Art:
Beck has a gritty analogical style that couldn't be achieved by modern digital methods, and it matches perfectly with the story, characters and themes. When you get to the end, the author throws at you some panels from way back, and it's breathtaking to see the art evolution alongside the characters' own evolution.
Story:
It starts out slow and some of the characters are not that interesting, but boy oh boy, does that change dramatically. I think that's one of the highest points of the series, GROWTH. Growth for each character, for the cast, for the band... That's all I can say without giving out more than I want to.
Characters:
The cast of characters in this is INCREDIBLE. They make even the minor-est of minor characters feel important to the world around them and to the main characters. I felt a personal connection and gratitude to a lot of them, so I wanted to dedicate this space to thank some minor characters that were crucial to the journey of the band, so if you don't want to know which characters are going to be important, you can skip this paragraph: The OG Saito-san, Mitchan, the fishing pond's Granny, the GOAT Kawakubo 'Moleman'-san, humble Yama-P, Grateful Sound's Sato 'Babe'-san, photographer Kippei-san, the absolute menace that is Leon fricking Sykes, the one and only Beck and many, MANY more.
Music:
To finish this review, I'm gonna address that this is a music manga, meaning it's a work about music with no sound. I wasn't sure how this was going to work starting this manga, but this was no problem at all. The way the author draws references to real music and musicians, and the way he portrays the story and art... it leaves no room for disappointment. You can feel what they're trying to portray through the characters, leaving you only dreaming of being able to hear the undoubtedly soulful sounds being played in this fictional universe by these fictional people.
Don't miss it.
