The Sci Fi Channel will begin airing the 51-episode Rave Master anime series on its Ani-Monday block starting on March 16th. Two episodes of Rave Master will follow repeated episodes of Gainax’s Gurren Lagann. The first season of Gundam 00, the current mainstay of Ani-Monday, will end with a flourish. Four episodes will be shown back-to-back on February 2nd, and the final episode will air on February 9th followed by the Appleseed anime movie. According to Nebs Blog, the 1996 anime movie X, directed by Rintaro, produced by Madhouse, and based on the Clamp manga will be shown on February 16th, followed by the Street Fighter Alpha movie on February 23rd, Manga Entertainment’s Straight Jacket on March 2nd, and the classic Ninja Scroll anime feature on March 9th. Gurren Lagann and Rave Master then take over on the 16th.
Rave Master, which was heavily edited for a previous run on the kid-centric Toonami and Miguzi blocks on the Cartoon Network, appears to be a rather bizarre choice for a midnight run. The Cartoon Network did show all 51 episodes of Rave Master (though the series ended its run buried on the milkman’s shift at 6am). Many anime fans were hoping that Sci Fi Channel would run the second season of Gundam 00, which is currently airing in Japan, right after completing the first season, but apparently they will have to wait and hope that unlike the Cartoon Network, which never ran Gundam Seed Destiny (after airing Gundam Seed), the Sci Fi Channel will follow through on its Gundam initiative. Certainly the Gundam anime with its science fiction plot and plentiful mecha action is an excellent fit for the Sci-Fi Channel.
Produced by Studio Deen, the Rave Master anime is based on Hiro Mashima’s 35-volume Groove Adventure RAVE manga series, which Tokyopop has published here in
