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Feb 9, 2009
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
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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.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Feb 8, 2009
Beck was an title I had come across a couple of times before, but for whatever reason, I hadn't picked up or looked into further. After discovering MAL, I starting devoting some time to discovering new anime to watch, and Beck was one of them. I wasn't really sure what to expect, but this series grabbed me so much I ended up watching all of the episodes over the space of 2 days.
Story:
Falling primarily under the slice of life genre, the series follows 14 year old Tanaka Yukio (Koyuki) after a chance encounter with a strange dog and its owner Minami Ryusuke.
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In events following on from this, Koyuki is exposed to music and people that inspire him to learn the guitar, ultimately forming a band with his new found friends, Beck. Most of the series deals with Beck's struggle to achieve fame, with their failures and setbacks providing most of the drama to the story.
Art:
The animation in Beck is slightly disappointing. I enjoyed the character designs, they are drawn in a somewhat more realistic style than most anime, but this is let down by occasionally choppy movement. Overall I found that while it doesn't match up to the quality of animation I am accustomed to from recent anime, it didn't affect my enjoyment of the series on the whole.
Sound:
I watched Beck in its original Japanese, with English subtitles. Being focussed on music, sound is obviously a big part of this series. Musically, I enjoyed all of the songs throughout the series, I felt that they were used effectively, without overpowering the storyline. The English dialogue by some of the characters was a bit sketchy, but on the whole not particularly distracting. I have seen parts of the English dub of Beck as well, while they fixed the Engrish of the original script and in the songs, I found I still preferred the original Japanese dub.
Character:
The series focusses mostly on Koyuki, developing him from a somewhat bored, directionless teenager into an ambitious young musician. The other characters aren't develop in the same way, but are fleshed out nicely over the course of the anime, adding depth to the storyline.
Overall:
A large part of why I think I enjoyed this series so much is it's focus on music and the power it has to influence people. Koyuki's character resonated strongly with me and I was really drawn into the story, wanting to know how things would turn out for the band, so much so that after I finished the anime I began reading the manga to see how the story continued. This is a series dedicated to the true spirit of music and something that I feel that any fan of music would enjoy. My only reasons for giving this anime anything less than a perfect score are the occasionaly sub-par animation and the fact it all ends too quickly.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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