Beck follows group of boys as they come together through their mutual love of English rock music and form a band, in the hopes of standing in the same stage as the rock legends. The story follows the MC Yukio getting acquainted with guitarist Ryuusuke and subsequently getting sucked into the music scene. He along with other characters form a band called as Beck. Ensuingly the story follows Beck's struggle to make it to the top. They face constant hardships as they develop and strive to create music that is not only popular but also something they themselves as a band can be proud of. This is a constant struggle for the characters in the manga and drives the story forward. The theme that integrity and vision should not be compromised to create works just to earn money and be popular. Throughout the manga the characters are struck in situations wherein they have to make such decisions and to not be sellout is something that drives and motivates them to create the music they want to create. This leads to trouble with the industry big wigs which creates problems for them to make it truly big despite getting moderate fan following. Despite music driving the story, the manga at its heart is a SOL manga which focuses on the band members meeting and interacting with both old and new characters and environment. Their experiences and progress is what makes the manga truly interesting and worthwhile. The subplot which is present for majority of manga is a romance between the MC Kouyuki and Maho who become friends and later lovers due to their mutual affiliations to Ryuusuke. This story follows their struggle to keep the relationship intact while dealing with the contrasting personality, friends and environment. As the romance started quite early in the manga, it had a solid 5~6 years of development which gave us a well fleshed and believable romance rather than the cutesy stuff that is usually written. This story also tackled complicated themes with poignancy, which is unusual for a manga whose main story is not romance between the lead pair. The slow script the writing did wonders for this manga in some aspect.
The characters are where this manga both shines and fails. The characters are actually very well written, with distinct personalities allotted to them. And there are few scenes where one characters acts out irrationally and it seems extremely believable with their personalities. Koyuki develops as a bored and uninterested teenager to a focused and passionate man. Ryuusuke faces his own dilemmas and internal struggles and deals with them his own way. Though most of Ryuusuke's action were out of the blue and were extreme. It would have been fine if it happened once but he repeatedly took measures and actions which were irrational and also unbelievable and went without any repercussions. The band accepted him with open arms and made him a captain repeatedly while he behaved like a child throughout. This could have been better written as actions have consequences and for the sake of story the characters were often left out easy. Another thing which hampered characters progress was the characters not learning from their previous mistakes. A lot of conflicts could have been avoided if the characters just talked out or stopped and thought about the veracity of the claims put forth against another character. This would have led to simpler and quicker outcomes. This was sacrificed for forced drama with no payoff.
The art was very detailed and the characters felt real. Every character had their own distinctive features. Every character had a tired look to them as the series progressed and their input doubled. They did not appear as some charming prince and princess straight out of a fairy tail. The panels dedicated to their indivudal performances were all very well done and exhibited the dedication the characters put on their craft. The full page art were extremely detailed and captured the essence of live performance.
Overall, Beck is an immensely enjoyable manga for people of all ages. The coming of age story about a boy who discovers his passion for music and dreams to make it big while staying true to his craft and his sense of music. It is far better than the anime as it portrays great character development and a satisfying and conclusive ending.
