By: Marquis Mattocks
Translated by: Alberto Saldamando
[EN]: Between the ongoing manga, the recent movie, the upcoming return of the English dub, and the recent “to be continued” ending of the anime, Hiro Mashima’s Fairy Tail has been the talk of many anime fans as of late. There’s no question that Fairy Tail has been a very welcomed success for Mashima, but now that the anime has entered a possible hiatus, could this be a good time to bring back one of Mashima’s classics, Rave Master?
For those unaware, Rave Master, or RAVE as it’s referred to in the manga, is another series written by Mashima before Fairy Tail. It follows a young man named Haru, who must travel the world finding special fragments to power up his sword in an attempt to save the world from destruction. Along the way he’s joined by a colorful array of characters, much of which inspired Mashima to write Fairy Tail in some aspects, which help him on his quest. Now while the manga ended, the anime was cut short, only adapting the first 12 volumes of the RAVE series before ending it abruptly at a major plot point in the story. The anime did come to America, and played on many different venues such as Cartoon Network and The Syfy Channel, but unlike DBZ or Pokémon, the series never picked up that same popularity.
However years later, Fairy Tail is here now and doing better than ever. And now the question remains: is now the time for Rave Master’s return or rather are we on the verge of seeing a return. A while back a crossover between the two series, Fairy Tail and Rave Master, was made into a small manga short story in which the main characters of both series meet up for a fun adventure in the same town. Recently on Mashima’s Twitter post, he has gone on to say that later this year this story will be getting an anime adaptation where even some characters that didn’t make it into the crossover will be returning. Could this be the a gateway to getting people familiar with the RAVE characters before a possible revival of the series, much like FMA Brotherhood or HunterXHunter, where the series follows more closely to the manga? As I’ve said earlier, given the timing of the recent hiatus in Fairy Tail anime, it certainly seems like a good enough time for its return.
Even on Mashima’s Twitter page, he’ll draw updated versions of the main characters Haru and Ellie using his current art style used for Fairy Tail and he ask his fans if they are familiar with them. Whether or not this comes to pass though is unknown, but it’s clear that Mashima has not forgotten RAVE and if it’s even remotely possible for a return of the anime series, we’ll be hearing some news in the coming months once the crossover comes out.
ハルさんお久しぶりです。 pic.twitter.com/Me6LiSQ71T
— 真島ヒロ (@hiro_mashima) April 15, 2013