Beck (BECK: Mongolian Chop Squad) | Manga

Alternative Titles

English: BECK: Mongolian Chop Squad

Japanese: BECK

Information

Type: Manga

Volumes: 34

Chapters: 103

Status: Finished

Published: Feb 17, 2000 to Jun 5, 2008

Genres: Comedy, Drama, Music, Romance, Shounen, Slice of Life

Authors: Sakuishi, Harold (Story & Art)

Serialization: Shounen Magazine (Monthly)

Statistics

Score: 8.68¹ (scored by 18,804 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #50²

² based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #203

Members: 44,676

Favorites: 3,366

8.68

Ranked #50Popularity #203Members 44,676

MangaShounen Magazine (Monthly)Sakuishi, Harold (Story & Art)

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Volumes: /34

Chapters: /103

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BECK
Volume 1
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Synopsis

Yukio "Koyuki" Tanaka wasted away his middle school days listening to Japanese pop music and apathetically trudging through life—until a casual run-in with the enigmatic guitarist Ryuusuke "Ray" Minami. Through this encounter, Koyuki realizes what he has been missing all this time as Ray introduces him to western rock music and jumpstarts his desire to play guitar.

Although various struggles plague his path to rock fame, Koyuki refuses to abandon the passion that gave his life purpose, balancing it together with school, work, and friends. Beck tells the story of the love and trial that accompanies pursuing a professional career in music as Koyuki and Ray work toward realizing the guitarist's dream of the ultimate band.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

Beck won the 26th Kodansha Manga Award in a tie alongside Sakigake!! Cromartie Koukou for Best Shounen Manga in 2002. A promotional soundtrack, titled Greatful Sound: Tribute to Beck, featuring several different artists performing songs from the manga was released on November 15, 2002. A live-action film adaptation directed by Yukihiko Tsutsumi was released nationwide in theaters on September 10, 2010, which received the Japan Academy Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Music.

The series was published in English as BECK: Mongolian Chop Squad. Due to their license expiring, Tokyopop only published 12 volumes from July 12, 2005 to June 10, 2008.

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Related Manga

Adaptation:

Beck

More characters
Characters

Minami, Maho

Main

Tanaka, Yukio

Main

Minami, Ryuusuke

Main

Chiba, Tsunemi

Main

Taira, Yoshiyuki

Main

Sakurai, Yuuji

Main

Lee, Eddie

Supporting

Saitou, Kenichi

Supporting

Reed, Matt

Supporting

Masuoka, Hiromi

Supporting

More reviewsReviews

Feb 9, 2009

102 of 103 chapters read

Overall Rating: 10

AlextheKid (All reviews)

129 people found this review helpful

I began reading this manga after marathoning the anime adaptation over two days and finding myself left wanting more, as the anime ended all too quickly for my liking.

Story:
Beck follows the life of 14 year old Tanaka Yukio (Koyuki to his friends) as he grows from a shy, directionless teenager (with terrible taste in music) into an ambitious young musician. After a chance meeting with talented guitarist Minami Ryusuke, his life starts to change and gather momentum as he discovers music's ability to affect people. He begins to learn the guitar, and there is the budding romance with Ryusuke's sister, Maho. He joins Ryusuke's band, Beck, and the series follows the band's struggle to achieve success, both in Japan and the rest of the world. Because this is predominantly a slice of life style manga, many of the minutiae of Koyuki's and Beck's day to day life are covered, but the manga spans 5-6 years, which allows the various characters and their relationships to properly develop. The one aspect of the story I felt should have been developed a bit more was Maho and Yukio's relationship, it was very well done when it came up, but I think it should have been given a bit more development over the course of the manga.

Art:
Sakuishi Harold has a fairly distinctive art style in Beck, which I found a refreshing change from much of the overly disproportioned characters found in many manga and anime. I thought his more realistic style perfectly suited the realistic tone of the manga. His full page frames of the band's performances perfectly captured the spirit of a 'live', and were a personal highlight in the artwork of this manga.

Character:
In a manga of this length (both in chapters and period of time covered) there is real space to develop and flesh out both the main and some of the supporting characters. Koyuki's character develops beautifully over the course of the series, from an apathetic teenager into a determined young man. The other characters don't develop in the same fashion, Ryusuke's background is fleshed out and provides much of the conflict in the series, and while more time could have been spent developing the rest of the band members, especially Saku and Taira, they all have their moments during the series which give them real depth.

Enjoyment:
As I said at the start, I read this manga after finishing the anime adaptation and found myself wanting more. This was the first time I have watched an anime and then gone on to read the manga, as well as one of the first manga I have read, and I was unsure if I would be able to enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed watching it. Turns out there was nothing to worry about, and I even rate the manga higher than the anime, predominantly because I feel the story reaches a much more satisfying conclusion.

Overall:
To anyone who loved the anime, I thouroughly recommend reading the manga, as it has everything the anime had, as well as a complete storyline. I would also recommend this to anyone who is a fan of rock, or music in general, as it is the only series I have come across that deals with music in such an in depth and genuine way.

Best read with the OST playing in the background, just like this review.

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Jan 16, 2010

102 of 103 chapters read

Overall Rating: 9

CottonCandyLover (All reviews)

43 people found this review helpful

The complete lack of motivation, the dull cycle of everyday life.. an average boy with average grades, average looks, average friends and a very average life. This is the story about that average boy and how he decides to make something out of it, transforming it, taking control of it, and discovering who he is as a person and who he can ultimately be. BECK, at its very core, is not a series about music, but a very well-done coming-of-age tale of a boy's journey through self-discovery.

Story:

The story follows Koyuki, the protagonist, and his band-mates, as they work to launch themselves into rock 'n' roll read more

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Oct 26, 2012

103 of 103 chapters read

Overall Rating: 10

Lylaaz (All reviews)

21 people found this review helpful

''If you have never been at the bottom, you can't get to the top. If you've never lost hope, you can't understand what's truly important.''

Ahh, BECK. After rewatching anime two times, i finally gave BECK manga a shot. I don't regret one bit. The story in manga goes 70 chapters onward. Everyone who has watched anime and wants to know what happens with our loved characters afterwards should give this manga a try, too.

And if you don't know anything about this story - think about this: Have you ever wondered what would it feel like to be in a band? If you ever wish read more

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Aug 11, 2009

100 of 103 chapters read

Overall Rating: 10

gosp07 (All reviews)

19 people found this review helpful

At the first I watch Beck's anime by chance and when I loved the anime and when it's come to end I quickly jumped to manga and read it with an enthusiasm cuz it was an overwhelming joyable story.This manga is one of my favourites and here's my review...

Story:
This story centered about Tanaka Yukio(Koyuki) and the band named Beck(Mongolian Chop Squad).The story starts slowly with main characters acrossed each other and slowly developed but strong friendships and not too much but enjoyable love parts.Even if it's a manga about music life and even it's music's part was great/awesome/amazing the relation parts was the most effectives read more

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