Rave from the author of Fairy Tail is a regular battle shonen story. It is the story of Discount Natsu becoming the Rave Master and has to find the rave stones to unlock his full potential. However the stones were scattered due to an explosion 50 years ago. Now Discount Natsu must journey the world to find these stone in hopes to find these magic stones. Along the journey he will gain many friends and allies including discount Lucy who has lost her memory and her plot point is totally not related to the rave at all, totally. There is however an anti rave organization. Called the Demon card. They will do whatever it takes to do regular bad guy stuff that bad guys do. Also rule the world (bet you didn't see that coming),

Now considering this was made by Hiro mashima himself I didn't really have high expectations after reading Fairy tail. However i was also completely right. This series is by every definition medicore. The Characters are as generic as they can be. To the villains, to the main characters, to the nice guy bad guys, to the bad guy nice guys, to the evil government. It is literally amazing how many cliches there are in this series. This is like 101 on how to make a battle shonen. The deaths are underwhelming, the dialogue is cringey. The only legitimate entertainment this series has is the fight scenes which is really important for a battle shonen. I mean this manga took every single by the book thing a battle shonen could do like omg. Honestly the most surprising thing in this series is how everything is so incredibly predictable. Everything is just so cliche. Regardless that doesn't mean the series is bad in itself. Its really how you play the cliches that depend. And the author plays them incredibly medico-rely. 0 risks were taken when making this manga. At least most of the time which i will get to.

Now the action itself which is easily the most important of any action series. Its good. Now don't get me wrong it also cliche. But the author does do a ok job of hyping and tagged with his art and amazing double page spreads i think we get some amazing panels. Now discount Natsu has a sword which has 10 forms meaning that they can deus ex machina when need to be. Literally this was created so they can be whatever they want to be when the need arises. Its pretty cliche. If you think I've said cliche too many times. I haven't even gotten to part 2 of the series yet. The fights are also cliche but they do have there own sense of style. Which i guess is really the only actually good part about the series.

There is a massive power creep issue with this series. Where the fuck were all these characters before? The author just keeps pulling monsters 1 out of the other. But the real issue i had with this series is that the main characters kept fucking getting ridiculously stronger as well . Holy shit like you think after the 7th time they used there ultimate ability that has a 1% of succeeding and 99% of failing resulting in there death you'd think it would fail at least once. The power was a major issue in this. Everyone was somehow able to keep with little to no explanation and even if an explanation was given it was pretty BS. I mean i have no idea what the author was thinking., but at least it had style.

Honestly though this stuff did matter and did pull the series without a doubt the worst part about this series are the female character. This has some of the poorest written heroines i have seen in a while. Like Discount Lucy every single time. needs rescuing. She gets forcibly kissed and loses her will to **defend herself for the entire firght**. It is insane. The only real decently written heroine was one of the villains who was basically Discount Juvia. She was also drawn sexily like every single heroine with a name but she had gutso and her personality didn't revolve around screaming discount Gray's name. Now there is another strong heroine but because her clothing gets conveniently ripped **every single time** im not counting her. It really is disappointing because fan service is also a major issue with this series. There is an entire underwater mermaid arc so the author can draw half naked chicks. for an entire arc. It is also one of the longest arcs in the series. Its funny too since this was actually the turning point in the series. The quality got noticeably better. Not like really good but you could see a visible improvement in the series as a whole. Issues with paneling and fights scenes become smoother. I do wish people relaize as great as cleavage and mid driffs are. Women don't need to wear lvl 99 armor all the damn time. Honestly Fairy Tail's fanservice is way worse but this is still a major issue and legitmatly upsetting and un-entertaining part about the series. I've also seen people compare this to male fan service in the series saying its equal but there is a very big difference. Male fanservice is used for comedic purposes whilst Female fanservice is used for sexually pleasing purposes. And the latter really is way worse.

The characters though cliche were also entertaining in there own right. Like there are many bad ass moments involving the characters as a whole. So many rage moments which are exemplified by the double pages and do there jobs. I like this and it is always entertaining to watch the good guys get pissed and absolutely destroy everyone. Now the villians were definitely the main issue. The author pulls the whole bad guy turned good at last minute and does sacrifice so he has paid for his sins BS. Which is completely and horribly wrong man. There is this guy who is a total Richard. Like a hardcore Richard. But the MC forgives Him... WAT😕? Like the crap he did is worth execution and you are just letting him go. Its honestly insane how much the good guys let bad guys go and it works in there favour. I also enjoyed the fact that some of the characters do actually die. Not last minute rescues death. Fairy Tail has to be the only series where 100% of the cast is alive in the beginning and by the end of it 120% of the cast is alive. thankfully though only 98% of the cast is alive in Rave giving somewhat real depth to the fights that were always to the death.

The best character however is Discount Jellal. This guy is fucking insane and i'm in love with him. All the unique personality all the well written drama. This guy has it. Discount Jellal really was by far the best fucking character in this series. Every time he showed up on screen,, hype was heavy inducing.

I will say this though. Volumes 31-34 are amazing. This is like it was written a by different person entirely. and im so mad that it took me 2 days to read volumes 1-30 yet it took me less than 2 hours to read volumes 31-34. Like this is next level stuff. I won't say the entire series is worth reading for these volumes alone. But it defnitly took me by surprise. This is where all the passion and quality went. this is was legitmatly entertaining exciting edge of the seat action. Though it isn't worth reading 30 volumes for especially cuz of the ending (which i will get to) but it was definitely where author actually feels like he took risks. and actually made the series more and more fun.

As far as endings go. I mean you wish for more. Especially when it comes to ships but discount Fairy Tail cast can only get so much. It does enough in terms of the main couple you want. But i do wish side characters got more closure but i guess we are gonna have to live with Implied.

TLDR: Medicore, but it was just good enough at times for me to give it more than just a pass. 6/10