BECK Volume 5
-
- $7.99
-
- $7.99
Publisher Description
When Beck plays its first gig as a five-piece, Koyuki's inexperience makes the band hit a wall of sound. But after the show, Koyuki displays his true talent with a new song about someone special ... Later, an old nemesis resurfaces: Eiji unveils his new high-powered band, Belle Ame. Backed by a famous music producer, Belle Ame is flashy, stylish, and heading its way up the charts. With the competition to get on the Dying Breed's tour fierce, has Beck performed its last waltz?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Manga has its share of bildungsromans that follow the path of an unathletic kid who, by dint of practice, mentorship and unstoppable will, becomes a top basketball/tennis/baseball player. Beck belongs to this genre, with the interesting twist that its nerdy 14-year-old hero, Yukio Tanaka, is on a journey from zero to rock-'n'-roller. In the beginning, Yukio knows nothing about rock and is a fan of Okinawan pop music (which, it is implied, is very uncool). Yukio meets Ryosuke, a 16-year-old rocker who was brought up in the U.S., where he played guitar in a garage band. Yukio starts going to rock clubs, listening to rock music and hanging out with his beautiful classmate Izumi, Ryosuke and Ryosuke's sister, Maho. But not until the very end of this volume do readers get a hint that playing rock music is in Yukio's future. This appealing tale is marred slightly by the inclusion of a silly and clich d peeping-tom subplot, but Sakuishi's characterizations have a strong identification factor, aided by a sharp and funny translation. The book is aimed at older teens, and there is some profanity. The clean, easy-to-follow art resembles a slightly less manic version of Eichiro Oda's art in One Piece.
