Beck (BECK: Mongolian Chop Squad) | Manga

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. It was published digitally by Kodansha USA from July 5, 2018 to February 27, 2019.

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Adaptation:

Beck

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Characters

Tanaka, Yukio

Main

Minami, Maho

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

Reviews

Feb 9, 2009

AlextheKid

Recommended

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

CottonCandyLover

Recommended

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 ...

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Mar 16, 2021

Silentfan6

Mixed Feelings

Beck is a unique gem of a niche market. In the vastness of manga, that is translated into English, I can't think of another one that A) is about a band and B) hits the specific tone and atmosphere of underground music. It genuinely feels like a niche within a niche, even though it's following the usual shonen character arc.

The festivals and creation of music with all the band members are where this piece really shines. In between these big moments, and character goals, are an assortment of side characters, love interests, and gang upheavals. Some of it works, some of it feels like ... a plot device, and other times it feels like the author forgot a certain side character arc and decided to write their next leg in eventually.

The anime covers about the first 10 or 11 volumes and those are indeed the best the series has to offer. There is a similar festival near the end where the quality comes very close to that first third high before having a very solid ending. The middle part is definitely hard to get through because the band is constantly thrown into situations where one member breaks off, does their own thing, they have to all come together again, which is repeated about three times. From a storytelling perspective, it's definitely a solid way to show your characters pushing through some struggle, but it's honestly irritating how planned it all felt.

Another aspect that I felt was fairly weak, especially in the second half, was the romance. Of all the characters Saku and Hiromi have the best relationship. Koyuki and Maho are a great couple, and one of the few couples in manga where I can genuinely feel their chemistry through the pages, especially in a shonen story, but for the love of god their relationship isn't written well. The second half is all about keeping them separated and falling for the same "won't he/won't she" misunderstandings where none of them talk to each other to make up. It does lead to some romantic reunions, but at the end of the day it seriously felt like their relationship was all a plot device. Which sucks, because I think they're great characters that are great together, I just couldn't handle the rinse, wash, repeat of their roller coaster love.

The music and the festival are fire though. The author really knows how to set up tension and create a ticking clock that makes each performance feels like it has the weight of the world on the band's shoulders. I loved meeting new bands and each musician had a unique way of performing that made them all memorable.

Overall, the manga felt down to earth, music was great, romance not so much, there is a ton I didn't even cover but it is certainly an experience I would recommend.

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Poll: Beck Chapter 102 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Ishmael - Apr 28, 2009	50 replies	by ryzxgum »» Sep 28, 2023 8:55 PM
What are your opinions about Koyuki x Maho at the end of the manga? removed-user - Apr 17, 2021	9 replies	by Euroqean »» Jan 13, 2023 3:12 PM
Poll: Beck Chapter 103 Discussion TheGenkiGuy - Nov 8, 2020	1 replies	by MyAntiList »» Dec 20, 2022 8:38 PM
Poll: Beck Chapter 80 Discussion removed-user - Feb 1, 2009	2 replies	by ugo333 »» Dec 8, 2022 4:35 AM
Poll: Beck Chapter 87 Discussion removed-user - Feb 1, 2009	5 replies	by Yadava98 »» Dec 1, 2022 9:23 AM

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