Beck (BECK: Mongolian Chop Squad) | Manga

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Japanese: BECK

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Information

Type: Manga

Volumes: 34

Chapters: 103

Status: Finished

Published: Feb 17, 2000 to Jun 5, 2008

Genres: Award Winning, Drama, Romance

Theme: Music

Demographic: Shounen

Serialization: Shounen Magazine (Monthly)

Authors: Sakuishi, Harold (Story & Art)

Statistics

Score: 8.69¹ (scored by 31,422 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #65²

² based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #188

Members: 90,476

Favorites: 5,420

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Kodansha USA

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Wikipedia

8.69

Ranked #65Popularity #188Members 90,476

MangaShounen Magazine (Monthly)Sakuishi, Harold (Story & Art)

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Volumes: /34

Chapters: /103

BECK

Volume 1
$10.99

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Synopsis

Yukio "Koyuki" Tanaka wasted away his middle school days listening to Japanese pop music and apathetically trudging through life—until a casual run-in with the enigmatic guitarist Ryuusuke "Ray" Minami. Through this encounter, Koyuki realizes what he has been missing all this time as Ray introduces him to western rock music and jumpstarts his desire to play guitar.

Although various struggles plague his path to rock fame, Koyuki refuses to abandon the passion that gave his life purpose, balancing it together with school, work, and friends. Beck tells the story of the love and trial that accompanies pursuing a professional career in music as Koyuki and Ray work toward realizing the guitarist's dream of the ultimate band.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

Beck won the 26th Kodansha Manga Award in a tie alongside Sakigake!! Cromartie Koukou in the Shounen category in 2002.

The first 12 volumes were published in English as BECK: Mongolian Chop Squad by Tokyopop from July 12, 2005, to June 10, 2008, before the publisher's license expired. Kodansha USA later published the full series digitally from July 5, 2018 to February 27, 2019.

A promotional soundtrack titled Greatful Sound: Tribute to Beck featuring several different artists performing songs from the manga was released on November 15, 2002. A live-action film adaptation directed by Yukihiko Tsutsumi was released nationwide in theaters on September 10, 2010, and it received the Japan Academy Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Music.

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Reviews

Sep 3, 2025

Alexyahoo

Recommended

Honestly, the main romance story line had me wondering if I should give this a 9 for overusing a dumb trope, but looking back and also finishing the series, I could never bring myself to give this lower than a 10. It has its problems, don't get me wrong, but masterpieces deserve to be called masterpieces, and none of them are truly perfect down to the last detail. So there you have it, a 10/10.

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 ...

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Jan 27, 2025

euheinjr

Recommended

After finishing reading the manga for the third time I felt compelled to declare how perfect this work is, all the narrative, character growth and art makes everything perfect, one of the few stories that I can take a break and go back to read. Again, even for people who maybe don't like music, it's great to give you an idea of what it's like to start a band, especially because I think the work manages to bring out the difficulties of staying together and creating music that makes sense to other people, I recommend the manga to all is a perfection of narrative and ...

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Mar 16, 2021

Silentfan6

Mixed Feelings

Beck is a unique gem of a niche market. In the vastness of manga, that is translated into English, I can't think of another one that A) is about a band and B) hits the specific tone and atmosphere of underground music. It genuinely feels like a niche within a niche, even though it's following the usual shonen character arc.

The festivals and creation of music with all the band members are where this piece really shines. In between these big moments, and character goals, are an assortment of side characters, love interests, and gang upheavals. Some of it works, some of it feels like ... a plot device, and other times it feels like the author forgot a certain side character arc and decided to write their next leg in eventually.

The anime covers about the first 10 or 11 volumes and those are indeed the best the series has to offer. There is a similar festival near the end where the quality comes very close to that first third high before having a very solid ending. The middle part is definitely hard to get through because the band is constantly thrown into situations where one member breaks off, does their own thing, they have to all come together again, which is repeated about three times. From a storytelling perspective, it's definitely a solid way to show your characters pushing through some struggle, but it's honestly irritating how planned it all felt.

Another aspect that I felt was fairly weak, especially in the second half, was the romance. Of all the characters Saku and Hiromi have the best relationship. Koyuki and Maho are a great couple, and one of the few couples in manga where I can genuinely feel their chemistry through the pages, especially in a shonen story, but for the love of god their relationship isn't written well. The second half is all about keeping them separated and falling for the same "won't he/won't she" misunderstandings where none of them talk to each other to make up. It does lead to some romantic reunions, but at the end of the day it seriously felt like their relationship was all a plot device. Which sucks, because I think they're great characters that are great together, I just couldn't handle the rinse, wash, repeat of their roller coaster love.

The music and the festival are fire though. The author really knows how to set up tension and create a ticking clock that makes each performance feels like it has the weight of the world on the band's shoulders. I loved meeting new bands and each musician had a unique way of performing that made them all memorable.

Overall, the manga felt down to earth, music was great, romance not so much, there is a ton I didn't even cover but it is certainly an experience I would recommend.

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Poll: Beck Chapter 103 Discussion TheGenkiGuy - Nov 8, 2020	3 replies	by Dumb »» Jun 24, 10:59 PM
Poll: Beck Chapter 26 Discussion Dumb - Jun 7	1 replies	by nirererin »» Jun 8, 1:18 AM
Poll: Beck Chapter 18 Discussion Dumb - Jun 2	0 replies	by Dumb »» Jun 2, 3:47 PM
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