BECK Volume 6
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- £3.99
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- £3.99
Publisher Description
Beck just needs sixty-thousand yen and a microphone to record a demo! During a break from trying to earn some cash to cut the record, Koyuki and Saku decide it's not their place in the 9-to-5 world. They join Tanabe and Ciel Bleu—it's the school's Battle of the Bands, and time to rock out! Later, Koyuki realizes he's got to splurge for a new six-string, and he will do anything to buy one. But in his search for the perfect instrument, someone sends him a special message ... and when he realizes it's filled with more than just love, Koyuki knows he's got to be cruel to be kind. Will someone ... anyone ... call the karma police?
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.
