she could help Hardner in his plan to merge with Endless. They kept the truth from Belnika, telling her she would be helping the world. After discovering Hardner's true intentions, she sides with Haru. However, as it turns out, Belnika never attained the power of Etherion, although she does possess a large amount of magical power. She has the power to heal and also to negate any magic around her. She heals Haru's arm which was in a bad condition due to the effects of Sacrifar. She also seems to have some feelings for Haru although she does not show it much. Musica seems to be constantly flirting with her, however their advances are often interrupted by another character's intrusion.

Episodes
Rave Master premiered in Japan on TBS on October 13, 2001, and ran until September 28, 2002. The series was licensed for an English language release by Tokyopop who chose to release the series only in an English dubbed format. Tokyopop edited the series for content and length, hired Rita Majkut to produce the English language version, which was recorded at Bill & Ted’s Recording Studio in Burbank, and contracted Glenn Scott Lacey to compose an alternate musical score.

The English dubbed version premiered on Cartoon Network's Toonami programming block in the United States on June 5, 2004 and ended with episode 25 on December 11, 2004. Episode 26-35 then aired outside of Toonami on Cartoon Network from January 22, 2005 to April 2, 2005. From April 9, 2005 to June 4, 2005 the series returned to Toonami for 8 more episodes (episode 36-43) but was removed from the block due to low ratings. The series was then moved to 6:00 AM Sunday mornings on Cartoon Network to air the final episodes. The series also aired on Cartoon Network's Miguzi block.

Syfy began airing the dubbed episodes on March 16, 2009 as part of its "Ani-Monday" programming block and finished on September 21, 2009. Tokyopop released three DVD volumes of the series and in 2010 it released the entire series.