BECK Volume 15
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4.0 • 1 Rating
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- $7.99
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
After rounding out their highly successful tour of the States, Koyuki and the gang return to Japan. Riding that momentum, their next step on their journey to rock greatness is the production of a new mini-album! However, thanks to the wiles of their industry archnemesis, Ran, no record labels will sign with BECK... Luckily, Sato manages to snag them a contract with a tiny indie label, but before they can record, they're going to have to come up with a small fortune. Excitement turns to exhaustion as Koyuki and the gang take to working day in and day out. Will BECK be able to make their mini-album?!
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.
